Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline. 

-Jim Collins 

This week I had the chance to hear a life long inspiration of mine - Jim Collins in person at ASU GSV. Although I’ve devoured all of his books, I was re-inspired by the notion of the 20 mile march in my coaching design at Matchbook Learning. 

To provide some context, Collins shares a story in his book Great by Choice of Robert Falcon Scott and Roald Amundsen. These two men were seeking to be the first expeditions to reach the South Pole in 1913. In studying the journals of the expeditions, Collins was amazed at the differences in the execution of each man’s journey. 

Amundsen beat Scott to the Pole and had a pretty smooth and uneventful journey both there and back. Scott reached the Pole only to face the crushing realization that the Norwegians had been there first, and he and his four men perished on the grueling 700-mile return trip. Much of Amundsen’s success is the fanatical discipline he showed in completing 20-mile marches each day despite challenging conditions and pitfalls along the way.

In my work with coaching our principals in Newark and Detroit along with supporting our new principals this year in our Matchbook Accelerator, four areas of focus are important to learn from Collins as it applies to our work in turnaround schools:

Fanatical discipline – The ability of an organization to stay laser focused on consistent action.  Weekly, our team at Matchbook learning has a deep commitment to do whatever it takes to produce the outcomes we seek. Consistent and frequent touch points, evidence, and supports have to be structured in such a way that our “best marchers” have 20 mile marches to make each week to ascend to their own personal summits. 

How do we coach it? Coaching calls, visits, digital communications, resources, and modeling. Not to mention personal encouragement, celebration, and check-ins on personal health along the 20-mile march.
 
Productive paranoia – The ability of leadership to be hyper aware that conditions will and do change. Meta sessions are a norm in our organization to coach leaders to identify gaps, say yes to instincts on potential challenges, and anticipate opportunities and risks that map to a “What if?” hypothesis.

How do we coach it? By looking at data, listening to master teachers, noticing personal burn out challenges, and being transparent and honest about improvement before we give way to mediocrity, apathy, and disconnect in our teams along the march.

Empirical creativity – The big idea is that organizations must be creative, but their creativity must be validated by empirical experience. We accomplish this balance via our professional learning communities, prototypes, and design supports. Simply put, we are always looking to fire bullets (small tests and prototypes) before cannonballs (big project launches or adjustments). That way we can understand what is getting traction, and what we might need to scrap, shift, or scale in terms of what’s working for kids and educators. 

How do we coach it? By coaching our principals in design exercises, supporting them with small pilot attempts, and deeply listening to the needs of our teachers around which bullets are working and how to collaborate for larger cannon balls for non-readers, technology hacks, or teacher training in restorative practices. These coaching moments are critical as we check in on each 5 milepost along the way to the pole.

Level 5 ambition – The optimum balance of professional will and personal humility is level 5 ambition. We are developing micro-credential pathways for leaders to add to their knowledge, skills, and dispositions to create personal and professional supports. And, we pull up frequently to look in the mirror and set standards for an enduring organization capable of consistent 20-mile marches to turnaround America’s most challenging schools. 

How do we coach it? By sharing our success with our teams, honoring the team and work in public, and a reliance on the long play. In short, we want to build inspired standards at Matchbook not burn out with short -lived charisma and boastful market behavior.

Without a doubt we have assembled an awesome team of marchers. Not unlike both Scott and Amundsen, we continue to encounter unexpected climates, risk, and obstacles along the way of turning around our schools. However, very much like Amundsen, we are fanatically disciplined towards coaching our 20-mile march in ways that cultivate a culture of success and sustainability for the long march of transformation ahead.