Consulting
“Dr. Jones’s experience, expertise, and passion are truly impressive! He was exactly what we needed at the start of the school year!”
Have you implemented new programs at your school, only to discover the program ends up in the “program cemetery” two years later? Often, programs are dead on arrival because the implementation process was flawed from the beginning. How can we blame some of our veteran teachers for thinking “this too shall pass” when new initiatives are introduced at their school? We have a long history in education of being too quick to add a new program without ever slowing down enough to ask the right questions. We quickly leap into “what” and “how” scenarios when we should be asking lots more “why” questions. When the right “why” questions are asked, it becomes pretty clear that a lot of what we currently do can be eliminated. Want buy-in from your staff? Rally around the “why” and start deleting things before adding anything that will take time, money, and personal buy-in. When schools can do this, no matter what initiative is being implemented, the chances for long term success are far greater. At the end of the day, it truly is about people and not programs!
Dr. Jones’s work as a school improvement consultant focuses on a step-by-step framework designed to avoid the typical implementation pitfalls of too many school improvement initiatives. A typical pitfall happens right away when a generic needs assessment is given to school personnel, which is not aligned to their schools’ individual goals. Think about trying to add oil to your engine by taking the oil cap off and pouring oil all over the engine—some of the oil will get to where it needs to, but you will waste a lot of oil in the process. The people in your organization are your oil. They are the most precious resource, and their time and energy shouldn’t be wasted.
When working with schools, Dr. Jones creates a needs assessment specifically created to align with your schools’ unique circumstances and identified goal areas. The next steps in the process involve facilitating collective commitments, inspiring the “why” of your unique group, expanding your team’s shared knowledge, providing opportunities to practice and test belief systems, and then ultimately moving toward a proactive, systemic implementation plan designed to stand the test of time. One promise…you will never hear Dr. Jones use the word “program.” His work is about people, not programs, and reigniting the “why” so that we leave a lasting legacy!