Gossip Isn’t PD, But It Trains Your Culture

Culture isn’t a mystery; it’s a mirror that shows what leaders allow and what leaders do. We unpack a practical path to stop guessing about your school’s culture and start measuring it with the same rigor you bring to test scores and attendance. Using our Building Bridges Blueprint, we walk through four connected pillars—leadership and communication, collaboration and teamwork, staff wellness and morale, and growth and recognition—and show how each one can strengthen (or shake) the entire school.

You’ll hear why relying on vibes undermines retention, performance, and student success, and how a short staff culture audit can surface the truth fast. We share clear, ready-to-use survey prompts that reveal whether people feel informed, heard, connected, and recognized. Then we translate the data into action: tighten expectations and follow-through, carve out time for cross-team connection, reduce low-value tasks to protect energy, and celebrate wins publicly and consistently. Recognition is free, but consistency is what makes it powerful.

We also name the quiet habits that corrode culture—ignoring gossip, avoiding tough conversations, and mistaking slogans for strategy—and replace them with steady leadership moves that build trust. When you gather feedback, share the results, and act visibly, morale rises and the work gets lighter. That’s how culture drives every number you track.

Ready to lead on purpose? Send your culture survey before the month ends, grab the free audit by emailing ed at edwarddesher.org or messaging on Instagram, and tell us where you’ll start. If this helped, subscribe, share with a colleague, and leave a quick review so more educators can find it.

www.EdwardDeShazer.org

Transcript

Welcome And Purpose

SPEAKER_01 0:00

School culture isn't a mystery. It's a mirror. It reflects what leaders allow and what leaders do. If you're an educator that's passionate, but you're tired and you're burnt out and you're wondering what to do next.

SPEAKER_00 0:12

This is the show for you. We're gonna learn together, we're gonna recharge together, and we're gonna grow together so you can be the best you and serve your students and your community to the best of your ability.

Why Culture Must Be Measured

Sponsor: Rise Mushroom Coffee

The Building Bridges Blueprint

Pillar One: Leadership And Communication

Pillar Two: Collaboration And Teamwork

Pillar Three: Staff Wellness And Morale

Pillar Four: Growth And Recognition

Start With A Culture Audit

Using Feedback To Act

Why Culture Fails And How To Fix It

Weekly Challenge And Closing

SPEAKER_01 0:27

What's going on, Pod? Welcome back to the Teachers Ed Podcast. I'm your host, Edward Sazer. Teachers Ed Podcast is the place where the best and brightest in education come to be inspired, to connect, uh to learn, and to grow. If you are new here, if this is your first episode, welcome to the community. Uh, if you've been rocking with me for a while, uh, you know and understand that Teachers Ed Podcast uh is a community that was developed to help teachers, help school leaders, help schools, help educators, uh, create stronger culture, stronger people, uh, and just better educators all the way around. If you enjoyed today's episode, please do me a huge favor. Please give us a like on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify if you're listening. Uh please leave us a written review. That's the best way to continue to get us in front of other dynamic educators like yourself. If you are watching this on YouTube, hit the little thumbs up button down there and leave us a comment if you're able to. If you're driving, don't do any of that. I don't want you to get in an accident. Do it when you get a chance later. All right, jumping right in. What we're gonna be talking about and what these next this episode and the next four episodes are gonna be diving deeper into it is school culture. Uh the foundation of every great school. Um, we're talking about culture. We all say it matters, but the truth is we do not always treat it with the same seriousness that we give everything else in education. We love data when it comes to schools, we track attendance, we track standardized tests, we track um, you know, scores of kids, we track the phonics, we track the sounds that kids can do, we track everything in schools, we run reports on reading growth, we're checking graduation rates, you know, student discipline, all of these things. But when it comes to culture, when it comes to how our staff feels, how they communicate, how they are connected, we just take a wild guess, we go off vibes. Uh we assume things are fine because nobody's complaining aloud. But what I want you to take a second and think about, we would never teach that way. Let me stop myself because I've seen we should never teach that way. There are some people that you go in a classroom, you can tell they're just they're just going. Um, we would never say, I feel like my students are reading better and just leave it at that. You know, what we do is we collect data, we check fluency scores, we analyze comprehension, we look at the growth that our students are having. But when it comes to culture, when it comes to the heartbeat of a building, we fly blind. We let data dictate everything that we do in schools, except for how we treat people, except for how we communicate, and except for how we build, excuse me, relationships. This has to change because culture drives every other number that you track. When culture is healthy, people stay. When communication is clear, stress will drop for the most part. When staff feel appreciated, students feel it too. It will trickle down. And if you want better academic data, start collecting culture data. And before we get into the culture data, I want to uh take a quick break. I want to put you guys on to our podcast partner. Uh, if you're a coffee drinker like me, if you are someone that is like three cups in by 8 a.m., I want you to check out Rise Mushroom Coffee, R-Y-Z-E. It is packed with six different functional mushrooms that support focus, uh, help give you steady energy, helps with gut health, and even manages stress. For me, it is it has become a part of my morning routine. I actually just tried their their rise creamer, phenomenal, super easy to make. It tastes great and it keeps me locked in without the jitters or crash that coffee tends to give me. If you want to check it out, head over to Rise Superfoods, R-Y-Z-E, Superfoods.com, and use my code Edward DeShazer for 15% off your purchase. All right, let's keep it going. And if you've if someone that has heard me speak at um a conference, especially in the last year, you have heard me talk about the Building Bridges Blueprint. This is my framework that I realized I was creating years ago when I started to document all the things I was putting together. It is a framework for building strong school culture and it is built around four foundational pillars. And these four pillars are the foundation for every school that wants to grow, not just academically, but emotionally and relationally. So I want to just take a second and walk through them because these next episodes, we're gonna go deeper into each pillar. A pillar number one, and I'll let me also say these are to me, these transcend schools, these are organizational pillars. Pillar number one is leadership and communication. This is uh the first and most important pillar of organizational culture. Everything rises and falls on leadership. And that just doesn't just mean uh that the principal of the administrative team, it means anyone who influences the direction of a school. When this pillar is strong, expectations are clear. People know what's happening, they know why it's happening and where the school's headed. But when it's weak, confusion can grow, miscommunication spreads, and sometimes there's staff that will just kind of do their own thing and filling in the blanks with their own assumptions. And if you want to know how you're communicating and how your communication, your organization is doing, ask your people do you feel informed? Do you feel heard? Because leadership isn't about position, it is about clarity. The second pillar is collaboration and teamwork. This pillar is about connection. When collaboration is strong, teachers trust each other, they share ideas, they build off each other's strength, and they celebrate each other's wins. When it's weak, silos begin to form. Silos are one of the biggest things that you see in schools. And it's very easy because we are so busy. I don't have time as a second grade teacher to know what an eighth-grade teacher is doing. I don't have time as a math high school teacher to know what's going on in the English department. But these when these silo silos begin to form, grade levels stop talking, inner departments stop talking, uh these departments turn into little islands, and suddenly one team is rowing in the same direction, or instead of one team rowing in the same direction, you have 10 people paddling in circles. Great schools um operate like families, even though I don't like to call them families, because families you don't have a choice. You're with the you just get your family, it's chosen for you. Community is something that you get to choose on a day-to-day basis, but it does not mean it's gonna be perfect, but we need to make sure that it is united. The third pillar, staff wellness and morale. This pillar is about how your people feel. Because if teachers are exhausted, if teachers are underappreciated, if teachers are emotionally drained, it does not matter how strong your lesson plans are. That energy is going to trickle down to your students. When this pillar is healthy, staff feel supported, staff feel respected, staff feel valued, they have boundaries, they take care of themselves. When it's weak, burnout spreads, negativity may take over, and before you know it, the energy in your building starts to shift. The culture you feel when you walk into a school instantly tells you whether people are thriving or surviving. And the fourth one growth and recognition. This pillar is about development. When teachers feel like they're growing, they stay engaged. When teachers are when uh school leaders are invested in their staff, the morale will go up. Growth does not always mean new PD or fancy trainings. Sometimes it just means giving someone a new challenge, giving someone a new responsibility, or just a public thank you for something that someone did well. Recognition is free, but it is powerful. And yet it's often the thing as school leaders that we can forget the most. And each of these pillars, what I've learned through my 11 years of leadership, each of these pillars is connected. If one cracks, the whole bridge uh begins to shake. And that's why I'm starting this episode, and we're kicking off this five-part series. Um, and this episode is your foundation. And over the next four episodes, we're gonna go deeper into each one of these pillars: leadership and communication, collaboration, teamwork, staff, wellness and morale, and professional growth and recognition. We'll talk about what each one looks like, where they break down, how you can strengthen them in their building. But before we dive into these, there's something that you have to do first. Something that will give you a clear picture of where your culture really stands. You have to collect data. The same way you do it with your students when you do assessments. We need to collect and do an assessment of our school culture. And right now, this time of year is the perfect time to check your culture pulse. The honeymoon phase is over, routines are set, the staff has experienced enough of the year to answer honestly. It is time to send out your staff culture audit. And this isn't about criticism, it's not about judgment, it is about awareness, it is about you listening. You're gonna some of the questions you're gonna ask your staff do you feel valued and supported? Is communication clear and consistent? Do you feel like your voice is heard in decision making? Do you feel recognized for your work and for your effort? Do you feel connected to your colleagues? These questions are going to give you more insight than a dozen weekly staff meetings combined because culture is not built on assumptions, it's built on feedback. And I know what someone is sitting here thinking, I don't have time to build a survey from scratch. Where in the world can I come up with the questions to send out to my staff? But I've already done the work for you. That's the good news. I have created a ready-to-use school culture survey. It's a building, building the building bridges blueprint audit. And it's aligned with these four pillars. It's super simple, it's fast, and it's going to give you actionable data right away. Um, and if you're looking for it, please send me a message. Um, please send me an email, send me a message on Instagram, and I will make sure you get this survey for free. Not about to try to sell you anything. Toolkit, I sell that. The survey is free because you may take that data, know exactly what you need to do, and then you don't need anything else from me. But we use data for everything that we do in schools: test scores, attendance, growth, behavior, you name it. But when it comes to culture, most of us are flying blind. We go off feelings, we think the morale is good, we feel like communication is better. We would never say, I feel like my students are reading better and call it data. So why do we do that with our staff? Culture drives everything, it drives retention, it drives performance, it drives student success, and yet it is the one thing that schools never measure. I want us to stop guessing culture and start tracking it. The same way we use data to teach smarter. I want you as a school leader, as a as a whoever it is in your position in leadership, I want you to use data to lead better. And then once those surveys come in, the most important thing that you can do is listen with humility. Some of the feedback might sting. And that's okay. Do not get defensive, get curious. Look for patterns across the four pillars. If leadership and communication scores are low, that is your signal to improve how you communicate and follow through. If collaboration and teamwork is struggling, plan some intentional time for your staff for connection. Maybe that next PD, instead of doing something else, you focus on just getting your staff connected. If staff wellness and staff morale is dipping, maybe it is time for a reset, a wellness day, a shout-out board, or even taking some workload off some of your staff. If professional growth and recognition lags, find some small wins that you can highlight and celebrate them immediately. And whatever you do, I want you to share the results back with your staff. When people see that you asked, when people see that you listened and you took action, trust in you is going to skyrocket. That is how culture grows. And again, if you're looking for this survey, shoot me an email, ed at edwarddesher.org, or find me on Instagram, Edward DeShazer, and shoot me a message and say, hey, I listened to the episode. I would love to get this survey. Here is my email, and I will email you that survey for free. With me? Got it? As one of our teachers, you say capiche. Alright. Let's talk about the main reasons your school culture sucks. Number one, you don't address it. You see the gossip, you hear the gossip, you see the burnout, you see the negativity, but you're constantly looking the other way. Number two, you don't measure it. You assume it's fine until it's not. And number three, you don't model it. You preach teamwork, but you got everyone isolated. You talk about wellness, but you never get a break. Culture doesn't fall apart overnight. Culture crumbles in the silence of what we allow and what we do. So if your culture at your school is slipping, stop posting slogans in your email messages, stop you know, putting more pictures on the wall, start living it, measure it, address it, model it. That is how you fix a school's culture. And culture really isn't as complicated as some people make it seem. I've said this culture is what leaders consistently allow and what leaders consistently do. If you allow negativity, that is your culture. If you allow half blanked effort, that is your culture. If you allow staff members to gossip and to spread rumors and to create confusion behind leadership's back, that becomes your culture. If you ignore problems because it's uncomfortable for you to have that conversation, that becomes your culture. But if you consistently model communication, if you consistently model collaboration, if you consistently model wellness, if you consistently recognize your staff, that can become your culture too. You don't need some massive initiative to fix culture. You just you just you really just need to start being intentional with what you're measuring, how you're measuring it, and then how you respond to what you've measured. School culture isn't a mystery, it's a mirror. It reflects what leaders allow and what leaders do. If you allow gossip, that's your culture. If you allow burnout, that's your culture. But if you model consistently, celebration and care, that becomes your culture too. You can't control every person in your building. But you can control what you tolerate, you can control what you create. So here's my challenge to every person listening today, whether you're a leader of a school or just leader of a classroom, lead it on purpose, lead it with intention. Because if you don't lead your culture, your culture is going to lead you. So here's my challenge for the week. Before this month ends, I want you to send out the culture survey. If you need it, ask me. If you have something similar, send it out. Don't wait for the morale to dip. Don't wait for burnout to spread. Do it now. Proactive versus reactive. Culture isn't a feeling, it's feedback. Use that data to the guide to guide your leadership decisions, to strengthen your four pillars, and to keep your bridge strong. And don't forget, the next four episodes, we're gonna go deeper into each one. And that's it for today's episode. Uh, make sure you like, make sure you subscribe, make sure you share this with someone. Um, and let's stay connected, keep leading with purpose, and remember great culture is not built on accident. It is built by design. Appreciate y'all. See you next week.