In January and February, I outlined six common management myths. The point of those two posts was to help education systems leaders see what not to do. I’m now turning to a set of principles that can be used by these same leaders to guide their transformation work. Earlier this month, I introduced the 14 Principles for Educational Systems Transformation. In this post I’ll describe the first principle, Create Constancy of Purpose.

14 Principles for Educational Systems Transformation

W. Edwards Deming’s 14 Points didn’t exist in the 1950s when he started working with Japanese business leaders on how to transform their organizations. They were developed gradually over a roughly 20-year period from the 1970s to the early 1990s and didn’t reach the number 14 until Deming started to present his four-day seminars in the United States. The list was expanded as the focus of his work shifted from Japan to the United States. There were certain principles such as “Drive out fear” and “Remove the barriers that rob the hourly worker of his right to pride of workmanship” that did not have to be told to Japanese management, but they did need to be addressed in the U.S.

Prior to describing the 14 Principles, there are a few items that are worth clarifying. First, Deming sometimes referred to the 14 Points as “Principles” or “Obligations” of management; I will refer to my list as the 14 Principles throughout this series. Second, Deming’s 14 Points are not in and of themselves the philosophy, but they are important components of it. They are not a recipe or a checklist to be implemented, but rather principles that are meant to open up your mind to a whole new way of thinking regarding how we organize and run our educational institutions. Finally, and most importantly, Deming’s 14 Points are interlinked principles within a larger management philosophy. As such, you can’t simply put the points into action without first developing a deep understanding for why Deming wrote them in the way that he did. The transition to transformation must account for your organization’s particular context, so the 14 Points should not be adopted without this deep understanding and appreciation for that context. Continual improvement guided by Deming’s 14 Points is not a project or program to be implemented, but rather a never-ending commitment to quality. Committing to that mindset, a description of the first of the “14 Principles for Educational Systems Transformation” follows.1 

Principle 1: Create constancy of purpose toward continual improvement of high-quality learning systems. These systems should be designed in such a way that they enable joy in work for staff and joy in learning for students, with the aim that everyone can access opportunity-rich lives in our society now and into the future.

W. Edwards Deming spoke of two problems faced by organizations that hope to stay in business. First, there are problems of today. With all schools, but especially schools of choice like the network of public charter schools for which I work, student enrollment is of constant concern. Problems of today include ensuring quality of the learning experience while balancing the demands of local, state, and federal educational policies; attracting, training, and retaining employees; making sound budgeting decisions amid constantly changing financial conditions; recruiting and retaining students; fundraising from corporate, foundation, and individual donors; acquiring, upgrading, and maintaining school buildings; and so forth. It is self-evident to see how education leaders stay closely tied to the myriad problems of today. 

One could become quite proficient in dealing with the problems of today even amidst this complex and quickly changing environment, but still go off track because of a lack of attention to the second type of problem. That is, the problems of the future for which the idea of constancy of purpose is especially important. Intertwined with constancy of purpose is the attention paid to the continual improvement of the school or district’s competitive position within the educational ecosystem (e.g., parents seeking out a particular school because of its learning program). Here it is important to consider the following question: Is the school board and the superintendent dedicated to the short-term or to the long-term future of the institution? Both short-term and long-term commitment to the constancy of purpose are important. We do not want to sacrifice one for the other. In the business world, the short-term is quick profits at the expense of the existence of the company 10, 20, or 30 years from now. In schools, a short-term mindset is one that is overly focused on state testing results rather than the existence of the school 10, 20, or 30 years from now. Most importantly, the long-term approach would put more emphasis on the success of its students 10, 20, or 30 years after graduating from the school system rather than solely on shorter term measures such as test scores. 

The commitment to constancy of purpose, aligned both for the short-term and long-term comes with the acceptance of three obligations. First, schools need to innovate by allocating resources for long-term planning. Future planning calls for a number of considerations, some of which include new educational services that better prepare students for the future; new materials such as curricular resources and educational technology and the associated costs; new pedagogical approaches grounded in neuroscientific discoveries; new skills required of teachers and administrators; training and retraining of staff; training of managers; costs of running a school or district; costs associated with staff and student recruitment; effectiveness of educational services; and satisfaction of the customer (and society in the case of public schools).Faith in a future is a prerequisite for innovation. It cannot thrive unless top management has stated an unshakable commitment to quality, without which middle management (i.e., principals, teacher leaders), teachers, and students will be skeptical of putting forth their best efforts. 

Second, resources must be put into research and education. Research may focus on areas such as curricular options or staying abreast of developments related to the science of learning. Education means self-improvement and acquiring new knowledge. Deming made a point of differentiating between training and education. Training is learning methods that should later be observed in the person’s behavior, whereas education is more focused on continuing education and gaining new knowledge (see also Principles 6 and 13 later in this series). 

Third, systems leaders must continually improve the design of educational services with prime importance placed on the key product produced in schools, which is, of course,  quality learning. This obligation never ceases. It is not only possible, but quite easy, for a school system to go downhill or even out of operation altogether by designing and offering the wrong type of learning systems, even though everyone in the organization performs with admirable devotion and efficiency. 

Customers (i.e., families, higher education, government, industry, etc.), suppliers (i.e., families, other school districts), and employees need to know and understand the organization’s constancy of purpose. In other words, they need to understand that it is your intention to stay in business by providing valued educational services that will help them all live better, and which will still have a market in the future. Committing to the three obligations described in the preceding paragraphs—innovation, research and education, and continual improvement of educational services—will help to achieve long-term success.

Blog Series: 14 Principles for Educational Systems Transformation

The four components of the System of Profound Knowledge work in concert to provide us with profound insights about how our organizations operate so that leaders can in turn work to optimize the whole of our systems. However, there is a step beyond simply avoiding the management myths. The next step is to be able to think and make decisions using the lens provided by the System of Profound Knowledge. This is where the core set of 14 Principles come into play. In the coming months, I’ll describe the principles that will enable you to move from theory to practice with the Deming philosophy. 

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John A. Dues is the Chief Learning Officer for United Schools Network, a nonprofit charter management organization that supports four public charter schools in Columbus, Ohio. He is also the author of the newly released book Win-Win: W. Edwards Deming, the System of Profound Knowledge, and the Science of Improving Schools. Send feedback to jdues@unitedschoolsnetwork.org. 

Notes

1. Henry R. Neave, The Deming Dimension (Knoxville, Tennessee: SPC Press, 1990).