Sometimes, you can feel the pace of a school before you’ve made it down the first hallway.

A quick hello. Someone hurrying past with a stack of papers. Colleagues moving from one task to the next, with little time to stop and connect. Everyone has somewhere to be. Something to finish. Something else waiting.

We’ve walked into schools where the day feels this way. People are working hard, but there’s little room for the conversations, camaraderie, and shared joy that help a school feel like a community.

As a leader, you may recognize it. You know your staff cares about children. But you can also see that something isn’t working. There’s frustration, inconsistency, and people retreating into their own classrooms just to get through the day.

You might find yourself thinking:

I wish we were all on the same page.

Why are we still struggling with this?

How do I help people change what they’re doing?

Those are difficult questions, especially when you’re working just as hard to hold everything together. When everyone is already working hard, asking people to work harder usually isn’t the answer. Before you add another initiative, training, expectation, or solution, it helps to understand what’s actually making the work difficult.

Start with the care that’s already there

When we work with a school, we look for common ground: Do the adults care about children? Do they want students to succeed?

That gives us something meaningful to build on.

We can return to it when a conversation gets difficult or a change feels uncomfortable: We all want students to be successful. What do we need to learn, clarify, or practice to help that happen?

From there, we can work on skills. We can make expectations clearer. We can help adults develop a shared approach and practice it in manageable steps.

First, we need to understand what’s making their work so hard.

How many priorities is your staff trying to follow?

In a large urban school we recently partnered with, staff were trying to keep up with too many competing priorities. One leader emphasized a new academic initiative. Another asked teachers to focus on behavior. Team meetings brought additional expectations.

Each priority mattered. Together, they left teachers wondering, Where am I supposed to put my energy first?

Even when everyone names the same priority, they may understand it differently.

“Build student independence,” for example, could mean teaching students to get materials, solve disagreements, begin work, or ask for help. Without a more specific focus, adults can work toward the same goal through very different practices.

Care is there. Effort is there. A clear, shared next step may be missing.

Listen for the need underneath the request

Teachers may tell you, “We need more time.”

They may need uninterrupted time to plan, collaborate, and prepare. They may also need a moment to catch their breath.

When people need every available moment to recover, that tells us something about the demands of their day.

We see this play out when a principal cancels a faculty meeting to give staff some time back. The intention is caring: everyone has so much to do. Teachers may genuinely appreciate getting that time back, but the challenges they needed time to work through are still there. 

A school-wide issue goes unresolved. 

A team doesn’t get the chance to plan together. 

A concern everyone has been talking about in the hallway never becomes a conversation about what to do next.

Everyone gets an hour back, but they may still walk out the door carrying the same frustrations they walked in with. 

The request for more time can mean several different things. Understanding what staff need that time for can help you respond to what they actually need.

Start by acknowledging the pressure, then invite them to help shape the support: “I hear how much you’re trying to fit into the day. What’s been hardest to get to, and what kind of time or support would help?”

Listen to their answers before deciding what to change. Protected planning time, a focused team conversation, and practical professional learning meet different needs. Your staff can help you understand which would be most useful right now.

Before you solve the problem, understand what’s causing it

A leader might hear:

• “We need more time.”

• “Behavior is getting worse.”

• “People aren’t communicating.”

• “Teachers aren’t consistent.”

• “Morale is low.”

All of those things may be true, but each one tells you only part of the story. The same challenge can have very different causes.

Inconsistency might come from unclear expectations. Or too many expectations. Or a skill people haven’t had enough opportunity to practice.

Low morale might be connected to workload. Or communication. Or a lack of trust. Or the feeling that nothing ever really changes.

That’s why the first question isn’t always, What should we do?

Sometimes it’s: What is actually happening here?

You don’t have to fix everything. You need to know where to start. 

We’ve seen momentum build when a school narrows its focus and makes the next step clear:

• Here is the skill we’re practicing.
• Here is what it looks like.
• Here is the support available.
• Here is how we’ll check our progress.

People get a chance to practice, see a difference, and think, That feels a little easier. I can do this.

Then we build on it.

One skill. One small improvement. Another step forward.

Try this: Check whether your priority is shared

Start with one team during an existing meeting. Explain that you want to see whether everyone has the same understanding of the school’s priorities and where more support would help.

Invite everyone, including yourself, to answer three questions independently:

• What do you believe our most important priority is right now?
  
  
• What is one specific thing you’re expected to do to support it?
  
  
• What would help you do that consistently?
  
  

Look at the responses together. Where do they align? Where do they differ? What needs clarification, including anything leadership may have communicated inconsistently?

You may immediately see something worth addressing. Or you may realize the challenge extends beyond this one team.

Choose one thing to clarify or strengthen together. Agree on when you’ll check back to see whether it helped.

Care gives you common ground. Clarity gives you a next step. Start there, and give your team a chance to see progress before adding more. 

Get a clearer picture before deciding what comes next

The three questions above can give you a useful starting point. But sometimes you need to step back and see what is happening beyond one meeting, one team, or one concern.

That’s where a School Culture Assessment Day can help.

We spend time in your school observing classrooms and shared spaces, listening for patterns, and looking at the day-to-day experiences that are difficult to see when you’re the person responsible for keeping everything moving.

We’re not coming in to evaluate your teachers or hand you a list of everything that’s wrong. We’re there to help you see the patterns that are hard to see when you’re inside the day-to-day work—and decide where your attention will make the biggest difference.

It starts with one question: Where should we focus first?

You leave with a written report that identifies strengths, patterns, and practical next steps—so you can stop guessing, choose a clear priority, and put your staff’s energy where it can make the biggest difference.

Your school may not need more. It may need a clearer picture of what matters most right now.

Learn more about a School Culture Assessment Day.

Not sure whether an Assessment Day is the right starting point? Let’s talk.

Written by Sarah Fillion 2026