Stepping Away from the Balcony: Why Administrator Participation is Essential for Successful Professional Development
It was my third or fourth year of teaching and I finally felt steady on my feet. I had fallen in love with the profession and was getting excited to do more for my high school. A veteran teacher offered me an opportunity to join our Building Leadership Team (BLT) as a representative for our department. Little did I know it was going to require me to spend a full day of my summer with the team and our principal.
I remember walking the vacant summer hallways dreading the day ahead and wishing that I hadn’t signed up. What kind of group is a BLT anyway? The desks were strategically placed in small groups and there were manila folders placed on each with our names hand-written on the tab.
I sat near the few people I knew and peeked inside my folder to find stacks of building data sorted into various categories with a full page of guiding questions. “Oh man, are you kidding me?” I thought. This did not help ease any uncertainty I was feeling.
Christina Hocker is our Teacher Development & School Partnerships Manager. Learn more about Christina’s role at Startland here.
Our head principal, and two of our four assistant principals, sat amongst us. She asked if we would sort through the data and use it to answer the guiding questions. The rest of the day was a blur of laughter, collaboration, numbers, connections, and dialogue that led to our building improvement plan.
That day still sticks with me for two reasons, (1) it was the first time a principal pulled me up to the “balcony” and showed me her view, and (2) it was the day that I first felt empowered to lead.
I left excited about what I learned, and what was to come for our school and for our kids. I was invested.
Startland Education’s first cohort of City-wide MECA Methods: a three-day program that brings educators and professionals across the Kansas City Metro together to immerse themselves in design thinking. Learn More >
The phrases “getting on the balcony” and “off the dance floor” as leadership principles were first coined by two Harvard professors, Ronald Heifetz, and Marty Linsky, in their book The Practice of Adaptive Leadership. Heifetz urges leaders to get off the dance floor and onto the balcony to see the bigger picture. A critical lens when creating innovative solutions for adaptive change in any organization.
In her Dare to Lead podcast, Brené Brown discusses the balcony as the strategic space where ideation occurs and the dance floor as the executive space where all of the action takes place. If we look at this through an educational lens, our teachers and students are out there on the dance floor, while our administrators are standing overhead watching it all from afar. While I love this analogy and use it often as my own mental model, or as a way to describe leadership, it’s ineffective without the use of the “staircase” between the two spaces. I could easily argue that many educational administrators spend far too much time on the balcony.
At Startland, design thinking is the avenue we use to inspire educators to infuse innovation and problem-solving into schools and classrooms. While the design thinking framework isn’t new to the industry, it is brand new to education and application in the classroom. When we ask teachers to consider a shift or a change in the way they teach, it can be met with fear, confusion, and rejection. On the flip side, when a leader they trust shares their balcony view, then walks down the staircase with them to the dance floor, it can be met with a renewed sense of purpose and excitement for what is possible– just like that summer day I experienced with our BLT.
Case Study: Basehor-Linwood School District
Assistant Superintendent, Sherry Reeves, sits next to middle school science teacher, Michael Gossett, as their small group uses a feedback capture grid to discuss iteration of innovative solutions they presented to their school district.
We recently worked with a team of educators from the Basehor-Linwood School District where innovation is a top priority in their most recent five-year strategic plan. In the summer of 2017, BLSD was chosen to participate in the Kansans Can School Redesign Project. Through the initiative, the district had great success with the infusion of innovation in their high school through the development of its Innovation Academy. Their partnership with Startland played a pivotal role in its implementation and district leadership was excited for another opportunity to partner in innovation.
Basehor-Linwood School District pre-K-8 educators and professionals participated in our three-day MECA Methods training earlier this year as they continue to embrace the human-centered design process. Learn about our professional development offerings here >
After meeting with their Director of Innovative Programs, Jared Jackson, and their Assistant Superintendent, Sherry Reeves, we decided to run a three-day design challenge on how to infuse innovation in the Pre-K-8 space.
Sherry and Jared put together a team of teacher leaders with representatives from early childhood, elementary, and middle school. Oftentimes, after a contract is written, district leaders sign it and I will do check-ins with them on progress, while their team of teachers experiences our professional development. For this particular contract, Jared and Sherry would be participating in all three days of PD, and I knew then that it would make all the difference.
Basehor-Linwood Innovation Academy students at their recent Innovation Showcase (Dec. 14th, 2022) got a chance to display artifacts and share their experiences from their recent projects and internships.
Administrator presence and administrator participation are two completely different things. The two of them joined a team, fully participated in the challenge, engaged in rich dialogue, pitched with their group, and most importantly, laughed with them as we facilitated silly team-building activities. Neither of them ever gave the impression that they were too busy for this work or that it didn’t matter.
The Basehor-Linwood team left on day three excited to share their elementary and middle school solutions with their community. I watched as the assistant superintendent sat next to middle school science teachers and listened to their ideas as equals. I left that day inspired and excited for a group of educators who do things differently.
When school leaders take the time to step down from the balcony and join educators on the dance floor, they begin to build the trust that is essential for change. When they engage in dialogue and listen, they can break down walls and level the playing field. And, when they take the time to be fully present, they let those educators know that they are an essential part of the bigger picture. While I know the balcony can be a comfortable place to stand and watch the party, the dance floor is much more fun.
–– Christina Hocker
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