— by Peter Warsaw During my time at Deerfield Academy, the administration systematically and intentionally examined and strived to improve all aspects of academic and student life. In this challenging work, we faced many obstacles, but chief among them was faculty resistance to change: Wouldn’t change take faculty time and…

In graduate school, I ate Total cereal for breakfast every day. Never knowing if or when my next meal might be coming — the hazard of being a musician — I liked heading off to a day and evening of studying and practicing with 100% of all my daily nutritional…

by Peter Warsaw “Better is possible. It does not take genius. It takes diligence. It takes moral clarity. It takes ingenuity. And above all, it takes a willingness to try.” –Atul Gawande (Better) I hate school improvement.* It’s resource-intensive, polarizing, and it triggers indignation and anxiety in teachers: “You think…

Both are critical, each is different. — There is a lot of misinformation out there about these two key components of strategic planning. A quick search on the web reveals countless articles, blogs, and even YouTubes and TikToks that discuss the topic. The problem is that most of these articles are written to generate advertising traffic rather…

Four key roles support a good decision-making process, and should be patterned into your organization. Speaking (extremely) generally, in my work with independent schools and colleges, some employees (mostly faculty) often ask for more influence on decision-making, while others (mostly staff) often express a desire to be better informed of decisions that affect them. In some ways, these two groups represent the poles of “participatory…

Decision-making is the most important “system” in your organization. Design that system carefully. — Consistently good decision-making is huge source of competitive advantage. While some organizations explain positive patterns of decision-making as “part of their culture,” if you dig deep enough, you’ll find a key leader or influencer who promotes clear decision process as an article of faith. …

Glad to hear it. Leadership on the Line is one of those books people are referring to all the time but it's hard to notice the reference. The central concept is about recognizing the difference between "technical" and "adaptive" challenges. Enjoy!

Use these tips to find openness, objectivity, and trust in talent. — Anyone who has ever done design work for pay will tell you that there are two universal truths, always in play: 1) Everyone agrees that design by committee is bad. 2) Everyone wants to be on the committee. Managing this head/heart conflict is often the principle complexity of designer/client relations……

The first step in strategic decision-making is to focus on the right task. — Early in my career I was lucky to have clients who taught me a lot. Here’s a recollection of one lesson. It was 1998 or so, and my firm was the agency of record for Wegmans Food Markets internet work. We were working on a system for online ordering and…