Edna Varner Cornerstone Leadership Associate

Mustering the courage to interrogate reality is a central function of a leader. --Ron Heifitz

Responding to your feedback this year, Cornerstone staff members are in the midst of Summer Institute planning--tackling with a vengeance your most challenging achievement issues, to address them with international research, targeted literacy content, and proven leadership strategies. Showing significant gains in test scores is an imperative, but we still believe that students in Cornerstone schools must also demonstrate their learning in ways that reflect our mission: To read, to write, to think critically, to reason, to analyze and evaluate information, to communicate effectively in a variety of forms, and to inquire systematically into any important matter. When good practice still does not yield significant gains, key questions are, "What do we confront? How do we focus and work more intensely? How do we monitor the impact? How do turn effort into success? "

The answers lie in a willingness to wrestle with the tough questions, go the distance, and do whatever it takes to achieve our highest aspirations for the children we serve. School teams who attend the second half of the institute will have an opportunity to do just that, through a protocol for identifying and working with consultants to consider their most daunting achievement dilemmas.

The Dilemma Protocol (also called a Consultancy) is a structured process to assist an individual or team think more expansively about a particular, concrete dilemma. A dilemma is a puzzle, an issue that raises questions, an idea that seems to have conceptual gaps, something about process or product that a team just can't figure out. Sometimes it will include samples of student or adult work that illustrate the dilemma, but often it is a dilemma that crosses many aspects of the educational process.

Some questions to identify a dilemma:

• Is it something that is bothering you enough that your thoughts regularly return to it?
• Is it an issue/dilemma that is not already on its way to a resolution?
• Is it an issue/ dilemma in which you or your team is empowered to actually effect a change (through change of some practice, etc.)?
• Is it something that is important to you, and for which you are willing to expend the time and effort needed to effect change?

To help clarify the problem, leadership team members will be asked to do some reflective writing about a dilemma prior to the institute. Some questions that might help include:

• Why is this a dilemma for you? Why is this dilemma important to you?
• If you could take a snapshot of this dilemma, what would you/we see?
• What have you done already to address the dilemma?
• What have been the results?
• Who do you hope changes? Who do you hope will take action to resolve this dilemma? If your answer is not you (or your team), you need to change your focus. You will want to present a dilemma that is about your practice, actions, behaviors, beliefs, and assumptions, and not someone else's.
• What do you assume to be the realities of this dilemma, and how have these assumptions influenced your thinking about it?
• What is your focus question? A focus question summarizes your dilemma and helps focus the feedback.

The next step is to frame a focus question for your consultant(s). Write your dilemma as a question. Pose this question around the dilemma that seems to you to get to the heart of the matter.

• Is this question important to my/our practice?
• Is this question important to student learning?
• Is this question important to others in my profession?

Some Generic Examples of Dilemmas

• Teachers do not voluntarily attend our faculty study groups. Those who attend do not use the strategies in class, but they enjoy the meetings.
  Question: How do we increase participation in study groups and increase the impact of study group work on practice?
• We are using Cornerstone strategies but see no improvement in 3rd grade writing scores.
  Question: How do we identify targets and organize to address them so that students meet 3rd grade writing standards?

Preparing to Present a Dilemma

• Write your dilemma with as much contextual description as you feel you need for understanding. One page is generally sufficient, even a half page is often enough. If you prefer not to write it out, you can make notes for yourself and do an oral presentation, but please do some preparation ahead of time.
• End your description with a specific question. Frame your question thoughtfully. What do you REALLY want to know? What is your real dilemma? Questions that can be answered with a "yes" or "no" generally provide less feedback for the person with the dilemma, so avoid those kinds of questions. Dilemmas deal with issues with which you are struggling—something that is problematic or has not been as effective as you would like it to be—anything related to your work.

A couple of caveats—Consultancies don't go well when people bring dilemmas that they are well on the way to figuring out themselves, or when they bring a dilemma that involves only getting other people to change. To get the most out of this experience, bring something that is still puzzling you about your practice. It is riskier to do, but we guarantee you will learn more.

Dilemma (Consultancy) Protocol

Time:       Approximately 50 minutes

Steps:

1. The presenting team gives an overview of the dilemma with which the leadership team is struggling, and frames a question for the consultant(s) to consider. (Teams will also submit this one page overview before the institute so that consultants can read it in advance.) If the presenter has brought student work, educator work, or other "artifacts," there is a pause here to silently examine the work/documents. The focus of the conversation is on the dilemma. (5-10 minutes)
2. The consultant(s) asks clarifying questions of the presenter/team—that is, questions that have brief, factual answers. (5 minutes)
3. The consultant(s) asks probing questions of the presenter/team. These questions should be worded so that they help the presenting team members clarify and expand their thinking about the dilemma presented. The goal here is for the presenting team to learn more about the question they have framed or to do some analysis of the dilemma presented. At the end of the ten minutes, the facilitator asks the presenter to re-state the team question for the group.
   (10 minutes)
4. The consultant(s) responds, answering questions that may include the following: (10 minutes)
   What did we hear?
   What didn't we hear that might be relevant?
   What assumptions seem to be operating?
   What questions does the dilemma raise?
   What do we think about the dilemma?
   What might we do or try if faced with a similar dilemma? What have we done in similar situations?
   Consultants sometimes suggest solutions to the dilemma. Most often, however, they work to define the issues more thoroughly and objectively. The presenters do not speak during this time, but instead listen and take notes.
5. The presenters reflect on what they have heard and on what they are now thinking, sharing with each other anything that particularly resonated for them during any part of the Consultancy. (5 minutes)
6. The facilitator leads a brief conversation about the group's observation of the Consultancy process. (5 minutes)

Some Tips

Step 1: The success of the Consultancy often depends on the quality of the presenter's reflection in Protocol Step 1 as well as on the quality and authenticity of the question framed for the consultant(s). However, it is not uncommon for the presenter, at the end of a Consultancy, to say, "Now I know what my real question is." That is fine, too.

Step 2: Clarifying questions are for the person asking them. They ask the presenter "who, what, where, when, and how." These are not "why" questions. They can be answered quickly and succinctly, often with a phrase or two.

Step 3: Probing questions by the consultant prompt the presenter to begin thinking about possible solutions. For example, "What suggests that the second grade team is ready for a lesson study?" They ask the presenter "why" (among other things), and are open-ended. They take longer to answer, and often require deep thought on the part of the presenting team members before they speak.

Step 4: It is important for the presenting team to listen in a non-defensive manner during the consultant's feedback. Listen for new ideas, perspectives, and approaches. Listen to the consultant's analysis of your question/issues. Listen for assumptions—both your own and the consultant's. Do not listen for judgment of you. This is not supposed to be about you, but about a question you have raised. Remember that you asked the consultant to help you with this dilemma.

Step 5: The point of this time period is not for the presenting team to give a "blow by blow" response to the feedback, nor is it to defend or further explain. Rather, this is a time for the presenters to talk about what were, for them, the most significant comments, ideas and questions they heard. The presenters can also share any new thoughts or questions they had while listening to the consultant(s).

Step 6: Debriefing the process is key.

The Summer Institute will give us an opportunity to practice this strategy with the expectation that schools will continue work on the dilemma next year. Confronting achievement dilemmas with the school leadership team, the district, faculty study groups, and parents is the bold next step toward work that achieves its purpose. We can overcome our greatest challenges, but first we must be willing to face them. This summer, come ready for some engaging new experiences--as always. Come ready to read. Come ready to write. Bring your toughest achievement dilemma, and come ready to rumble!