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This week on Monday Matters, Will Parker and Jen Schwanke discuss a recent newsletter from Jen, “Weather vs. Climate”. Jen starts out the episode recounting a time that she got caught in an unexpected storm while on a run. She then goes on to talk about how sometimes unexpected storms pop up in leadership. Leaders don’t always know when people are going to push back against a decision, or when there’s going to be a lot of deep emotions. When this happens, it’s like a storm flaring up out of nowhere, but a storm is not indicative of the overall climate of a school.
Climate is what happens regularly at a school, it’s persistent and systematic. Shaping a school climate so that it can weather a storm is important, but we often rob our climates of the thing that is going to protect them during severe weather. Will asks listeners: “If we know crazy weather is going to happen eventually, how do we shape our climate to lower the stress of intense storms?”. Jen also shares four questions to ask yourselves when a storm rolls into a school:
- Is this pushback a sign that the work is wrong or is this just a natural symptom of change?
- If I adjust this strategy, am I doing it because I want to improve its impact, or am I just trying to avoid the storm?
- Six months from now, will I even remember this storm?
- Six months from now, if I hold this line, will I see a lasting, positive impact for our students?
Listen in for more takeaways! And, as always, thank you for doing what matters!
