The Flawless Consulting Fieldbook & Companion, 2nd Edition

Chapter 2Transformation Is Slow, Small, and Low Cost

Dan Joyner

WHERE IT IS WORKING: PUBLIC SCHOOL

These ideas of how to have influence when you have no control are especially useful in the public and government sectors, where most do not feel they have much direct authority to tell people what to do. Dan Joyner consults in these worlds and has a way of keeping the attention on the structure and design of how people come together, rather than on the expertise and insight and wisdom of the consultant. He is very successful in that endeavor, which gives some hope for us all. Here is a story of where an alternative future is occurring in the unlikely place of public education. And it is happening without the intervention of the school board or state legislature.

COMMUNITY THROUGH “HOUSES”

The story of Finneytown Local School District near Cincinnati puts into practice how intentional contracting with people who are open to change can have a big impact. This story of transformation in public education started in 2017. The secondary campus leadership of Finneytown School District decided they wanted to implement something called a “house system.” They had been talking with other schools who had gone in this direction, and several of the team attended an institute on the house system.

The house system organizes the student body into “houses” rather than just by grade level and age. Finneytown Secondary Campus now has six houses, one named Pringle House because the person who created ...