Episode Details

Cale Birk is a former teacher, high school principal, and District Head of Innovation from British Columbia, Canada. In 2015, one of his schools was named one of the first Model PLC Schools in Canada. Feeling like he was only scratching the surface with collaboration, Cale wrote the book PLC 2.0 – Collaborating for Observable Impact in Today’s Schools helping leaders and teachers go deep through The Observable Impact Model – used now by schools around the world. After working with schools and leaders at all levels of the system with OI over the last few years, Cale began work on his newest book, Navigating Leadership Drift with co-author, Dr. Michael McDowell. Navigating Leadership Drift is about giving leaders the tools to build leadership efficacy so we can hang on to the leaders in our school at every level.  Cale has been a keynote speaker, breakout speaker, and TED Talker around North America and the Pacific Rim, and he truly loves to equip leaders with tools they can actually use right away in their staff meetings, with their teams, and even with their students!

Listen to the entire conversation for great takeaways. Here are some highlights:

Cale’s Background

• From the joys of keynote speaking to giving TED Talks, Cale cherishes equipping leaders with tangible tools for immediate implementation.

New Book Navigating Leadership Drift

• Inspired by witnessing a drained Midwest Superintendent, the book examines the overwhelming demands on leaders.
• Main message: Shift from mere action to observable impact.
• Finding humor, recognizing drifts, and tools to tackle them. It’s about leadership efficacy.

Leading from the Middle

• Understanding the ‘Tragic Gap’: Navigating corrosive cynicism and irrelevant idealism.
• The difference between action and impact; why both don’t always align.
• The central role of a leader: Leading by focusing on CONVERSION.
  • From current practices to knowledge.
  • Turning knowledge to action.
  • Reflecting on action to gauge its impact.
• The mantra: “What did we learn? What’s next?”

Promoting Rigorous Learning

• The SET model: Clarity, Resilience, and Observability.
• The balance of giving students choice while ensuring alignment with standards.

Supporting Teacher Teams

• The SET vision: Understand and assess the reality.
• Go beyond common assessments; look at teaching methodologies and tasks.
• Embrace reality as a learning tool, not a metric of inadequacy.

Staying Motivated as a Leader

• Applying the Design, Implement, Observe, Document framework for continuous personal growth.
• Dopamine moments in learning and sharing those moments with the community.

Wrap Up & Resources:

• Connect with Cale at

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