Invisible success

It is an unfortunate but all-to-common paradox in schools: the more successful a board or senior manager is in doing their job, the more likely it is that their success will neither be recognised nor celebrated.  

Quiet success in ensuring that everyday events function well are rarely acknowledged in schools.  Classes are staffed, cybersecurity is maintained, the toilets are kept clean, enrolments are strong, salaries are being paid, the electricity is stable, the smart screens in the classrooms are working, the timetables are operating without room clashes, the buses are turning up to transport the students, there is no peeling paint on the buildings…  When all this happens, most people in the school take it for granted and very few will ever acknowledge the planning, organisation, budgetary processes and teamwork that was necessary to ensure the school’s largely friction-free operations.

When catastrophes have been averted, no-one notices the disasters which never happened.  As one school leader said to me, “I rarely get credit for the things that don’t happen”.

And yet, it is only through sound governance by boards and thorough planning by senior leaders that bad experiences and events in a school are minimised (I won’t claim they can ever be completely eliminated).  It is the “meltdowns that didn’t happen”, the consistent daily actions that build the strong foundations that enable the hidden successes that so many people take for granted in a well-functioning school community.

The nature of invisible successes makes them almost impossible to measure directly, except perhaps negatively if we were to use an inverse reflective indicator such as the volume of complaints arising when evident visible failures replace invisible successes.  

Nonetheless, invisible successes have a direct impact on staff morale and retention, student safety, psychological wellbeing and cultural trust.  Therefore, they should be recognised! If the attitude in a school is “if you can’t measure it, then it’s not important”, then find a way to measure it! Doing so will build trust, encourage professionalism, combat burnout, encourage innovation and strengthen staff (including senior leadership) retention.

And having recognised invisible successes, celebrate them.  Name the people who have helped to build the invisible successes, make their successes visible so they are not simply taken for granted across the school community, and thank them publicly.  Everyday smoothness only results from everyday diligence.

Effective boards and competent school leaders build systems that simply function well, as they should, and thus inherently prevent the wrong things from happening.  In other words, good school leadership builds systems that most people never notice.  As the ancient Chinese philosopher, Laozi (Lao Tzu), wrote in “Tao Te Ching” (Daodejing) in about 565BC, “A leader is best when people barely know he exists.  Of a good leader, who talks little, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say, ‘We did this ourselves’”.

- Dr Stephen Codrington