The Wheelhouse Reorientation: The Quiet Cost of Drift
Drift rarely announces itself.
Schools and systems don’t usually lose their way all at once. It happens slowly. Quietly. Sometimes almost invisibly.
The meetings still happen. The initiatives keep moving. People stay incredibly busy. But somewhere along the way, the work can begin moving further and further from the purpose that started it.
And students often feel that shift long before adults are willing, or able, to name it.
This is a Wheelhouse Reorientation—an earlier conversation we believe is worth hearing again in light of where the work is taking us now.
We originally recorded this conversation as part of a three-episode series exploring the thinking behind the Students Matter Ecosystem. After everything we wrestled with during Season 13—lack of alignment, fragmentation, dehumanization, instructional erosion, future confusion, and the other conditions shaping our schools—we believe the conversation about drift matters even more today.
For this episode, I step out of the host chair and into the guest seat while Kathy Mohney, Michael Pipa, and Dr. Alicia Monroe take over The Wheelhouse.
And they press on a question that sits underneath much of our work:
If we say each student matters, why do our systems sometimes produce experiences that suggest otherwise?
We talk about drift not as a buzzword or abstract theory, but as something that happens every day inside organizations—often while everyone involved is working incredibly hard and believing they are doing the right things.
The conversation explores five ways drift can show up:
Purpose drift — when the work becomes disconnected from why it exists.
Interpretation drift — when people begin making meaning of the work in different directions.
Action drift — when activity continues, but its connection to meaningful impact weakens.
Human drift — when systems gradually lose sight of the people they were created to serve.
Coherence drift — when priorities, initiatives, structures, and practices stop working together.
None of this is about blame. It is about noticing.
Drift does not correct itself. Someone has to see it. Someone has to name it. And leaders have to be willing to make deliberate moves to bring the work back toward purpose, coherence, and humanity.
Perhaps that is one of the most uncomfortable realities of drift: a school or district can be busy, productive, and completely operational—and still be moving away from what students actually need.
That is why we wanted to return to this conversation now.
As Students Matter continues to evolve, and as we begin thinking about what comes next, these foundational ideas matter. Before we can build more coherent and human-centered systems, we have to be willing to see clearly what our current systems are producing.
A Few Things to Carry With You
- Drift is rarely sudden. It is the gradual movement away from purpose, clarity, coherence, and humanity.
- Students frequently experience the consequences of drift before adults recognize what is happening.
- Activity is not the same thing as alignment. A system can be extraordinarily busy and still be adrift.
- Naming drift is not about assigning blame. It is about accepting responsibility for what our systems produce.
- And leadership requires continually reorienting the work toward purpose, toward humanity, and toward the lived experience of students.
Follow Students Matter, LLC on Instagram and LinkedIn, and connect with Kathy Mohney, Michael Pipa, Dr. Alicia Monroe, and Dr. Grant Chandler individually on LinkedIn,
To learn more about the Students Matter Ecosystem, visit Students Matter and LearnHarbor.
The challenge isn’t simply to keep the work moving. It’s to make sure we’re still moving toward what matters.
Stay Oriented.
Transcript
What if the biggest problem in education isn't what we're doing, but what we're slowly becoming?
Speaker A:We first asked that question in a conversation about one of the ideas that sits underneath so much of our Drift.
Speaker A:And after an entire season spent examining misalignment, fragmentation, dehumanization, and instructional erosion and the other conditions shaping our schools, we think this conversation matters even more now than it did when we first recorded it.
Speaker A:Because systems rarely lose their way all at once.
Speaker A:They drift quietly, gradually, systematically, and students usually feel it long before adults can name it.
Speaker A:So during this hiatus, we're returning to several foundational conversations about the Students Matter ecosystem, not because we want to look backward, but because they help us understand where we're going next.
Speaker A:And we begin right here with Drift.
Speaker A:What it is, why it happens, and what it costs the students we say we serve.
Speaker A:A new episode of the Wheelhouse begins right now.
Speaker A:Welcome to the Wheelhouse, a Students Matter podcast where we navigate the intersection of leadership, learning, and humanity.
Speaker A:I'm Dr. Grant Chandler, along with the Wheelhouse team of Kathy Mone, Michael Pipa, and Dr. Alicia Munro.
Speaker A:Between seasons 12 and 13, we recorded three conversations that took a closer look at the thinking behind the Students Matter ecosystem.
Speaker A:Now, after everything we've explored together during season 13, we're bringing those conditions back intentionally because we're not finished with these ideas.
Speaker A:In fact, in many ways, we're just beginning to understand what they require of us.
Speaker A:Over the next few episodes, we're going to revisit these original conversations, and then we're going to take the next step and talk about where this work is heading through the Students Matter alliance.
Speaker A:But before we talk about what comes next, we need to return to the condition that helped start much of this thinking in the first place.
Speaker A:Drift.
Speaker A:In this conversation, I step out of the host role and into the guest seat, where Kathy Mone, Michael Pipa, and Dr. Alicia Munro take the lead, and they press on some important questions.
Speaker A:What is drift?
Speaker A:How do we recognize it?
Speaker A:And what happens when the systems we designed to serve students slowly move away from what those students actually need?
Speaker A:It was an important conversation when we recorded it.
Speaker A:I think it may be even more important now.
Speaker A:Let's get oriented.
Speaker A:Good morning, and welcome to the hiatus episodes.
Speaker A:What does the Wheelhouse team do on hiatus?
Speaker A:Record more episodes.
Speaker A:So here we are in our hiatus between seasons 12 and 13, doing what we love to do, which is to come together and talk all things that are important for students.
Speaker A:So good morning, Wheelhouse team.
Speaker A:Cathy mone, Michael Pipa, Dr. Alicia Monroe, hello.
Speaker B:Good morning.
Speaker C:Good morning.
Speaker D:Good morning.
Speaker D:Hello, hello.
Speaker C:Hello.
Speaker D:Hello.
Speaker B:We love getting together.
Speaker B:We can't stand being apart.
Speaker B:So hiatus.
Speaker B:We.
Speaker B:Whatever.
Speaker A:Hiatus, whatever.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker A:Whatever, Whatever.
Speaker A:So we have three hiatus episodes which will launch May 19, June 2, and June 16, and then season 13 will officially begin on July 7.
Speaker A:But we've got some great content and some great conversations to share with you, and we're flipping the script.
Speaker A:So today, and in the next two episodes, I'm going to be in the hot seat, and we're going to talk about the ideas behind the Students Matter ecosystem.
Speaker B:Yeah, we're really excited to put you in the hot seat.
Speaker B:I don't know really what that means, because this is kind of always there, but we get to really push and ask questions of you, Doctor.
Speaker B:Dr. Chandler.
Speaker B:So we're.
Speaker B:We're.
Speaker B:We're ready.
Speaker B:We have.
Speaker B:We have been preparing for this.
Speaker B:So I'm just going to dive right in, if that's okay with you.
Speaker B:If you're.
Speaker B:You're ready.
Speaker B:We really want to understand this, this idea of drift.
Speaker B:You've been using this word a lot and putting it in conversations with guests and during the time that the four of us have been together.
Speaker B:So we really don't want to dance around it.
Speaker B:We want you to dig in and tell us, what is drift?
Speaker B:What is it really?
Speaker A:So drift comes from the work of tactical leadership.
Speaker A:So as we were.
Speaker A:As that whole leadership framework was evolving, one of the ideas that comes up over and over and over again is this.
Speaker A:And I think it's a beautiful word.
Speaker A:Drift, right?
Speaker A:I think it's, you know, we use a maritime metaphor in the work of Students Matter and all of the work.
Speaker A:But I think you picture.
Speaker A:First, you picture what happens when a ship drips, right?
Speaker A:It's out in the middle of water, and it's just kind of.
Speaker A:It's not heading toward anywhere.
Speaker A:It's just kind of moving right wherever the wind takes it.
Speaker A:So I think the image metaphorically is really powerful for what happens in schools, you know, every single day.
Speaker A:But, you know, hey, we had to land the plane on a definition.
Speaker A:So here is the definition that we use in tactical leadership.
Speaker A:And we've been talking about.
Speaker A:I mean, all four of us have been talking about this word throughout season 12.
Speaker A:But here, for the very first time in the wheelhouse is the actual definition from tactical leadership.
Speaker A:Drift is the gradual, often unnoticed movement away from purpose, clarity, and intended impact while activity continues.
Speaker A:Drift is when motion replaces meaning.
Speaker A:It's not inactivity.
Speaker A:It's misaligned activity that feels productive.
Speaker A:But is an advancing purpose.
Speaker D:So with that said, and that was eloquently said, because all of us are sitting here, even though the audience can't see us, but all of us are sitting here nodding our head.
Speaker D:Right in the positive.
Speaker D:Exactly.
Speaker D:Exactly.
Speaker D:Because it's our lived experiences as humans and systems.
Speaker D:So, Dr. Chandler, how does drift show up in schools, school districts, and in higher ed institutions?
Speaker D:Because we've had representatives from all of those spaces as part of our wheelhouse guest family.
Speaker D:So how does it show up?
Speaker D:What do we see, hear, and feel when drift is happening in those systems?
Speaker A:So I think one of the things we see, and I've been working in school improvement, continuous improvement.
Speaker A:Forever, right?
Speaker A:Forever.
Speaker A:Seems like.
Speaker A:And feels like it's been forever.
Speaker A:We say in our mission statements, we say, all students.
Speaker A:All students.
Speaker A:You know, everybody's gonna.
Speaker A:Everybody's gonna read at third grade.
Speaker A:Everybody's gonna be a lifelong learner.
Speaker A:All, all, all, all, all, all, all.
Speaker A:But we don't really.
Speaker A:When we think about it, we don't mean all.
Speaker A:We often mean some.
Speaker A:And sometimes the sum is defined as who, right?
Speaker A:Like who matters and who.
Speaker A:Who doesn't.
Speaker A:Who really needs to be able to read by third grade?
Speaker A:And who do we really expect that isn't going to be reading by third grade?
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:And so right away, you've got these amazing plans that are already producing drift.
Speaker A:We're moving away from purpose.
Speaker A:We don't even really realize it because with good intentions, we say, oh, every student, every student, every student.
Speaker A:And then we write plans that say, well, we want a 3% increase from this year to next year.
Speaker A:Well, that moves us away from our destination, does it not?
Speaker A:We're going to be super busy, but that's going to move us away from what the real destination and purpose is.
Speaker A:And tactical leadership is all about destination and purpose.
Speaker A:I think one of the other ways that come to mind often is we say.
Speaker A:We say relationships are the most important.
Speaker A:What teacher, what leader doesn't talk about the power of relationships, right?
Speaker A:And how important they are to the work?
Speaker A:And yet we focus so much not on relationships, but on compliance.
Speaker B:So is it preventable?
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:It's predictable.
Speaker A:Say that.
Speaker A:I think drift is inevitable.
Speaker A:What we do when we know we're drifting is where it becomes predictable, right?
Speaker A:Because pressure happens, life happens, urgency happens.
Speaker A:There are so many ways that you can drift, But a really skillful leader and in students matter.
Speaker A:We call that tactical leadership, and we'll talk about that in another episode.
Speaker A:But it's about recognizing when drift is happening, right?
Speaker A:So Being a drift detector, that's one of the tools that we've created is how do you detect drift, right?
Speaker A:How do you know?
Speaker A:How do you know when you're immersed in all of this work that we're doing?
Speaker A:You know, I mean, what leader isn't busy 24 hours a day, right?
Speaker A:How do you know in the midst of all of that that you're moving away from purpose?
Speaker A:And if you remember the definition that I read, drift doesn't say inactivity.
Speaker A:Drift says you a busy, busy person, right?
Speaker A:But all that busyness, and we've had an episode where we talked about busyness is moving us away, even gently, right?
Speaker A:Even if we don't notice it, it's moving us away from purpose.
Speaker A:So I think it's predictable and I think not 100% preventable, because I think it happens.
Speaker A:It's what we do with it.
Speaker A:When we know that we're drifting, there it is.
Speaker B:So you've really, in all of this that you're, you know, talking about and in explaining it, seems to me like there's different pieces of that, there's different parts, almost like this, this puzzle of drift that.
Speaker B:That can go together.
Speaker B:So are there different types of drift?
Speaker B:Are there different parts of that?
Speaker A:All season long on the Wheelhouse, we've been talking about the conditions that get in the way of the schools.
Speaker A:We say we want drift, fragmentation, dehumanization, instructional erosion, future confusion, and the lack of alignment.
Speaker A:But naming the problem isn't enough.
Speaker A:The Students Matter ecosystem was built to help schools do something about it.
Speaker A:Through tactical leadership, powerful student care, instructional excellence, future ready schools, and guided learning.
Speaker A:Through Learn harbor, we help educators create greater coherence, strengthen the human experience of school, and keep the work centered where it belongs on students.
Speaker A:Because meaningful change doesn't come from adding one more initiative.
Speaker A:It comes from getting the important things working together.
Speaker A:The conversation, it starts in the wheelhouse, the work, it continues through Students Matter.
Speaker A:Explore the Students Matter ecosystem and learn harbor@www.ourstudentsmatter.org.
Speaker A:We'd love to help you turn what matters into what happens.
Speaker A:We don't all drift in the same way, right?
Speaker A:Every organization drifts differently.
Speaker A:And so we've defined some of the big ways.
Speaker A:I think there are five that we've defined that really define what does drift look like?
Speaker A:In what ways can you drift?
Speaker A:Because in order to prevent it, we gotta be able to identify it, right?
Speaker A:So again, there are five that we've identified.
Speaker A:The first one is purpose, right?
Speaker A:And that is when we lose sight of what Matters, Right?
Speaker A:And often the signal is that you hear people say is like, so why are we doing this?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Why are we doing.
Speaker A:Why is this initiative?
Speaker A:Why are we doing this?
Speaker A:Why are you asking me to do this?
Speaker A:That's drift.
Speaker A:That means that purpose isn't clear and we've lost sight of why we're doing what we're doing.
Speaker A:There's also interpretation drift.
Speaker A:When we look at the reality of a situation, whether that's data, whether that's an observation.
Speaker A:And you've got different people telling different stories.
Speaker A:So we look at the same data, look at the same information, but the story plays out differently depending on who you ask.
Speaker A:That means we're interpreting it differently.
Speaker A:There's action drift, which is doing work, but it isn't aligned to the purpose.
Speaker A:So we're doing a lot and nothing is changing.
Speaker A:Kathy, you and I did a lot of work with data analysis.
Speaker A:And one of the things we kept telling districts over and over again was, and Alicia and I do the same, it's like, you gotta really get to root cause, because if you don't get to root cause, you're just gonna spin your wheels.
Speaker A:You're just doing a lot of things, but it won't necessarily solve your problem.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And, you know, we call that in tactical leadership, you know, action drift.
Speaker A:Then there's the human drift.
Speaker A:That's when we lose.
Speaker A:We lose connection to people, their needs and their experiences.
Speaker A:We often see people disengage with the work because they don't feel own in the work.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So they just kind of opt out of that.
Speaker A:And then again, we're kind of drifting into the sea here.
Speaker A:And the last one, which I think is probably the biggest, and I think it's the most destructive, and they're all horrible, and we want to fix all of them.
Speaker A:But there's this coherence drift because this one, I think we don't notice as often as the others when people disengage.
Speaker A:We know when we're not sure why we're doing something, someone's going to say, why are we doing that?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And we know.
Speaker A:But this coherence drift is when we're doing a lot of stuff, we don't necessarily see how it connects or how it's moving.
Speaker A:I'm working with the district now, and they're doing five really big things.
Speaker A:I'm not even going to name them, but they're the big stuff that everybody does all over the country, right?
Speaker A:But they haven't connected all the dots.
Speaker A:They're doing these five things.
Speaker A:They're all things to do, right?
Speaker A:They're all things to do, but they're not connected to each other and they're not connected to purpose.
Speaker A:So then there has this huge coherence drift that they're not even aware of.
Speaker A:Those are the five.
Speaker B:So you already really touched on which one's the most dangerous.
Speaker B:And we talked a lot about this coherence, really, of the.
Speaker B:These human systems and understanding.
Speaker B:So we've also talked about that human connection and with student experience.
Speaker B:Alicia, you're looking like you want, so.
Speaker D:I'd like to jump in here because I hear a lot of the questions, right.
Speaker D:I do an extensive amount of work around systems thinking, systems development, systems coherence.
Speaker D:And I just want to track back to where Grant actually talked about human relationships and how human relationships matter.
Speaker D:And if we're looking at human systems, the most valuable resource within the frame are the human beings themselves.
Speaker D:And I know from the conversations that I've had with Dr. Chandler, he's extremely intentional around centering the human, whether that is the student or the educator, within his leadership framework.
Speaker D:And I just wanted to spend a little time asking Dr. Chandler to elevate his thinking around that a little bit more around this human centered system and then having to recalibrate and connect the dots.
Speaker A:So the reality for me is, is that when drift happens in any way, right.
Speaker A:In any of the five types, when we're moving away from purpose for lots of different reasons, and let's think about purpose for a minute and we'll talk about that more in episodes two and three, when we really dive into the ecosystem.
Speaker A:But the purpose is human centered.
Speaker A:The purpose is human centered.
Speaker A:So when we drift away from our purpose, which is human centered to begin with, then the impact automatically, regardless of what type of drift it is, the impact is always going to be felt by humans.
Speaker A:So when I get really confused, if I'm a teacher and I get really confused, because every time this school year starts, you jack me around with another initiative, I disengage, right.
Speaker A:And I'm further away from the human purpose, right?
Speaker A:So when we're doing this initiative today and that initiative tomorrow, and I'm overwhelmed by all of shows up in the impact on educators.
Speaker A:But don't be confused.
Speaker A:The biggest impact of drift is on students and what students experience every single day.
Speaker A:So when we want to solve drift, when we want to be able to, you know, when we want to be able to detect it and then do something about it, absolutely, we want to do something about it because that helps our educators but we exist for students, right?
Speaker A:And when you really want to see if drift is happening in an organization, find out what students are experiencing every single day.
Speaker A:Because there's your key indicator of drift.
Speaker B:So when you think about that, Dr. Chandler, are you saying that leaders aren't providing that?
Speaker B:Are you saying that leadership is the problem?
Speaker A:I would not say that leadership is the problem.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Because we don't want to.
Speaker A:Leaders are.
Speaker A:They're not doing bad work and they're not bad people.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:They get caught up in a system.
Speaker A:A system that is compliance based.
Speaker A: d mandated to do currently in: Speaker A:And so you've got good people who are well intentioned, caught up in all of this stuff that takes them away from purpose.
Speaker A:So I would say that it's not caused by bad people.
Speaker A:It's caused by, and I don't mean this to sound badly, it's caused by undisciplined thinking.
Speaker A:We haven't trained ourselves to be drift detectors.
Speaker A:And it's also caused by undisciplined systems.
Speaker A:The system loves.
Speaker A:I'm sorry, but the system loves drift and the system loves compliance.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And compliance takes us away from the human centered purpose.
Speaker A:So I think you see a lot.
Speaker A:We talked about the coherence drift.
Speaker A:Hey, you got, you know, I met a principal once who told, you know, who was identified for need.
Speaker A:And she said in our first conversation, she goes, oh, I don't need you, we're all good.
Speaker A:And I said, well, fantastic, right?
Speaker A:She goes, we got 96 ways of solving this problem.
Speaker A:Girl, sit down.
Speaker A:You need me.
Speaker A:Sit down.
Speaker A:Grab a pen.
Speaker A:Because we're going to get rid of 93 of those initiatives, right?
Speaker A:Because you can't humanly do all of that work.
Speaker A:It's not possible.
Speaker A:We tend to, you know, that produces action, drift and a lack of coherence.
Speaker A:We've got leaders who are.
Speaker A:We had an episode just recently about busyness where, you know, leaders are managing noise.
Speaker A:There's all sorts of noise out there instead of navigating meaning.
Speaker A:And this is a hard one for leaders as well.
Speaker A:We sometimes, and again, it's because we haven't been properly supported.
Speaker A:We avoid things that are sometimes really hard and awkward and we gravitate toward comfortable.
Speaker A:I really want to address that, but oh my goodness, I am going to completely upend the apple cart.
Speaker A:Everybody's going to be crazy if I do that.
Speaker A:And so I'm going to try to be comfortable.
Speaker A:I'm going to try to figure out a better A more comfortable approach.
Speaker A:Now, I am not about like making people crazy.
Speaker A:That's not the point.
Speaker A:That's not the point.
Speaker A:But when we're drifting away from purpose, sometimes, sometimes to get us back where we need to go, that means venturing into areas where we might not be comfortable.
Speaker C:I want to jump in on that.
Speaker C:And at the risk of choking on the metaphor, the nautical metaphor at the heart of tactical leadership and the whole ecosystem of students, matter is really powerful.
Speaker C:And when I think about avoiding drift, and I think about mariners avoiding drift, I think about the instrument of the sextant and that you fix that on the pole star, the North Star.
Speaker C:And we want to make sure we're looking at the right part of the sky.
Speaker C:So when we talk about purpose and drift, that, that phenomenon of us moving away from purpose, how do we know we are all looking at the same North Star?
Speaker A:So that is, that is very.
Speaker A:I mean, that's, that's a huge.
Speaker A:Michael.
Speaker A:And that's one of the foundations of tactical leadership is identifying the North Star.
Speaker A:Many, many leaders, many teachers.
Speaker A:Again, we inherit what we have, right?
Speaker A:We inherit a messy, non human centered system.
Speaker A:Isn't that odd to say that education is not human centered?
Speaker B:Hello.
Speaker A:I can't believe we're saying this in a podcast, right?
Speaker A:But it's true, right?
Speaker A:Education is, we talk about it all the time.
Speaker A:It's about, it's about hurting students toward a finish line.
Speaker A:States mandate that.
Speaker A:So there's an element of that.
Speaker A:But I think one of the things that is really important in the ecosystem, and again, we'll talk about that more when we really dive into the ecosystem is you gotta be really clear.
Speaker A:That's why we use a maritime metaphor.
Speaker A:A maritime metaphor is about heading somewhere, right?
Speaker A:When you get in a vessel, right?
Speaker A:Big vessel or small vessel, the whole point of getting in the vessel is to go somewhere.
Speaker A:And so that somewhere is the North Star, right?
Speaker A:That destination.
Speaker A:We call it something in powerful student care, we call it something in tactical leadership.
Speaker A:But knowing what your main goal is, knowing what you want each student to experience, each educator to experience, that's the North Star, right?
Speaker A:But a lot of folks that I come across anyway, and I'm not going to generalize that and say it's everybody, unless y' all want to chime in.
Speaker A:But a lot of people that I have the privilege of working with haven't been afforded the luxury.
Speaker A:And I'm going to say now the necessity of identifying purpose.
Speaker A:And so that's one of the first things that we do in tactical leadership is Ground you, right?
Speaker A:You gotta be grounded in what matters most, right?
Speaker A:And whatever that is, that's your North Star.
Speaker A:Now, I happen to be very clear on what I think is my North Star and what is the most important.
Speaker A:But this is about what every single leader has to determine for their school, for their district, for their context, is their North Star.
Speaker A:And I think that's really important.
Speaker A:Michael.
Speaker D:I know, Dr. Chandler, you and I have talked about this a lot and how the North Star has to actively evolve according to those who are in the space.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:Who are in the system and who we are serving.
Speaker D:And I just didn't want to move off of that conversation yet to have you see your thinking and your philosophy around that, because that is so important to your entire theoretical frame.
Speaker A:No matter how somebody defines their North Star or their purpose, dignity, human dignity as a birthright has to be there.
Speaker A:I don't know how anybody leads an organization whose purpose is to nurture young people could have a North Star that doesn't have dignity firmly embedded as its foundation.
Speaker A:We may define that a lot of different ways, right?
Speaker A:But dignity as a human birthright, not something that has to be earned, I think is the common denominator.
Speaker B:So silence, right?
Speaker B:Intentional silence and pause.
Speaker B:Because that's profound and so much deeper than a simply.
Speaker B:Because districts do it all the time.
Speaker B:They define their why, right?
Speaker B:I've, I've been in spaces to.
Speaker B:I mean, it's deeper.
Speaker B:This purpose that you're talking about is so much deeper than that.
Speaker B:I've been in spaces where sticky notes are on classroom doors because we're remembering what our why is.
Speaker B:What is.
Speaker B:Why are we doing this?
Speaker B:Thinking about that and knowing that this is our North Star, then I can know where I'm going.
Speaker B:I can know that this is my ultimate goal in my vessel.
Speaker B:But if I don't have a map to get there, then forget it, right?
Speaker B:I'll be, I'll be drifting.
Speaker B:So how do we avoid that?
Speaker B:What, what's next?
Speaker B:Grant, when we think about this conversation and really defining drift and understanding that there's, there's these pieces to this puzzle, now what?
Speaker A:As you, as you all, you're all talking.
Speaker A:I, I just did a promo video last week for one aspect of the ecosystem and I ended that promo video very personal.
Speaker A:It was very personal and it was to some degree somewhat vulnerable.
Speaker A:As I was talking about, I have a 10 month old grandson and as talking about what I wanted.
Speaker A:He's too early to think about school, but I know he's going, I know he's Going, he'll go.
Speaker A:And I was like, okay, what is it that I want him to do, to experience when he goes to school?
Speaker A:I don't.
Speaker A:And I'm not.
Speaker A:I don't want to.
Speaker A:I don't want to.
Speaker A:I'm not trying to denigrate people's good work.
Speaker A:There is good work in missions and visions.
Speaker A:And, you know, now the current big thing that everybody's doing is Portrait of a Graduate, right?
Speaker A:Underneath all of that has to be something deeper.
Speaker A:And for me, that's dignity.
Speaker A:That's this human dignity.
Speaker A:And as I was making this video, here's my long answer to your question.
Speaker A:As I'm making this video and I'm thinking about.
Speaker A:I really want to talk about Keegan.
Speaker A:I really want to talk about what I want as a grandpa, right?
Speaker A:As a grandpa for this kid.
Speaker A:And then I was like, wait a minute.
Speaker A:I mean, that's great, but I want that.
Speaker A:I want that same exact thing for every other child I'll never meet.
Speaker A:What is good enough for Keegan is good enough for every single student, right?
Speaker A:That's what's important underneath all of this.
Speaker A:That's what's important.
Speaker A:This is what the educational arena should be about.
Speaker A:Children should leave our system thinking that they matter.
Speaker A:You can use whatever words you want, right?
Speaker A:Thinking that they're valuable, that they belong, that they matter, that they're distinctive and irreplaceable.
Speaker A:It doesn't matter what you use, right?
Speaker A:I mean, I think there's better.
Speaker A:Some of our words are better than others, but I mean, I think that's what's fundamentally, really, really important.
Speaker A:And so the solution then to how we do all of this, how we.
Speaker A:How we stop drifting away from that first, is to really define what it is that we really believe this educational system should do, right?
Speaker A:And if you're compliance based and all you care about are the end of school year assessments, fabulous.
Speaker A:But students matter is not for you.
Speaker A:We are not matched because we want something deeper for each and every student.
Speaker A:And with that comes coherence, comes dignity, comes discipline, discipline in thinking, discipline in systems.
Speaker A:And it's a system will help you create.
Speaker A:It's rooted in humanity.
Speaker A:And I think for me, and I know for all of us, because we're all of the same accord, right?
Speaker A:That's what's most important.
Speaker A:If we're gonna stop drifting and head toward a place that's really important for each and every student, it will require coherence, it will require dignity, it will require discipline, and it will require that the system be rooted in Humanity.
Speaker B:Over the last decade of working with you and alongside you, Dr. Chandler, your North Star has never wavered.
Speaker B:It just hasn't.
Speaker B:In knowing that students that you will never meet, that you have such a profound care, a deep, true, honest care for them and students matter in this ecosystem is the opportunity for districts to do this deep work that is so desperately needed.
Speaker B:So thank you.
Speaker B:Thank you for starting this conversation with us today.
Speaker B:We're looking forward to the next couple of conversations with continuing to keep you in the hot seat.
Speaker B:So any final words?
Speaker B:Anyone?
Speaker C:I don't know if I have a final word, but I have a word of appreciation that it just comes from the very gratifying moment when we're able to, with language, clarify by declaring, you know, what the value, what the principle is.
Speaker C:And when we talk about drift, we end up talking about how do we navigate successfully what is our star.
Speaker C:And that conversation reminds us of how we don't get taken by the various winds that blow.
Speaker C:We can't control those winds, but we can control how we navigate those winds.
Speaker C:And that.
Speaker C:But to me, that work that you have done fills me with hope, not just affirmation.
Speaker C:It fills me with hope that not just some of us who think in these terms, but all of us can get clarification and can successfully navigate environments that are windy and that cause us to experience drift, bewilderment, consternation.
Speaker C:So thank you.
Speaker A:And that's the discipline that you're talking about, right?
Speaker A:That's the discipline in thinking and the discipline in the system, Right?
Speaker A:Because it's gonna get windy, right?
Speaker A:It's gonna be windy.
Speaker A:There's all sorts of very strong pressure that leaders and educators have to deal with on a daily basis.
Speaker D:So what I love about Dr. Chandler is many things, but in this work, it's about creative resilience.
Speaker D:This work is hard, okay?
Speaker D:This works is change maker work.
Speaker D:And change maker work is arduous.
Speaker D:And you oftentimes feel alone in this work.
Speaker D:And then you find this village, the wheelhouse family of also leaders in this space.
Speaker D:So I want to congratulate and honor the creative resilience, the one of the many beautiful characteristics within Grant Chandler that moves this work forward.
Speaker D:But what is so special and differentiates tactical leadership from other leadership resources is that tactical leadership allows leaders and gives leaders the permission to protect their direction and their vision and their North Star.
Speaker D:It's liberating in a sense, to the fact that, wow, this confirms that instinct and in this intuition that this should be the North Star, it should remain the North Star.
Speaker D:And the North Star, that destination will not be moved.
Speaker D:Just that esteem and affirmation within itself engages the audience to really become involved.
Speaker D:Because that little piece is the stuff that is being tossed and turned and moved around at all times where leaders don't feel secure enough to protect their North Star.
Speaker D:So I thank Dr. Chandler for remaining in that space and not pivoting to the wind like shaft in the wind, staying right there.
Speaker D:Because that's important for leaders to know that they have the permission to protect their North Star.
Speaker A:Thank you for being my village.
Speaker A:Thank you for doing this work together.
Speaker A:It's so incredible to be with you and work with you on so many different levels every single day.
Speaker A:You are a blessing to me, both personally and professionally and to every student that you have any impact with.
Speaker A:It's a pleasure.
Speaker A:Pleasure to be with you.
Speaker A:Next episode, we'll stop diagnosing and we'll start designing.
Speaker A:If drift is the problem, then what does a coherent human system actually look like?
Speaker A:Let's get oriented.
Speaker A:We'll see you on June 2nd for another episode of the Wheelhouse.
Speaker A:My thanks again to Kathy Mone, Michael Pipa, and Dr. Alicia Munro for leading that conversation.
Speaker A:Listening to it again now, something strikes me.
Speaker A:Drift hasn't become less relevant.
Speaker A:If anything, the conversations we had throughout season 13 made its consequences even more visible.
Speaker A:Lack of alignment, fragmentation, dehumanization, instructional erosion, future confusion.
Speaker A:These conditions don't simply appear.
Speaker A:They grow when systems lose coherence between what they say matters and what people actually experience.
Speaker A:And students live inside that gap.
Speaker A:That's one of the reasons why we wanted to bring these conversations back during the hiatus.
Speaker A:Before we talk about where Students Matter is going next, we need to remember what this work was built to address in the first place.
Speaker A:In our next hiatus episode, we'll return to the second of these foundational conversations, one that begins moving us from diagnosing drift toward thinking about what a coherent human centered system actually requires.
Speaker A:And as we continue through the series, another question will begin to emerge.
Speaker A:What would it take to help schools and districts do this work together and sustain it over time?
Speaker A:That question is going to take us somewhere new.
Speaker A:But for now, pay attention to what your system is producing.
Speaker A:Because whether you intended it or not, that's the experience your students are living in.
Speaker A:Stay oriented.
Speaker A:We'll see you next week for another episode of the Wheelhouse.
