Dish Soap and Collaboration?

Posted on August 18, 2026 Written by

Sinner’s Circle (1959) is a chemistry concept showing that cleaners (such as dish soap) work much better when four interdependent factors maintain a balance. And by adjusting any one of the components in this closed loop system, you can compensate for a deficit in another.

Natalie Nixon (CEO of Figure 8 Thinking) has applied this concept to collaboration. In this article, she discusses the key collaborative components of asking generative questions, pursuing high-stakes outcomes, navigating the friction of give-and-take, and exercising patience and persistence.

BTW, regarding the latter, she reminds us that a leader who calls collaboration a failure “after one difficult meeting” is like a cook who pulls the pan from the fire before the heat has had a chance to work. A collaborative team takes work and it doesn’t happen overnight. But the eventual results are well worth the effort!

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Five Ways to Boost Confidence

Posted on July 30, 2024 Written by

Executive coach, Joel Garfinkle, shares five specific strategies that highly-successful business leaders often employ. And those insights are a perfect match for educational leadership, too!

For example, you can increase your team’s engagement and productivity by working on your own confidence in communication, decision-making, and risk-taking. When they see that you are not deterred by failures (as part of the “try, fail, learn, repeat” cycle), they will be better equipped to focus on the end goal instead of being side-tracked and defeated by any bumps along the way.

Simply put, the more comfortable you are with this natural part of the growth process, the more willing your team will be to persist … regardless of the challenges they may face and the problems that inevitably arise with any form of school improvement. And as you have seen from other posts, type of leadership often results in highly effective schools.

BTW, don’t forget that Garfinkle’s article offers four additional strategies that you should find useful as well!

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Improve Attendance!

Posted on July 16, 2024 Written by

In the post-pandemic era, many schools face major challenges with chronic absenteeism. But this ASCD Blog article suggests that using strategies that teach, reinforce, and support students in meeting attendance goals can lead to a significant transformational change.

Of course, changing the culture of attendance in a school requires a collaborative effort among staff, families, and the broader community. But making the shift from a punitive to a proactive approach can greatly reduce chronic absences.

Note: A recent poll found that many parents simply don’t understand the seriousness of chronic absences. That highlights both the problem and the solutions suggested above.

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Teacher Retention

Posted on June 4, 2024 Written by

Increasing teacher shortages have become widespread and are now a serious issue in many districts. So educational leaders need to develop and implement wise strategies to only recruit new faculty, but more importantly, to retain the teachers they have.

Teacher teams offer one approach to improving retention. In addition, as this article shows, the proper application of teacher teams can also have a markedly positive impact on teacher effectiveness.

And that creates a win-win situation for everyone involved.

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