Ira Porchia: I think that whenever anybody works in a business or in an institution or any kind of job, they want to feel included, they want to feel heard, they want to feel like what they say has some stake in what they’re doing. And so rounding, I think, has given the staff a way to have a voice, a way to feel value.

Introduction

[Intro music plays in the background.]

Janet Pilcher: Hello, everyone. Welcome to Accelerate Your Performance podcast, where we gather each week to share strategies for hardwiring excellence in education. I’m your host, Janet Pilcher.

Before we jump in, let me remind you that our podcast will have a name change. In January, Accelerate Your Performance will become Hardwiring Excellence in Education. So be on the lookout for that. I’ll still be bringing you the same content with inspiring leaders every week, just under a new name.

Today, I welcome two guests, Superintendent Ira Porchia and Assistant Superintendent Jennifer Marroquin, from Tulare City School District in California. Ira has dedicated all 27 years of his career to Tulare City, where he now serves as Superintendent. Prior to his current role, Ira was the district’s Director of Child Welfare and Safety.

Jennifer Marroquin, Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services, brings over 20 years of experience to education. She oversees a wide range of programs, including alternative education, special education, professional development, and more.

Listen today as Ira and Jennifer take a deep dive into the strategies and tactics they’re using to invest in their leadership teams and improve organizational culture in Tulare City.

And a quick note, this interview was recorded prior to our What’s Right in Education event, where Jennifer led an engaging breakout session. To stay updated with the latest conference content as it’s released, make sure to subscribe to Studer Education Insights at StuderEducation.com/subscribe. You won’t want to miss the great content we have and the presentations of our partners represented there. So let’s dive into the podcast.

Interview

Janet Pilcher: It’s with great pleasure that I welcome to our show today, Ira and Jen. Ira, welcome.

Ira Porchia: Thank you.

Janet Pilcher: Yeah, it’s so good to have you. So good to be connected with you all. And Jen, welcome. And I’ll see you in a couple of weeks at What’s Right in Education.

Jennifer Marroquin: Yeah. Looking forward to it. Thank you.

Janet Pilcher: Absolutely. So Ira, let’s start with you. We began our partnership. As we began, your district made a clear commitment to focus on the culture part of the work, an important part, for sure. And you invested your resources heavily in that belief that everyone deserves a coach to be at their best.

So in your role as superintendent, what are you seeing as the impact of your district-wide commitment to develop and sustain great leaders in your district?

Ira Porchia: Well, I think we’re seeing that our employees are back to having a sense of belonging and purpose. I think this will lead us to a higher level of engagement all the way around, better job satisfaction, and in the long run, better retention.

Janet Pilcher: Yes.

Ira Porchia: We all have great leaders, and we all know what it is to kind of be trained to go that direction. But I think that our partnership with you has been eye-opening because we are able to have some amazing people give us some amazing techniques and keep us motivated, which will in turn motivate our employees, which will in turn lead to productivity, creativity, and innovation. So we’re just thrilled that you guys are willing to step in and coach us and bring all of your knowledge into our wonderful district.

Janet Pilcher: Yeah. Thank you so much. And just the commitment to leaders, Ira. I think sometimes, I was talking to someone earlier today, and we were talking about that we pay so much attention, and rightfully so, to instruction and instructional leadership. And all of those pieces and parts are important. But sometimes we forget about the other aspect of just being a great leader and what that means. And really working with our people, helping our people be at the best that they can be so that they can provide the best to our students and families. I just want to compliment you all for making that commitment because that’s not a commitment that everyone makes. Does that make sense, Ira?

Ira Porchia: Yes ma’am. Yeah. And I can definitely tell you. So sometimes I think it’s hard to make that commitment because we’re fearful of really taking a look at ourselves as leaders. And I think that being willing to just step back and say, “how can I fine tune my leadership in order to make the biggest impact?” And again, being able to partner with a group that actually works so well with those that they partner with, just couldn’t be happier with how you guys have stepped in and helped us fine tune our leadership.

Janet Pilcher: That’s great. Thank you. And that’s, you know, I think that that’s right. I love what you just said. It’s just really, sometimes it’s hard for us to have to look in the mirror. I’ve been in a leadership position over three decades now. The other thing I always say is, “I’m still learning, you all.” [laughs] You never, you never learn–I mean, you never get to the point where you say, “I’ve mastered this thing called leadership,” because as soon as you do, you’re humbled in a very significant way based on something that you have to manage through. And but the support that we need to provide to each other and the skills that are needed are just show great commitment.

You know, so Jen, let’s talk a little bit about, you’ll be with us at What’s Right in Education, presenting a topic on Nurturing and Sustaining District-wide Leadership Development to talk a little bit about the work that you all do. So if a leader from another district, let’s say, came to you for advice on where to begin with developing their own leaders like you all have done, you know, what advice would you give them?

Jennifer Marroquin: Well, I actually really enjoy getting to put the presentation together because it was an opportunity to document the work that our district has done and to truly get clear on what are the things that we are doing that are making an impact. And so I really enjoyed that process.

And I think one of the things first that I would say is that our district was committed to was going slow to go fast. Oftentimes, we make decisions and we get excited. We want to do a lot in a short amount of time, but oftentimes we will leave people in the dust and not necessarily or clearly communicate the “why” behind it. So then you have a very small group of individuals moving forward.

Janet Pilcher: Yeah.

Jennifer Marroquin: Where our district, we were really wanting to move a big amount, which is why when we were talking about like the investment that we’re making is we wanted to not just move a small group. We wanted to move all of our leaders at the same time. So I would say that would be one.

But another thing is like the leader rounding. We really focused on the culture because if your culture is not right, we were finding we could apply tons of strategies, but nothing was going to be impactful and we weren’t going to move the needle on making a difference if we didn’t have people that believed in the work that we were doing. So like, leader rounding was new to us and really provided that opportunity for us to one, make a conscious effort to invest and get to know those on our campuses.

I think, too, if I was giving advice, one thing that I commend our district on right now is that we are not just focusing on the academic side of the house.

Janet Pilcher: Mmmhmm.

Jennifer Marroquin: We are focusing on the operational side. So I can say one piece of difference that we’ve made is that every single employee from the superintendent to the assistant superintendent to principals, to custodians, to nurses, all of them, we are conducting leader rounding with at least three times a year. And so I feel like that has really kind of helped with our culture.

Janet Pilcher: Yeah, it’s so interesting. And again, congratulations in the way that you’ve structured that with all leaders. And what I’ve found, as I’ve done the podcast, so I have over 350 episodes now, and it’s hard to believe. We’ve been at this for a while, but if we were to go back and analyze the episodes, leader rounding, rounding, is one of our top tactics in terms of really having the biggest payoff. And you know it’s so powerful. So easy in concept, but when you make the commitment like you all have where you’re going to do it, and you’re going to have the expectations, and it’s not just going to be a pocket, Jen and Ira, or it’s going to be really across the board, I mean, you really begin to see impact.

So I mean, just what types of, as you all are thinking about it and you’ve rounded, what have been some of the positive outcomes from the culture piece?

Jennifer Marroquin: Well, I can share is just the connections. Like we are getting to know more about our employees. We are actually getting to know more about the work that they do, and what are things that are challenging for them or things that are going well. Because oftentimes, I think we as leaders assume we know what is happening or what they’re thinking. But when we make that conscious effort to sit for the 15 minutes to talk with them, we truly hear, and then we can make better decisions.

That’s what I am finding, I think, in the biggest organizational level, is we’re now not shooting in the dark on the decisions that we’re making. We are pulling together information that we’re getting from either the different groups of employees or through campus rounding that we do, finding out what are those true needs, and using that as part of the stoplight report and those different tools to close that feedback loop and to figure out what are the next steps. We’re getting clear on knowing what do we need to address and what are the action steps we need to do to address those.

Janet Pilcher: Yeah, so good. And you know one thing that you just said so, so critical. It’s, it’s doing the rounding and then it’s following up on what you hear, you know, using that stoplight report process so that, and people can see, “gosh they listen to me,” right? I mean they can see themselves. Ira, I know you’ve rounded as well with, with several people. What have you learned from it?

Ira Porchia: Much the same. It has been a great way to connect on a deeper level. I think that whenever anybody works in a business or in an institution or, or any kind of job, they want to feel included they want to feel heard. They want to feel like what they say has some stake in what they’re doing. And so rounding, I think, has given the staff a way to have a voice. A way to feel valued.

And so I’ve been very happy to hear, you know, I always check in with them even outside of rounding to kind of see what their thoughts are, and I’ll be honest. At first, there was a lot of “[sigh] Another thing,” and then it was, “this is the thing. This is great. Like we actually get to sit and chat about the business of the business.” So they’ve been feeling very heard and valued, and I love that.

Janet Pilcher: Yeah. That’s so good. You know, what you’re talking about, sometimes we ask ourselves, “What do you change first, the, the attitude or the behavior?” And our tendency is to say, “Oh, you change the attitude.” And you know, something like rounding is, “No, you change the behavior.” Because when you change the behavior, you understand, you get a different attitude based on what the feeling and the impact of that is. So sometimes we just have to start. You know, we have to start, go slow to go fast, Jen, and sometimes we just have to start. Start doing things and see what the outcome is.

You know Casey talks about that you all really understand and you understand that concept of “go slow to go fast.” Are there some other tactics that are having the effect of “go slow to go fast?”

Jennifer Marroquin: Yeah, I would say one, talking about the closing the feedback loop. That is something that we’re really working on because it’s one thing to get the information. But then now what do you do with it, and how do you communicate that back to the organization or the groups? So that is something that we are really working at hardwiring. Making sure that whatever information we collect, whether it’s at a management team meeting, a district meeting, a campus round, that we are sharing back those trends. So that way we’re being transparent, we’re being clear, we’re not trying to hide any information.

Because oftentimes we find, especially when I do like topic rounding, for example, on behavior or different, I’ll email, I’ll work with each principal. And I do rounding with principals to say, “What’s working well? What are some areas that have been challenging?” Sharing the information back in the stoplight report puts other people at ease to go, “I’m not alone in this—”

Janet Pilcher: Yeah.

Jennifer Marroquin: —So they feel validated like Ira was saying earlier and so it has also helped us in a district where things get very intense and emotional around certain topics. It helps us use the data to kind of move forward in a logistical way to help start addressing some of those concerns and helping to put their concerns into words to where they’re like, “Yeah, that’s what I meant.” Yeah, so yeah that’s been a really helpful tool.

Janet Pilcher: That’s good and you know sometimes like on the surveys we’ll ask, you know, do you have input, right? And so, you know, this is where people don’t really understand that but if they see the follow up within what they provided as input, then they can see that they have input. I always say, I always tend to say too is people don’t expect to always get their way. They just want to have some type of way that they can have conversation and that people follow up on that even if it’s not–do you see– is that–I see you shaking your head, Jen, you know, does that, that feel right?

Ira Porchia: They like to be heard.

Janet Pilcher: Yeah, they want to be heard, Ira. Yeah.

Jennifer Marroquin: Yeah, and I think they just want to know that you heard them and that it was enough to put down to value that it is here, and it doesn’t mean we’re not addressing it. We just might not address it right now or there might be other things that we’re addressing, or it might be a “this is just a one school site thing, so we’ll work on that separately.” So it has helped our level of communication.

Janet Pilcher: Yeah, so good.

Jennifer Marroquin: And then also with like the rounding form, I think the one thing that our district has really taken and hardwired is the reward and recognition. Like, we care about our employees, and I tell you what. Those cards, the notes that we send, the specific, just working about being intentional with them. They are all over this district, and we are really trying to make efforts to promote it. At the executive cabinet level, we’ll bring note cards to different meetings and set the expectation to pause. Let’s pause for two minutes, write out a note, get ready so that way you can send it.

Ira’s been great. He does shout outs at the end of meetings and wins before the meeting, you know, just to kind of tie it all together to where we’re really setting the tone to be more positive. And despite all of the stresses that we have, we are celebrating those things. and I think being specific. People want to know that you see them, and you see the work that they do. Not just, “Good job.” They want to know, “Thank you for doing this,” and being specific and how it impacted the district. That’s what we’re really working on, and it’s just, I myself love getting those because it’s like “Oh! Somebody recognized that. I’m going to continue to do that because it seems to be, you know, recognized.”

And so it was a hard thing, I will tell you that. It was an awkward thing for some people to get started with going like, “What I got to write notes and stuff?” You know, we’ve got, especially on the operational side, but boy has it been valuable in recognizing and rewarding, and they will say that that has been a huge impact in changing the culture of their departments.

Ira Porchia: Some folks just either forget or just don’t know how to celebrate wins.

Janet Pilcher: Yeah.

Ira Porchia: You know, and we have to kind of be mindful to train ourselves to, “Hey this was a big deal, and I’m glad, and this is why,” and pat each other on the back because, I just told a colleague the other day: this is not a, an immediate gratification type job. You might get your, your pat on the back years down the line when the student that you made an impact with is 35 years old, but it’ll come. But we need to get better at celebrating those wins now that we have so that it’s not so delayed in the gratification.

Janet Pilcher: Absolutely and there are wins to go on like you are talking about every day and those, you know, it’s like never underestimate the value of those thank you notes and those shout outs, very specific information that you, that you give because they surely make a difference.

I just, there’s a study that basically says usually the individual who is sending the thank you note underestimates the perception of how the other person’s going to feel on the other end. So they tend like, “Oh I don’t, I don’t really need to do that.” But then when you, when you’re on that other end and you’re receiving that thank you note, you really understand the value of that, and it’s contagious in that way.

So as we close today, Ira, I’ll close with you. Where do you and your team plan to take the improvement work over the next year and, you know, when we’re, if we were sitting here talking next year, what would the successes look like for you?

Ira Porchia: Well in looking at like what we’re gaining from the partnership, I would definitely say that we want to be able to take the techniques, best practices, and strategies that we’ve garnered from this partnership and be able to embrace them and make them our own. I think that’ll help us not only create great leaders now but continue to create great leaders in the future. And I would definitely like to say so if by some chance we are able to do that, I don’t think Tulare City will ever want for leadership because we will have so many leaders that are prepared to go into the future. But again we have great leaders now. It’s just some fine tuning that that needs to happen. And again, we’re learning that from you.

So I would hope to be able to tell you when we sit down next year. “Hey, these are some of the strategies that we’ve picked up. These were some of the best practices that we found and felt worked the best. And we’re going to continue to utilize those and continue to create those great leaders that we need for the future.” That’s what I would hope to be able to say next year.

Janet Pilcher: Yeah. Yeah. And I feel I feel confident that you all will get to that place. And you know what, you’re talking about, too, is just by the actions that you’re taking and what you’re doing, you’ll have people who begin to be in that leadership funnel right continue to. So not only are you helping leaders of today, but you’re, you’re helping people to look at, “Maybe I want to be a leader, and, and I’m looking at what leaders do, and I want to be a part of that.” So you’re really, really building that pipeline and funnel for your future leaders, which is a great place to be.

Well thank you so much. Jen, I look forward to seeing you and your presentation at What’s Right in Education. Ira, Thank you so much for the partnership and your leadership. Thank you.

Ira Porchia: Absolutely. And we, I don’t want to speak for Jen, but I, we’ve spoken to each other, and I can definitely say on behalf of both of us, we definitely appreciate your partnership. We love you guys and we appreciate all the hard work your coaches and everyone puts in. So thank you.

Janet Pilcher: Yeah, thank you so much.

Conclusion

[Outro music plays in the background.]

Janet Pilcher: Ira, Jennifer, and the rest of the leadership team in Tulare City are living out so many of the Nine Principles, especially Principle Nine, to reward and recognize success. What a difference it makes in the workplace culture when you’re specific, timely, and genuine with your gratitude. Who can you send a note of thanks to today?

When we were at What’s Right in Education, we had a gratitude session, and our participants and audience wrote notes to people to send them a note of thanks and gratitude and put them in our gratitude mailbox so that we could mail them to the people that we wrote those notes to. Don’t underestimate the difference that note will have on somebody’s life.

I thank you for tuning into this episode. As always, I look forward to connecting with you next time as we build upon the Nine Principles Framework to hardwire excellence in education. Have a great week, everyone.