So, you’ve created your strategy - one that could make a real difference to the running of your department or area of responsibility - and now it’s time to implement it.

But how? What do you need to bear in mind when communicating the vision to staff? How should you monitor and measure performance?

The lowdown

If writing a strategy is like creating a blueprint, implementation is more like the hard work of putting up a building. So, it’s time to roll up your metaphorical sleeves and get cracking. 

Implementation is where many of the best-laid plans of middle leaders go awry, for myriad reasons. Perhaps communication with staff leaves them feeling apathetic or even actively negative about a new approach; perhaps it’s unclear what it should look like on the ground; or perhaps the outcomes and key performance indicators (KPIs) aren’t well established, making it impossible to tell how it’s going. 

It’s vital, therefore, to approach implementation methodically and intelligently, with open communication and a clear sense of what constitutes success. 

What we know about what works

Ensuring that staff buy into your strategy is the foremost concern: without the team on board and enthusiastic, your ambitions are pretty much guaranteed to fall flat. 

Communicating the why, as well as the how, is critical here: explain the need your strategy is addressing and the benefits it will bring, and be prepared for questions and possible pushback. 

It’s also crucial that you explain how time will be made for implementation. In the often initiative-heavy world of schools, staff can feel that “ideas come along like buses”, explains Alma Harris, professor emeritus at Swansea University, specialising in education policy and school improvement. “While you’re implementing one, another one has arrived.”

She says there’s a “constant churn, which can lead to chaos because there are too many priorities, too many things to do, too many distractions from the core business, which is teaching young people”.  

And so, she continues, successful implementation means clearly communicating the steps that will be taken, ideally with a stage-by-stage breakdown, to avoid overwhelming staff.  

Likewise, it’s important to ensure that those involved feel suitably empowered to do what is being expected of them. Do they have the right training? The right resources? Do they know where to go for support if they need it?

Then comes the potentially complex business of monitoring progress. That means selecting the right KPIs, which need to be useful and meaningful when it comes to working out if you’re succeeding.

Harris says there are a few key ideas to bear in mind in this process: “KPIs are good if they’re focused on young people and their achievement and attainment, but they’re bad if they’re trying to measure everything, or measure things that can’t be measured.

“Sometimes the leader’s judgement is critical and no KPI can really replace that.”

It’s also wise, she continues, to be wary of an “obsession with data and spreadsheets”. She recommends Lyn Sharratt’s work Putting Faces on the Data, which argues that “of course we should use data as it’s a very important tool, but we mustn’t forget the young people behind it”. 

Peter Hughes, chief executive of Mossbourne Federation and author of the forthcoming book Outstanding School Leadership, also sounds a word of caution on how data is used in assessing the success of implementation. 

“Be careful about what the data is telling you,” he advises. “For example, you could have a teacher in your department who was writing lots of behaviour incident forms and has stopped because they felt guilty or worried. The data would show that the behaviour has improved, but it hasn’t.

“That’s the really key thing as a middle leader: don’t take data at the surface level; get underneath it, understand it.”

So, take an approach of curiosity and flexibility, and be prepared to make adjustments as needed if your new approach is not getting the results you want. 

The experienced leader view

Jon Hutchinson is director of curriculum and teacher development at the Reach Foundation. He writes:

Mike Tyson supposedly said: “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” Catch a middle leader in the middle of October and that metaphor doesn’t feel particularly metaphorical.

So, what can you do when your meticulous strategy collides with a school full of tiny little punches in the mouth? 

The first step is to start small. Most new initiatives in school fail because they try to go too big, too fast. This may feel counterintuitive: there’s no time to waste - we need to get this great plan into classrooms now! But as the US Navy SEALs like to say: slow is smooth and smooth is fast.

So, ideally (at least for a month or so), you’ll begin with a pilot. This allows you to collect feedback, spot any unforeseen difficulties and adapt your plan to mitigate risks and obstacles. 

It’s a good idea for you to enlist a few enthusiastic teachers for this - perhaps a well-established year group team in primary or a few strong teachers in a department in secondary. Then you can get it under way properly, from a position of strength, pointing to great early results and celebrating the achievements of teachers in classrooms.

When it comes to rolling your strategy out across your whole team, it’s worth leaning on the reassuring structure of the four-stage implementation cycle from the Education Endowment Foundation’s Putting Evidence to Work guidance report: explore, prepare, deliver, sustain. The first two phases come before anything actually happens in classrooms, and underline the importance of a well-communicated plan.

When it’s time to deliver, try to get ahead of any barriers that will inevitably arrive. Actively seek early feedback on what’s hard. Don’t send a survey; go into classrooms like a normal human at the end of the day and chat to the teachers. Then narrate early that you’ve listened and explain how the plan can be adapted to keep momentum running.

For example: “Loads of you have said that two lessons just isn’t long enough for Year 5 to write a good essay in history, so we’re going to collapse the timetable on the last Wednesday of term,” or “The speaking frames to support better oracy in Year 9 English lessons aren’t appropriate in their current form, so I’ve printed out adapted sets for each of you.”

If you get a few wins under your belt early, demonstrate that you’re open to feedback and make sensible tweaks, you’ll not only see your strategy flourish but also bank a load of trust that sees you through your next big mission.