Coherence
One of the most iconic adverts of all time, was the rather quirky 1994 advertisement for Ronseal wood stain, that just said 'It does exactly what it says on the tin'. Somehow, it wasn't playing the same game as all the other adverts.
The advertisement's apparent simplicity belied something far deeper. We are used to a world where people sometimes exaggerate or lie to us and where adverts suggest products have qualities and fabulous advantages, which even our most naive selves know are probably not entirely true. And that's what makes the Ronseal advert so appealing - it's just so honest.
Schools are no exception to the observation that words sometimes do not match reality. Many schools claim to be 'child centred', value diversity or be 'caring' but any prolonged exposure to the community reveals plenty of examples of the words not really matching the actual habits of the community or ways of talking. They were just words which were 'on trend' and good for marketing, which were true enough some of the time - and someone chose them as they were not thinking too deeply about it. There never was a plan to embed them into all aspects of school life.
A major project initiated this year by Head of School Nick Little is to review our guiding statements, our programme choices and the way we talk with each other - and ensure that like Ronseal, what we say on the outside is utterly aligned and authentic to what happens on the inside. That means both making sure the words really do express our identity - and also ensure we align and build capacity internally around our values.
To find the right words on the outside, a starting place is to gather the stories the community tells about the school, and see what values those stories communicate. Those stories carry powerful experiences that communicate at the deepest level about how we understand the community's values. These in turn can be used to refine our mission and ISA values. Next week we will gather the stories from staff during the inservice day; and soon after we will be asking you for your stories. That is alignment from the inside to the outside.
In terms of aligning from the outside to the inside, in the leadership team and the Friday coaching workshops, we are building our habits of interaction. We say that we are inclusive, kind, caring and value integrity and community. But habits of dialogue that support this take years to build and develop in individuals, teams and ultimately classrooms. Every week in the leadership team we have micro sessions on coaching and build skills and habits that help us line up on our values in an ever more profound way. The Friday coaching sessions for staff and parents are another prong to this effort to really live our aspirations in our habits.
The point about doing 'what you say on the tin' is not just that you have integrity and honesty - which are important but not transformational on their own. The transformational part is that once you know who you are, powerful alignment and coherence emerges that allows you to live your values in profound and adaptive ways that can provide life defining educational experiences for children, and hopefully for staff and parents too.
Our future advertising campaigns might be remarkably simple: ISA - it does what it says on the tin.
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