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Part 6: Build Your Perfect 90-Day Entry Plan
Remember your vision for Day 91 that you wrote down in Part 1?
Go back to it now that you’ve read more about each of the five buckets, and revise it to include new ideas you’ve learned. Your hopes for how your school will make people feel might be the same, but ideally, you now have more specific actions and ideas to add to it.
In this chapter, we’re going to talk about how to make that vision a reality.
Pacing Your 90-Day Entry Plan
If you try to tackle all five buckets at full speed every day for the first 90 days, you will burn out long before Thanksgiving. Instead, you need to divide those 90 days into meaningful and strategic checkpoints that you’ll be building your plan around:
Before school starts
Day 1
Week 1
Month 1
Month 2
Month 3
At each of these strategic checkpoints, you’ll be asking yourself:
What do I want to accomplish in this time period?
What aspects of the five buckets am I implementing?
How will I communicate this focus to everyone in the school?
How will I keep score and measure progress?
This new scaffolding might be an adjustment from what you’re used to. John Unger, principal at West Fork Middle School, shared that at first, it was difficult for him to envision what school should look like 60 or 90 days out—but by starting with specific actions before school started and scaffolding up from there, he was able to scale each of the five buckets seamlessly and communicate the new vision to his team in a way that made sense for everyone.
A Model for Your Perfect Entry Plan
The following is a model for what your 90-day action plan could look like. It’s filled with the ideas and activities for each bucket that we discussed in previous chapters—but go crazy with it! Make a ruckus and change it to fit your needs.
To make it easier for you, I’ve created a blank template that you can download here.
Before School Starts: Set the Stage
You
Fill out the Ruckus Maker Mindset Tool™ and identify areas you want to grow in.
Communications
Academics
Find out the district’s preexisting expectations/goals.
Gather any quantitative data that is available to you (e.g., standardized test scores, grades, etc.).
Culture
During an in-service day, do the 10-picture activity from Part 4 to take the temperature of your school’s culture.
Operations
Identify the operational needs that will have to be accomplished in the first day/week of school.
Make a plan to keep score on the operational tasks you want to accomplish each day, and set reminders in your phone.
First Day of School
You
How do you plan to incorporate eating, sleeping, meditating, moving, and unplugging on the first day?
How can you integrate something fun and unique to you with your first day plans?
Communication
Be visible.
Make a point to welcome everybody individually.
Visit classrooms.
Check in with staff ahead of time to make sure everyone has the information they need to succeed on Day 1.
Academics
While visiting classrooms, look for one good thing about the quality of the teacher’s instruction in each classroom.
Leave each teacher a message sharing what you noticed.
Culture
Make this day a powerful moment and celebrate it.
Operations
Be available and visible so you can help with any “fires” that arise.
Week 1: Focus on Relationships
You
How do you plan to incorporate eating, sleeping, meditating, moving, and unplugging throughout your week?
How can you share something meaningful from your life with your staff?
Communications
Conduct the Get-to-Know-You Survey during PD. (Alternatively, complete before school starts.)
Take note of common challenges and write them on index cards.
Academics
Continue visiting classrooms and finding one good thing to praise staff for. Try to visit all classrooms, counseling spaces, the cafeteria, and so on by the end of the week.
Send out the Get-to-Know-You Student Survey or meet with students to interview them personally.
Culture
Conduct the Belonging and Othering Exercise during one of your first PD gatherings.
Operations
Refine your scoring system. Does it work, or are there any tweaks you want to make in how you keep score?
Start compiling a long-term list of operational tasks that need to be accomplished.
Month 1: Take It All In
You
Set goals for eating, sleeping, meditating, moving, and unplugging for the whole month.
Pick someone to be accountable to and share your goals with them. Ask them to follow up throughout the month.
What specific ways can you share more about yourself with your staff and learn more about them?
Communications
Ask your administrative assistant to schedule 15-minute individual meetings with your staff throughout the month so you can get to know them and follow up on their survey responses.
Refine what you identified as top challenges on the index cards as you learn more.
Identify a rhythm or schedule for communicating consistently through multiple channels.
Academics
Identify your in-house experts in different instructional areas.
With your in-house experts, co-create a PD calendar for the rest of the year.
As academic challenges arise, take action that delivers quick wins.
Culture
Gather a culture team.
Have your culture team take the lead on identifying your school’s sticky core values.
Make powerful moments: Identify important dates and milestones in your school’s calendar.
Operations
Download the delegation spreadsheet and start asking your staff to take on certain tasks.
Add up your score for this month. Are you hitting 80 percent or higher?
Month 2: Vision and Goals
You
Complete the Ruckus Maker Mindset Tool™ again. How are you measuring up against the first time you completed it?
Set new goals for eating, sleeping, meditating, moving, and unplugging for the whole month.
Pick someone to be accountable to and share your goals with them. Commit to when you will check in.
What specific ways can you share more about yourself with your staff and learn more about them?
Communications
Draft your Remarkable School Vision and invite feedback from your leadership team.
Are you still communicating consistently in the channels you identified?
Academics
Review and analyze data.
At a staff meeting, present the long-term challenges you’ve identified and invite staff to help make an action plan to address them.
Set goals together.
Culture
Kick off the Staff Member of the Month nominations.
Celebrate any powerful moments in your school calendar.
Operations
How many tasks have you given away? Aim to give away a minimum of three operational tasks per quarter or a maximum of three tasks per month.
Add up your score for this month. Are you hitting 80 percent or higher?
Month 3: Progress and Planning
You
Complete the Ruckus Maker Mindset Tool™ again. How are you measuring up this month?
Set new goals for eating, sleeping, meditating, moving, and unplugging for the whole month.
Continue your agreed upon check-in schedule with your accountability partner.
What specific ways can you share more about yourself with your staff and learn more about them?
Communications
After receiving and implementing feedback from your leadership team on your Remarkable School Vision, send it to department heads and other leaders throughout the school to gather feedback from their teams as well.
Are you still communicating consistently in the channels you identified?
Seek feedback from your staff: Is your communication meeting their needs?
Academics
Identify lead indicators: What will you measure to make progress toward your goals?
Check in with your team to see how you can support them in making decisions and progress.
Culture
Celebrate any powerful moments in your school calendar.
Make plans to celebrate the 100th day of school.
Operations
How many tasks have you given away? Aim to give away a minimum of three operational tasks per quarter or a maximum of three tasks per month.
Add up your score for this month. Are you hitting 80 percent or higher?
Completing Your Entry Plan
Don’t complete your action plan alone. Like Principal John Unger, you can join the Ruckus Maker Nation through our website, buildleadershipmomentum.com, to find support and encouragement, and you can even join our next challenge. John said he enjoyed the collaborative environment and meeting other principals and school leaders across the world to give him ideas and find solidarity.
Once you have a draft of your plan, if you haven’t already, bring in your leadership team to help revise it and make changes before you start implementing.
Even then, your action plan is not going to be perfect, and it should never be “done.” It’ll need polishing throughout the first 90 days. Keeping in mind the quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupery, remove as much as you can to maintain your focus and clarity about what you want to accomplish in each bucket.
John shared that his team used a simple cycle of inquiry to continuously refine their plan:
Plan
Do
Reflect
As they came across new challenges, they were able to make adjustments while still maintaining their overall focus on their goals for each of the five buckets.
The other advice I give to leaders as they start to roll out their plan is this: Don’t stress about bad days! At some point, something will go wrong. Expect it. Embrace it. Stay focused on the big goals and begin again.
And here’s the best part about the 90-day action plan:
It’s not just for the first 90 days!
You can use this template to plan not just for back to school, but for every quarter of the school year.
The Impact Is Worth the Effort
When I asked John what it was like implementing his first 90-day entry plan, he said, “Honestly, that stress was completely gone.”
Besides the positive weekly communication, the successful launch of their RTI system, and the creation of the West Fork family engagement committee, John says that they’ve been able to create a culture of belonging throughout the school, and he’s increased the leadership capacity in his team by delegating and building trust.
And they haven’t stopped there; now, his team uses the 90-day entry plan to guide their focus throughout the entire school year.
Completing the action plan takes some dedicated time, but John and the other principals who have implemented their plans feel the effort is well worth it. “It’s an investment, but it pays off,” John said. “Are you willing to give up 10 to 20 hours of planning for a successful school year?”
That’s a great question. How will you answer it?
John and other principals like him have learned that a 90-day entry plan is a gift to their communities. It takes planning and a commitment to listening and learning, to pausing and reflecting, to focusing and pruning, and to including and welcoming. But the payoff is a greater positive impact on each of the five buckets in your school, and forward momentum to carry you through the rest of the school year.
Most of all, it takes a commitment to yourself. Will you be the kind of principal who gives your best self to your school?
Are you willing, Ruckus Maker?
If this landed for you, here are a few ways to keep going.
Build your 90-day plan with Digital Danny. Work with him over the next 90-days or for the entire year. Two paths. Once choice.
He’s always available, never flatters, and evolves with you.
Listen to the Better Leaders Better Schools podcast. You’ll find over 10 years of conversations with the most interesting people doing the most interesting work in school leadership. Every episode is a Mirror Person who knows more than you about something you care about. Start anywhere.
Keep an eye out for the next mini-book. This one named the principal entry plan. Make sure you are subscribed so you unlock all the mini-books, Coach Notes, and join our private Ruckus Maker community.