Inaugural Conference and Launch

Thursday 11 October 2018

The British Library, London

www.CSTUK.org.uk The Voice of School Trusts

2

10.00

Welcome

Rob McDonoughChair

Confederation of School Trusts

The Voice of School Trustswww.CSTUK.org.uk @CSTvoice #CSTlaunch

Rt Hon. Damian Hinds MP

Secretary of State for Education

4

10.25 – 10.55

Leora CruddasChief Executive Officer

Confederation of School Trusts

Response by: Ed Dorrell – TES (media partner)

John Cope - CBI

The Voice of School Trusts

www.CSTUK.org.uk

Teachers change lives

7

The importance of trust

• Trust as a relational principle

• Trust as a core value

• Trust as a promise

8

““There is no trust more sacred than the one the world holds with children.” Kofi Annan, THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S CHILDREN, 2000

“Action without vision is only passing time.

Vision without action is merely day dreaming.

But vision with action can change the world.”

Nelson Mandela

11

Thank youwww.cstuk.org.uk@CSTvoice

12

10.55 – 11.15

Rt Hon. David LawsChair

Education Policy Institute

Break

11.15 – 11.35

14

11.35 – 12.05

Leading Curriculum

Christine CounsellDirector of Education

Inspiration Trust

15

12.05 – 12.50

Choice of workshopsSession AWORKSHOP 1 Setting Executive Pay – Chaucer

WORKSHOP 2Governance Leadership/Board Evaluation – Main Theatre

WORKSHOP 3Shaping the future of school buying – Bronte

Lunch and networking

12.50 – 13.40

17

13.40 – 13.55

Q&A

Rt Hon. Nick Gibb MPMinister of State for School Standards

18

13.55 – 14.20

Leading Improvement

Mufti Hamid Patel CBEChief ExecutiveSTAR Academies

19

14.20 – 14.50

Leading through aligned autonomy

Luke SparkesExecutive Principal

Dixons Academy Trust

ALIGNED AUTONOMY

Dixons AcademiesLeading through aligned

autonomy

VALUES DRIVEN

Our mission is to challenge educational and social disadvantage in the North.

How?We establish high-performing non-faith academies which maximiseattainment, value diversity, develop character and build cultural capital.

MeasureBy the age of 18 we want every student to have the choice of university or a high quality apprenticeship.

Many minds, one mission

ALIGNED AUTONOMY

Core Principles

AlignedAutonomy

Values Driven

High Expectations

Choice and Commitment

Highly Professional

Staff

Relentless Focus on Learning

Empowered to Lead

ALIGNED AUTONOMY

A Different MAT Model

Received Wisdom Dixons’ USPs

School Improvement Central capacity Embedded

Model Define and develop Innovate and share

Autonomy 80/20 Earned

Leadership Command and control Align and distribute

Deployment As directed As negotiated

EMPOWERED TO LEAD

Most companies curtail freedom asthey get bigger

Bigger

Employee freedom

EMPOWERED TO LEAD

Why do most companies curtailfreedom and become bureaucratic asthey grow?

HIGH EXPECTATIONS

Desire for bigger positive impactcreates growth

Growth

HIGH EXPECTATIONS

Growth increases complexity

Complexity

HIGHLY PROFESSIONAL STAFF

Growth also often shrinks talentdensity

Complexity

% High performance employees

HIGHLY PROFESSIONAL STAFF

Chaos emerges

Complexity

% High performance employees

Chaos and errors spike here –business has become toocomplex to run informally withthis talent level

EMPOWERED TO LEAD

Process emerges to stop the chaos

ProceduresNo one loves process, but feels good compared to pain of chaos

“Time to grow up” becomes the professional management’s mantra

HIGHLY PROFESSIONAL STAFF

Process-focus drives more talent out

% High performance employees

EMPOWERED TO LEAD

Process brings seductively strongnear-term outcome

• A highly-successful process-driven company:

– With leading share in its market

– Minimal thinking required

– Few mistakes – very efficient

– Few curious innovator-mavericks remain

– Very optimized processes for its existing market

– Efficiency has trumped flexibility

EMPOWERED TO LEAD

• Market shifts due to new technology or competitors or business models.

• Company is unable to adapt quickly:

– Because the employees are extremely good at following the existingprocesses, and process adherence is the value system

• Company generally grinds painfully into irrelevance.

Then the market shifts…

HIGH EXPECTATIONS

1. Stay creative by staying small, but therefore have less impact.

2. Avoid rules as you grow, and suffer chaos.

3. Use process as you grow to drive efficient execution of current model,but cripple creativity, flexibility, and ability to thrive when your marketeventually changes.

Seems like three bad options

ALIGNED AUTONOMY

Dixons structureGovernance

MAT

Growth

2%TSA

Post 16Sch Imp NW

WDNM

SW

LS

JL

ALIGNED AUTONOMY

Agile way of working

Authoritative organisationConformist culture

Innovative organisationCollaborative culture

Micromanaging organisationIndifferent culture

Entrepreneurial organisationChaotic culture

High Alignment

HighAutonomy

Low Alignment

LowAutonomy

ALIGNED AUTONOMY

High Autonomy, Low Alignment

Growth Fragmentation

Divisional structure Inflexible deployment

Limited turnaround support

Confused model of school improvement

Inefficient central systems

“Be autonomous, but don’t sub-optimise”

ALIGNED AUTONOMY

• We share the same mission and values.

• All Dixons students and staff should benefit from our best collectivepractice.

• We all benefit from the collective Dixons resources, brand andreputation.

• Staff can be more easily deployed to train and support at any academy.

• Central services become simpler to deliver and more efficient.

• Growth can be better controlled, supported and managed.

• A divisional leadership structure sub-optimises performance, and tendsto cliques and fragmentation.

Why Aligned

ALIGNED AUTONOMY

Why Autonomy

• Leadership and personal accountability are founded on ownership andself-direction.

• If there is no variation in how we work, there will be no opportunity forus to learn from different practices.

• A culture of conformity kills innovation and drives away the best staff.

• Standardisation fails to respond to changing needs, and fails to adapt to achanging environment.

• Micromanagement breeds indifference.

• Autonomy is the foundation of our success so far.

ALIGNED AUTONOMY

• Mission, values and drivers

• Governance and executive

• AIP, QA and appraisal

• Curriculum, assessment and feedback

• Classroom routines and behaviour management

• Safeguarding and attendance

• Vulnerable students

• Finance

• IT

• HR and policies

• Marketing and branding

Strong backbone vertebrae

ALIGNED AUTONOMY

Strong backbone

Aligned Autonomy

Curriculum Long term plans EYFS to KS3Exam specifications and longterms plans KS4 EBaccEngage in cross-cutting teamsA Dixons SoW to support newschools

SoWLesson planningKnowledge organisersPedagogyExternal packagesPost 16 and KS4 non-EBacc syllabiDixons toolkit

ALIGNED AUTONOMY

Strong backbone

Aligned Autonomy

Assessment 13-week cycleData Days and interventionplanningEnd-of-year common assessment(percentile rank)Reference testingPRAG

Implementation of cyclesImplementation of Data Days andintervention planningPlanning DaysCycle 1 and 2 assessmentDetermination of PRAG andreporting to familiesGL Assessment / AssemblyMarking and feedbackRetrieval practice / low stakestestingDixons toolkit

EMPOWERED TO LEAD

• Avoid chaos as you grow with ever more high performance people – notwith rules:

– Then you can continue to mostly run informally with self-discipline,and avoid chaos

– The run informally part is what enables and attracts creativity

A fourth option

HIGHLY PROFESSIONAL STAFF

The key: increase talent densityfaster than complexity grows

HIGHLY PROFESSIONAL STAFF

Instead of a culture of process adherence, we have a culture of creativityand self-discipline, freedom and responsibility

With the right people

EMPOWERED TO LEAD

The best managers figure out how to get great outcomes by setting theappropriate context, rather than by trying to control their people. Providethe insight and understanding to enable sound decisions:

Context, not control

Context (embrace) Control (avoid)

Strategy Top-down decisions

Metrics Management approval

Assumptions Committees

Objectives Planning and process valued more than resultsClearly-defined roles

Knowledge of the stakes

Transparency around decisions

ALIGNED AUTONOMY

Scaling agile at Dixons

Academy

Dept. Principal

Academy Lead

Exec. Principal

Agile Coach

Dept. Dept. Dept.

LeadershipGroup

ALIGNED AUTONOMY

Scaling agile at DixonsAcademy

Dept. Principal

Academy Lead

Dept. Dept. Dept.

Academy

Dept. Exec. Principal

Agile Coach

Principal

Academy Lead

Dept. Dept. Dept.

Academy

Dept. Principal

Academy Lead

Dept. Dept. Dept.

Academy

Dept. Principal

Academy Lead

Dept. Dept. Dept. Exec. Principal

Agile Coach

Exec. Principal

Agile Coach

Exec. Principal

Agile Coach

LeadershipGroup

LeadershipGroup

LeadershipGroup

LeadershipGroup

HIGHLY PROFESSIONAL STAFF

• Talent is king. Talent, even more than strategy, is what creates value

• Hierarchy can isolate and bury talent

• A people-first company relies on true work of small, cross-functionalteams

• Flattening the organisation will stimulate creativity and personal growth.It creates speed

• Leading a talent-first organisation requires agility, an ability to fostercollaboration, calm decisiveness in the face of uncertainty, transparencyand faith

• It requires enough ego to be comfortable with making the hardestdecisions and enough humility to defer to the brilliance of other people

• It means living with the idea that the talent will determine the directionand strategy of the organisation

Talent wins

HIGHLY PROFESSIONAL STAFF

3 critical moves to unleash talent:

1. Most vital people must be in roles where they can create significantvalue

2. They must be free from bureaucratic structure

3. They must be afforded the training and opportunities to expand theirskills

Talent wins

HIGHLY PROFESSIONAL STAFF

Questions?

ALIGNED AUTONOMY

• Control, can be important in emergency

– No time to take long-term capacity-building view

• Control can be important when someone is still learning their area

– Takes time to pick up the necessary context

• Control can be important when you have the wrong person in a role

– Temporarily, no doubt

Exceptions to “context, not control”

56

14.50 – 15.35

Choice of workshopsSession BWORKSHOP 1How to survive, and thrive, as the CEO of a MAT in difficulty – Chaucer

WORKSHOP 2Condition Improvement Fund – Bronte A

WORKSHOP 3Supporting good governance – the role of the governance professional –Bronte B

WORKSHOP 4Ofsted's new proposals for MAT focused reviews – Main Theatre

57

Thank youwww.cstuk.org.uk@CSTvoice