From the Course:
Safe & Loved Schools

It happens all the time.

You have a great idea. Something you’re certain will make things better. So you introduce it to your team, hoping—and expecting—everyone to be just as excited. 

But not everyone gets on board. 

A few work against it. Sometimes quietly. Sometimes openly behind your back. It makes you angry. It makes you discouraged. And eventually, you give up because not everyone is participating and you feel like you’re failing. 

That’s a very human but wrong way to look at it. 

If you get 50% participation, you’re not failing. You’re doing well.
If a school has sixty staff members and thirty of them are with you, that’s thirty adults moving in the right direction. That is significant momentum. 

If you get 60–70%, you’re hitting a tipping point. At that level, culture begins to shift. The work starts pulling itself. All you have to do is stay steady, present, and focused long enough and eventually you will win. 

If you ever get more than 70%, celebrate. That’s rare in any field and that’s a real victory. 

So the real problem isn’t participation but perspective. 

We have a flaw in how we look at things. Five or ten difficult people make us forget the seventy or eighty who show up every day, doing the work, pouring their hearts into it, and helping our schools move forward. 

Don’t let a handful drag down the many and blind you to the momentum you’re building! 

Don’t let the loudest voices drown out the most faithful ones. 

Set your mind right now that you will not allow a small group to ruin it for everyone else. And try not to fix your vision on the negative. 

Instead, fix it on your purpose and the people doing the right things.
Don’t let your pursuit of 100% participation blind you to the fact that you can make tremendous progress with far less. 

Even if you only get half your team leaning in, you already have more than enough to improve the safety and culture of your school. 

You don’t need perfect participation. You need momentum.
And steady momentum is more important than total participation.