You can do everything right and still not see the change you hoped for. Here’s why.
Estimated read time: 5 minutes
In this blog, we’ll explore:
- Why knowing what to do is not the same as making it stick
- The difference between a move and a condition
- Why implementation is not the same thing as impact
- How technical and adaptive work shape the conditions for success
- How leaders can identify which conditions need attention in their own schools and districts
Educators and leaders are being asked to do a lot right now.
There are student needs to respond to. Staffing challenges to navigate. Families to communicate with. Budgets to manage. Board meetings to prepare for. State requirements to meet.
And, somewhere in the middle of all of that, there is the work of improving teaching and learning.
So when we talk with district and school leaders about school improvement, we don’t start from the assumption that they don’t know what to do.
Usually, they do.
In fact, last year at this time, we focused on the urgency of an aligned system and the importance of getting the “conditions right” for this type of work.
But what we kept hearing back from district leaders was some version of the same question:
“We know what to do, but the urgent daily things get in the way,”. Or, “We know what to do, but we can’t make it stick.”
We’ve spent a lot of time thinking about that.
Because if the answer were to simply do the right things, a lot more school improvement work would be sustained.
It isn’t.
What we’ve learned is that the difference often comes down to something more fundamental: The things we do are not the same as the conditions that make those things possible to sustain.
Start with the difference between a move and a condition
A move is something you do. A condition is something that has to be true.
That sounds simple. But it is an important distinction.
We can create the meeting agenda. We can establish the protocol. We can schedule the walkthroughs. We can provide professional development. We can identify the practice we want to see.
Those are the moves. But what has to be true for those moves to actually change practice?
That is the condition.
Maybe the team needs a shared understanding of what the work is supposed to accomplish. Maybe people need clarity about their roles. Maybe leaders need to create protected time for the work. Maybe the team needs to be willing to look honestly at evidence that tells them something isn’t working.
Those things are harder to put on a checklist. And they are often the things that determine whether the work takes hold. This matters because school leaders don’t need another list of things to do. Most are already carrying more than enough.
The question is whether the things we’re asking people to do are supported by the conditions they need to succeed.
Implementation is not the same thing as impact
The problem is that we can get very good at L1.
We can have the meeting. Check.
Complete the training. Check.
Create the protocol. Check.
Collect the artifact. Check.
And then, a few weeks later, find ourselves asking why the practice hasn’t changed.
That doesn’t mean the work was wasted. It means we may have mistaken implementation for impact. Most schools and districts can establish enough conditions to get to L1. Moving from L1 to L2, and ultimately to L3, requires the conditions to hold.
And this is where we’ve learned another important lesson.
Not every condition belongs to the same person
Different conditions belong to different people.
Some conditions only a superintendent can set. Some only a team can set for itself. Some require a school leader to create the space for others to lead. And when we confuse the two, the work stalls.
A team may be frustrated because it doesn’t have the autonomy to make a decision that actually belongs at the district level.
A superintendent may be frustrated because a team isn’t taking ownership of work that the superintendent cannot, and should not, do for them.
Everyone is working. Everyone is trying. And the work still isn’t moving.
That is not necessarily a commitment problem. Sometimes, we simply haven’t been clear about who owns the condition that is missing.
Is the missing condition technical or adaptive?
This is another distinction that has helped us think about this work.
Every condition has a technical side and an adaptive side.
The technical work is the part we know how to do and can hand to someone with expertise.
The adaptive work asks people to change what they believe, what they are willing to give up, and the standards to which they will hold themselves accountable.
Only the people living the problem can do that part.
And this is where many schools and districts can get stuck.
Someone has to decide what we’re going to stop doing. Someone has to admit that we don’t actually agree yet. A leader has to give up some control. A team has to change who has a voice in the room.
And eventually, someone has to be willing to look at the evidence and say: “The thing we worked really hard on hasn’t reached students yet.”
That’s adaptive work. And no protocol can do it for us.
Structure doesn’t solve the adaptive work.
It creates the space for people to do it.
That distinction matters for educators and leaders who are already stretched thin. If the only way to sustain an improvement effort is to find more time, more energy, and more capacity that people don’t have, the work is going to struggle.
The goal isn’t to add more to the load. It is to build conditions that help carry the work.
So before adding another move, ask about the condition
When something isn’t sticking, don’t immediately ask: What else should we do?
Start with: What has to be true for this to work?
Then ask: Is that condition true right now?
If it isn’t, ask: Who has the ability and responsibility to make it true?
And then: Is this a technical problem we can build around, or an adaptive problem we have to work through together?
Those questions can change the conversation.
Want to see what this looks like in practice?
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