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Nate Eklund on Punching the Shark: Why Teacher Retention Beats Recruitment Every Time

Author

Danny Bauer
June 18, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

Quick take

Most districts are dumping water into leaky buckets while wondering why they can't fill them. Nate Eklund shows us why we've been solving the wrong problem — and how "punching the shark" creates the workplace conditions that make educators want to stay.

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🏴‍☠️ BREAKING DOWN THE OLD RULES

In this episode, Nate Eklund challenges traditional education paradigms:

Key Insight #1: We Don't Have a Recruitment Problem — We Have a Retention Problem

  • What's broken: Districts frantically recruiting new teachers while ignoring why good ones leave

  • The shift: Focus on the "leaky bucket" — in Minnesota, there are more licensed teachers NOT teaching than teaching (enough to fill the Vikings stadium)

  • Impact: When you fix workplace conditions instead of just hiring more people, you solve the math problem at its source

Key Insight #2: Burnout Isn't a Personal Failing — It's Environmental

  • What's broken: Treating burnout as individual weakness ("eat more kale, get more sleep")

  • The shift: Recognize burnout as systemic depletion that no amount of self-care can overcome — you can't "kale your way out of your fifth reading curriculum in two years"

  • Impact: Leaders stop blaming teachers and start designing better workplace conditions that prevent burnout

Key Insight #3: There Are Two Versions of Every Educator

  • What's broken: Accepting that some educators are just "difficult" or "burned out"

  • The shift: Understanding that everyone has a "fired up" version and a "deflated" version — external factors determine which one shows up

  • Impact: Instead of writing people off, leaders create conditions where the best version of every educator can thrive

❝

You can dump a lot of water into it and invest a lot of energy getting the water into the bucket, but if the bucket's leaking, you've got a fundamental math problem.

Nate Eklund

✌️ YOUR DO SCHOOL DIFFERENT CHALLENGE

Ready to implement these ideas? Start here:

  1. Tomorrow: Ask yourself: "What external factors are keeping my best educators from showing up as their best selves?"

  2. This Month: Survey your staff about workplace conditions — not just morale, but actual day-to-day systems and decision-making processes

  3. This Semester: Implement one "Punch the Shark" moment — tackle an uncomfortable workplace issue head-on with your team

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  • ODP Business Solutions:  Stop letting compliance kill innovation. Some leaders are transforming their campuses with flexible solutions that actually work for modern learning environments. Learn more: here

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Podcast created by Danny. Audio engineered by Dragan. Show notes written by Christina. Email sent by Soniya

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