: Uniting values and improving buy-in: how to make evidence based initiatives stick Uniting Values and improving buy-in: how to make evidence based initiatives stick

As I read the updated EEF guide to implementation last summer, I found myself stopping to reflect on the many crimes against implementation I have likely perpetrated as a senior leader over the last 15 or so years. What struck me most was that my mistakes have often stemmed from a failure to engage and unite people in a shared understanding of why implementing a particular project really matters. There’s nothing quite like hearing your plan described by a member of staff as just ​“another initiative” to realise that without decisive action the most likely outcome will be a rebrand and relaunch next September.

Uniting around both the big picture and the smaller steps

What I particularly like about the EEF guidance is its emphasis on the need for establishing unity, both in understanding the big picture and the finer details of the systems required for the project, such as what skills, techniques, and (I really like this) the accountability activities that are needed for success.

This advice rings true. In my experience, projects are unsuccessful because staff haven’t been offered the right conditions to understand how the actions they are being asked to take (the smaller steps) will align with their current practice or successfully achieve the stated goals of the project (the bigger picture).

Avoiding staff overload

In his blog, Strong systems: the unsung heroes of effective implementation, Dr John Holmes likens systems in schools to the beeping of an ATM. ATMs beep to remind us to take our bank card when our focus is instead on retrieving our money. John argues that similarly, strong school systems remind​“people to enact the behaviours that drive effective implementation” during their busy professional lives.

However, a problem in schools is that often as leaders we get so deeply focussed on the goals of our own projects that we fail to recognise that our leadership colleagues are similarly also vying for the limited attention of staff. The beneficial beeping of the ATM can quickly become a confusing cacophony. How might we avoid this outcome and instead implement projects and systems that are mutually supportive?

The bigger picture of your project is bigger than you think

In his book ​“The Experience Machine” Andy Clark discusses how, rather than making intricate plans for all eventualities (which is impossible from a practical sense), our brains instead reduce cognitive load by setting long term positive goals and predictions that then inform all the subsequent smaller nested decisions that help us respond intelligently to new circumstances as they arise.

Can the same be said for the behaviour of successful leaders in a school? Perhaps a harmonious and mutually supportive set of implementation plans and systems are as much the product of having a set of explicitly aligned values agreed between the members of the team (the big picture), as much as they are the product of intricate forward planning (the smaller steps). In short, I wonder if a strong, shared vision among school leaders can act as a magnet, drawing diverse school systems into alignment.

Personal Development – Overlooked and underused?

A shared set of values for the personal development of students (and staff), might be just an overlooked but essential resource in this regard. At Tudor Grange Academy Solihull, we recognise it as one of those ​‘big picture’ projects that we’ve worked to secure unity around. 

Over recent years, we have implemented the EEF guidance on improving social and emotional learning, meta-cognition, behaviour, attendance and teacher feedback. These reports all highlight the importance of teaching students positive learning (and protective) behaviours. Behaviours beneficial to all students but highlighted in our information gathering as something many of our disadvantaged students have needed further support in habituating. 

Often, different leaders have been tasked with implementing the advice from each of the guidance reports. Looking back, we could have easily found ourselves in a situation where staff might have become overwhelmed responding to the beeping of multiple disparate systems created to address the guidance in each of the different reports. However, we have found the opposite. Our focus on developing students’ character has helped draw the advice from each report together under the same umbrella.

Leaders implementing each guidance report have not had to create a new set of systems prompts and reminders. Instead, they have been able to lean into well embedded narratives and repurpose existing systems already in place for developing students’ character. This in turn has not only helped staff to remember and implement the new approaches effectively, but it has also reinforced the other positive messages about our school community we have been working towards. To return to John Holmes’ metaphor: Rather than a confusing cacophony; our ATMs all sing in harmony, perhaps, at times, creating a whole greater than the sum of its parts.

So, back to my many crimes against implementation. I’m clear there’s no guarantee that my next attempt at implementation will be completely successful. However, I do now know that to give it the best chance, I’ll take the time to make sure that I’ve established unity, both in supporting my colleagues to understand the big picture and the finer details of the systems.


References
EEF, A school’s guide to implementation, 2024
Andy Clark. (2023). The Experience Machine: How Our Minds Predict and Shape Reality.