The Importance Of A Good Diagnosis
This article is part of the 8 steps for Great Professional Development series.
Great PD starts with an honest diagnosis, which then feeds into the Change Management process. In fact, the product of moving through the first 3 stages of change should be an honest diagnosis that compels and guides people to act. Many leaders, though, only skim the surface when it comes to developing a diagnosis. They limit their diagnosis to the obvious and often frame it as some aspiration, something to ‘reach for’. They shortcut Stage 1 by largely relying on assumptions and move too quickly into Stage 3. To develop good diagnoses we need leaders that can call attention to a few critical factors that not only address deficiencies, but also when addressed will act as pivot points to multiply the effectiveness of effort.
To illustrate this point of why we can’t have good PD without a good diagnosis I will refer to Richard Rumelt’s Strategic Planning model from his book, Good Strategy / Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters. Rumelt’s model for creating good strategy he calls the kernel:
The kernel of a strategy contains three elements: a diagnosis, a guiding policy, and coherent action. The guiding policy specifies the approach to dealing with the obstacles called out in the diagnosis...Coherent actions are feasible coordinated policies, resource commitments, and actions designed to carry out the guiding policy
The kernel aligns with every stage for change management. As alluded to above, stages 1-3 produce the diagnosis, stages 4-5 are where guiding policies are developed and communicated and stages 6-8 ensure coherent action. This is no coincidence that these models are so compatible, as they are based on decades of documented best practice, going back as far as the 1950’s. Furthermore, both models are human-centered. Change fails more often than not, not necessarily because of people, but because we don’t plan with people in mind.
A good diagnosis begins with a simple, yet honest observation: "...my humanity and that of the people close to me has been elevated in ways that I haven't fully processed. My youngest daughter, who is a 2nd grader, has been clinging to me in ways that feel natural and good, and are also different from our pre-COVID-19 reality and all of our hustle-bustle. All three of my children seem more at peace and joyful in this new phase, which really provokes for me additional interrogation of our education system with particular focus on the student and family experience." Dr. Cheryl Camacho, the Chief of the South Bend Empowerment Zone in South Bend, Indiana, expressed this sentiment in a recent Forbes article on how educational leaders of color are responding to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dr. Camacho now needs to distil her observation, and subsequent interrogation, into a simple narrative that calls attention to the critical factors. Her honest appraisal has also identified pivot points, students and family, that if can be leveraged, will multiply the effectiveness of effort to effect change. This is the start of the diagnosis, an honest acknowledgement that simplifies the overwhelming complexity of reality. This developing diagnosis also has moral purpose, it calls attention to the impact on families. As this diagnosis develops it will dramatically influence what type of training is needed, for whom and how change will be evidenced.
