Who grows who? (Whom?)

Colleagues,

My interview with Dr. Lindsay Whorton on this morning’s episode of The Assistant Principal Podcast was a fun combination of big picture ideas with in-the-weeds practices.

One of the things she suggested that I will begin incorporating into my trainings is the practice of creating an org chart based solely on the relationship between people and the person who is responsible for helping them grow.

For example, imagine a school has 40 teachers. Draw an org chart based on who is responsible for growing each teacher. Some interesting observations might arise:

• There is nobody responsible for developing some teachers
• There are multiple people responsible for developing some teachers
• Nobody is responsible for developing leaders
• Some people are responsible for more teachers than they could possibly support
• Some people who could help grow teachers aren’t responsible for anyone

In trying to imagine what this diagram looks like in some of the schools I’m working with, I can see all of these things happening.

The org chart can provide a brutal visual about the state of any (not just schools) organization and its capacity to grow people.


Thanks again to IXL for sponsoring today’s episode.

Cheers!

​Frederick