Jesse. Carson High School is an amazing school!
Teachers, principals, students, custodians, parents, and community members all continue to work together to achieve this goal. However, one of the challenges for great schools is the constant challenge to become better, achieve more, and do more for students.
This has been one of my greatest challenges in leading Carson High School. As I’ve spoken with staff members about how to do this across the building, we’ve developed many ideas to help us accomplish this task. Some have already been implemented, while other ideas won’t see full-scale implementation for another year or two.
One of the themes that regularly comes up during planning meetings is something I’ve thought of as Carrots vs. Culture.
Carrots are incentives that are tied specifically to individual performance and objectives. Basically, it’s the, if you do this, then you get that, mentality. While carrots can be helpful in certain situations and for certain people, carrots are not the way organizations, including schools, develop long-lasting, deep-rooted change.
Culture is made up of the attitudes and beliefs we hold most important to us. Culture drives our decision-making process to put students first. Culture does not focus on the results (although important), but the purpose that drives how we do what we do. Culture is why we do things and guides the way we do things.
At Carson, our goal is to continue building the culture of putting students first to become the best high school in North Carolina. Dangling carrots in front of students and teachers will not get us there, but challenging our thoughts on the learning process, making decisions based on what is best for students, and the hunger to do more and get better are all components of the culture that will ultimately lead to great success.
We are doing well now, but I can’t wait to see where we are four years from now!
Questions for reflection:
- Are you dangling carrots or building culture?
- Do you focus on the how rather than allowing the why to drive your how?
- If the answers to the two previous questions are yes, what is your plan for building culture?
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