In my first days of senior leadership, I was given the task of implementing “key skills” (communication, application of number and information technology) as part of the Curriculum 2000 reforms. To get things started, I delivered a dazzling key-skills presentation during a twilight staff Inset. My plan was clinical, my PowerPoint slides were exceptional and my delivery would have put Winston Churchill to shame.

The lack of questions from staff at the end was surely a sign of how clear my presentation had been; I was quietly confident that every member of staff was on board. However, it soon became apparent that this was not the case. To my horror, my initial evaluation revealed that staff were not enthusiastically promoting key skills. In some cases, they could not even name them.

They certainly weren’t following my rather clever plan and neither were the students - only a handful of them had filled out any of my lovingly created forms.

My mistake? I had completely failed to appreciate the importance of staff engagement. I thought the process of introducing an initiative was simple: have a strategy; formulate a plan; communicate this to staff; throw in some encouragement. And hey presto, job done. But all this counts for nothing if you don’t take the time to make sure staff are engaged in the initiative itself.

Twenty years on, I have learned my lesson. I now approach initiatives with considerable caution and follow a three-stage process of assessing staff engagement.

Stage 1: Groundwork

With key skills, I was consumed by how to introduce the initiative, rather than why we were introducing it. I hadn’t yet realised that credibility is the most important factor in an initiative’s success.

Now, I always begin by identifying the value of an initiative. Then, I work to engage my school’s “cultural architects” early. These are the staff whom others look up to: the influential heads of department; the outstanding classroom practitioners and the key staffroom players.

If these teachers do not think the initiative is of value to their students, then your job will be an uphill battle.

Through a series of casual chats and informal discussions, I gauge cultural architects’ initial enthusiasm (or lack of it), then use their feedback to shape the next stages of my plan.

Stage 2: Launch

Timing matters when it comes to getting an accurate picture of staff engagement. If you introduce an initiative during a twilight session, when staff are tired from a long day of teaching, it should come as no surprise that their response will be muted. As you cheerfully announce extra work, they are all busy wondering whether that leftover lasagne will make do for supper.

You will get a much clearer idea of their engagement if you instead announce your initiative as the first item of an Inset morning, with unlimited coffee and Danish pastries.

During your carefully timed launch, you must now keenly observe your audience. How are they responding to what you are saying? What are their facial expressions? How they are holding themselves? Are they smiling, frowning, nodding, touching their mouths or tapping their feet?

The key is to look for “couplings” of body behaviours being demonstrated by multiple audience members. If five or six people are frowning at you with their arms crossed, the chances are that they are feeling hostile towards your message. If they avoid eye contact, cross their legs or exhale loudly, you can be reasonably confident that things are not going down well.

If this happens, resist the temptation to power through to the end of your presentation. The listeners are already responding negatively towards your message, so you must either switch track or spend some time addressing their fears. This can be done by opening the floor up for a question-and-answer session that will help you to get to the bottom of what is upsetting them.

Stage 3: Follow-up

After the launch, you will need to continuously monitor engagement. It may be helpful to focus on the staff you think are least likely to engage, but be cautious about which ones you single out - it is dangerous to assume that those who initially seem the most enthusiastic will be the ones who’ll actually deliver.

You can monitor engagement informally through direct observation, by dropping into departmental meetings and by talking to the students. More formally, interim deadlines and reviews with line managers will provide hard evidence of progress.

Praise those who are doing well and use their example to motivate those who are less engaged. The aim is to build a critical mass of staff engagement to transform your plan into normal practice. Of course, the ultimate proof of engagement is the success of the initiative.

Keeping a close eye on staff engagement during the process may help to prevent your plan from joining my old key skills scheme in the overcrowded initiative graveyard.

Nick Smith is headteacher at Torquay Girls’ Grammar School

This article originally appeared in the 12 April 2019 issue under the headline “Get your staff on board or plans may be derailed”