I’m reading Jim Collins’ Good to Great.  One section talks about the “Doom Loop.”  I believe a lot of schools are in this loop.  This is the section that made me immediately think of what I’ve seen happen in schools:

 

“They sought the single defining action, the grand program, the one killer innovation, the miracle moment…They would push the flywheel in one direction, then stop, change course, and throw it into yet another direction.  After years of lurching back and forth, the comparison companies filed to build sustained momentum and fell instead into what we call the doom loop.”    -(p. 178)

 

This is what schools call the “initiative.”  One new great program comes along and usually everyone’s expected to do it and only it.  Then, something else comes along.  This is why teachers are notorious for believing that, if they hang on long enough, it will change.  And it usually does:  “Each new …CEO brought his own new program and halted the momentum of his predecessor.”  -(p.179)

 

How many times has a new principal or superintendent come in and changed the focus?   I’m willing to admit that the focus might need to be changed, but what if it doesn’t?  What if things are slowly improving?

 

I was once a part of High Schools That Work.  One thing I heard during a conference was that teachers who are on the right track should “interview” a new principal by telling him/her:  here’s what we do, here’s what the school does.  If you’re not on board, then we won’t hire you. The teachers keep the ball rolling (with central admin support, of course).

 

I’ve seen many schools in the doom loop because they don’t go anywhere.  There’s no progress, no forward movement.  The focus is constantly changing and isn’t done long enough to see results.  In Good to Great, it takes some companies 10, 20, or 30 years to see results.  Granted, schools don’t have that long.  But by continually changing focus, how can anyone expect any progress?