The Momentum of Noticing Goodness
We often share the simple challenge to Notice one thing.
Notice a student making progress, a colleague making your school better, or someone whose contribution might otherwise go unseen. And then tell them.
It’s a small practice, but small practices repeated consistently have an incredible way of shaping culture. Especially if it is practiced by everyone! Unfortunately, that is often not the case. Those moments, and that momentum often depends on the same handful of people.
You probably know them. The teacher who brings the energy. The counselor who checks on everyone. The principal who remembers every birthday. The staff member who organizes the celebrations, writes the notes, welcomes the new people, encourages the struggling ones, and somehow always seems to know who needs a little extra kindness.
We are incredibly grateful for those people, but sustainable culture cannot depend on them. Eventually even the most passionate educators get tired.
Sustainable positive school culture can’t be carried by a few extraordinary people. It is meant to be practiced by an entire community of ordinary people creating extraordinary moments. That distinction matters.
When culture depends on personality, energy, or individual capacity, it can disappear when people get busy, overwhelmed, change roles, or leave. But when a district or school develops shared language, shared practices, and shared expectations for how people treat themselves and one another, something different begins to happen. Culture becomes less dependent on a person and more embedded in the community. This is one of the reasons we believe so strongly in teaching durable human skills like
Confidence.
Self-awareness.
Kindness.
Gratitude.
Empathy.
Connection.
Resilience.
The ability to recognize value in ourselves and in the people around us (a combination of several powerful durable human skills) changes how we show up and who we believe ourselves to be. This is why we believe that when people feel Noticed, everything changes.
We sometimes talk about these things as if people either naturally possess them or they don't, but they are skills, and skills can be taught. They can be practiced. They can become habits. And when an entire school community begins practicing them together, those habits start becoming culture.
That’s the shift we want to help schools make. Not another initiative that gets launched with excitement and slowly disappears. Not another responsibility placed on already-full plates. And definitely not another expectation that a few passionate educators somehow carry the culture for everyone else.
Instead, we want to help schools take the values they already believe in and make them easier to teach, practice, Notice, and live.
So here's another challenge:
Don't just Notice someone. Invite someone else to Notice, too.
At your next staff meeting, ask everyone to recognize one contribution they've Noticed from a colleague.
Ask students to identify something positive they Noticed in someone else.
Take 60 seconds at the beginning of a meeting to authentically celebrate something that's working.
The practice doesn't need to be complicated. It just needs to spread. The goal isn't to create a few more champions for positive culture.
The goal is to help everyone realize they already are one.
And imagine what happens when an entire school begins practicing that together. Spoiler Alert: Sustainable Positive Culture is naturally created and experienced by students, staff, and families.
If your school or district is looking for a sustainable way to teach durable human skills and create a culture where students and staff feel seen, valued, connected, and truly Noticed, we'd love to start a conversation.
Schedule a discovery call with us to explore how I AM Noticed can partner with the work you're already doing and help positive culture become something your entire school community practices every day.
We're cheering you on!
