When Everything Is a Priority, What Actually Matters?

For any of our work to matter, we must have clarity about our purpose.

In our Six Building Blocks framework, we divide the blocks into two groups: the Cognitive work and the Action work. In order for a  team's work to have a positive impact, two things must be  in place. First, the team needs clarity about its goals, the purpose of its work, and how the two connect. Second, the team needs a culture of accountability where members hold each other to the commitments they have made.

When a team lacks clarity about why they are doing their work, and how each member's work connects and depends on the others, the action steps they take toward their goals become siloed and redundant. The people responsible for carrying out the decisions of a disconnected and unclear team are then left to figure out what is truly important and implement as best they can. The result is even more fractured practice across the system.

Consider a district team of directors responsible for determining what principals should prioritize at their schools. Imagine each director has their own list of priorities and goals, and no one checks with their colleagues to see where those goals overlap or align. If each director creates their own action steps for principals, the principals are left sorting through a long list of competing demands. Each principal must decide for themselves what matters most, so priorities end up varying from school to school instead of reflecting one consistent goal across the system.

Now imagine that same team collaborating and communicating openly to make sure they are working toward a shared goal. When the team shares one vision and one plan, every principal has the same clarity about the work. Principals still have the autonomy to adapt implementation to fit their own school, but the vision guiding that work stays consistent across the system.When every principal is working toward the same goal, they can collaborate across schools, learn from one another, and strengthen their practice together.

This kind of collaboration for the district team requires psychological safety within the team. Team members need to feel safe speaking up and pushing back when a decision works against the team's shared goals and vision. They need to feel comfortable asking questions and seeking clarity whenever something seems disconnected.

That is why we emphasize the importance of teams establishing a common vision of excellence and building accountability through shared commitments. When teams do this work, their efforts become effective, connected, and clear for everyone responsible for carrying them out.

How Clarity Shapes the Action Work

The remaining four building blocks make up the Action work: Data Driven Decision Making, Innovative and Responsive Strategies, Robust Information Systems, and Impact Monitoring. Effective systems and teams need to use all four intentionally. But without a common vision and accountability through shared commitments, even the strongest action work will stay disconnected and fall short.

Data only has meaning when a team understands why they are collecting it and how it connects to their goals and the goals of the larger system. Without that understanding, data can become confusing and lose its value.

Strategies need that same anchor. When strategies are not tied to a shared vision, we end up with competing priorities and demands resulting in the same confusion our principals faced in the example above.

Information systems also depend on clarity. When communication does not come from one unified source, important messages get lost in a flood of emails and updates, and some of those messages may even contradict each other.

Finally, it becomes nearly impossible for a team to monitor the impact of its work when that work is siloed. Without a clear goal or intended result, a team has no way to measure whether its efforts are actually moving them forward.

This is why the Cognitive work comes first. Clarity of purpose and shared accountability give the Action work the foundation it needs to make a real difference for students.