Years ago, my principal, Plato Karafelis, had decided to replace some of the chairs at teachers’ desks. A bunch of them were in bad shape, so he planned to purchase new ones.
Maybe he had budgeted for the new furniture.
Maybe he found himself with a surplus.
Maybe it was a donation from a grateful parent.
Who knows?
What would most leaders do?
Purchase the chairs.
Ask custodians to place them in the assigned classrooms.
Send an email.
Plato understood that opportunities exist wherever you allow them to exist.
He knew that theater matters.
Storytelling is key.
Culture can be cultivated if you’re clever enough.
His first step:
He asked the Student Council to surreptitiously identify the worst teacher chairs in the school.
Why?
Involve the students.
Make therm part of the decision-making process.
Give them a sense of agency.
Next, he purchased the chairs.
Then, prior to our weekly assembly, he had the dozen or so chairs placed on the stage at intervals behind the curtain.
In the midst of the assembly, he called a dozen teachers — myself included — to the stage.
We had no idea why we were being called because surprise is the most powerful, memorable, impactful storytelling strategy there is.
He has us stand in front of the curtain at intervals equal to the chairs behind the curtain.
Unbeknownst to us, each of us is now standing in front of a chair.
After calling up the Student Council President and speaking about how leleagured teachers deserve a comfortable place to park themselves while correcting papers, conferencing with students, and eating lunch, he called for a drum roll, and then, with a flourish, the curtains parted to reveal our new chairs as the band burst into song.
He asked us to take a seat, and as we did, the audience roared in approval.
I still sit in that chair every day, and I still remember that moment like it was yesterday.
The simple disbursement of a dozen new chairs to deserving teachers had been made into an unforgettable moment and a lesson for me:
Don’t allow an opportunity — however small — go to waste.
Create stories and grow culture whenever possible.
Find ways to foster indelible moments in your organization, even if it’s simply a dozen much-needed pieces of office furniture.
Plato was the principal of my school for 25 years for a good reason:
He was a hell of a leader.
