By Matthew Pilarski, Director of Instruction and School Design at Springpoint

“We must use time as a tool, not as a crutch.” – John F. Kennedy

In this post, Springpoint’s Director of Instruction and School Design, Matt Pilarski, talks about a leadership coaching technique called Time Resource Analysis. During TRAs, Springpoint shadows one member of a school’s leadership team for a full day to gather data and insights about how that leader spends their most valuable resource: time.

The why: helping leaders better understand where they spend their time

Springpoint’s partner schools are located across the country—in places like Denver, Maine, and Cleveland—so we aren’t able to be inside our partner schools every day. Because we can’t be on the ground as much as we might like, we need a way to understand, in a short period of time, how we can best support the implementation and iteration of our partners’ school designs. One way we can get to know our partner schools and their leaders better is through a principal shadowing exercise, also called a Time Resource Analysis. This experience allows me and the Springpoint team to build our understanding of a leader’s lived reality inside their school and to more closely tailor Springpoint’s coaching and support offerings. Thus, we shadow to learn about the school, inform a coaching strategy, and to give us a sense of a normal day in the life of a leader and their school. And while we know that there really isn’t such a thing as a “normal day,” the exercise helps provide a useful snapshot to inform our leadership development work. More importantly, the TRA process gives school leaders a different lens with which to view themselves as leaders, giving them data as they reflect on the leadership practices that they would like to shift or institute. The TRA is not meant to be an evaluative experience—it is entirely informative and, hopefully, formative.

Fly on the wall: TRA in action

As one of the Directors of Instruction and School Design at Springpoint, I have the opportunity to work closely with leaders and conduct TRAs as one entry point into coaching leaders. When I introduce the TRA process, I give leaders a full overview of the opportunity and send information about how it has worked in the past. Providing examples serves to clarify the process, preempts questions, and demonstrates that the process is purely developmental. I’m clear about the ultimate intent: to create data that is accessible, actionable, and practical that the leader can use to shape their leadership skills and practices as they simultaneously continue to design a school.

Once a date is set and a game plan is in place, I ask the leader to inform their staff that they’ll be shadowed on the appointed day. Then, I am a fly on wall all day, making sure to be a silent observer so there’s no interjection to alter the data.

Throughout the day, I note what’s happening every five minutes within a few categories:

• Principal Action – what is the leader doing? (e.g., teaching, budget, supervising cafeteria, disciple, overseeing development of curriculum, PD, external communications, etc.).

• Function – what is the nature of this task? This can fall into one of the following four leadership areas: supervision, time spent on instruction, developing people (non-instructionally), and communication.

• Location – where is the activity taking place? (e.g., hallway, office, classroom)

• Attendees – who is present? (e.g., department heads, students, etc.)

• Type of support – Is the activity directly or indirectly effecting the teaching and learning of students? (e.g., teacher coaching versus compliance).

What does it look like in action? Well, it starts about 30 minutes before the first bell (and ends around 30 minutes after the last), and entails noting different goings-on every five minutes. While it may sound a bit invasive, you’d be surprised how fast most school leaders forget I’m there. I don’t say much, am cordial to those to inquire about my presence, and generally stay out of the way. And, we’re happy to report, leaders seem to enjoy the experience. Sometimes leaders ask questions about their own leader moves during the shadowing. While I don’t respond in the moment (I stay quiet throughout), I always note leader questions or thoughts as possible debrief conversations. As this is all about the development of the leader, I want to ensure that the debrief and any successive coaching comes out of what the leader thinks is best for her. My role during the TRA visit is simply to collect data, devoid of commentary, judgement, or reaction.

Reviewing and reflecting: how data can inform leadership practice

Both before and after this process, I urge the leader to leave their assumptions behind so they don’t prematurely assign value to any of the raw data. At Springpoint, we don’t have a range of where a leader should be on any metric. Everyone and every school is different—each has different needs at different times. What we are looking for are patterns, gaps, learnings, and potential areas of growth; essentially, we are seeking insights that can lead to thoughtful reflections in the debrief process. For example, if a principal spends 60% of her time in her office versus 2% in the classroom, the reflection and analysis process can uncover a profound truth. While it’s just her location—a simple data point—the explanation, implications, and learnings can lead to practical insights and changes in future leader moves. And you never know what the leader will do with the data (again, it depends on her process), as there are so many ways to assess and interpret data. We’ve seen leaders who focus on gaps in their interactions (e.g., “why aren’t I spending time with kids?”), while others are interested in looking at where a surplus of attention exists (e.g., “I didn’t realize how much time I was spending in the hallway!”).

To ensure a smooth process, leaders get their data within a week of the TRA visit, which we pair with a phone call. The purpose of this initial call after the visit is to go over the raw data collected during shadowing, help them understand and process what they’re looking at, go over emerging trends, and also give time for me to pressure test areas where the school leader is interested in me doing deeper analysis for the final write-up. In short, this conversation enables coachable access points. What comes next? The final write-up, which takes about two weeks, and a conversation about what coaching can look like depending on the leader’s goals.

Lightbulb moments: key takeaways

In conducting a handful of TRA visits to schools with distinct realities and needs, I have seen numerous insights, connections, and new strategies arise as a result of this work. One principal realized that he focused too much on supervision and not enough time focusing on his stated priorities around teacher leadership development and instructional alignment. We worked together to devise strategies that would allow him to shift his focus, while still ensuring that the overall supervision of the school continued. Another principal was surprised to learn that she spent a significant portion of her day on student discipline. We figured out how she could rethink school policies and re-delegate aspects of her role in order to focus on tightening systems, iterating on her school’s model, and supporting teachers. I’ve also had a principal be completely baffled with how little time she spent in classrooms. When I asked her to reflect on other days to see if this was atypical she simply said, “No, it’s not, and that’s a problem”. We worked with her schedule to ensure that she was in at least three classrooms every single day. Lesson here: there are always ways to rethink how we spend our time.

Time really is a precious resource and I’ve seen many leaders grapple with how to both manage day-to-day needs of the school and take a step back for big picture planning and school design. When leaders feel pressed for time and aren’t sure how to get things off their plate, we start with small ways they can be more methodical, proactive, and holistic in their approach. This might mean rebuilding a schedule from the ground up, as many leaders don’t fully understand all the different pressures at the start of the year requiring them to be more reactive than they’d like. This also might mean focusing more time on building others around them to be fellow leaders in the school, which can have some added benefits such as: spreading valuable institutional knowledge, having more voices in the room when design decisions are being made, and eventually freeing the leader up to focus on the big picture (remember, all our schools are still growing!).

Throughout this work, it’s important to support leaders and guide them toward realizations. After the shadowing day, I ask a lot of questions and act as a sounding board as leaders work through action plans that will help them implement the TRA learnings. As an external observer, my role is to facilitate leaders in thinking about new ways of doing things, and highlighting great practices we’ve seen at other schools.

The TRA is an essential part of our organization’s broader leadership coaching support. There is not one ‘right’ way for a school leader to use their time. And we’ve found that there is a lot to learn on both sides—the TRA process not only informs day-to-day practice and long-term planning for the leader, it also helps Springpoint as an organization understand patterns and practices of successful school leadership. Analyzing the TRA data and debriefing the process is just the beginning of a rich reflection cycle that leads to deeper ongoing conversations about leadership practice and school design.

If you’re interested in learning more, take a look at some anonymized sample data and the below raw data breakdowns.