Inside the Playbook: Building a Culture of Connection and Retention

Dr. Jim: Thanks for joining us today. This is your friendly neighborhood town strategy nerd, Dr. Jim. As someone who did his doctoral research on retention and turnover, I nerd out whenever we have an opportunity to dig into retention best practices.

There are a number of reasons why someone will leave an organization. And one of the earliest signals that you can't ignore is the onboarding experience that you give your candidates. If your onboarding process is shaky, you're at risk of losing your employee before they even get started. So what should you be doing to make sure you have a tight onboarding process?

That's going to be one of the things that we're focusing on in our conversation today. And we have Frank Schofield. Who is joining us to guide us through the conversation. So what's Frank's backstory? He's been a high school teacher, elementary and middle school principal, and he currently serves as the superintendent of Logan city school district.

, lacrosse playing children, [: 00:01:00

[00:01:06] Frank Schofield: Thanks. I'm

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So I'll try to rein myself in and make sure we're having a productive conversation versus veering off into all my little nerd areas. So before we dive into all of that, I think it's going to be important for the listeners to get a better understanding of who you are. What I'd like to hear from you. Is some of those key moments in your career that helped shape your district philosophy and your leadership philosophy and how that shows up in your district today.

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A strong sense of [00:02:00] community. And here's the way we do things. And I was extremely fortunate to start my career as a teacher and as an elementary principal the first time here. After a few years, after three years as an elementary principal, we moved further down south into the Salt Lake Valley, which is a much larger community.

And I joined a district that had just been formed by splitting off from a much larger school district. And That district was going through the experience of re identifying itself or rebranding in many ways and identifying, okay, we're no longer this previous entity. Who are we? And what does that mean for us?

And I was extremely fortunate to work with some outstanding leaders down there who really took on that challenge and worked very hard with the teachers, with the principals and with the community members to clearly identify this is who we want to be. And how is that going to be reflected in our behavior and the things that we do?

n when I had the opportunity [: 00:03:00

But going through those experiences and working with kids who were Struggling kids were excelling and seeing how the system helped them really has informed my my beliefs as a leader.

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[00:03:46] Frank Schofield: I was surprised at some of the disconnect that was in place at the PR at that time between administration and teachers. I was fortunate as a teacher to have a pretty strong relationship with my building principals, and I felt like I'd [00:04:00] been able to do that as a building principal in, in the various buildings where I'd worked.

So I was surprised to see that disconnect and to see the. Level of consternation that created among staff and how that impeded the work from getting done

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[00:04:22] Frank Schofield: we'd see things like, distrust between administrators and teachers when an administrator was trying to move the school forward with a certain initiative, there would be resistance to that based on personality and relationships, not necessarily on content of the initiative. Moving forward, we'd see at some schools Groups of teachers doing polling of their colleagues to identify, votes of no confidence for administrators and undermining decision making that way.

he way of a lot of different [: 00:05:00

So it started to show up in lots of little ways that over time became some big impacts and had those huge impacts on behavior.

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Or is there something else involved that caused, this big division going on within the district?

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And a principal might, with one issue, decide to be really hands off, because they weren't sure if the district was going to try to get involved. We're on another issue. They would be very hands on because they were under the assumption that it would be something that would just be left to them. But the inconsistency and understanding where decisions needed to be made.

And what the different decision making roles were in the district, both central office building level and classroom level led to inconsistencies. And those inconsistencies led to confusion. So as soon as the behavior, the decision making behavior that was being. Implemented didn't align with whatever a certain person was expecting that created frustration, and that frustration just started to build.

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[00:07:17] Frank Schofield: That's a great question. You did have some demographic differences based on a couple of the school neighborhoods. You probably see the biggest difference between grade levels. So a difference in the consistency of the decision making process between elementary versus middle school versus high school and what level of involvement is the district going to have, what's the principal going to do on their own, what's the role of teachers in having voice and participating in the decision making, and I think what you would generally see is as the size of the school increased, which in our district was generally Aligned with elementary, middle, the high school, the larger the school, the less voice individuals [00:08:00] had simply by virtue of magnitude of the size of the staff and that led to greater frustration, I would say, at our secondary schools than at our.

Elementary schools at least when I arrived,

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[00:08:34] Frank Schofield: I think that's a great insight. Jim. That's exactly what we saw. There was a delegation gap between the central office and building level administration. So there wasn't and there was even a delegation gap within the central office. When I came on, there were a number of tasks where I would go to senior staff and say, okay, it's the time of year for us to start allocating staffing to the buildings.

. Okay. No, no one knows. We [: 00:09:00

Which then waterfall down into over at what's the role that everybody here in the building plays in decision making. Yeah, I agree 100 percent with what you said. That's exactly what we experienced. So we had to start bringing in processes. We had to start clarifying decision making. We had to identify decision making parameters at different levels.

All to try to bring a level of consistency that would then promote predictability, which then promote promoted confidence and comfort. From rank and file staff.

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So you have to fix that. And then you probably are dealing with a constant inflow of new people that are coming into the district into this environment without a playbook. How did you respond to those two sets of challenges and land on onboarding as one of the key areas that you wanted to focus on?

That, that seems like it's multiple sets of problems that you have to solve.

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So we, we created a playbook and we created structures and we identified here are the parameters going back to, Marzano's work with defined autonomy. And saying, Hey, within these parameters, knock yourself out. You've got as much flexibility as you want. This is just the box we need. We need everyone to work in.

So first we did that and we [: 00:11:00

And our internal beliefs we needed to tell our incoming staff what we were working towards because even though, you don't shift culture overnight, things don't automatically immediately change. As we were working on that, if we didn't tell our new teachers right from the start, here's what we're working towards.

ople who, in a department, a [: 00:12:00

They don't know that's not the norm, and that's what they fall into.

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So when you're trying to figure out what should the playbook be, what should our decision tree look like? How did you? Integrate teacher voice into that playbook build.

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And initially people aren't quite sure what to do with this, so it results in a lot of really negative [00:13:00] anonymous notes that the principal is having to read in the group's having to read. But as the group works through those together, the level of negativity in the note starts to go down.

The negativity in the feedback starts to go down because we've established that this is a group that is open to feedback and is going to work together to find solutions to the issues that are brought up in the feedback. So that was the very first thing we did was we implemented that It's explicit framework for promoting more open communication between building level administrators and teachers so we could get past this the stonewalling that in some cases was going on the where there just was no effective communication taking place.

So everything happened in the back channels and everything went underground, which was really counterproductive.

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You get the stonewalling thing that you described. So how did you get over that stonewalling tendency that was Potentially ingrained in the district and get to a place where you're having a productive conversation. What did you do to break that down?

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We know that you're going to have concerns. We're an organization of human beings. Differences of opinion are going to come up. And we want to honor that. We want to address that. Here are the tools for doing it. So we just annually reiterate those tools. Here's how it works. And we kept trying to turn people back.

It took multiple years [: 00:15:00

Not in an effort to over bureaucratize the process and slow it down, but to ensure that we're resolving concerns at the level where they can actually be resolved. And then the third thing was, and I can go into this a little bit more if we want, but we really focused on building a culture of engagement, and that increased the number of conversations that principals and teachers were having together, which also opened those doors of communication more.

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[00:15:52] Frank Schofield: Sure, we partner with the Gallup organization, so they have a lot of resources and materials focused on this. And the idea of kind of the [00:16:00] genesis behind it is we had implemented these different tools for communication, but they still weren't taking effect or they weren't having the desired impact. We have these tools.

And then people would say but people are afraid to say anything. They won't talk to the administration administrators. There's fear that they're going to use the information for retaliation. So we were seeing that even with the frameworks that we put in place and the emphasis that we were putting on using those frameworks.

It still wasn't changing the mindset and the culture. So we started doing some research and our director of HR found the Gallup information and the work they do with engagement. And we started digging into it. We attended some trainings and decided this is a tool that we can use. It's got a good evidence base behind it.

It's not something we're creating. So there, it won't come with the cloud of this is something that the district staff has put together to try to manipulate. Opinions, et cetera. And we, we started doing that and we trained all of our principles on it. We oriented them on how this works.

d administering the surveys, [: 00:17:00

You got to talk to your staff. So you look at the data and together say, okay, what are we? What are we doing really well? And why do we think that's going well? So let's build on that and then say, what's one thing we see in the data that we would like to get better at? And how are we going to do that?

So the staff together works on a solution. They identify Bye. A goal, they identify an action plan, and then there's a process for following up on that action plan over the course of the year. That process of opening the doors for staff and principals to have a conversation about what do we do together to improve our shared work environment and make a more positive workplace, open the door for more conversations to take place.

So the trust that came [: 00:18:00

[00:18:12] Dr. Jim: So that's a good foundation for us to. Springboard into another part of the conversation. Now, right now we focused on some of the internal work in terms of building a playbook and creating an opportunity for a more detailed conversation. So how did that feed what you did from a revamp of the onboarding process?

So give us an idea of what the onboarding process looked like before. And then once you were actually able to work on the culture internally, how did that onboarding process change?

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What we saw as we shifted and we started doing more culture development in our schools. And as we started building that workplace of engagement, we saw that we needed to tell our new employees what we were focused on. We needed to try to start that culture of engagement right away. So we needed to be upfront with, Hey, this is what we believe in.

And we really believe this will make a difference both in your success and your fulfillment as an employee, and it will have a positive impact on the students that you're working with. So we want you to understand this better. So as we saw the impact of improving the quality of engagement in our institution.

Across the district, and then we started to see the impact that would have on teacher success. We said, this has to become part of our onboarding process, and we got to move away from just the logistics. And we got to spend more time on the culture and the connections that promote engagement.

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That's got to start at the onboarding phase too. So how, what were the things that you were doing in the onboarding phase that sought to build stronger relationships between educators and their team leads and even their building leadership so that you have that culture of open communication that's being built from day one?

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And we had really spent most of our energy on those first two, compliance and clarification. Here are your basic expectations as an employee. Here's what you do to avoid getting fired. It was that kind of thing. We said we need to [00:21:00] spend more time explicitly on culture and connection. So first, we made sure that everybody involved in the onboarding process understood that shift in focus.

Then we worked with tightening up who's delivering the train. The onboarding in the past where it was just compliance, it would just primarily be your district office secretaries and stuff. People who were managing logistical items. We said this has to be the people who are going to be working most closely with the new teachers now.

So it has to be your building instructional coaches. It needs to be your building principles, and it needs to be the district level leadership Who work directly with the teacher. So it's our director of elementary schools, director of secondary schools and me as the superintendent. So we start our 3 day induction process with me talking with the group about our culture, about our values and why we hired them as individuals who we believe can help strengthen that culture and can add to it.

So we start [: 00:22:00

And also saying, and we're here to help you and support you as we do that.

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So what were the things that you did to get those leaders reoriented to this new way [00:23:00] of thinking and also skilled in executing the things that needed to be executed?

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And we saw that did get us to a place of, I would say a better conceptual understanding. Everybody's behind the idea of it, but the specific tools we were still lacking. And I don't think that took off until we really started partnering with a couple of outside organizations. We did work with the Gallup organization.

specific. Application level [: 00:24:00

We all agree with this. Now, what are the specific steps we could take to do it? And that took a few years to get in place. But that's the now we're seeing the impact.

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[00:24:31] Frank Schofield: Yeah. So we have a number of elements of this that are part of our annual goal setting with our building level leaders. So they're working on. Specific actions they'll take to strengthen the quality of the workplace that they provide to keep building their school culture. One of our meetings each month is focused on these specific skills to creating that positive workplace environment.

tive listening, managing the [: 00:25:00

This is what we're trying to accomplish. Now, today, we're going to focus on this specific set of skills that helps us move that forward. So it becomes a recurring process of recursive process with our leaders. of saying this is what we're about.

Let's talk more about how we keep improving our skill set in providing that,

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So what guardrails did you put into place to make sure that you're constantly [00:26:00] focusing in on the big picture and lining that up with the right piece of the small picture so that you're not losing momentum?

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Helping the principal or anyone go back to, okay, this is something, yes, we need to address. Let's talk about how this relates to our primary objectives and how do we make sure that addressing this doesn't prevent us from working on these other objectives. And that's allowed us with our principles, for example, to have.

and supporting the classroom [: 00:27:00

So we had to add some additional resources and support at the school level. To allow principals to refocus that time and get back in there, but that discussion took place between the building principal and the next supervisor up who consistently is asking the question, is this getting in the way of our primary purpose?

And if so, how do we respond? So it distracts us as little as possible.

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That's a lot of work. And we're glossing over the volume of effort that is involved in that. But now that has started getting momentum into [00:28:00] execution. What are the things that you've noticed in terms of frontline impact, particularly when it comes to your relationships between managers and new employees, and also how new employees are feeling through their onboarding process that gives you indicators into what their longterm viability as employees in the district you're going to be.

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Here's the support that I received in a situation. I just had a meeting with our, the leaders of our teachers union yesterday, and they were explicitly talking about. How much support teachers are feeling from principles regarding student behavior and working with some challenging kids and the family issues that often come with those.

rontline impact we're seeing [: 00:29:00

Are trying to support them in helping them perform better and helping the school perform better. So kids get better experiences at school. So that's been fun to see. We really see that as I do onboarding roundtable meetings with our new hires. And I meet with all of the brand new teachers, and we just talk about, okay what's your experience been joining our organization?

We know that whether you're a veteran educator or a new educator, joining a new district is a transition, and there are challenges, and we want to support you with that. How, who's been particularly helpful? And they will consistently mention their building principles. And talk about, they really helped me in this scenario, I was struggling here with this situation, and here's how they came in and offered support.

Hearing those anecdotal [: 00:30:00

They're more invested in trying something new, whether it's something that they come up with or something that their administrator initiates. We see bigger part is greater participation, which Leads to greater success because you get a bigger body of people who are all engaged in making something happen.

So the relationship piece is directly impacting the work behavior piece, which is now leading to improved experiences for kids.

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[00:31:03] Frank Schofield: That's a great question, Jim. I think because we work with a student population that has a lot of needs. We have a high number of refugee kids. Who are coming to us. A lot of kids who come from backgrounds of poverty who have experienced disruptions in their learning experiences. And because of that the practices that maybe work in a traditional classroom or traditional school setting don't always work for them.

They're trying to get used to a new school system as well as Learn a new language, create new friendships, all sorts of things. The ability to address those students needs isn't really something that all of our teachers come out of their university pre service programs having fully developed.

hat learning and raise their [: 00:32:00

And as I develop this skill, I'm going to be better positioned to help address that need. So for us, the willingness to keep learning and be part of those new initiatives is essential to our health and our successes as an organization.

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[00:32:36] Frank Schofield: So the indicators we're seeing right now, as I've said the comments that we get, the anecdotal evidence of improved relationship, we, of course, do our engagement surveys with our staff every year, and we continue to see those scores rise across the district in all of our settings. We have evidence of places where new initiatives, very challenging initiatives have been put in place and because of [00:33:00] teacher investment, they have resulted in some outstanding student outcomes, particularly in early literacy.

Our high school, because of the work they're doing to expand access to AP programs for students, have, was placed on the AP honor roll for the first time in the school's history just this last month. So we see the relationships improving, and we are getting evidence that those relationships are leading to investment in initiatives that are now paying off for kids.

And as we watched with our early literacy initiative, for example, once the data started coming back that this was improving learning for students, there was no way the teachers were going to stop doing what they'd been asked to do. But it all started with a willingness. and a level of trust between them and their administrators to say, yes, this is hard.

it out. And because of that, [: 00:34:00

So that combination of anecdotal evidence. Survey results and student outcomes are the indicators that lead us to believe if we just keep down this path, we keep improving and our ability to onboard these new employees and tie them into this culture that we've really tried to create. It's going to keep rolling.

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What are the core things that they need to keep in mind when they're thinking about building a program that's going to work?

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This is who we want to be. And we hired you because we believe that's who you are. And we want you to be part of us as part of that painting, the clarity of what the cultural picture is finding ways to build those personalized connections. Through the onboarding experience, what do you do to connect people to the individuals in the organization and what do you do to connect them to the organization itself?

Whether that's through, an embroidered sweatshirt or, a computer bag or something, but you're building those connections and then recognizing that there's going to be a need for ongoing feedback And onboarding throughout the first year, at least. So what's the structure going to be for that?

d they get wrapped up in the [: 00:36:00

culture piece, recognizing that will inform your skill development as you move forward.

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[00:36:37] Frank Schofield: The best way is probably just through my email, you can also just look up our school district website, which is loganschools, . org. And my email and contact information right there.

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But there's something that in particular that I want to highlight and tie together if the goal of the organization is to build a culture of engagement that culture of engagement begins at the first point of contact that an employee has with your organization. And ideally, if you can do that. From the hiring experience, that's great.

Or from the interviewing experience, that's great. But if you can't go to the interview experience and you move through the hiring experience, then your onboarding process has to be tight because that's going to be one of the biggest predictors of whether that employee is going to be sticky to your organization.

e of engagement because your [: 00:38:00

Are not involved in the process of building relationships and establishing themselves as the sounding board for support that employees are going to need over their entire employee life cycle. So that's 1 thing that I want to highlight in this conversation that I think is important for anybody listening.

To internalize and put into practice in their districts. For those of you who've been listening to this conversation, we appreciate you hanging out. If you'd like the discussion, make sure you leave us a review. If you haven't already done so make sure you join our community and then tune in next time where we'll have another leader hanging out with us and sharing with us the game changing insights that help them build a high performance team.