093: Clarity First: Why School Initiatives Stall with Casey Watts

If your school feels busy but not aligned, the issue might not be effort at all. It might be clarity. I’m joined by speaker, author, and consultant Casey Watts to dig into why well-intentioned initiatives stall when teams don’t share a clear, detailed grasp of the destination, the language, and the role each person plays in getting there.

We get concrete about what “clarity” actually means in education leadership. Casey shares the moment a group of teachers admitted they didn’t know what they were being asked to do, and how that kind of quiet confusion can erode collaboration. We also discuss the hidden dangers of jargon in school improvement work. When terms like SEL, tier one instruction, and differentiation mean different things to different people, alignment becomes impossible, no matter how many meetings you hold.

Then we walk through Casey’s Clarity Cycle Framework and challenge the idea of chasing “buy-in” by shifting toward commitment by building agency, self-efficacy, and collective efficacy. We connect the same leadership moves to student engagement, especially the role of relevance, belonging, and inviting students into the learning process.

If you want practical tools for clearer meetings, stronger roles and responsibilities, and success indicators that sustain momentum, this conversation offers a simple lens you can apply right away.

EPISODE RESOURCES: 

Connect with Casey via her website, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Read her book, The Craft of Clarity, and subscribe to her newsletter.

Transcript

Introduction And The Clarity Problem

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to season five of SEL in EDU. This is a space for educators who believe social emotional learning isn't an add-on. It's part of how we teach, lead, and show up every day. I'm Dr. Krista Lay, and in each episode, we'll explore real stories, practical strategies, and the human side of learning that helps schools grow with intention. What if the real problem in education isn't effort, but clarity? In this episode, I sit down with clarity-obsessed speaker, author, and consultant Casey Watts to explore why so many initiatives stall. Not because people don't care, but because they don't have full shared understanding of where they're headed or what role they play in getting there. Casey unpacks her Clarity Cycle Framework and her powerful mantra, Clarity Precedes Capacity. We talk about the difference between buy-in and commitment, how assumptions quietly erode collaboration, and why defining roles, success indicators, and shared language can transform not only leadership teams, but classrooms. If you ever felt like your school is busy but not aligned, motivated but not unified, this conversation will give you a practical lens and a structured pathway forward. Welcome back, SEL and EDU family. I am with Casey Watts, who I just got a chance to meet in the last maybe six to nine months, Casey. Yes. Yeah. And through our shared passion in education and wanting to connect and learn from other people. And you wrote a book called The Craft of Clarity. And that just resonates with me and everything that I see is needed in education. And so, why is clarity the craft that you decided to focus in on?

SPEAKER_01 2:01

You know, it's one of those things that's really interesting when I think about my experience. So I've been in education for a little over 20 years, and that ranged, my role ranged from classroom teacher to instructional leadership to adjunct professor at a university. So had all of these different roles. And I have done some consulting work on the side for probably the past 10 years. And I started doing that consulting work as a classroom teacher, and I focused on literacy instruction. And, you know, over time, as my like I always thought about collaboration as the thing that I was drawn to. Even as a literacy consultant, I was focused on how are we gathering people together, gathering these teachers together to really focus on the impact that we're making in our classrooms. But then as I started to transition into leadership consulting, because my role started to change, and so my focus started to change, I started to recognize that yes, I was still focused on collaboration, but I started to see again and again. And then as I looked back, I was like, wow, this has been evident since the beginning of my career. I started to notice we've got multiple different narratives at play here. And the moment that I recognized it most, I was sitting in my office. I was a district instructional specialist, and a group of first grade teachers had come into my office. I was sitting at my desk, they were sitting at a round table, and their goal, so they thought, was to craft assessments that would provide better data around math instruction. And as they were sitting there and kind of going back and forth, there were some silent moments, and I paused and I said, I just wonder, guys, if you can tell me what it is you believe your goal or task is today. Like what was communicated to you? And they sat there for a moment in silence. And then one of them said, Honestly, Casey, we never know what's going on. Like we don't really know. We don't know what's expected of us. We were told we needed to create assessments. We didn't, we weren't told exactly why we needed to do this, what it should look like, what's expected of us in the future. And we're afraid that we're gonna spend all of this time doing this, we're gonna go back to our campus and be told that that's not what they were thinking, or that's not what they had intended. And I knew on the back end what the administrators were actually expecting. And I knew what their goal was, but I was like, wow, we've got two different narratives at play because leaders are thinking, well, we've communicated it, we've told them what the expectations are or what our initiatives are, but they're still not buying in or they're still not getting on board. And it was just that moment where I was like, clarity. That's why we are unable to authentically collaborate, because there is a massive lack of clarity. So that's kind of where it all started. And so while I've been focused on collaboration a lot over the last 15 years, probably, I just started to recognize there's a through line of clarity here. And I want to point out that there are two definitions that I lean into when I'm looking at clarity. I'm gonna refer to Miriam Webster's dictionary definitions. The first is what we're most accustomed to, and that is the quality of being easily understood. Super simple. But the kind of clarity that I coach people to work toward is the second definition. And this is what it says the state of having a full, detailed, and orderly mental grasp of something. Those two definitions are similar, but the second is so much more intense and intentional, and the one that I think, especially in education, we need to be working toward because we do have so many different narratives and perspectives. We can't assume that we're all on the same page. To answer your question in a nutshell, that's the journey that I've gone through to focus on this.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

So I'm gonna ask you a favor. Could you go back and reshare those two different definitions again? Because if I were listening to a car, I'd be like, rewind, rewind, let me go back. And so I want to hear them again so they can resonate with me, if you don't mind.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

First definition the quality of being easily understood. Like, and I think about that one as we're just communicating verbally. We want to be understood. But then the second one, the state of having a full, detailed, and orderly mental grasp of something. I understand it fully. I can grasp it, and because of that, I can own it.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

To me, it sounds similar to when people compare are you listening to me and are you hearing me? There is a distinction there, and it's that full grasp of we're on the same page, we're connected with each other, and that strong connection, we're connected, and so we can move forward in that collaboration.

SPEAKER_01 7:21

I love how you mentioned that. And that's a great way to think about it too. I've been reading a lot about the neuroscience behind all of this and mirroring, like mirror neuroning. And it's just so fascinating to think about how the role of clarity is so crucial, especially in education, because we are there to impact students' lives and impact their learning. And we talk so much, we hear so much about teacher clarity, but we don't hear as much about leader clarity. And that's what I want to aim to focus on.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

You brought up a point that I can really connect with when you said about being an instructional coach and that in between, and that was one of the roles that I had too, where I could grasp what the admin wanted because I had spent the amount of time hearing those conversations. But when it gets translated in an email or in a quick meeting to the rest of the staff, some pieces were lost. And it could have been in the way it was communicated, it could have been the time. It could have been what was in the teacher's headspace at that moment. And so it was filling in the potential gaps. And full disclosure, part of me reaching out here too is like, this is so important, and we need clarity in SEL, but it's also having me think about instructional pieces and curriculum design. I did some online work with the school district Friday where the teachers were in breakout rooms to look at deconstructing standards, and it was about the conversation. What is this standard actually asking students to know and be able to do? And are we on the same page in the way that we are understanding that before we start designing the instructional learning experiences and the assessment?

Shared Language And The Tier One Example

SPEAKER_01 9:20

What you're saying reminds me when I'm working with districts a lot of the time, and it really doesn't matter exactly what I'm working with them on. There's always a through line of clarity in my speaking engagements. There's always a through line of clarity. So my keynote topic is the craft of clarity, right? Like everything is around that. And I've got a training titled Better Data Meetings Tomorrow. And of course, there's always a through line of clarity. And one of the things that we talk about is the jargon that we make assumptions that people have a similar understanding around. SEL is one of those terms that we assume people have an accurate understanding, but then also a common understanding. One of the stories that I come to often when thinking about just common language in our schools, I was working with a school in Los Angeles last year, I think. And one of the things that we focused on was high quality tier one instruction. So I was visiting with a leader in preparation for this, and I said, before I come out there, I want to have a quick Zoom meeting just to make sure that we have at least a baseline of understanding, a common foundation about tier one instruction. So I get on the Zoom call, I meet with the elementary campus first and their teachers, and I said, okay, let's talk about your common definition for tier one instruction. What do we mean by tier one? And it was crickets for a little bit, like people were hesitant to answer the question. But then a few people said, Well, I think it's this, but it was just so interesting. We hear that term all the time. It's everywhere. And yet people are hesitant to answer because maybe I haven't really dug into this. I just keep hearing it. And so I assume that this is what it means. So they had a relatively accurate understanding of tier one instruction. But then I met with middle school. And the middle school teachers, again, asked the same question. It was that kind of awkward silence for a moment. And then one of the math teachers popped up and he said, Well, I'm pretty sure tier one is like your most struggling students. Like they're they're probably needing some special education support. And I was like, wow. Nope. I'm so glad that I had this conversation with them because we didn't have number one, an accurate understanding. We definitely, because of that, didn't have a common understanding. That's one of those things that I think we make assumptions about what people do or do not know, especially when it comes to just our basic things that we talk about in education on a day-to-day basis.

SPEAKER_00 12:04

Yes. And in my experience, it's that difference between even tier one and tier two. So when I'm doing SEL integration work, to me, that is tier one. What skills do all students need to grow in and develop? And it's ongoing, right? So it's not as a almost 49-year-old, I still am growing in these skills. But that tier two might just be one or two students who need extra support. And so when I'm asking about tier one or like SEL, they're like, why have this one kid? I'm like, oh, that's tier two. That doesn't mean we don't support them, but how we support them is going to look different. Yeah. Yep. 100%. And I think that's brilliant that you had the foresight to ask that. And I think it's a result of your clarity expertise to set that, let's have a shared understanding of this language.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

Yeah. And you know, it's so funny to just when you start thinking about things, I mean, it's just interesting to how the brain works, but when you start recognizing patterns, you start to develop habits where you can implement those patterns with intentionality. So for example, because of that experience that I had, I was like, whoa, what are other terms that maybe we think we know that are just so simple that we don't? So now when I'm doing any kind of workshop or training, I'm thinking about the clarity around any kind of term. So an example would be just taking people through a training on high quality tier one instruction. If we got to maybe the term differentiation, I don't need to spend a long period of time talking about the definition behind that, but I can pause and say, okay, before we move on, I just want to make sure that we all have a common understanding of the term differentiation. This is what I mean. Is my understanding accurate, or do you have a different understanding of this term? Bada bing, bada boom, we're moving on, but now we have a collective understanding. So I think it's as simple as that.

SPEAKER_00 14:10

This is making my SEL heart very happy because one of the pieces that I believe so strongly in is that when we're looking at these particular skills, we're co-creating them with the students. So it's not me going in and saying, this is what self-discipline looks like, and this is what you need to do. It's, I have an idea of what this is. What do you think it is? And now let's think that we're 30 of us in a classroom with a goal of learning what could this look like for us? You work with the admin and the staff on that co-creation in the work that you're doing. When we think of clarity, we think of shared understanding or having a written mission and vision. And you talked about digging in a little bit more deeply. What other forms of clarity should staff and admin be considering?

The Clarity Cycle And Stakeholder Insight

SPEAKER_01 15:05

Okay, so first let me back up. You mentioned something about even with students, that shared definition. Love that. And what's interesting about that, I was listening to something this morning about the neuroscience of leadership. And so my brain is thinking always about what's happening with the brain. But one of the things they talked about on this podcast was the importance of insight. So when we are gaining insight from others, it's you're creating those new neurological pathways where your brain has the capacity to hold on to this new information. So if I can co-construct or co-create with someone else, my brain has the capacity to hold on to it for much longer than if someone was to tell me, here's what the definition is, or this is what we're going to think about, this idea. So that kind of leads to the next piece of this idea of clarity between the adults on our campuses. So, what I usually do is take people through the clarity cycle framework. And when I look at the clarity cycle framework, when I first developed it, it was truly like how do we not only define the destination, but how do we transfer ownership and then how do we sustain progress? Because that's what we're missing is we have leaders defining destination, defining destination again and again and again, but then they're getting frustrated and burned out because they're not seeing the transfer of ownership. Well, there's a really crucial piece there in this clarity cycle framework that's going to help us to transfer ownership. And that is gaining insight from stakeholders. So if I define the destination, it's okay, you are the leader of your campus, your district, your department. You have to be responsible for defining a destination. People have to know exactly where they're headed, right? And they have to know, like, why are they a part of this? What's the bigger purpose? You're responsible for that as a leader. But then you're also responsible for gaining insight from your stakeholders. So when I go through the first few steps of defining the destination, I'm going to go to my people and say, here's what we believe needs to be an area of focus. Here are a couple of goals that we believe we want to work toward. We want to know what's on your mind about that. Because it could be that your area of focus might stay the same, but your goals could change because of the insight that you're gaining from your people. And if they know that you're gaining insight from them because you want to make sure your goals are right and you're going to use that to develop next steps toward reaching the goals, then they are going to better be able to commit to the broader, bigger purpose. And that's really what we want, anyways, we want people to commit. If we can get past this idea of buy-in and we can get more towards commitment, then people are going to have the capacity and the willingness and the joy to show up and work towards it, even when it gets hard.

unknown 18:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:20

So in my brain, I'm so excited about this. Like part of what makes it hard for me on a podcast is I'm hearing and I have so many like thoughts come out all at once. I'm like, okay, which way do we go? I love that you don't ascribe to this buy-in. That's also a term I've walked away from because it feels false. And when we say buy-in, I think it automatically negates that somebody is providing their insights and their experiences to create that journey. It's this is my way. And I might be asking you, but I'm not really doing that. And so just where I'm going with this in a moment is to your tagline. Because I think this relates to your tagline, and I'm seeing you smile. And I think that needs to be you to be able to share that, not me. And I think that as a leader, what that takes is a sense of humility to say, I don't have all the answers, I have ideas. And together we're going to create this journey. So let's link it back to people working on common assessments or unwrapping standards. That is the what are we teaching? Like the teachers are coming up with here is the foundation, here's the goal. But then the teachers in their own individual classrooms get to decide on how they're teaching it because their students are different in front of them. And we're creating this consensus while still giving autonomy. I was going to ask you about how clarity is connected to or aligned with agency. So I'll let you pick on where you want to go because we've talked about moving away from buy-in, and we how does this also provide people the joy and the desire to want to be a part of the system?

From Buy-In To Commitment Through Agency

SPEAKER_01 20:22

Okay. I think they go hand in hand actually. So I have the better data meetings tomorrow. It started out as a course and then it just kind of transitioned into you cannot understand all that there is to understand in practice with just a course. And I'm a firm believer in in person, we're getting down to the nitty-gritty and having the deep conversations. But in the course, one of the things that I talk about is moving from urgency to agency. And I remember when I first learned about the term agency, I was working as a teacher in a school and we started to lean into this idea of agency as we're moving beyond urgency. Everything in education is urgent, right? Like, when are we not going to have a time when something doesn't feel urgent? Agency, though, is different. And I think about agency as being tied very closely to self-efficacy. And if we can create clarity around what we're doing, why we're doing it, and how we're going to go about doing it, and how someone else's insight is informing our direction or our path, then we are opening up the possibility for someone to develop self-efficacy and the agency to work collectively toward this common goal. So I think about in my book, I write about a collective efficacy. And one of the things that I talk about is you know, you hear all of These different definitions about collective efficacy. And it's the collective belief that we can, we have the ability to succeed. But I think about collective efficacy as it ties to agency and self-efficacy, as we believe we can and will, even when it gets tough, or even when we have questions about it. If someone has developed this sense of agency, they're not showing up day in and day out because they have to. They're showing up because they want to. And they're showing up because there's a problem to solve. And this is the kicker. They see how they are an essential part of the solution. We have to help people to understand how they are an essential part of our organization because it makes it worth showing up. Even when things get hard, it just leads me to thinking about joy, like joy and agency, I think, go together. I think about this a sense of joy. People experience joy even when things are hard. I can still have joy in moments of distress. Like it is a way of being. If I can help people develop this sense of agency versus urgency, they're going to have joy in the work that they do, even when it's hard. And sometimes more joy when it's challenging.

SPEAKER_00 23:31

I'm going to move us just for a moment to a student level. And after COVID, I work primarily with secondary educators. And I heard our students don't know how to manage their stress. They need help with that. What I keep hearing is they need work on self-discipline and self-motivation. And just like you made all those connections, I don't believe our students are not motivated. I believe it is connected to them knowing what strengths they bring and being able to leverage that. I think it's related to them having agency in the work instead of being told, here's what you're doing, getting a chance to become a part of it. I so love your work because you're modeling that for the leaders, the admin, and the teachers. And my hope is that this will translate down into the classroom between the teachers and the students. Because the students from my end are not always motivated because they don't have a say. Their voices are not heard, they don't have choices, and they're not seeing how things are relevant to them.

SPEAKER_01 24:44

It's interesting that you mentioned that. One of the things that we do with this Clarity Cycle Framework. So, first of all, I will only work with an instructional leadership team. I will no longer, I used to take just individuals through the Clarity Cycle Framework, but it is meant to be done collaboratively. I believe the team is crucial. But one of the things that we start with that area of focus. And so these leadership teams will come with all of this like qualitative and quantitative data to decide what do we believe needs to be an area of focus such that if we focused on this one thing, it would impact all of these other things that we need to focus on. One of the things that they often talk about is behavior. Well, when we start to dig a little bit deeper, we analyze that area of focus and we're like, okay, so you want to focus on behavior, but now let's analyze it. And we go through a whole root cause analysis protocol. And what we end up finding is what's within our control is making our instruction relevant and engaging and inviting students into the process. So it's just fascinating that you're you we see, you and I see it. And I'm sure the people listening to this podcast, they see that if we're going to get students to have that same kind of agency, they have to feel as though they belong to this, not as though they're this outsider, you know, and I think so often they just feel like an outsider looking in as things that are being done to them and not with them. And then to kind of see on the flip side, our leaders are recognizing that students are disengaged and believe that they're not motivated. But when we really dig deeper, it's a different issue altogether. And so then we're able to go through the rest of the clarity cycle framework and again try to decide if we know this is the problem and this is what's within our control, then what are our steps to improve that?

Roles, Responsibilities, And Success Indicators

SPEAKER_00 26:43

You just led me right into one of the next questions I wanted to ask is that sometimes I start off with educators, what is your greatest hope for your students? Or for admin, what is your greatest hope for your staff? And are our actions aligned with getting us to that hope, that goal? And in our experiences, a number of years ago, my good friend Dr. Linda Meger and I started digging into how do we create SEL implementation, which to me is SEL across an organization. So there's some consistency and alignment, not that everything needs to be exactly the same. And then to me, integration is what's happening within a building. And in her research, we found there were three different factors that were needed. There's a cultural factor and then a structural factor and then behavioral. And in the cultural is the clarity pieces that you talk about, the shared language, is their insight from all of the different groups of people. And do people know where we're going? But then do they know what their roles and responsibilities are to become part of your smiling? So can you talk more about that roles and responsibilities as it relates to your work and your book?

SPEAKER_01 28:01

Okay, so that's where, you know, we've talked a little bit about the first part of the Clarity Cycle Framework. And I've told you we're defining the destination, but then we have to transfer ownership. And so when we define the destination, we're determining area focus, then we're analyzing that to decide what are the primary goals, and then we gain insight from our people. But then we take all of that insight that we're gaining from our stakeholders, and stakeholders could be a variety of people. So it could be your teachers, obviously, but it could be students, it could be parents, it could be custodial stuff, like it could be anyone. So we're taking all of that insight that we've gained, and now we're ready as an instructional leadership team to start scripting the critical moves and casting vision. When we script critical moves, we're taking these goals and we're breaking it down into these micro steps. What are the micro steps that we have to take? But then also, what are the roles and responsibilities of each group of people? So if I know that these are critical moves, what does that look like for my administrators? And then what does it look like for teachers? What does it look like for students? One of the things that we get to do during the training is the team actually develops a document that they're able to share with their organization to show them like, here's the insight that we gained and here's how we've mapped it out. And then they gain even more insight into that. And I love one of the teams that I've worked with. They wanted to transfer ownership of leadership to their high school students. So becoming a leader on their campus was a huge focus for them and their students. And so one of the they had these, I don't remember what kind of icons they were, but they had icons that were kind of split up into three sections. So let's just say it was like a star or something. So the star was split up into three different sections. And at the top of the star might be who is responsible. And then the middle it was, what are they responsible for? And then the last piece, which I loved so much, was success will look like. So they were identifying not only is this your role and your responsibilities, but here's how we'll know that we've been successful. And they did that for each group of stakeholders.

SPEAKER_00 30:20

And that's the clarity piece. I feel like that now I know exactly what my part is in this bigger goal. And it's actionable. And I have success indicators that I can do a measurement against and kind of iterate with, okay, this worked, this didn't. And it's okay that things don't work the first time. We need multiple times of figuring something out, where they say three times, we'll start to give you a pattern that, okay, how can we shift and where can we go next? But very similarly in the SEL work, people be like, oh, yeah, I know where SEL is a thing, but I don't know what that means for me. Yeah. So in the work that you're doing, can you give some examples of where people you've worked with have really wanted to focus in on what they needed clarity on in this cycle? Oh my goodness.

Feedback, Celebration, And Calibration

SPEAKER_01 31:17

There's been a wide range, but it is fascinating where it always ends up. So, for the most part, people start with their campus improvement plans. Most of the time, when we look at campus improvement plans, a lot of times there will be three, four, five different overarching goals and they have strategies for getting there. If you look at a campus improvement plan, it often is we completed it because it's something that was required. So we check it off the list and then it just collects dust on the shelf. But if we could instead take that campus improvement plan and look through all of those different goals and again decide how do these goals connect? Like what is an underlying problem that we could solve that might address all of these that becomes our area of focus. Nine times out of 10, we're going to be focusing not necessarily on like reading. We're not necessarily going to be focusing on math or social studies or whatever. We're going to be focusing on our relationships with students, the students' relationships with each other, and the way that we are implementing instruction in our classrooms and or collaborating together. Like that's a huge piece of it too. But I think that kind of goes with just relationships that you're working with your colleagues to work toward this goal. So that is always something that we come to. And those are the things that's what we end up trying to focus on is what's within our control and what do we have influence over. And so that's where we end up placing our focus. So when we gain insight, people who are drawn to it, they're drawn to commit to this because they see, oh, it's not the typical, like we want to improve math scores or the typical we want to improve reading scores. These, because those are problems that we're solving again and again and again and again and again. And like you said, we've got to figure out what's a different strategy, what's the different angle at which we can approach this. And so when they realize we're doing this differently, it sparks curiosity, it sparks energy. And then because we're gaining insight from our stakeholders, they can really not necessarily vent to us because there are some very specific ways that I coach leaders to ensure when we gain insight, it's not becoming a vent session. But because they are able to share their thoughts, we then take that to scripting those critical moves. But here's the important part, Krista. After we script those critical moves and we're continuously casting vision all year long, we're just casting vision about this is what we're working toward together because we know it's going to impact XYZ. Then we get to the part where we have to celebrate systematically and provide feedback regularly. That's something that's missed all the time. It's even missed in our classrooms. We might state, like, this is the goal we're working toward, but then our feedback becomes random. And if our feedback is random, then there's no way to sustain the shift, even in students. If our feedback is random, there's no way for them to have the mental capacity to hold on to these random pieces of feedback that aren't tied to a specific goal. It's the same with our organization. Our feedback and our celebrations need to be tied to a specific goal if we're wanting our patterns to change. You mentioned something earlier, and I can't remember exactly what it was, but the last step of the Clarity Cycle Framework is calibrating to sustain progress. That's what I think we were just talking about. If you're seeing the same patterns again and again, we get to this impasse, we will have to figure out what's a different pattern. So even if things aren't working to the degree that you want them to work, that's okay. That's why change exists in the first place. We've got to get to a point where we calibrate and decide what's working, why is it working, what's not working, why is it not working? Let's shift a little bit. And then we kind of go through the process again.

SPEAKER_00 35:21

And it's an ongoing piece of casting vision. And that piece you described around we we refer to it as like a monitoring and assessing, not necessarily evaluating, because that's like a good or bad or a right or wrong, but is this getting us where we need to go? And we put that in the behavioral piece because oftentimes, especially in SEL, we're like, we're doing all this stuff, but then we're like, oh, we just did all this stuff. And we're not really looking to see if all that quote stuff is giving us the outcomes that we were hoping, nor are we looking to see is everybody a part is a contributing member of that piece. Everybody going in that same direction. And you alluded to that earlier with your tagline. So can you talk about your tagline and the role that it's played in your work?

SPEAKER_01 36:14

Yeah. So the tagline is clarity precedes capacity. And I decided to trademark that about a year ago. And it is the tagline that came up again and again and again because I kept thinking, like, why Clarity? What is it that Clarity is doing? And then I realized I had a colleague who said one time, she said something to the effect of competence precedes confidence. And when I heard that, I was like, yeah, but what is it that allows us to be competent? Like we have to build our capacity. Then it was clarity precedes capacity. When I thought about that, I was like, ugh, that's it. That is what we are lacking. That's why when I sat in that meeting with that first grade group of teachers, they felt so defeated. They did not have the capacity to build assessments that accomplished the goal that the administrators wanted them to accomplish because they didn't have clarity. But as soon as it's so fascinating when you're listening, and I know you've heard this before, when you're listening to people, like, let's just assume, Krista, you are working with a school, you're doing consulting with them. I'm certain at some point you've heard someone say, maybe you get to the end of a session, you're like, what's resonated with you? How are you feeling now? Someone's going to say, I feel like I have clarity now. Or I needed clarity, and this helped me to get it. But you hear it in conversation, but I don't think people necessarily think about a system for either gaining clarity for themselves, and they definitely don't think about a system for creating clarity for other people. But clarity is what's going to allow people to build capacity to commit to something.

SPEAKER_00 38:06

I appreciate what you just said there to commit to something, because while you were reminding me of that group of teachers who were sitting at the table, the willingness was there. They showed up. And sometimes I think there's a narrative that teachers are burnt out, they don't want to do it. And I don't find that to be the case. I still find that teachers are invested, they're willing. It's the constant shifts and redirections, and not redirection towards the same vision, but different visions and different that's what I mean by directions. But the willingness is there. And so if they have that clarity first, and they're a part of creating that, that could be that huge shift that we need. Just in education in general.

SPEAKER_01 39:01

Yes, absolutely. And you know, you talk about retaining your people and hiring great people. You create clarity first. That's gotta come first because it's gonna help people to understand what it is we're committing to. One of the schools that I work with, the same Los Angeles school, I've loved working with them and I've worked with them for a few years now, but they started with Clarity Cycle Framework. And it's so fascinating to watch this leader. She's gone through the full clarity cycle framework. And then the last year she was like, okay, and now we continue. So we've gone through a year of focusing on this. Now, if we go through this clarity cycle framework again, maybe we're gonna make some shifts because this is part of calibrating and sustaining. Like we're not changing our focus. This is still our focus, but how can we do it differently and better?

SPEAKER_00 39:59

And I feel that when we look at how are we relating with students, how are students relating with each other, and how are we providing engaging tier one high quality instruction that is relevant, that if that's our clarity, part of that might be how it relates to reading and how it relates to math, that the reading, the math, the test scores don't become the thing.

SPEAKER_01 40:29

Yep. Absolutely. I think that's probably one of my favorite things about going through this work with people is thinking about what their first focus is, and then realizing after we analyze it, they're like, wait a minute, maybe that's not our focus after all. And I love that so much because it's kind of like I don't know if you're familiar with Michael Bungay Sr.'s work, but he has the seven essential questions. And so when he's coaching, he starts with what's on your mind, and then he gets to, and what else? Because typically the first thing someone says it's on their mind is not really what's on their mind. There's always something deeper going on.

SPEAKER_00 41:04

And that reminds me of the five whys protocol. My doctoral paper book, whatever. I went in thinking I was gonna get one thing because I did a qualitative and it was totally something else. Yeah. Look at this. I went in thinking and having an assumption. And I think that your clarity cycle allows people to get rid of those assumptions. And we don't often talk about our assumptions because, again, that's the nature of assumptions. We assume we're on the same page, we're going in the same direction. But when we are given the opportunity to really have that deep dialogue and to show up with some humility and say, we're in this together, and we're keeping students at the center. And you did say that in the beginning. And I think that's a really critical piece to bring back up again.

How To Find Casey And Final Reflection

SPEAKER_01 41:58

I mentioned I talk about assumptions in the book. I talk about assumptions when I'm doing the clarity cycle framework training, the better data meetings training, training my keynote. So yeah, that's a big one is let go of assumptions. Here's what to do instead.

SPEAKER_00 42:12

So as somebody's listening to this and they're like, yes, Casey is who we need, her approach, the cycle is what we need. How can they get a hold of you? What's the easiest way?

SPEAKER_01 42:24

Easiest way is to go to catchingupwithcasey.com. If you want to find me on social media, it's typically going to be catching up with casey or catch up with casey. Just imagine we're catching up over a cup of coffee, right? That's how you can remember it. You can find out more about how to gain clarity with me on my website, catchingupwithcasey.com. And then I am primarily on LinkedIn. So find me on LinkedIn. And of course, you can email Casey at clarity-driven.com.

SPEAKER_00 42:52

And if I can put a little plug in here that we have met each other over Zoom and we had a chance last month to spend a couple of days in person. And your energy, your enthusiasm, your passion is so contagious. I'm not a keynote person. And if I were looking for a keynote person, you are the type of person I would want. Because I also know that you're not just going to inspire me and leave, you're going to inspire me and then walk with me all those other steps of the way so that I am staying inspired. And so thank you for that, for thinking about that process and staying with people as they continue to navigate those challenges.

SPEAKER_01 43:34

Oh, I appreciate that so much, Krista. That just makes my heart happy. And this conversation has made my heart happy. I still have the rest of the day to go. And I'm like, all right, what can I get done? Let's do this.

SPEAKER_00 43:44

Well, and and full disclosure here too, I'm thinking, okay, so I have these three factors and I walk people through these different steps with roles and responsibilities, but it can be tighter, it can be better. And I have your book. I Downloaded the version I can keep on my computer. So you are going to be helping me refine and deepen my work. And so full disclosure too, I'm giving you full credit on that when I'm talking with people. Go for it. But you're providing people with the bigger picture that this applies, no matter what they're looking for, just clarity in general. And I think that has really broad appeal. So those of you listening, please reach out to Casey. Check her out on LinkedIn. I know you do your own live conversations with people to dig more into this. Get the book. And if you're looking for ways to have a partner with you as you're working in leadership and reaching students, Casey is the person to contact. So thank you, Casey, for your time and sharing with us. And I hope we'll get to see you back on another episode as you can continue to evolve your work and share more pointers and tips on how we can navigate forward in education.

SPEAKER_01 45:00

Yeah. Thanks for having me, Krista. This has been so much fun. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 45:09

Thank you for being part of the SEL in EDU family. As you move into the rest of your day, I invite you to notice one small way social emotional learning showed up in your thinking, your relationships, or your work. Until next time, take care of yourself and keep making space for meaningful connected learning.