Amy Galloway on Strategic Rule-Breaking for School Transformation

Quick take: 

When transforming struggling schools, following the traditional playbook isn't enough. Learn how effective turnaround leaders strategically break rules, build relationships, and create rapid improvement while working within traditional systems.

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🏴‍☠️ BREAKING DOWN THE OLD RULES

In this episode, Amy challenges traditional education paradigms:

Key Insight #1: The Power of Listening First

• What's broken: Traditional top-down leadership where principals arrive with pre-made plans

• The shift: Starting with door-to-door listening campaigns to understand community needs and dreams

• Impact: Building deep trust and authentic buy-in from families and staff

Key Insight #2: Strategic Rule-Breaking

• What's broken: Rigid adherence to system norms that maintain status quo results

• The shift: Identifying which rules to break, preparing for consequences, and focusing on student impact

• Impact: Creating rapid improvement by removing bureaucratic barriers while maintaining accountability

Key Insight #3: High-Performance Planning

• What's broken: Reactive leadership consumed by daily fires

• The shift: Protected time for quarterly/monthly/weekly planning aligned to priorities

• Impact: Leaders who can drive strategic improvement even amid frequent crises

✌️ YOUR DO SCHOOL DIFFERENT CHALLENGE

Ready to implement these ideas? Start here:

1. Tomorrow: Block off 30 minutes for weekly planning - make it your most important meeting

2. This Month: Schedule listening sessions with 5 key stakeholders about their hopes for your school

3. This Semester: Identify one system norm that needs to change and create an implementation plan

✅ CONNECT AND CONTINUE

🎯 Get the full episode transcript: Link
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Podcast created by Danny. Audio engineered by Dragan. Show notes written by Christina. Email sent by Soniya