Reject The Premise

It’s Friday.

I’m covering prep for every teacher in the building because there are no subs available.

The union contract is clear; when there's no coverage, it’s on me.

And since school's out in a week, there’s no choice but to push through.

Meanwhile, the office is running hot.

There’s a major suspension, police are on the phone, and I’ve got emails and phone calls to return from several upset parents.

They’re all urgent.

Oh, and it's National Indigenous Peoples' Day, so there's an assembly, an ever-shifting schedule of events — the whole song and dance.

And it’s report card season. So there’s a stack of comments to proofread, reports to sign, paper to shuffle.

Then, at lunch, a bear. A sow and cub, on the playground, right on schedule.

Shelter in place. Move on to the next task.

This is just how it is.

That sentence is the villain of the story.

And it’s partly true.

The union contract is important, the bear is a reality, and the police won’t wait.

But beneath the legitimate, hard things, there’s a insidious premise at work:

I have no choice. This all has to go through me.

That's the dangerous part.

The belief about the workload.

That premise steals time and reduces options.

In the middle of that Friday, I took the problem to Digital Danny.

I was straight-up venting.

And it kept pushing back with the same question, every time I tried to close a door:

What are the alternatives?

What could be delegated?

What could wait?

What happens if this doesn't get done?

Great questions, designed to shake loose solutions, and bust me out of “Play-it-safe” thinking.

Real Danny showed up the next day in the Ruckus Maker Club and named it directly: reject the premise.

He said:

“The Status Quo won't teach you this.

They tell you, this is just how it is.

False.

Once you reject that premise, the work begins.

You start naming the systems, the steps, the processes.

You look at where everything flows through you and ask a different question:

How do I fire myself from all of this?”

Start with an audit of your work, and consider what only you can do.

That's the trade. One or two hours now instead of two hours every single time.

Then, pick one thing.

For me, that one thing last Friday was putting down the phone, turning off the computer, and heading to the staff social.

Everything wasn’t done.

But the bears had moved on, the suspension was handled, and parents had been called.

It’s never all the way done.

You leave anyway, and the school is still standing on Monday morning.

That’s the premise, rejected.

Digital Danny will push back until you find it yourself.

He’s always there. Never forgets. Evolves with you.

https://myprincipalcoach.com/

This week, run an audit.

Write down everything that flows through you: decisions, approvals, communications, logistics.

Then ask why.

Some of it is work only you can do. Some of it just ended up with you. And some of it is there because you like the control.

Once you see it clearly, you have four moves:

Delegate: Morning announcements, routine parent communication, report card tracking, supply coverage. Someone else can do these. Let them.

Automate: A staff FAQ doc built once and linked everywhere. A standing meeting agenda. A digital sub folder. Build it once.

Cancel: Some days the police are in your office and a bear is on the playground. Prep gets covered tomorrow. The union contract defines the obligation, but not necessarily the timeline.

Invest two hours: Build the one-page protocol you keep improvising from scratch. Who gets called first. What the union language actually says. What the options are. Next time, you're executing a plan instead of winging it while the bear is still out there.

If you want to go deeper, learn how to build your own Principal's User Manual here: https://ruckusmakers.media/p/the-principals-user-manual