Culture Isn’t What We Launch in August
There’s something about the beginning of a school year...
Fresh bulletin boards. New goals. New schedules. New energy.
We gather our teams. We welcome our students. We talk about the kind of year we want to create together. And then …September happens. The calendar fills up. The inbox gets louder. Someone is absent. A student is struggling. A parent needs support. The copier has apparently decided it no longer believes in education. 😃 And all of those beautiful intentions we started the year with meet the reality of actually doing the work.
This is where culture gets interesting, because culture isn’t what we launch at the beginning of the school year.
Culture is what we keep practicing when the beginning-of-the-year energy wears off.
It’s the teacher who greets a student by name even though she has 14 other things on her mind.
It’s the principal who stops in the hallway long enough to ask a staff member, “How are you really doing?”
It’s the counselor who Notices the student who seems just a little quieter than usual.
It’s the colleague who sends a two-sentence email that simply says, “I Noticed what you did today. Thank you.”
These moments aren't complicated. They don't require another committee, another initiative, or another hour in the day. But they do require intentionality, and they become something incredibly powerful.
They become the way we do things here. And that is culture.
After more than a decade of working alongside educators, we’ve learned that the healthiest school cultures are created by people who intentionally practice the culture they want to experience. We would like to encourage you to share with your team: Be intentional about Noticing goodness.
Notice a student making progress that might otherwise go unrecognized.
Notice a colleague doing something that makes your school better.
Notice someone who consistently contributes without asking for attention.
And then take the extra step –Tell them you Noticed.
It might take 30 seconds, but those 30 seconds are how culture gets built. One ordinary moment at a time.
