5 Strategies to Overcome "Message in a Bottle" Syndrome

Leaders communicate all the time. Some messages are received, while others seem to never reach their intended target. Poor leaders lament, "I told them what to do, but they're just not listening".  They complain, "I told them how to do it, but they won't even try".

Maybe the issue isn't your followers. Could it just be that your message wasn't delivered?

Poor communicators send out a message as if they're putting it in a bottle, throwing it out to sea, expecting someone to pick it up, and miraculously understand the message. What people don't understand is that followers are bombarded by communication all the time.  They receive messages from parents, upper administration, administration, office staff, and peers. Every message is asking for something:  knowledge, clarification, and advice.  Even if the message is in person, there's lots to be misunderstood. 

The Sea of Translation 

Every message has the opportunity to get lost in the Sea of Translation; therefore, all leaders must help followers navigate these confusing waters with these 5 strategies:

Common Language

Many words have multiple meetings.  Compound that with multiple interpretations that people have of each word and you get instant confusion.  Leaders must take time to develop a common language for all.

Regular Routines

Messages need to be sent on a regular basis.  Failure to send your message on a regular basis will increase stress and frustration about what needs to be done.  Knowing when to expect communication from the leader will help all members feel more confident about the direction of the organization.

Frequent Reminders

Just because the message was sent doesn't mean it was received.  To ensure receipt of the message, leaders must send the message multiple times and through multiple formats.  The more times you remind the staff, the higher the percentage of receipt and completing the task.

Constant Clarification

With frequent reminders comes the need for clarification and alignment of common language.  Many times messages are received but not followed the way the leader intended.  Leaders must invite and encourage followers to ask clarifying questions.  Failure to clarify will ultimately send followers in the wrong direction and require the task to be done again.

Support to get the Job Done

Sometimes, leaders send out tasks that require skills, resources or time that are not available.  The leader must always send messages with the understanding that if followers lack resources or support to get the job done, they must feel comfortable asking the leader for support.  

If leaders are able to do this, they won't need to put their message in a bottle and throw it out to sea. They will have no need for frustration because they will be no longer on an island throwing out messages and hoping that someone will retrieve them. They will have transcended into true leadership by getting off of their Island and joining their followers on the island in which they reside. 

What are You Dying For?

I was listening to "Minute with Maxwell" a free email service by the leadership expert, John Maxwell. The word for the day was Warrior.  He said that a warrior is best defined as the character, William Wallace from 'Braveheart'. Wallace had a cause that he was so committed to that he was willing to die for it. In essence that is a warrior.

This analogy strikes a chord because it challenges us all to find purpose in life and to find something that we believe in so much that it is worth dying for. 

But here's my problem with this idea.
  

Aren't we dying already?  Every day we are inching closer to the end of our lives. 

So I would like to phrase this question a little bit differently. Instead of saying what are you willing to die for? The question should be... 

What are you dying for today?

Every day you're building your legacy. You will be remembered most for what you actually died for everyday. The problem is that most of us sadly are dying for things that only benefit ourselves while we're here on earth for a short period of time. We make decisions that are comfortable and further preserve our quality of life.

But is this a noble cause? I guess it depends on what you consider a noble cause.  Here are some things that I think are noble causes worth dying for. 

1.  Your Family 

After all they are the closest people in your life. Shouldn't you strive every day to make decisions and take action that let them know they are the most important people in your life and that you exist to make a huge impact on their lives?

2.  Social Empowerment 

I prefer this term over term social justice because justice translates into equity. Empowerment means people take advantage of their equality and do something meaningful with it.  As educators we should strive to empower every student and colleague to make their lives mean something that benefits the greater good.

3. My Community and Country 

In these days of unhealthy political conflict, we must take a stand for the things that we believe in.  We must defend our Constitution, our rights as Americans and fight for those whose rights are being infringed upon.  But more importantly, we must embrace people whose beliefs differ from our own instead of vilifying them. That's what makes our country the best in the world. 

4.  My God 

I saved God for last for a reason.  In these days of systemic separation of Church and state, people are criticized for publicly displaying their faith.  We must never forget that the 1st 3 items that I mentioned above were endowed to us by our creator.  To be honest, I firmly believe that if we would put him first instead of last, our families would be better, social empowerment would be a non-issue and our country and community would not face the destructive forces that it faces on a daily basis.

The other reason that I must die for my God is because his Son died for me and my numerous sins. What an awesome sacrifice that is.  I will never fully comprehend the power of this gift, but it is one that I can fully accept because I accept Him into my heart.

So what are you dying for?

Are you dying for your comfort?  Are you silently preserving the status quo because the odds are too big?  The stakes too high?  The consequences too devastating?  Here's the deal.  You are dying.  You will die.  You can't avoid it, but you can confront the worldly issues and influences that kill others.  You can take a stand against negativity.  You can say loudly that the wrong must be righted.

William Wallace was a warrior because he was not swayed by earthly consequences.  His philosophy was simple.  "Every man dies, but not every man lives."  He is remembered because he lived his life.  He didn't succumb to the influence of man.  He lived because he died; therefore, we should all step away from our comfort zones and ask ourselves this question.  Are you truly dying for the most important things in this world?

Value your Mission & Vision

Your mission and vision have been reviewed. You have analyzed your Mission and Vision and reflected on where you currently are on your PLC journey after year 1. You make plans on how you can better align your future actions to the mission and vision and these discussions naturally lead to your values. 

How you behave is based on what you value.  Throughout the year at every campus in America, problems arise that either conflict with the campus values or haven't been addressed in the value statements. As the team digs deeper into the source of the problems, the team will find that sometimes the pressure of the day dictated how they solved the problem rather than pulling back and looking at the MVV (Mission, Vision and Values) for guidance.  When leaders let the pressure of the day guide them to the solution, campuses stand a chance of getting off course in their quest to meet their mission and vision, and sometimes it causes teams to go backwards and never reach their goals.  When personal emotions, rather than commitment to the values, guide teams in resolving problems, the team will develop fractures in its culture that will take much time to heal.  If the problem gets extremely personal, culture can be broken, and once the culture is broken, the campus can no longer focus on kids.

As your team reviews the value statements, I would strongly recommend that leaders guide their team to rate the campus' adherence to the values to see where the campus must improve.  This data must be posted next to the value statement and used as a reference point anytime the team comes to an obstacle in their campus planning.  This data can also be used for teams to fine tune their norms for planning, meeting, and reviewing data. Focusing on this qualitative data will take the "I think" and "I feel" out of problem solving and force teams to plan with laser-like focus on what's best for kids while molding the team's behaviors to reflect this detailed focus. 

Last, make a plan to promote your values next year. It can be in your weekly newsletter.  It can be discussed in teaming meetings or posted throughout the building.  Whatever you decide, schedule it on your calendar, commit to your values and most importantly, regularly assess if  you, your leaders and your campus are staying committed to your values.  After all, our true mission and vision reflects what we value.

Recommitting to the Mission and Vision

The year is  over and summer is now in full swing.  It is time to get the building ready for next year, hire new employees and get new resources and training in place for the teachers when they return in August.  As I ponder about the accomplishments from the past year, I find myself thinking how well did our campus do at meeting our mission and vision?  To find that answer, I look to myself.  How much did I do to remind our campus about our mission and vision?  When we encountered problems on our campus, did I guide the campus to look at our vision and mission to help our campus make the best decision to solve the problem or did I make decisions based on what I felt was best for the campus at that particular time? 

As I begin to think about my planning for the upcoming year, I must strive to keep the mission and vision at the forefront of every decision and plan that we make this summer.  In every norm that is reviewed, written and developed, the norm must point directly to our vision and mission.  With every event, meeting or activity that is put down on the calendar for next year, it must support our collective effort to achieve our mission and vision.  The key is to ensure that the mission and vision is reviewed daily, and so I must make plans to make the mission and vision come to life on our campus.  How will I do that?   My initial thought is that what gets promoted regularly with every stakeholder will be what affects the culture of the campus, and the campus culture will permeate that we are aligned to the mission and vision or not.

The mission must reflect what we commit to be each day for the benefit of all kids and the vision must describe what we will become as a result of our daily commitment to our mission.  If we don't make a collective effort to commit to aligning our daily actions with our mission with the desire of changing our campus into what our vision describes, our mission and vision will have been written in vain.

Interview to Learn

Hiring season is in full swing and lots of applicants are feverishly working hard to make themselves marketable.  I like interviewing several applicants because it gives me the opportunity to find the best employees for our campus, but it also gives me an opportunity to learn.  I am always looking for new ideas for instruction, assessment and intervention.  I also look for new ways to strengthen our collaborative culture.  There are ideas and strategies that campuses and universities are using that I have yet to discover and the only way to learn about these ideas is by interviewing products of their organizations.

Before I begin the interview, I always give the applicant an overview of our campus and the systems that pertain to the questions that I will ask.  I think that is important because I want see how the applicant thinks within our system and what types of ideas the applicant has that can be added to our system.  The key to interviewing is designing questions in such a way that elicits the applicants beliefs and experiences.  In short, interviews are a kind of scavenger hunt. You never know what you are going to find. You may find the next teacher of the year, the next idea that could solve the biggest problem on your campus or even better, you may find both in the same person.

Are You Counting Down the Days or Making the Days Count?

There are less than 10 days of school left. The kids are counting down the days. Adminstrators, teachers and parents are counting down the days. Are you counting down the days or strategically using every day to prepare for an excellent year next year? Right now is the time to reflect on everything you have done this year, but more importantly, it is the perfect time for your staff to collaboratively reflect on everything that they have done as well. Soliciting input is critical for getting a head start on next year. Now is the time for spring cleaning. The things that we must reflect on and revamp is our meeting norms, intervention strategies that worked best, and what instructional tools were our very best for all kids.

One tool that our staff is using is DuFour's "Learning by Doing" book and using the Critical Issues for Team Consideration survey on pg 130. This survey instrument is excellent for our teams to evaluate where they are on their PLC journey. We have 8 PLC teams that will submit their survey data and from there, our campus will determine where we must focus as a campus for next year as well as what areas each team has decided to focus on next year. This valuable tool helps us decide if we are collaborating in the right ways and on the right things. It helps us set our norms for how we will work together in a more effective, efficient and focused manner. We are able to see if our instruction, assessments and interventions are aligned with the district curriculum as well as state standards. By using this instrument, teams are able to clarify the goals and norms that they will have next year. This is a great use of time since the beginning of the school year often doesn't yield enough time to properly develop goals and norms.

In addition to tightening our norms and systems, our teachers are working together vertically to create end of year assessments that will generate data and information to share with the next grade. Every student will walk into the next grade in August with data that is tied to the prerequisite skills needed for the grade that they are entering. Each teacher will know what prerequisite skills every student has and doesn't have at their command; therefore, the teacher has a head start at the beginning of every unit or lesson and can intervene immediately.

Spring cleaning is hard work, but if you spend the time in a proactive manner, you will save months of time that would otherwise be wasted cleaning up messes in the fall. Have a great summer.

The Cure for Can't-swer

Whether you can or whether you can't, you're absolutely right. 

A crippling illness is plaguing many people in every organization in the world. It is the number one cause of toxic cultures. It is the precursor of complacency, the first stage of failure.  This disease has been destroying the hopes and futures of millions for as long as organizations have existed.  This disabler is can't-swer.

What is Can't-swer?

It is the state of mind where our words, responses, and attitude tell ourselves that something is impossible. This state of mind preserves the status quo and kills innovation. 

What causes Can't-swer?

There are lots of things that can lead people to develop can't-swer, but the main reasons that this plague cripples people are the following:

• Lack of knowledge 
• Lack of passion
• Lack of commitment
• Lack of ability 

Any of these issues can cause doubt, fear, and uncertainty, but ultimately these underlying symptoms drive people to verbalize their believe that they are incapable of making growth. 

What's the Cure for Can't-swer?

There are three simple mindsets that are crucial to stop this affliction to one's ability. 

1. The Mindset of Believing

The first step to overcoming can't-swer is to believe that all things are possible. Just because you have not seen something does not mean it cannot happen. We live in a world where we must see things before we can believe they exist. Strong minds with a passion for new opportunities believe in possibilities long before they can see them. 

2. The Mindset of Seeing

Once you believe something can exist, and you are passionate about it, then you are ready to develop action steps to make it happen. This is probably the hardest step to beating can't-swer because creating action steps does take a lot of time, creativity, as well as trial and error. This is where a lot of people give into can't-swer, but this is also the place where survivors' will-power wins the game. 

3.  The Mindset of Action

Procrastination is one of the biggest indicators that you may have can't-swer. Getting started on your action plan and taking risks are great ways to ensure that this plague does not stop you. When encountering obstacles or problems along the way, it is critical to just keep moving.  Action will stop can't-swers from coming out of your mouth. 

How can We prevent Can't-swer?

The interesting thing about can't-swer is that it is a communicable disease. By allowing ourselves to be corrupted by coworkers, colleagues, and others who are afflicted by this disease, we stand a strong chance of contracting the disease ourselves. Surround yourself with positive people, and you will quickly find that can't-swers never come from their mouths. Problem-solve with people who are innovative and creative, and you will quickly see that they don't allow the word, can't, to be a part of the vocabulary.  A culture of true collaboration is like sunscreen to the skin. It blocks harmful UV rays from damaging the body. 

The More You Know

Can't-swer is preventable. The more you learn how to be positive, opportunistic and innovative, the greater the chance you will never have to deal with this issue.  Another key consideration is to be extremely conscious of your attitude and your responses in difficult situations. This is a really good place for can't-swer to take root in your work and your life. Finally, if you can avoid contracting this disease of deplorable desperation, you will make a huge impact on yourself, your coworkers, and your organization as a whole.