Some of the initiatives we experience in schools are imposed upon us by department of education requirements while others district and school leadership choose to embark upon. Regardless of the entity fueling initiatives in schools, many schools experience what Douglas Reeves calls initiative fatigue.

“The Law of Initiative Fatigue states that when the number of initiatives increases while time, resources, and emotional energy are constant, then each new initiative—no matter how well conceived or well intentioned—will receive fewer minutes, dollars, and ounces of emotional energy than its predecessors.” (Reeves, 2010, p. 27)

Whether your school is trying to improve based upon an ESSA designation or is being pressured to improve test scores due to perceived COVID-19 “learning loss,” nearly every school leader I know yearns to move beyond initiative fatigue.

Bill Ferriter, an experienced classroom educator who is now consulting with schools, recently suggested that schools develop an avoid at all costs list. In this list, school leadership teams consider Warren Buffet’s advice that “success is a matter of prioritization.” Schools leadership teams seeking to move beyond initiative fatigue would be well served to walk through Bill’s four steps to create an avoid at all costs list.

Step 1 – List all of the work that your school is currently doing.

Bill suggests writing it all down. Every single project, program, priority or rollout that is currently happening. Then, have the building or district leadership team review it for accuracy.

Step 2 – Choose the five most important items on your current list of projects, programs and priorities.

Some of these projects and programs are more important than others. The corollary of Reeves’ law of initiative fatigue reminds us that fewer priorities will be able to receive more energy, resources and dollars. Bill recommends asking questions such as “Which will have the most direct benefit on student learning?” and “Are there some mandates that can’t be ignored?” during this prioritization process.

Step 3 – Invest EVERYTHING into your five most important priorities.

According to Bill, every purchase, every schedule change and every faculty meeting should be tied to one of these five priorities! Every.single.one!

Step 4: Develop your Avoid at All Costs list.

In addition, create a list of initiatives that should be avoided at all costs until the five priorities established in Step 2 have been met. What initiatives and projects will be stopped immediately? This is the Avoid at All Costs list!

If these steps resonated with you, I hope you’ll check out Bill’s free avoid at all costs list working template found here.

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Note: This content was originally published in Volume 23, Issue 1, of the Iowa ASCD e-newsletter “The Source.”