Some shut down. Others defensively argue against the requirement. They
leave the first meeting uncomfortable and spend 30 minutes in the park-
ing lot processing their anger around the new requirements.
And yet the work needs to happen. It will require more effort by the
coach who doesn’t feel comfortable with the new obligations. The coach
might not have the knowledge and skills to do the work. She might not
believe in the purpose of the new work. It might not align with her sense
of what the job is about. But it still needs to be done. The systems-savvy
leader knows that although it would be possible to simply describe the
new job in terms of its discrete tasks, it wouldn’t be appropriate. Given that
the coaches are hesitant about the work and feeling threatened by the
new parts of the job, merely sending out a memo or communicating the
new directives via e-mail would be negligent. The systems-savvy leader
anticipates the need to choose words carefully, to set the tone deliberately,
and to empathically acknowledge in conversation the uncomfortable
change from current practice to what needs to be done in the future. The
systems-savvy leader listens and speaks clearly. The resistance is still
present, but far less than if the words are ill considered and improvised.
Systems-savvy leaders plan for precision.
Consider another example. A new director of a K–5 school has been
urged to start walk-throughs at her school. She thinks about this new ini-
tiative carefully. Supervisors have conducted few observations up until
now, and teachers have appreciated the resulting autonomy. The head of
the school suggests rolling out the initiative by announcing it during
the staff meeting among all the other business items for the week. The
systems-savvy director decides there is more to it than just stating the
facts. She thinks to herself, “I must lay the groundwork for teachers, over
time, and communicate to them what we mean by classroom observa-
tion, what it accomplishes, how teachers can develop professionally
through observation, how we can make it nonthreatening, how other pro-
fessionals offer up their work for others to watch, and how, as members
of a profession right along with medicine and law, we can do the same.”
The director decides how she wants to share this with the teachers before
she steps into anyone’s domain, creates more frustration, or increases dis-
comfort. Otherwise the intent of a program will never be accomplished.
Habits of Mind for the Systems-Savvy Leader 301