Some of you may have heard that TregoED’s analytic processes – “help us do the right things well.” But what are the right things? How do you know what initiatives are worth continuing to invest in – and which should be scaled back? As Ben Tregoe, Founder of Kepner-Tregoe and TregoED, used to say “if we are headed in the wrong direction, the last thing we need is to get there faster.”

Questions for Continuous Improvement
Continuous improvement helps ensure that we do things better – that we are tweaking and making changes to what we are doing to produce better results. But what if we shouldn’t be doing those things at all? Sometimes we need to step back enough to ask, “what things should we be doing – and how do we know?” We can’t answer this question without data – and the courage to perhaps jettison initiatives that might not be worthy or fitting.

Take a Closer Look
One district took a fearless look at their Special Education initiatives and programs. This can be difficult as inevitably dollars, time, and other resources have been invested in each one. Favorite initiatives may have anecdotes and passionate champions – but not necessarily correlating results. When district staff looked hard at specific data, they realized that:
– Some services were duplicative
– Some were much more effective than others
– There were some emerging and existing needs that lacked services at all.

Think, Plan, Act
This clarity helped the district eliminate duplications, determine which services to keep and improve, and add missing services. Without this more global and clear-sighted look, the district might have spent time and resources trying to make everything better while missing some needs and duplicating efforts of others. Sometimes we need to step back enough to be sure we are first doing the right things – then that we are doing them well! What does your district do to ensure the focus is in the right places?