Picture this: Your district launches a new initiative, after careful review, piloting, and thoughtful decision-making amongst a hard-working committee. The initiative is sent out into the universe with common language and visually appealing graphics to explain the work as the school year begins. People are trying on the new initiative – some are very happy and others may be grumbling, but they are trying. Leaders are checking in and supporting, and things are progressing until… late October hits. You know what late October in schools feels like? Everyone is tired. They haven’t had a long weekend in what feels like forever. Parent conferences are coming, the honeymoon period of good behavior is over, and everyone is feeling some added stress. And what about that shiny new initiative? Around late October, the grumblers are now yelling about how it’s not working, it was a big mistake, the students are bored, the staff hasn’t had enough time or support, and we need to stop it forever. The people who still support the new initiative get quiet. They are fearful of speaking up, speaking against their colleagues. The leader of the initiative is now doubting everything – did we move too fast, did we not offer enough support, was the system not ready for this, should we abandon this now before it gets worse?
In the scenario above, our leader has just entered the messy middle. This is the time in an initiative that that in research is often called the implementation dip. After a solid start, everything takes a dip, seems less successful. During this slump people are quick to want to abandon the initiative, to quit, to give up and move on to the next shiny object. But it is a mistake. Despite the challenges of the messy middle, and there are challenges, it is important for a leader to see through and know that good is coming on the other side. When you work in a system that is very responsive to teacher feedback, the messy middle may convince you that you have failed with an initiative. From experience pushing through and also quitting too soon, I can say that getting through the implementation dip is worth it when your initiative is impactful for teachers and student learning. Sometimes the messy middle can help you tweak a plan, to make it more teacher-friendly, or easier-to-use. It can also be a time to recognize that more time, resources or support are needed and to adjust your plans moving forward. But these options are better than quitting when it gets hard.
Another way to think about this is to study the graphic above. I believe I first saw this graphic in a class in my doctoral program, but can’t remember the specific source. I found this picture sourced here. According to this research, in order to have a successful change (i.e., a new initiative) you need vision, skills, incentives, resources, and an action plan. When you are missing one element, you will have different outcomes, none of which will be successful.
When you are in the middle of the messy middle, this is a great graphic to analyze alongside the feedback you are receiving. Teachers often say, “We don’t have enough time!” or “This isn’t working” or “The District didn’t roll this out well”. These are often coded ways of asking for more support, which means that skills need to be developed or incentives introduced or more resources shared. It’s hard for a professional to say something like, “I’m afraid I am failing” or “I don’t think I’m good enough to do this well”. Those are the worry above that are really a call for more skill development. Once I can pinpoint which area is missing in the messy middle, I can work with a team to plan a way forward that supports the people in the classrooms, doing the most important work with our students.
Next time you feel the implementation dip set in, take time to reflect on where you are and what your system needs moving forward. Don’t give up!
This post is part of a series called Explorations in Instructional Leadership. I plan to use this series to dive into some of the topics that are rising to the surface in my work, topics that I am researching for future study, and topics that impact student learning and pedagogy.
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