Stop Leading, Start Building!. Robyn R. Jackson

to be great. Embracing buildership allowed them to break through the barriers holding them back and become model schools within one school year.

      So, if you are working hard at "school improvement" and yet have barely moved the needle, I want you to know that you can realize dramatic growth this school year. Believe it or not, you already have everything you need to get started.

      How to Use This Book

      This book is set up to familiarize you with the four-phase Buildership Model and give you the tools and understanding you need to stop leading and start building.

      In Chapter 1, you'll discover how to create a compelling purpose. This is the first step toward buildership—and the most important one. The clearer you are on your vision, mission, and core values, the more focus you and your staff will have, and the more accountable you and your teachers will be to achieving your goals. I promise this will be unlike any goal-setting exercise you've known. You'll walk away with more clarity than you've ever had, ready to align every practice in your school to the purpose you've chosen.

      Next, in Chapter 2, we'll look at how to work with your people. You'll discover how to grow the will and skill of your staff so that everyone is not only invested in your school purpose but equipped to help you achieve it. You'll find out how to apply the Four Disciplines of Buildership—feedback, support, accountability, and culture—consistently and deliberately to help every one of your teachers become master teachers who are fully committed to reaching your vision, carrying out your mission, and living your core values each and every day with every student.

      In Chapter 3, we'll turn to finding a clear pathway for effective action. This phase of the Buildership Model is about identifying the biggest obstacle standing in the way of your vision, mission, or core values right now and figuring out how to remove it. It's an opportunity to diagnose your situation and determine the right work to be doing so you don't waste anyone's time chasing problems or solutions that won't move you toward your purpose. Most leaders skip this step and, as a result, end up using the wrong strategies to try to solve the wrong problems—or every problem at once! As a builder, you'll focus on one problem at a time and create a blueprint that maps out what you and your teachers will do to solve it.

      Chapter 4 explores the actual work of taking effective action—and the process you'll use to turn a blueprint for change into a concrete plan to remove your biggest obstacle in just 90 days. Because the process is iterative and cyclical, it's capable of powering both short-term successes and ongoing transformation. Even better, it's designed to anticipate the challenges you're going to encounter so you won't be derailed when they pop up. As a builder, you'll use this process to keep removing obstacles, achieving goals, and getting closer to realizing your school's purpose.

      Finally, in Chapter 5, we'll pull everything together so that you can get started practicing buildership in your school and seeing the dramatic difference you can make with the people and resources you already have.

      As you read this book, at some point you are likely to say, "This sounds like something I've heard before." That's because you probably have. I've created the Buildership Model from universal principles of organizational improvement. You may even find yourself thinking, "I do this already." And maybe you do practice various pieces of the model already. Buildership's power lies in the way that builders take all of these components and combine them into a systematic approach. This model is not about the pieces; it's about their integration into a complete whole.

      The last thing I want to stress before we truly get under way is that buildership is not "something else" to add to various tactics, techniques, and tools you've assembled in your leadership toolbox. Put aside all the preconceived notions you have about school reform initiatives. Let go of the idea that you need to work harder to make your school "work better." Stop settling for incremental gains when what you really want to achieve is dramatic transformation and a whole new narrative.

      It's time to make the shift from leadership to buildership.

      Get ready to turn your school into a success story.