I'll never forget the day Carly Rae Jepsen became my constant reminder of what makes for – and doesn't make for – great school district websites and all they represent.
I was standing by the desk of her dad, Larry, as he motioned to his computer screen and said to me quietly:
"Jeff, here, take a look at this."
His daughter, it appeared, was among the remaining three candidates in Canadian Idol. She was about to become a really famous pop singer with one of the top ten song choruses of all time.
Larry was a secondary school principal in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia. It's a school like hundreds of others. And we were in his office preparing the release of his school website in the 'pilot' phase of our development roll-out for the whole district.
Larry was a Piloteer. A learner and a leader at the same time.
Powerful combo.
He basically launched his school district into a new frontier of parent engagement, staff involvement and public awareness. And behind Larry was a district administrator who got it, and who invested in something larger.
By Larry's measure, his school's website was a quiet success waiting to go public. Easy to publish and edit, it made sense to people, and he was committed to it. Important ingredients.
But these aren't the most important things Larry would contribute.
One week not long after, I was at a superintendent's meeting with all the administrators in the district. My job was to try and win their interest in a system of online interaction as well as corporate identity and other strategic stuff we hoped they'd embrace together.
I was slotted in to speak right after 'new budget procedures impacting schools' and 'innovative math curriculum for at-risk students'. Or something like that. Basically, things that mattered in their minds.
Gulp.
Who might even begin to care about anything I was going to say about building, selling, maintaining and achieving results through great websites?
Turns out I didn't need to worry much.
Whatever the crowd may have heard from my mouth, or miraculously recalled upon questioning (and I thought I was pretty compelling) was trolloped by the very few words Carly Rae's dad would say right after me.
The processes surrounding this revelation have remained key the pillars of our entire approach to staff and audience engagement, including rolling out new systems to teams of people. Larry showed how he understood what really mattered and that he was part of something larger – something they had to do together for it to be effective.
Larry stood up, straightened his tie, and delivered these words of experience and conviction to his peers:
"Guys, this thing works. Trust me. Just start using it."
This is the power of buy-in. One colleague becoming an advocate, even a champion, and instilling their vision and enthusiasm in others. Don’t even try to effect significant corporate change without it.
