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Next Step Educational Services

Everyone agreed. Nothing changed.

Published 29 days ago • 1 min read

Hi Reader,

You've been in the meeting where everyone nods. The plan gets said out loud, heads go up and down, someone even repeats it back to confirm. Then two weeks later, half the building is doing something slightly different — not because anyone disagreed, but because "agreed" and "aligned" turned out to be two different things.

It shows up everywhere. A team signs off on a new referral process, and by October three teachers are still using the old form because nobody actually checked. An IEP team discusses a student's present levels at length, and the write-up that goes in the file doesn't quite match what was actually said in the room — not dishonesty, just drift between the conversation and the document. A staff meeting ends with everyone "on the same page," and a month later you find out that page meant three different things to three different people.

Agreement in the room is cheap. It costs nothing to nod. Alignment after the room empties is what's expensive — it requires someone to actually check that what was said matches what's happening, and that what's written matches what was meant.

The gap isn't usually bad faith. It's that verbal agreement feels like the finish line, when it's actually the starting line. Nobody built in a way to confirm the follow-through, so the follow-through just... didn't happen, or happened differently for everyone.

This week: pick one thing your team "agreed on" recently. Don't ask if people remember agreeing — ask what they're actually doing about it. The gap between those two answers is where your next fix lives.

See you next week.

— Eric

Eric Wicherski, M.Ed. Next Step Educational Services Reply anytime — I read every one.

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Next Step Educational Services

Practical professional development and leadership notes for school and special education leaders — one short, useful email a week from Eric Wicherski, M.Ed., founder of Next Step Educational Services. Ready-to-deliver PD your team can actually use, plus straight talk on what's changing in special education.

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