What’s more important than the first day?!

It’s a big week in our house: the first full week of school! My kids were apparently some of the last children in America to go back to school; they started last Thursday. All three are starting at new schools, in new cities, and while there were definitely some first day jitters heading into it, I am so proud of how they faced their fears, held their heads up and went into the year.

My kiddos last week!

I spent a lot of time during my First Day prep here thinking about previous first days in my career:

• my first day of school as a teacher ever (in the same system my kids are now attending),

• my first day teaching on a peanut field in North Carolina (and the following first days where I taught the same group of students, which always added a neat first day reunion feel)--

• and of course, the day the school I founded opened its doors for the first day ever, plus at that school…the first day of our new high school, and our first day remotely during the 2020-2021 school year.

No matter how many years you’ve been doing this or what position you hold, the beginning of the year is always so busy and full: full of promise, opportunity, energy after some time off over the summer to recharge. It’s a time of fresh starts and new beginnings, and can carry a lot of hope and expectations with it.

Early in my career, I pinned a lot of hopes on the first day going perfectly.

Later, when I was older and wiser, I realized that a) there is really no such thing  as a perfect day (especially when you have so many humans in the mix) and b) I would expend a disproportionate amount of energy to get that day exactly right—often depleting my tank for the roughly 179 school days that followed. 

Much more importantly than getting any first day perfect was recognizing that it might be a little creaky–kind of like getting a car to start after a long hiatus, or getting up from the couch after your legs have fallen asleep while you’ve been binge-watching. It’s a little creaky, takes a little time to get going and that’s okay.

Rather than putting my energy into getting one day right, I learned as early as my second year teaching to think instead about routines: what would be the daily or weekly elements to incorporate into our routines to make every day and week pretty good. Of course, all those didn’t roll out on Day 1, but by envisioning what I wanted for all the components of an effective Day 30 to look like, I could then backwards-map what I wanted to see happen and start introducing elements of those routines and having students invest in them.  Whether it was our Word Wall games or our Feeling of the Week, learning really took off when I focused not on any one particular lesson, but on what we did repeatedly over time.

Leadership is the same way. Just a few weeks ago, I did a deep dive with one of my clients on meeting routines: after all, when you think of how much of your team’s time and energy is spent in meetings, dedicating some time to think about what routines you build helps give some structure to the meetings in a way that yields what you want: in this particular client’s case, a regular way to celebrate wins and keep morale up even through some changes, as well as a chance to reflect on where the core values were showing up in their school every day.

The First Day is a big milestone–much like Opening Day of baseball season. It happened! It went! We were all in our positions and we tried to do the things we were supposed to do! There are literally around 160 games to go after that–and making it to the World Series isn’t at all predicated on how the first day goes. Sure, the bones are there–the skeleton–the foundation–but consistently working your routines, keeping your eye on the goal and adjusting midcourse is essential. If your first day didn’t go as planned–fear not. If the school year is feeling like it hasn’t worked out all the kinks yet–yup, normal.

To be clear I’m not saying “don’t aim for excellence.”

I am not saying “be satisfied with ah eh day.”

What I’m saying is that if your First Day felt challenging–they often do. If you’re pretty happy with how it went–great, how can you build? If you want to keep and capture that spirit throughout the school year, then what can you do regularly that will ensure a high level of productivity and excellence in outcomes?

Want to talk about this? Let me know — it’s never too late to set up for a great year.