Assumptions

As a leader, how do you manage your own assumptions and the assumptions of those you lead?

We make assumptions, and believe we are right about the assumptions; then

we defend our assumptions and try to make someone else wrong.

Don Miguel Ruiz

According to the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary, an assumption is "something that you may accept as true without question or proof."  It is amazing how many of us believe in our assumptions as truth.  Everyone has assumptions and sometimes assumptions are good.  For example, we assume that when we turn on a faucet, water will come out.  We trust that this will happen.  On the other hand, some assumptions are negative, stagnating, or incorrect.  Negative assumptions about things can block us from taking steps forward.  For example, if we assume that certain staff members will not respond well to changes in the workplace, we may hold ourselves back from moving forward in our work or we may move it forward too aggressively.  Assumptions are thoughts that cause us to predict outcomes and we take actions based on the assumptions we hold.  

Our role as leaders?  We need to challenge assumptions - our own and those of the people we lead.  How do we do it?  Here are a few questions to use in daily conversation that just might help:

• Do we know that to be true or are we making an assumption?
• Do we have data or evidence to support this?
• Are we making an assumption about this?
• Why might we believe this to be true?
• How did we arrive at this belief?
• What if our belief (assumption) is untrue?
• How can we prove this to be true or untrue?

Adapted from: Be a ChangeMaster by Karla Reiss (Corwin Press)

Evidence and Logic in Decision-making

Many leaders rely on gut instinct to make important decisions, which often leads to poor results. On the contrary, when leaders insist on incorporating logic and evidence, and include others in the discussions, they make better choices and their organizations benefit. Here are three ways to introduce evidence-based decision-making into discussions in your school or organization:

1. Ask for evidence. Whenever anyone makes a compelling claim, ask for supporting data. Don't take someone's word for it.  Equally, be sure to provide your evidence/data if you are promoting something.
2. Examine logic. Look closely at the evidence and be sure the logic holds up. Be on the lookout for faulty cause-and-effect reasoning.  Invite colleagues to question the evidence and the logic.
3. Encourage experimentation. If you don't have evidence, create some. Invite colleagues to conduct small experiments to test the viability of proposed strategies and use the resulting data to guide decisions.

Adapted from: Harvard Business Review on Making Smart Decisions.

Data: Use and Mis-use

As a leader, how do you guide appropriate use of data and for what purposes?

School districts have devoted significant resources to the development of data management systems.  There is an enormous amount of information available to us - sometimes so much that we don't know where to begin.  And, when we do take the plunge, we worry that perhaps the data are being used incorrectly, or even that some data should not be used at all.

When considering the potential uses of data, it is important for us as responsible professionals to also consider and be cautious of potential misuses.  There are two significant issues.  The first issue is balancing the individual's right to privacy with the staff's need for access to the data necessary to make decisions that will improve instruction and increase student achievement.  ...

The second potential misuse of data comes from the overwhelming amount of data now available to us.  Data mashups are integrations of data from various sources.  When those mashups make use of data that legitimately belong together, the interpretations made can be helpful and even insightful.  However, when well-intentioned but untrained individuals combine disparate data sets that do not belong together, the results are misleading and any interpretations of the data are invalid.

Issues of data mismanagement are best addressed through attention to school culture and to processes that mitigate concerns.  They cannot be allowed to derail efforts to use data appropriately to improve instruction and increase student achievement.

From:  The Evidence-Based School by Karen Hume
Published by: Pearson

Evidence-based Decision Making

As a leader, how do you use evidence for decision-making?

It used to be that decisions were based on experience, intuition, and philosophical beliefs.  It used to be that an expert was someone who had done the exact same thing dozens, if not hundreds, of times.  While change is slow and "used to be" is often still current, even in some educational environments, times are changing.

Evidence-based decision making has long been recognized in the corporate world as resulting in increased focus, increased efficiencies of time and money, and (sometimes) increased effectiveness.  So, it is hardly surprising that governing bodies, whether they are the governments that pay for health care or the taxpayers who fund our schools, want to know that important jobs are accomplished with full consideration of all evidence that might help achieve greater success. 

There is a second reason for the increasing emphasis on evidence-based decision making.  We make greater use of data simply because technology has made it more accessible.  The advances in technology have provided us with the opportunity to store huge quantities of information, maintain large databases, and access the databases of others.  (Not all schools and districts currently have the technology to do these things; fortunately, effective data analysis and interpretation do not depend on them.)  Technology even allows us to merge information from a variety of databases to create data "mashups" - integrations of data from various sources.

From:  The Evidence-Based School by Karen Hume
Published by: Pearson