8 Tips For School Leaders Seeking To Innovate

When school and district leaders read about innovation—defined as improvements for students and teachers that result in real progress, not anything that’s simply “new or different”—the changes can seem daunting. How do they build innovation as a habit into their DNA of their organization at a practical level? What are the real pitfalls?

I spoke recently to the leadership team at a network of schools. Afterwards, they offered some reflections, which they shared with me. That in turn sparked a few reflections of my own, which I’m sharing in the hopes that it makes innovation in more schools more possible.

1. Let’s acknowledge the truth. Big innovations and transformational change are “complicated and hard.” When reading about what to do, it can sound so simple. But it’s not. That doesn’t mean the work isn’t worth doing.

2. When deciding which innovations to experiment with, don’t compare different kinds of innovations to each other. Organizations should be doing a large number of innovations that amount to continuous improvement each year—incremental, reasonably assured of success, and relatively affordable. They shouldn’t compare those innovations to big platform changes or transformational ideas—which are bigger, riskier, and will be more expensive over time. There should also be far greater investments in incremental improvements than transformational or disruptive ideas. You might run a couple pilots in the latter category once every five years.

3. Develop a rhythm for your innovation work. Create a taxonomy of different innovation types that align to your strategic goals and commit to a predetermined schedule of a certain number of these over discreet time periods. To figure out what will work for your organization—that is, how many innovations of different types you can support so that you don’t get bogged down by initiative fatigue—look to and learn from your history