what all-star teachers do after holiday break that we all should, part 2
All-star teachers have signature moves for getting kids out of a rut. They use these moves all the time, including at difficult moments, like the sleepy return from a holiday break. Most CEOs and managers I work with never even think about these moves, but they should.
In the last post, I recommended ascribing a new identity to your team. Declare that we’re all learning twice as fast, even before we are. The move to pair with this is:
Make increments the new “A.”
You’re probably already noticing that a leader who stops at bold statements of new identity is in a bind. All promises, no results.
That’s why the teachers beating the odds are almost always narrating incremental growth to their students. Imagine this: normally, Marcus never checks his algebra work, and as a result does mediocre work in Sophie’s class. She assigns about 10 problems a day, and he usually gets at least half wrong. Today, however, Marcus checked his work once, on one problem. It is indeed a TPC. It lasts 20 seconds—you could almost miss it.
But Sophie, she’s special. She’s always looking. Even more special: as soon as she sees him make the move, she walks up and whispers, “Marcus, you’re checking your work right now. That’s going to get you more of the right solutions.”
Why is this a big deal? Well, while he says nothing at all in the moment, some or all of the following is happening in Marcus’ head:
“When I made even a tiny effort to do something better, it was important. Someone noticed. Maybe it’s worthwhile to do that more?”
“Whoa, she’s paying much closer attention to my work than I thought. When I do better, it’s likely not to be a waste of time.”
“That felt good when she said that just now. Didn’t know that would feel good. I’d like that to happen again.”
“Feeling like a ‘good student instead of a ‘bad student is that easy? Maybe I should try that again.”
The simple three-second acknowledgement of the tiniest improvement has now set off a virtuous cycle for Marcus’ performance. If he tries this again, and she notices again, what else will he try? What other efforts is he willing to make? How will his identity and standard for his own behavior change as he gets more remarks for his positivity than he gets eye-rolls, sighs and groans for his failures?
We don’t have to think back on too many compliments we’ve received in our lives to realize that what gets recognized gets repeated. So, it can be transformative when a teacher does two incredibly easy yet completely rare things: sees the tiny choice you made to improve, and names it out loud so you know its impact.
When we work with students who typically have not succeeded in school before, we find their greatest impediment to 2x and 3x growth is thinking about the rut they’re in. The antidote is easy: celebrate not where they are but the rate of their progress—prefer steep slopes even to high points.
In breakthrough classrooms, you’ll typically see lists on the wall not of kids with the highest grades, but of those who’ve grown the most since the last test or project. You could have a C student top a B student, if you’ve worked hard to pull up from the D you arrived with. Not only do students escape feeling like “F students”, but they have a shot at besting the so-called “A students” on a daily basis.
Before you get tangled in worries that this lowers the bar, or say, “Are you kidding me? So a kid gets penalized for coming in strong?” think about something you struggled with and abandoned. When naming something you believe you could never do—speak Mandarin, ride a unicycle, pass AP calculus—look at the first time you decided you’d failed and ask, “Instead of saying I’m still not good at this, what if I’d said, ‘ok, 18% better than yesterday.’”
In the “new normal,” even A students will have to learn at an increased pace—and shouldn’t they be expected to anyway?
What a leader can start doing: honor and incentivize your employee’s growth rather than their current status. And name the choices that got folks there, however small. Scan your office (or zoom gallery) every few minutes while holding in your head the question, “Who’s making a good choice right now, and how can I let them know?” Think about what this might change about how you evaluate performance, how often, or how you give recognition and praise. Start thinking of standing meetings as primarily designed to create and reinforce these incentives.
Begin asking yourself of even your most challenged employees, “What has she improved in that I’m unlikely to notice because it’s still not what I expect?” This works to build pace and momentum in anything. Like it or not, telling your chronically late VP, “Thanks” for being on time even once, is going to get them to total promptness much faster than withholding your recognition until they do.
-Ben
