Common management myths (see here and here) must be replaced by sound guiding principles. In this post, I’ll describe the thirteenth such principle, Institute a Vigorous Program of Education. 

It is worth noting that the 14 Principles for Educational Systems Transformation are mutually supporting, so it is important to understand all of them rather than studying them in isolation. An in-depth discussion of the full set of Principles for Transformation can be found in Chapter 3 of my recently released book Win-Win: W. Edwards Deming, the System of Profound Knowledge, and the Science of Improving Schools.

Principle 13: Institute a vigorous program of education and encourage self-improvement for everyone. A school system needs not just good people, but people that are improving with education. Advances in teaching and learning processes will have their roots in knowledge.

As discussed in the post Institute Training on the Job, training for a skill is finite because it ends when performance has reached a stable state. Principle 13 is instead focused on education, which is for growth and is never-ending. Where training is focused on skills, education is focused on knowledge and theory. The distinction is an important one; training and education are complementary components of an effective school system. Training for the job as it is currently structured is necessary. It has been my experience that new teachers often arrive at United Schools Network without the classroom management and lesson planning & delivery skills they need to be successful in the classroom. In the absence of a vigorous training program for these skills, new teachers may very well flounder. This is unacceptable from the standpoint that USN is a young organization with a high proportion of both early career teachers and students with significant needs. This means that these teachers need to acquire basic skills to run a classroom in an efficient manner. Because of this, we have a robust summer training program for first- and second-year teachers that begins three weeks prior to the start of the school year and continues through weekly and full-day training sessions throughout the year.

However, broader education is also needed, which is an investment in the future. Things change fast in the modern world; in schools change is brought about through advancements in many areas such as increased knowledge of cognitive science. Systems leaders should not be enticed by every fad that comes along, but when there is a change that represents a potential advantage such as increased understanding for how students learn, the school system must be in a position to benefit from it. On this front, Deming advocated for organizations to support and encourage the education of employees at all levels with very wide latitude for the types of courses they were allowed to pursue (Deming said he wouldn’t draw the line anywhere when it came to allowable educational pursuits!).[1] 

The main point is that systems leaders should encourage education among the work-force with wide latitude for allowable pursuits. Educators that actively seek such opportunities offer a model of continual learning to students as well as benefits to the school system that fall into the category of unknown and unknowable.

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 this series, I’m describing the principles that will enable you to move from theory to practice with the Deming philosophy.

***

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), 397.