Why Your Teachers Have No Idea What You Want ft. Casey Watts | Transformational Educators Ep. 28

What if the gap between confusion and commitment in your school is not effort, but clarity?

In this episode of Transformational Educators, Dr. Matthew Flippen sits down with Casey Watts, a team leadership consultant with over 20 years in education and author of The Craft of Clarity. Casey shares how school leaders can communicate expectations, build trust, and help teams move from uncertainty to shared ownership through her six-step clarity cycle framework.

Together, they explore why “clarity precedes capacity,” how leaders can stop spinning their wheels with repeated problems, and why gaining insight from teachers and staff is essential for sustainable school improvement. Casey also shares the story of a school that used the clarity cycle framework to double in size while maintaining 100% staff retention.

This conversation is for principals, aspiring administrators, teacher leaders, and education teams who want to lead with purpose, build trust, and create lasting change in their schools.

Connect with Casey Watts:
LinkedIn
Book
YouTube

🔗 Explore Gracelyn University’s online programs and leadership resources

Transformational Educators | School Leadership Stories

Thank you for listening to Transformational Educators, where we share real stories of servant leadership, trust-building, and purpose-driven change in schools.

📖 Read Dr. Matthew Flippen’s new book, Win With Your Talent Pipeline

📅 New episodes release every Thursday at 6 AM CT.

Watch and subscribe on YouTube.

If today’s conversation inspired you to lead with courage and care, share it with another educator or school leader. Together we can build schools that truly transform lives.

Produced by APodcastGeek

Transcript

Casey Watts 0:00

Clarity precedes capacity. A clarity-driven leader is someone that people can trust and someone that has great influence.

Dr. Matthew Flippen 0:07

Casey Watts is an education leadership consultant with over 20 years in education and the author of The Craft of Clarity. She developed a six-step framework that is transforming how school leaders communicate, build trust, and move their teams from confusion to commitment.

Casey Watts 0:22

We've got two different narratives at play. We have the narrative of administrators who have felt as though they've set expectations, but then on the opposite end of that, we have teachers who say, we have no idea what's going on.

Dr. Matthew Flippen 0:37

In this episode, you'll learn how the Clarity Cycle Framework gives school leaders six repeatable steps to align their teams, why the gap between what administrators communicate and what teachers understand is the real barrier to student outcomes, and how one school used this approach to double in size while keeping 100% staff retention. I'm Dr. Matthew Flippin, and this is Transformational Educators. Let's start at the moment when you first recognized that something needed to change in the way strategies were being implemented. What did that look like? Where were you?

Casey Watts 1:11

Yeah, well, I can tell you exactly the moment where I recognized there is such pressure that we're feeling. And I can't couldn't pinpoint exactly like where is this pressure coming from? But I remember getting through a meeting and finally recognizing, oh my goodness, we are lacking clarity that what's happening here. So I just want you to imagine. So I was a district instructional specialist for a while. And my role was to support both administrators and their teachers. So I had like a more of a coaching role with the administrators and then supported their teachers and whatever it is they were rolling out or initiatives or anything that they were implementing. So after meeting with administrators of a primary campus, they said, we're going to send some first grade teachers over. We want them to build some common formative assessments for math so we can have more consistent and accurate data over time. So first grade teachers come into our training room in the building where I worked. They looked like they were ready, right? Like they had their teacher bags, those big ones that you felt like you could fit your entire life in. And they started pulling out their laptops and their notebooks and their cute, like paper make, colorful pens. And so, from my perspective, these teachers are ready to roll. They know exactly what they're doing and how they're going to get there. So we finished the normal conversation, you know, just checking in with each other, how's life going? And as I find a lull in the conversation, I say what I usually say. And that is, okay, well, tell me about where you want to get started and how I can support you today. And it was like a glass wall of tension shot up between me and these teachers. And it was that really awkward silence. And I suddenly was hyper-aware of those really offensive fluorescent lights and the stuffiness of the room. And I gave it a little bit of time, you know, just let this awkward silence carry on until someone speaks up, but no one said anything. So I probed further and I said, okay, tell me about what you understand about the expectations for today's work. Like, what do you know about what we're doing today? And again, there was some awkward silence. I noticed one of the teachers pulling out her phone, like, I've got a text I need to get to real quick. Or another was tapping her pen and kind of looking around, like, who's gonna speak up? And then there was the third teacher. There were only three of them there. But the third teacher, she is she was one of those that, and we all have these teachers on our campuses, they're going to say what everybody else is thinking. And a lot of the times we're grateful for that. And I was grateful for that in this moment. So finally she spoke up and she said, Casey, honestly, we never know what's going on. We don't know what's expected of us. We were told that we were going to come over here. You were going to give us assessments, and we were supposed to implement them with fidelity. And so immediately I recognized, oh my gosh, this is where the pressure is coming from. We've got two different narratives at play. We have the narrative of administrators who have felt as though they've set expectations. They've told people time and again, like, this is what we are doing, this is an initiative we're working toward, or the goals. But then on the opposite end of that, we have teachers who say, we have no idea what's going on or what role we play. And as I look back over time, from that moment, I recognize this in so many different situations across my career, even situations that I had myself as a classroom teacher, or situations where I was a leader getting frustrated that people were not getting on board with something. Well, what is it? Oh, we've got a we've got a gap among the adults. So how in the world are we going to bridge the gap in student learning if there's a lack of clarity? So that's really what I like to say is kind of the major origin story and where we decided, okay, let's start to gain clarity. What does that look like? And we put a process to it.

Dr. Matthew Flippen 5:29

So you started to form a concept around clarity as a skill set. What did that journey look like? And when you started to test this framework that you were developing, what's what did you start to see happen?

Casey Watts 5:45

So one of the things that happened after that meeting, um, and I didn't realize it at first. So I didn't name this, we're going to go through the clarity cycle framework from that point. It was just, what is it that we are going to do so we can bridge this gap among the adults? Um, so everybody feels more confident, more like they have the capacity to then turn around and go to classrooms and do the great work that they were hired to do. And so we paused the meeting. I said, you know what? I'm gonna give you, you're here. I'm gonna give you this day to focus on some other things outside of this that you feel like you need to focus on. Teachers always have things they can do, and they're grateful for the time to collaborate together because they don't get that. And I headed directly over to the campus to meet with administrators. And we just started from the very beginning and I said, we've got to talk about what the thing is that we're wanting to do and why we're wanting them to do it. Because we were thinking about the what, we weren't thinking about the why, like what is this going to produce? And so after we did that, I said, okay, we now if we know the what and the why, then how are we going to communicate that so they actually will get on board and commit versus being compliant? And so it just kind of went from there. We I we went through the whole process and months later, I started implementing some of those same things that I did in that moment with teams that would come over for like PD, or if I was meeting with campus administrators, I would say, let's go through this process. And I remember getting home one day and I, oh my gosh, it's just so vivid. Sitting on my couch, journal in hand, I journal just about every day, just as a reflection. And I was thinking, surely people need steps for this. Like I had a teacher one time say, she was about to become an administrator, and she said, How do you get everyone on the same page? Well, I just point blank said, Well, you know, you've got to like get them around a common focus and then cast vision and script critical moves. You know, that's that's kind of what what I typically do. And she said, Yeah, that's not gonna work. That that doesn't give me any details. So that's the moment I went home and I was like, what are the details? What are the steps that we've been going through? So therein lies the clarity cycle framework. And you mentioned it. It yes, I do take people through a series of steps. It is six steps to go through the clarity cycle framework, but these six steps are truly leadership habits that we're building, like clarity-driven leadership habits. We break it down into three big components. It's define the destination, transfer ownership, and then sustain progress or sustain the shift. So if we break that down even further, it goes into six steps. So we want to determine an area of focus. That's our big umbrella. That's the one thing we're focused on on this campus or in this district. Then we look at that area of focus and we analyze it so we can create just one or two goals that are going to help us to reach that overarching focus. But then we go into gaining insight from stakeholders. This is where we start to transfer ownership. So they own it, and we as administrators don't own it on our own shoulders. After we gain insight from our people, we start to cast vision and script critical moves so they know where we're headed and how we're going to get there. And then finally, the last two steps: one is providing feedback regularly and celebrating systematically. And the final step is calibrating to sustain progress. In other words, how are we going to, as leaders, intentionally set aside time across the school year to go back into these other steps? Because remember, they are habits that we're building. I always want to have the habit of gaining insight for my people. I always want to build the habit of casting vision for my people. So that those were the six steps that I developed. And then I took that and started implementing it, like I said, with other teams, with other campuses in the district. And then it spread to other um other schools outside of my district.

Dr. Matthew Flippen 10:13

I think about, you know, uh transformational leaders that we have captured their um stories, you know, they tend to start with building deep relationships and trust, trusted relationships on their campuses. And and I think about that as the foundation so that when you step into really seeking input and insights, right, and trying to set a common vision and have this collaborative kind of discussion, you gotta, you gotta have trusted relationships to even walk into that kind of conversation.

Casey Watts 10:47

Yeah, so I want to stop there and talk about that for a second because it kind of reminds me about, you know, which came first, the chicken or the egg. Well, it's kind of a back and forth. Like I want to gain, or I want to gain clarity for myself as leader, but I want to create it for my people so that I can build trust. I want to build trust so that I can gain clarity. And then it just can continues in that cycle, you know.

Dr. Matthew Flippen 11:11

It's totally reinforcing, Luke, because asking for input and asking for insight is one of the steps of building trust. And so as you, I understand, I can imagine as you repeat this framework in cycles, your level of rapport and trust deepens and deepens. And in some ways, the process probably speeds up, not infinitely, but uh, but definitely in the way your team can attack new strategies going forward as clarity becomes a uh practice, common practice. Is that what you've seen?

Casey Watts 11:45

Absolutely. In fact, when I work with um districts, the the campuses that have the most success are those where when I walk on campus, I typically will do a campus analysis visit. And one of the things I get to do there is interview teachers. And when I pull them in, my first question is if someone was to come to you and ask about what your campus is focused on this year, what might you say? Well, those schools that have gained insight regularly and have cast vision, their people are able to confidently say, well, we're focused on this, and this is how we're doing it. They know the teachers know they own it.

Dr. Matthew Flippen 12:26

So yeah, walk, walk me through an example, a school that you visited, maybe change the names uh to protect the innocent. But one that you walked into and you and you found that clarity was really broken and that and that it connected to outcomes that were less than than desired.

Casey Watts 12:45

Oh, I I wish I didn't have any of these these examples, but I do, and it's the whole reason we do the work, right? So what a a key indicator that clarity is missing is typically when, number one, I'm working with it could it could go two ways. I'm working with an instructional leadership team who's chosen to go through like the clarity cycle framework. And when we start, uh we always have an area of focus, right? And it's fairly broad, it's typically attached to their campus improvement plan in some way. But they struggle to analyze that area of focus and it continuously changes and they they can't decide what to land on. So that's an indicator number one, we're lacking clarity, but it means that we're not able to use our data effectively or analyze our data to decide what truly is going to move the needle. We look at sometimes superficial data, or we look at one layer of data. Whereas when I'm working with instructional leadership teams who are looking at like triangulated data, they're looking at qualitative and quantitative, and it all points to one primary area of focus, they're gonna be able to hit the ground running. So I'm working with this instructional leadership team, and it is a it's so evident they're struggling to identify an area of focus. We go through two full days of PD. In the school year, I go for a campus analysis visit, the first campus analysis visit, and they still are struggling to identify what their area of focus is. They think they have an idea, but they're not quite sure. Well, come to find out, they had never gone to their teachers to gain insight. And that was really evident when I met with teachers for teacher interviews, and I said, tell me about what your area of focus is. I got every answer you could imagine, except for what the instructional leadership team was thinking about focusing on. And it went as far as some people saying, you know, we have a different focus every single year. And so I just kind of do what I usually do. I mean, I've been here forever, and so uh everything I do works for me. And I don't know what's happening in other people's classrooms. So you can see those disconnected pieces where we're kind of functioning as a group of people who are co-working, coexisting, but there's not really any collaboration going on. We are coming to school to survive.

Dr. Matthew Flippen 15:28

Yes, right. And I think about like so how do you move the outcomes for children that you want to see improve when everyone's going their their own direction, their own strategy. You're not, you're not gonna get that movement. So obviously I would think that in that scenario, outcomes are are not improving. So walk walk me through the the a the different case, right? And maybe it takes some time to progress there. And may hopefully this one that you're telling me about improved as they got more time with you.

Casey Watts 15:56

Yes, they did improve. So they finally determined an area of focus. After the campus analysis visits, I sit down and have a very frank conversation with instructional leadership teams, and we make a plan moving forward because really that's the beauty of the Clarity Cycle Framework. It's not a one and done. Like we are continuously going through those different pieces of it. And so they just kind of reset and move forward. The second time I did a campus analysis visit, oh my goodness, it's I get chills thinking about it. But number one, the teachers knew what to expect when we did teacher interviews. And they knew one of the questions was, what is your your campus focused on? So they knew it was coming, which was brilliant because they were probably asking when she comes and she asks this question. What, what should I say? I'm okay with them doing that because in doing that, they are the the leaders are able to cast more vision and they are able to gain more clarity about where where is it that we're headed and how are we getting there. Um, so yeah, definite turnaround there. Yes, it does take time. So, you know, one of the things that we look at when we're going through the clarity cycle framework, we're always trying to strive for student improvement. We want improvement in student outcomes. Usually people are looking at like assessment data for that. And so I have to challenge leaders to look beyond that. We're looking at, yes, assessment data, but that's one small piece of the big picture. Are we looking at engagement from students? Are we looking at climate and culture, not just as it relates to teachers and staff on your campus, but also are your students eager to come to school? Do parents have clarity about what's happening in their school life? So we're looking at all of those different pieces. And in doing so, we might recognize: okay, this kind of change is going to take a little bit longer, or it's going to take us looking at it differently and not always relying on that end-of-year assessment data. Uh, but one of the schools that went through this, and I am going to name them because they deserve all the credit. They need to hear it. Uh, so it's uh Emmick Hebrew Academy, it's in Los Angeles. They have gone through the great thing about this is they went through the Clarity Cycle Framework Training. And then I worked with them for a full year and a half, and now they are going through this completely on their own as a leadership team continuously. They have had this same area of focus for two years now, going on three. Their school has doubled in size. Now, when that happens, sometimes a leader's like, how are we going to pull all of these new people? Because they have new staff members coming in. How are we going to pull them into the fold of what we've been doing? And the leader of this campus, Michelle Andron, has done a phenomenal job of really thinking about I'm going to look at each of these steps of a clarity-driven leader. And I'm going to make sure from the get-go, when we all come together for training at the beginning of the year, we're showcasing our clarity journey. And so it's so interesting because they've had 100% staff retention from one year to another going through the clarity cycle framework and then pulling in these new staff members. These new staff members are getting to see what is it that our focus is? How is that impacting retention, campus culture, climate? What are the non-negotiables then for us as staff members coming into this? Can you imagine how people would feel if that's what you're talking about from the beginning of the school year? Talk about feeling a sense of belonging. And that's what they've created is a sense of belonging. And it's not just the leader that's created the sense of belonging. It's because she's modeled all of this for her staff that they now are the ones that are taking ownership and being clarity-driven leaders themselves.

Dr. Matthew Flippen 20:16

I think sometimes that clarity, the ability to communicate clearly, is viewed as a superpower. It's a superpower that Casey has it, but I don't have it. And that actually is an excuse, right? Because it's not a superpower. It's a discipline that we can all learn and implement. And the framework that you've developed, I think is a brilliant way to continuously improve in uh clarity and communication and having your team on board. Yeah, it's really such great examples. What's a what is a common way that this gets derailed?

Casey Watts 20:54

Typically, two things. Number one, a leader is trying to go at it on their own instead of developing an instructional leadership team. And I want to speak really specifically to that. A leadership team, sometimes we think of our administrators, right? But your instructional leadership team goes beyond just the administrators. So I challenge people to think of who are the teachers, not just the teachers, though, who might be other staff members like we I've even noticed a campus that I worked with uh last year, they had one of their custodial staff members on their leadership team. And it was just fascinating for this uh janitorial staff member to be able to know behind the scenes like, what is it that we're trying to do here? And how do I, as a janitor, help that? Like, how do I help people to move along in this way? So we we failed to develop a strong instructional leadership team that goes beyond. Just administrators. But then the other piece that derails it is not gaining insight. And we struggle to, I think people struggle sometimes to want to gain insight because they're afraid that when I gain insight, it's going to become an event session. Or they want to justify things when they're gaining insight. And when you're gaining insight, you're truly just asking the questions and listening. And that can be tough for people. It takes, as you said, it takes practice. It's a skill.

Dr. Matthew Flippen 22:31

Yeah. And I think that is common in a lot of different approaches, right? I mean, if we if we don't build uh collaboration, if we don't have a collaborative mindset, I mean, that's a that is a thing. We can that my team is more capable than I am as a leader because they are, you know, this distributed leadership type type of model. And um, and then yeah, if we if we miss the insight, if we're not, if we're not gaining feedback and input, and we really thrive off of that. I mean, you know, there's no way we can know everything that's going on and how well something is being implemented without asking. And, you know, you mentioned earlier about assessment data. You know, I view assessment data as a lagging indicator, right? It lags all the work that's been done. And so, you know, trying to find leading indicators, which are some of the other things you mentioned, what are the things that are going to predict that assessment uh outcome? Uh, and you mentioned it, you know, those leading indicators are culture, right? Stakeholder engagement, you know, do students want to come? I mean, that that aspect, you know, attendance is even one part. These are some very critical ones that uh your walkthrough data. Yes. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Casey Watts 23:43

Pure observations. There's so many different things that I think we don't give enough credit to.

Dr. Matthew Flippen 23:49

Yes. So you've mentioned, you know, how your work connects directly to data. And I think that is a key, that is a key input when you're developing uh clarity. So it seems that there is a a struggle at times to connect data to behavior change or strategy. Uh have you found that that is a central focus, an important element?

Casey Watts 24:12

Yeah, but and I find though that it is typically because we focus so heavily on um standardized assessments or, you know, even end-of-unit assessments. So those numerical, the quantitative data, um, and less on qualitative data, but there's so much that qualitative data can show us, and really even quantitative, like we we just have to look at it more intentionally than what we're accustomed to looking at it. So I just want you to imagine when we have teachers or even administrators lay out numbers, we typically are drawn, or or could it could be that it's been the practice that we've always observed. We lay it out and we look at high, middle, low, right? We're looking at those numbers, we're looking at the standard, and that's kind of where it stops. But we've got to take it to that next level, and that's the why level. And very few people actually get there. And sometimes it's because of lack of time. And sometimes it's because we just don't have the protocols or the uh coaching to be able, like someone facilitating that conversation for it to be as effective as it could be. So yeah, I think that's where the connection is challenging.

Dr. Matthew Flippen 25:34

That makes perfect sense. And there are, and there, I mean, it's important to recognize there are time is so limited and so precious in trying to accomplish everything you need to and um focus on uh on clearly communicating, developing clarity. I mean, in in some ways, I can see that it is a challenge for a leader who hasn't gone through this to say, I don't have time for that, right? Because it is some front-end heavy work. It takes time to listen and get input. That that takes an enormous amount of time. But the consequence for that seems like what you're trying to get accomplished won't happen if you haven't laid the groundwork and built the collaboration.

Casey Watts 26:17

Yeah, you'll continue to spin your wheels and see the same problems again and again and again. And I think that's often where we start to fall into burnout mode is oh my gosh, this is the same problem that we were solving last year and the year before. And if you'll notice, a lot of the times those campus improvement plans, they don't really change that much. It's the same verbiage again and again, making our campus improvement plans feel like just a checklist. And it never goes further than the binder or the document that it's in.

Dr. Matthew Flippen 26:51

Sure. No, that makes sense. So this this time of year, when we're looking forward to you know, the another August coming up seems like a good time for leaders to invest in understanding this framework and how to collaborate, you know, to develop uh plans going forward. How can our listeners follow your work, Casey, and connect to really deepen, you know, their own education in this?

Casey Watts 27:18

Yeah. So two things. Well, number one, I want to say of everything that you've heard in this episode today, listeners, I hope that the one thing that you gain is that clarity precedes capacity. So, regardless of whether you follow my work or you you take on the clarity cycle framework, just know that a clarity-driven leader is someone that people can trust and someone that has great influence. So I want to say that first. And then if you want to know more about how the craft of clarity can make a significant impact on your people, but also on your personal life, you can go to catchingupwithcasy.com. You will see all of the ways to gain clarity with me there.

Dr. Matthew Flippen 28:01

Fantastic. So it and some of those are uh Casey's written a wonderful book on the craft of clarity. She's got a new book that's hopefully going to come out sometime later this year. She hosts an very insightful podcast as well. So I encourage everyone to listen to that as well. Casey, I really do appreciate you taking time uh to talk to us about clarity and and the importance uh of this from a leadership standpoint. Uh, you know, I would go so far to say if you're not developing clarity, you're spinning your wheels, I think is the way that you that you've um uh said it. And and ultimately, uh developing this practice is what's best for your for your team and for the children uh that you serve. So thank you again for for being part of this. It's great to have you on the show today. So if you've found today's episode valuable, please share it with a colleague or an educator that would benefit. And if you haven't already, please follow Transformational Educators so you never miss an episode and keep leading with purpose and transforming schools into places where everyone thrives. If today's conversation gave you fresh insight or inspired you to lead with purpose, please follow the show and tell a friend. It helps us reach more educators who want to make a difference. For more stories, resources, and tools to support your leadership journey, visit Graceland.edu. Until next time, keep leading with courage and care. If you want to keep learning about transformational strategies in education, click the next video.