From the Editors: Why Less Is More, and How Humility Can Drive Progress
I have a love/hate relationship with my google calendar, specifically the “tasks” feature. I use it to keep track of all my to-dos so I don’t drop the ball.
My issue is that the calendar never forgets the tasks I have not yet accomplished. This is great when it helps me stay on top of the really important things in my week, but I easily find myself paralyzed with overwhelm under a pile of unfinished tasks.
A Problem To Tackle
This is a little microcosm of the work of education organizations in general. We try to accomplish so much, and the demands on our time and energy are huge. Many of us are driven achiever-types who take on the world and don’t ask questions about our own capacity before signing on to another project (an issue for a different blog post…).
Maybe the thing we need to get better at is choosing the good things we will let go of so we can make real progress on the best things.
Seeing is Believing
As I dug into data across our district schools and classrooms from the past year, I was particularly struck by a recurring observation. The schools and classrooms that moved the needle the most for students did so by significantly narrowing their focus. Of course students were exposed to the fullness of grade-level math, but the deep work of data cycles and acceleration/extension happened through a laser-like focus in just a few areas.
And here’s the thing. It didn’t seem to matter so much what they focused on, so long as they did it with enough specificity to make an observable impact even in just a few standards or concepts.
This can seem counterintuitive. To get big gains in anything, don’t we need to raise the tide broadly? After all, there is so much that we could (and should!) get better at. That doesn’t seem to be the case, though, and wiser people than me have known this for a long time. Just look at how many leadership books address this in one way or another. I guess I just had to see it in action for it to really sink in.
The Power of Focus
Why is this? Why is it that the winning teams often focus on a few really small details? How is that enough to make a monumental impact?
I suppose it is because they actually make change happen in those small areas of focus.
If you think about it, a river whose energy is confined to a tight space is more likely to carve a deep canyon than the same amount of water made shallow by spreading too widely. But which one of those more closely resembles my work in a given week?
Setting that kind of focus is hard to do. There is a certain humility required to let go of things that we know are good things to do in order to focus on a smaller subset of the most important things. But we have to do just that if we are going to see traction and progress in anything at all.
Leading with Clarity
How specific are we in what we are trying to accomplish?
The work of education can be overwhelming. Narrowing our focus makes it manageable, and the small wins we achieve lead to energy, confidence, and clearer plans for where to set our sites next.
Can you articulate the small handful of things you want to accomplish this year? Can your teams or coworkers do the same?
As leaders, let’s help each other cut through the noise of all the good things we could be doing, and narrow our focus on a few small but actionable goals that will make a big impact. Sure, we’ll always get pulled in other directions. That’s just the nature of the work we do. But we can keep coming back to the things that matter most if we’ve defined what they are to begin with.
For me, this will probably mean deleting some tasks from my Google calendar. I’d love to do it all, but even more than that, I’d love to channel my energy and efforts, like a narrow canyon, to carve a deep and lasting impact.
