The 1%

When I accepted the job as an administrator at Hoover Middle School, something struck me about our image we were projecting to guests, visitors, and most importantly, our kids. We were focusing on the 1%. For example, upon entering our main doors, there were two large signs. One proclaimed, "This is a Tobacco Free Campus" while the other reminded everybody that there is ABSOLUTELY NO SKATEBOARDING OR ROLLERBLADING ON CAMPUS! In addition, there was a sign outside that stated, "please shut your engines off." (Still no idea of the purpose of that one.) I had a couple revelations about these signs: 1. In two years at Hoover, I have not seen a skateboarder smoking a pipe while doing a 50-50 fakie grind. 2. We were communicating a message that addressed the 1% not the 99%.

Too often, feel we have to respond to all the negative things that COULD happen. We often argue, "We can't put up nice posters and student work, the kids will just rip it down or vandalize it." Or we send out staff emails, "NO MORE THAN 20 COPIES AT A TIME!" We are now making decisions on what the 1% may do instead of what the 99% are already doing. We are negative and reactive to all people when in reality, the population our message is aimed at will probably ignore it anyway. Did our signs stop skateboarding or smokers? Did the passive aggressive administrator email stop the abuse of the copy machine? Probably not. The people willing to break the rules were going to do this regardless of any signs or public proclamations.

My lesson from all this work? I needed to start focusing on the 99%. At Hoover we have made great strides in creating a welcoming and warm environment that is designed to communicate to the majority of our guests, students, and staff. No more skateboarding or tobacco signs (If somebody is skateboarding, we'll ask them to leave. If they're smoking we'll blast them with a fire extinguisher because they are obviously on fire.) We now have entrance signs welcoming people to stop inside and that we are glad to see them. In our halls, our walls now have large amounts of student work, inspirational quotes, bulletin boards, student pictures, and leadership posters. Could these be vandalized by the 1%? Possibly, and if they are, we'll fix it and move on because that's what you do in a culture of excellence. Make decisions based upon your 99%.

Is your culture aimed at your 1% or your 99%? What messages are your environment communicating to your guests, staff, and students? Most importantly, what are people saying about your school as they walk out the door?