The 3 trees that cost me 3 years (and what they're costing you)

Last Sunday, I spent 3 hours chopping down a few trees in my backyard.

One was scraping against our fence. Another made mowing a nightmare. The third just sat there, taking up space.

When the job was done, I stood there sweating, admiring the clear yard. Then I mowed the lawn in half the time it usually took.

And that's when the question hit me: Why did I wait THREE YEARS to do this?

I had mowed around those trees dozens of times. Trimmed branches away from the fence. Worked harder than I needed to, every single week.

I had learned to live with the problem instead of solving it.

Here's what this has to do with your school: Right now, there are "trees" in your building.

• Maybe it's the attendance system that requires three people to update manually each morning.

• Maybe it's the discipline referral process that takes 45 minutes per incident.

• Maybe it's the scheduling nightmare that repeats itself every semester.

You've learned to work around them. You've gotten good at it, even. You mow around the trees.

But … Every minute you spend fighting fires is a minute you could have spent preventing them.

Most school leaders are firefighters. They rush from crisis to crisis, extinguishing flames all day long.

The best school leaders are arsonists in reverse — they eliminate the conditions that cause fires in the first place.

They don't just manage the chaos. They remove it.

So here's my challenge to you:

• What are the three "trees" in your school right now?

• What problems have you learned to work around instead of eliminating?

• What would your day look like if they were gone?

Take 10 minutes this week and write them down. Just three things.

Because once you see them clearly, you can't unsee them. Then, make a simple plan to deal with the roots.

And once they're gone, you'll wonder why you lived with them for so long.

Keep Making a Ruckus,

Danny