CLOSING THE KNOWING-DOING

GAP IN
PLC IMPLEMENTATION
D R . K Y L E PA L M E R
P R I N C I PA L L E W I S & C L A R K E L E M E N TA R Y
 ENGAGE

@kpalmerLC kpalmer@liberty.k12.mo.us
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learning-conference.html PW- 272814
 LEARNING TARGETS FOR TODAY

•  1. I CAN describe the Knowing-Doing Gap

•  2. I UNDERSTAND ways to assess current reality

•  3. I UNDERSTAND potential barriers that create a

K-D gap

•  4. I CAN describe & implement ways to close

this potential K-D Gap in my building/district
 WHAT IS A PLC?

•  The PLC concept represents “an ongoing process in

which educators work collaboratively in recurring
cycles of collective inquiry and action research to
achieve better results for the students they serve”

-DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many, 2010

 PHENOMENON

•  “While the term professional learning community

has become commonplace, the actual practices
of a PLC have yet to become the norm in
education. Too many schools, districts, and
organizations calling themselves PLCs do virtually
none of the things that characterize PLCs.”

-DuFour, DuFour & Eaker, 2008, p. 14

 A GREAT MYSTERY

Pfeffer and Sutton (2000) ask, “Why does

knowledge of what needs to be done so frequently
fail to result in action or behavior that is consistent
with that knowledge?”

-Pfeffer & Sutton, 2000, p.4

 DEFINITION

Difference between the actions of PLC components

and the knowledge of those same components
 BACKGROUND

“Research demonstrates that the success of most

interventions designed to improve organizational
performance depends largely on implementing what
is already known, rather than from adopting new or
previously unknown ways of doing things.”

-Pfeffer & Sutton, 2000, p. 14

 “The question confronting most schools and
districts is not “What do we need in order to
improve?” but rather “Will we turn what we already
know into action?”

-DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many, 2010

 REFLECT

•  To yourself, think about…………

CONFRONT THE BRUTAL FACTS

4 Ways
• 1. Lead w/ questions
• 2. Dialogue, not coercion
• 3. Autopsies without blame (need
trust)
• 4. Build red flag mechanisms that
aren’t ignored
 PLC SURVEY PART 1

•  Measures level of Knowing & Doing

•  32 Questions
•  1-7 Likert Scale
•  3 Fundamental purposes of a PLC
•  Adapted from Solution Tree PLC Survey
•  Zoomerang on-line tool
•  Used w/ all staff
 PLC SURVEY PART 2

•  1. Talk substitutes for action

•  2. Memory is a Substitute
•  3. When fear prevents Action or Knowledge
•  4. Measurement obstructs good judgment
•  5. Competition turns friends into enemies
 COMMON BARRIERS

•  More time talking than implementing

•  Lack of accountability and feedback

•  Use “time-tested” practices

•  Buy-in vs. Ownership

•  Conflict
 4 BIG BARRIERS

•  1. Quick Fix

•  2. Lack of deep understanding (Knowing)

•  3. Change in actions needed (Doing)

•  4. Initiative Fatigue (Soon replaced)

-DuFour & Fullan, Cultures Built to Last, 2013

 OVERCOMING BARRIERS

•  What steps could and should you take to make

progress with these indicators?

•  What is the best fit for your situation?

•  Must have a plan, then action

 QUESTION IS….

•  Not “Do we Collaborate?”

•  But, “What do we Collaborate about?”

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 SEDUCTIVE SHORTCUTS

•  Meeting on Wednesdays/Early Release Days

•  Field trips

•  Social Life

•  Treat as a program

•  Buy programs

•  Universal assessments
 RIGHT WORK

“In every district with which we have worked, we

have urged district leaders to make doing the right
work, in the right way, at the right time, and in
collaboration with colleagues, non-negotiable.”

-Eaker & Keating, 2012, p. 105

 LC RIGHT WORK

•  Teams establish norms

•  Unpack standards

•  Write and analyze

results from CFAs

•  SMART goals

•  Data Team process

•  RTI

•  RED Binders/Google
 ALWAYS

Clarity before Competence

 COMMUNICATE

•  Priorities and Goals

•  Connection to Mission and Vision
•  The Why
•  Alignment
•  Through your actions more than words
•  Dialogue, not monologue
•  Conversations, not presentations
 CLARITY AT ALL TIMES

•  It is impossible to translate complex ideas into

action when leaders use terms that sound
impressive but they don’t really understand what
they mean.
- Pfeffer & Sutton, The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Companies Turn
Knowledge Into Action, 2000

In effective school systems, employees at all levels can

explain what they are doing and why, with consistency.
Everyone can talk the walk with shared understanding.
-DuFour & Fullan, Cultures Built to Last, 2013
 RECIPROCAL ACCOUNTABILITY

“Accountability must be a reciprocal process. For

every expectation I have you perform, I have an
equal responsibility to provide you with the capacity
to meet the expectation.”

-DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many, 2010

 MONITORING

“Just as teacher teams are expected to monitor

learning student by student, skill by skill, principals are
expected to monitor effectiveness team by team,
task by task.”

-Eaker & Keating, 2012, p. 100

 WHAT GETS MONITORED
GETS DONE

Collaborative Team Common Formative Assessment

•  Adapted from Scott Carr
•  Design to meet your expectations
•  Feedback throughout year
•  Set expectations (yours)

SMART Goals
•  District, Building, Grade-level, Classroom
 SIMULTANEOUS LOOSE & TIGHT
SCHOOL CULTURES
•  Simultaneous loose and tight cultures establish
clear parameters and priorities that enable
individuals to work within established boundaries in
a creative and autonomous way. They are
characterized by “directed empowerment” or what
Marzano and Waters ferer to as “defined
autonomy”– freedom to act and to lead within
clearly articulated boundaries.

-Marzano & Waters, District Leadership That Works, 2009

 PEER PRESSURE

•  Effective PLCs “get amazing results” because

“peers are supporting and pressuring each other to
do better.”
-Fullan, The Moral Imperative Realized, 2011

•  Peer pressure and the distaste for letting down a

colleague or the team is a powerful motivator.
-Lencioni, Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team, 2005
 SYSTEMNESS

•  Degree to which people identify and commit to

something bigger then themselves

•  Everyone does their part

•  Be as good as you can be

•  Deeply engage, commit

-DuFour & Fullan, 2013

 SHARED LEADERSHIP

•  Consistent focus
•  Time
•  Build collective capacity
•  Develop team leaders
•  Learning by Doing
•  Establish trust
•  Limit initiatives
•  Manage resistance
•  Celebrate small wins
THINK AND REFLECT
 GOOD TO GREAT

•  How to make the leap from good performance to

sustained great results.
•  Are you a PLOW horse or a SHOW horse?
 GOOD TO GREAT

•  Focused equally on what NOT to do and what to STOP

doing
•  Technology and technology-driven change has virtually
nothing to do with igniting a transformation, it
accelerates it, it didn’t cause it
•  Under the right conditions, problems of commitment,
alignment, motivation, and change melt away.
•  Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it
turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice.

-Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others
Don’t, 2001, p.11
 LEVEL 5 LEADERSHIP

•  Builds enduring greatness through a paradoxical

blend of personal humility and professional will
•  Channel their ego needs away from themselves into
a larger goal for the organization
•  They are still incredibly ambitious, but…..
•  Fanatically driven
•  More plow horse
•  In all leadership positions

•  HUMILITY + WILL = LEVEL 5

 LEADERSHIP

•  Level 5 leaders want to see the organization become even more

successful in the next generation, to see it prosper after they are
gone. They understand that developing leadership for the future
is essential to building the organization’s capacity for continuous
improvement.

Larger-then-life charismatic were negatively correlated with

making the leap from good to great.

Great organizations led by self-effacing leaders who focused on

building the capacity of the organization to achieve a
compelling vision.
-Collins, Good to Great, 2001
 FIRST WHO, THEN WHAT

•  If leaders are to build great organizations they must

get the right people on the bus.
•  Make sure everyone is in the right seat.
•  Then figure out what the best path to greatness is.

•  Be rigorous, not ruthless

•  When in doubt, don’t hire, keep looking
•  When you know you need to make a people change, act
•  Put your best people on your biggest opportunities, not your
biggest problems.
 HEDGEHOG

•  It’s not a goal, a strategy, or an intention to be the

best. Instead, it is an understanding of what you
can be the best at. That is a crucial distinction.

•  Are you a hedgehog, or a fox?

•  Found your strategies on deep understanding on

the three circles
•  1. What can you be the best in the world at?
•  2. What drives your learning engine?
•  3. What are you deeply passionate about?
HOW MUCH CAN YOU ACTUALLY DO
WELL
•  “Leaders who push for fewer changes and push for
them harder are more likely to have success than
leaders who introduce so many changes that
people become confused about which matter
most and least to the company and how to spread
their time and money among initiatives.”

- Pfeffer & Sutton, Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total

Nonsense: Profiting From Evidence-Based Management (2006), p. 174
 FLYWHEEL

•  Revolutions, dramatic change programs, and

wrenching restructurings will probably fail.
•  Doesn’t happen in one fell swoop

•  No single defining action, no grand program, no

one killer innovation, no miracle moment.

•  Rather, pushing a giant heavy flywheel in one

direction, turn upon turn, building momentum to a
point of breakthrough and beyond………
 BUILT TO LAST

•  How to take an organization with great results and

turn it into an enduring great organization of iconic
stature.
CLOCK BUILDING, NOT TIME TELLING

•  Result of Level 5 Leadership is an organization that

can tick along without them
•  Takes time, no quick fix
•  Quick incline = Quick decline
•  Above all, there was the ability to build and build
and build- never stopping, never looking back,
never finishing.
 PRESERVE THE CORE/ STIMULATE
PROGRESS
•  What values do parents and students see?

•  How do you live your mission and vision?

•  How do you make your decisions?

•  How do you still change and move forward?

GREAT BY CHOICE
 20-MILE MARCH

•  “Victory awaits him who has everything in order–

luck people call it. Defeat is certain for him who has
neglected to take the necessary precautions in
time this is called bad luck.”

Roald Amundsen, The South Pole

 20- MILE MARCH ELEMENTS

•  Use performance markers (SMART goals)

•  Self-imposed constraints (SIP)
•  Tailored to the enterprise (student learning)
•  Control to achieve (don’t need luck)
•  Goldilocks time frame (not too short or too long)
•  Designed and self-imposed by the enterprise (no
outside pressure or blindly copied)
•  Achieved with great consistency (good intentions
isn’t a strategy)
-Collins, Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck– Why Some Thrive
Despite Them All, 2011
 10X LEADERSHIP

•  They weren’t the HEROIC figure you’re thinking of

•  10Xers understood they faced adversity,
uncertainty, things out of their control. They
accepted full responsibility for their own fate.

•  They persevered by using three core behaviors:

•  1. Fanatic Discipline (Consistency in action)
•  2. Empirical Creativity (Evidence and research)
•  3. Productive Paranoia (Always prepared for anything)
 STOP-DOING LIST

•  Just as important as a “to-do” list

•  What activities most align to your hedgehog?
•  What activities do not have value? A purpose?
•  In a culture of discipline, what undisciplined actions
do you have?
•  Do you understand your three circles?
•  What are the wrong things? (decisions made with your guiding
coalition, not in isolation)
 IN THE END….

“Yet some companies and leaders navigate this type

of world exceptionally well. They don’t merely react:
they create. They don’t merely survive, they prevail.
They don’t merely succeed: they thrive. They build
great enterprises that can endure. We do not believe
that chaos, uncertainty, and instability are good;
companies, leaders, organizations, and societies do
not thrive on chaos. But they can thrive in chaos.”
-Collins, Great by Choice, 2012, p. 2
 LET’S MOVE

1.  Describe to your partner what you have learned

about “Right Work.”

2.  What are some things you could do in your school

(or already do) that are the “Right Work.”
 LEARNING TARGETS FOR TODAY

•  1. I CAN describe the Knowing-Doing Gap

•  2. I UNDERSTAND ways to assess current reality

•  3. I UNDERSTAND potential barriers that create a

K-D gap

•  4. I CAN describe ways to close this potential K-

D Gap in my building/district
 WHAT NOW?

•  ASSESS CURRENT REALITY

•  What does a current “snapshot” look like?
•  How big is your knowing-doing gap?

ASSESS DESIRED REALITY

•  Dream Big
•  Mission and Vision

CHART YOUR COURSE

•  Be specific about your next steps
•  Action Plan
 AFTER ALL

-Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap….and

Others Don’t, 2001, p.11
 OTHER RESOURCES

•  MO PLC- http://www.moplc.org/

•  All Things PLC- www.allthingsplc.com

•  Solution Tree- http://www.solution-tree.com/free-

repros
 WHERE ARE WE?

18 Critical Issues for Team Consideration

Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning
Communities at Work
-DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many, 2010, pp.130-131

Staff Perceptual Survey on District Progress Toward

Becoming a PLC
Every School, Every Team, Every Classroom
-Eaker & Keating, 2012, p. 191-198
 WHERE ARE WE?

Self-Assessments…………. (for 3 key ideas of a PLC)

Aligning School Districts as PLCs
-Many, Soldwedel, & Van Clay, 2011, pp. 139-144

Various Professional Learning Communities at Work

Continuums.
Learning By Doing Second Edition: A Handbook for
Professional Learning Communities at Work
-DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many, 2010

Find all these reproducibles at: http://www.solution-tree.com/free-repros

 REFERENCES

Collins, J. (2001). Good to great. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publisher, Inc.

Collins, J. (2004). Built to Last. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publisher, Inc.

Collins, J. (2012). Great by Choice. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publisher, Inc.

DuFour, R., DuFour, R. & Eaker, R. (2008). Revisiting professional learning

communities at work. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R. & Many, T. (2010). Learning by doing: A handbook
for professional learning communities at work. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree.

DuFour, R. & Marzano, R. (2011). Leaders of learning. Bloomington, IN: Solution

Tree Press.

DuFour, R. & Fullan, M. (2013). Cultures Built to Last. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree
Press.

Eaker, R. & Keating, J. (2012). Every School, Every Team, Every Classroom.
Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
 REFERENCES

Fullan, M. (2011). The Moral Imperative Realized. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin
Press.

Many, T., Soldwedel, P., & Van Clay, M. (2011). Aligning School Districts as PLCs.
Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Lencioni, P. (2002). Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team. San Francisco,

CA: Jossey-Bass.

Marzano, R. & Waters, T. (2009). District leadership that works: Striking the right
balance. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Pfeffer, J. & Sutton, R. (2000). The knowing-doing gap: How smart companies turn
knowledge into action. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Pfeffer, J. & Sutton, R. (2006). Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total
Nonsense: Profiting From Evidence-Based Management. Boston, MA: Harvard
Business School Press.
TYRANNY OF “OR” VERSUS GENIUS OF
“AND”
•  The Tyranny of “or” is the rational view that cannot
easily accept paradox, cannot live with two
seemingly contradictory forces at the same time. IT
MUST BE A OR B, but not both.
•  The genius of “and” is to embrace both of the
extremes at the same time. This is not just a question
of balance. Balance implies 50-50, going to the
midpoint. Visionary leaders did not seek the gray of
balance, but were determined to be distinctly both
A and B at the same time.

-Collins, Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, 2004

 BHAGS

BIG HAIRY AUDACIOUS GOALS

A BHAG engages people- it reaches out and grabs

them in the gut. It is tangible, energizing, highly
focused. People “get it” right away; it takes little or no
explanation.

-Collins, Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, 2004, p. 100

 FIRST WHO, THEN WHAT

•  1. Do you believe this?

•  2. Are you good at it?
•  3. Would others say you’re good at it?
 20-MILE MARCH

•  More than a philosophy

•  Having concrete, intelligent, and rigorously pursued
performance mechanisms that keep you on track.

•  Two types of self-imposed discomfort:

•  1. discomfort of unwavering commitment to high
performance in difficult conditions
•  2. discomfort of holding back in good conditions.

-Collins, Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck– Why Some

Thrive Despite Them All, 2011
 TECHNOLOGY

•  Think differently, carefully select

•  Never a primary root cause of either greatness or
decline.
 PINK

•  Survival and Extrinsic Rewards

•  Carrots and sticks (are we animals?)
•  The key is to reward behavior you seek and punish
behavior you hope to discourage
•  Doesn’t work for knowledge seekers
 EXTRINSIC REWARDS

•  Diminish performance
•  Robotic
•  Lack of creativity
•  Encourages shortcuts and unethical behavior
•  Leads to cheating
•  Foster short-term thinking
 WHAT DRIVES US?

•  Motivation 3.0 = Intrinsic rewards

•  People desire 3 things:

•  1. Autonomy: to have some freedom on how to perform
their work
•  2. Mastery: to be good, to “master” their craft
•  3. Shared purpose: to belong, to know they are part of
something bigger then themselves, to have value
•  (Pink, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, 2010)
 TIGHT

•  Work in collaborative teams and take collective

responsibility for student learning
•  Implement a guaranteed and viable curriculum
•  Monitor student learning through ongoing
assessments that includes frequent, team-
developed CFAs
•  Use CFA data to improve and share effective
practices, build team capacity, achieve goals,
increase learning for ALL students
•  Systematic response for intervention and
enrichment
 LOOSE

•  Art of teaching
•  When and where
•  Type of assessment built by team
•  Type of informative assessment used daily
•  RTI groupings
•  Essential outcome being monitored
 THE ONE THING…

•  You must know is…………………..

Leaders of any organization must know to be

effective is the importance of clarity- communicating
clearly and consistently.

Buckingham, The One Thing You Need to Know, 2005)

 KEEP, DROP, CREATE

•  Once per quarter

•  Curriculum
•  Assessment
•  Instruction
•  Leadership Team
•  School-wide

(Tom Many, Solution Tree)

 PRESENTATION NOTES
READ THROUGH NOTES

1.  Lots of participation

2.  Restate questions, don’t say it was better than others
3.  State how long they have and where I will be to start up again
4.  Connect to audience needs
5.  Eye contact, speak audibly and clearly (slow down)
6.  Pace with a natural flow
7.  Express ideas in a clear and concise way
8.  Manage time effectively
9.  4- part instructions (in a moment, where to go, what you want them to do, go)
10.  Don’t ever get in a power struggle
11.  WHAT IS IT, HERE IT IS, WHY IT MATTERS, WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH IT, DO IT, SUM WHAT II SAID, REFLECT
AND TALK A LOT, GROUPS SHARE OUT
12.  USE BINDER OF SLIDES
13.  Practice a lot
14.  Be able to speak from memory and not to look back at slides