Over the past week or so, I read two LinkedIn posts that resonated with me. The first, from Michael Iannini, identifies the problem of school leaders and teachers being overwhelmed by November and needing a reset to return to growing rather than surviving. The second, from Conan Magruder, notes that more initiatives are being piled on top of those from last year, leading to exhaustion through a positive feedback loop of accumulating projects, with teachers and school leaders drowning as a consequence.

One of the solutions, “subtraction before addition”, provided by Magruder to solve this problem, is one that I often discuss with colleagues. As a first step, there is a need to assess what is currently on the table, or consider how many plates we have spinning at once.

Before contemplating new initiatives and projects in our schools, we must first fully understand what is required to maintain what we already have. We often overlook the fact that we already spend time reviewing and tweaking existing policies, processes and systems. If done well, this work is significant in its own right and should not be undervalued or disregarded. When policies, processes and systems are implemented well, they become the fabric of our schools, enabling them to function more efficiently and effectively.

Also on the table is the school’s strategic or improvement plan. These plans have their own set of actions, often involving new initiatives and projects that are going to take time to implement. This comes on top of what we are already maintaining, so the question is whether we have the time available for all of these initiatives in the plan. Too frequently, there is a lack of consideration of the amount and length of time needed to implement a project. When considering the resources needed beyond time, little thought is given as to whether more personnel are required.

As schools embark on their plans, new and unforeseen projects and tasks arise, sometimes with an urgency to do something immediately. Schools responding to the impact of artificial intelligence are one such example, or crisis events that may be beyond our control. All too often, however, projects and initiatives are not postponed, or plans are not revisited, to assess what is really feasible to achieve.

In essence, schools and their leaders need a reality check, as initiativitis is real and of great consequence to all those involved in improvement efforts. Over-ambition needs to be curbed, and a healthier approach to school improvement implemented.

Subtraction before addition is one way that we can make decisions about how much we take on in our schools. A stop, start, continue protocol can be used to do this. What are those things that we can take off the plate to allow room for something new?

This is a really challenging activity to do with a team, but it is a great one when we start to draw up a wish list of things that our schools could do without. What would happen if there were one less meeting per week? What if we only produced two report cards per year instead of four?

Deciding what to stop is hard; we are so used to adding things to the list. Conversations may morph into discussing what could be replaced or substituted. When we think about systems and processes, it is commonplace to mull over different ways of doing things in order to save time. Perhaps, substitution can be a method of subtraction before addition, though we need to proceed with caution here, as we are not always merely taking something away and then adding. In many cases, we need to factor in the time needed to develop the replacement before the existing part can be removed.

Subtraction is challenging, as it may involve difficult conversations and, in some instances, no longer pleasing one or more stakeholders in our school community, as we no longer do some of the things that we used to. But that is part of the improvement journey; it is OK to let something go. However, to keep adding without subtracting, we have a recipe for overwhelming both school teachers and leaders year after year.