Getting Unstuck: Changing by Staying with What Works – a Conversation with Dr. Deb Gustafson

“The original practices that I applied, stayed the practices that I worked on. Some of the details changed. When you learn, when you know better, you do better. When you learn more, you do better. So I would learn more about the different practices. But they truly stayed the same through 18 years. They stayed the same, because they got us where we needed to be, and they got us there quickly, and they sustained momentum. ”

Today on Getting Unstuck

One of the many problems that plague U.S. businesses, not-for-profits, and our U.S. education system is when and how to change. For many institutions, the process can look like fruit-of-the-month club: they try “this” until a new “this” comes along. A new something – process, way of thinking, way of leading etc. – is seen as the answer to all organizational ills . . . until a new, shinier something takes its place. As a result, employees are whipped-sawed by an unending stream of changes, and sustained results are rarely achieved.

One who wrote at length about this problem was Jim Collins in his landmark book, Good to Great. There he looked at what great performing organizations do that good performing organizations typically don’t do. One of the habits that great organizations instinctively employ is something Collins called “the flywheel” – a process involving 4-6 elements with each element impacting / driving the next. The thinking went: “If we do “A,” then “B” will happen, which will cause “C” to happen, which will cause “D” and so on. Each element is a consequence of the element that came before it. As Collins wrote:

“Pushing with great effort, you get the flywheel to inch forward. You keep pushing, and with persistent effort, you get the flywheel to complete on entire turn. You don’t stop. You keep pushing. The flywheel moves a bit fast. Then as some point —breakthrough! The flywheel flies forward with almost unstoppable momentum.”

The book was written about U.S. business, but the question was quickly asked, “Would this thinking work for not-for-profits and specifically, education?” One educator who was immediately intrigued is Dr. Deb Gustafson. Deb is currently the Executive Director of Student Services for the Geary County Unified School District 475 based in Junction City, KS. She is the former principal of Ware Elementary School, and that’s where she started turning a flywheel that still turns today.

Listen for

• What the situation like at Ware Elementary when Deb became principal.

• What it was about Collins’ book that most impacted Deb.

• Why the first practice Deb installed as part of her flywheel – see the illustration – was “select teachers infused with passion.”

• What Deb saw as the ultimate goal – the why, the purpose, the cause – behind what they we’re trying to accomplish at Ware.

• The distinction we draw in the interview around “urgency.” There was “urgency” in needing to do something to resolve the pain that students and teachers are experiencing, but it wasn’t an urgency of pace or timing; it was an urgency around the imperative to take the right action where none had been taken before.

• How Deb saw it as critical to “align, apply and enhance” any new initiatives and practices to the existing ones.

• The impact the flywheel experience had as Deb trained new administrators.

“I was trying to get to the essence of this: where’s your heart for kids? We’re looking at the human factors here. We’re applying a business model, but we’re all about people. And our product is our students. And it’s not just our students learning. It’s also about what our students will be and our students ability to become contributing, well rounded citizens that we want to surround ourselves with. So where is your commitment to not giving up on kids?”

For reflection

At one point in the interview, Deb noted “You just have to get to the root causes of what you need in your environment to sustain performance.” How often does your current organization actually identify root causes or the real problem to be solved?

For more information

Turning the Flywheel by Jim Collins