Culture- let's define it.

The words school culture and climate are thrown around frequently in today's eduacational landscape. And, don't get me wrong- CULTURE is vital to having a thriving, connected, and passionate team (students, teachers, parents, administrators, etc.) working hard to improve student outcomes each day. Nonetheless, in my experience, culture is rarely defined. Even rarer, is defining the responsibilities each team member plays in creating, driving, and maintaining culture. So, don't tumble down this culture pit and try a few key strategies below:

1) Come together with your school team (keep this to administrators, teachers, and other staff initially) to define culture by answering the following questions: What is culture? What does culture enable? When we are at our best, what is our culture- be specific with actions/feelings? NOTE: As a facilitator of this process, make sure you have a strong opinion here and strong definitions for yourself so you know where you want this conversation to go!

2) After defining culture, pull out that school vision and link culture to the vision by having your team explore the connection between culture and vision. A few start questions include:  What does our school vision call us to do? How do we need to operate to acheive that vision? What do we need the felt experience at this school to be? Who's responsibility is it?

3) After dreaming a little bit in the previous exploration, get concrete. What are the systems and structures that will enable us to reach our desired culture and enable us to make tangible progress towards our vision? This could be a teacher observation system. This could be a Friday shout-out ceremony! This could be almost anything. As a leader, however, you must make sure that any concrete action taken can be traced directly back to the culture you want to create and the vision you are aspiring towards- always pressure test the "next steps" with your team and make them make their own connections between strategy, culture, and vision.

4) Keep on evaluating! Set goals and measure progress to ensure the culture in your school is moving towards the culture you and your team created and definted. If not, re-evaluate.

A word of warning, too many people think culture is an action or a thing to do. That is false. Culture is all around us and is the air we breath. As such, you have orient yourself as someone who deeply believes leaning into culture is both a "way of being" and "strategies" orientation. Try this and I can't wait to see where your team and your school will go.