I wrote a while back about getting out of the ‘education echo chamber’ and challenging ourselves with people who may think differently or come from a different perspective than us. One of the links in this post was to RedTeams.net, who are counter-insurgency and security specialists. I find the whole concept of ‘red teaming’ fascinating, and those I work with will often hear me talk about trying to ‘break ideas’ and thrash plans around while they are still in their formative or concept stage. Red teaming has evolved from the historical Vatican concept of the so-called devil's advocate – someone whose job it was to try and break ideas or plans, or to argue from the opposite perspective to the status-quo or accepted doctrine. The counter perspective was seen as essential to coming to good decisions and decision-making, just as actively seeking multiple perspectives is central to effective change in education contexts today.
One of my current favourite reads is Micah Zenko’s ‘Red Team — how to succeed by thinking like the enemy’. It outlines the whole concept of Red Teaming, and gives examples from a number of different fields across military and business arenas. He begins by observing:
Institutions — whether they are military units, government agencies , or small businesses — operate according to some combination of long-range strategies, near-term plans, day-to-day operations and to-do lists. Decision-makers and other employees do not simply show up to their jobs each morning anew and then decide then and there how to work, and what to work on. The existing guidance, practices, and culture of an institution are essential to it's functioning effectively. Yet, the dilemma for any institution operating in a competitive environment characterized by incomplete information and rapid change is how to determine when it’s standard processes and strategies are resulting in a suboptimal outcome, or, more seriously, leading to a potential catastrophe. Even worse, if the methods an institution uses to process corrective information are themselves flawed they can become the ultimate cause of failure. (pg: xvi)
To me, that sounds very much like the dilemma schools and centres face each and every day, particularly at this time of the year as they are refining and confirming their strategic planning and day-to-day ways of working for the new year. It also reflects closely the understandings we have about the work we do in Learning with Digital Technologies to support schools and clusters to implement their plans and goals, but with a specific e-learning lens. Planning, making strategic choices, change management and ensuring the smooth implementation of actions promoting change towards agreed outcomes are all crucial elements of what we support schools and clusters to do.
Zenco (in Chapter 1) also describes six critical factors to the effectiveness of any Red Team programme. Once again these things will sound very familiar to anybody who is involved in school leadership or change management. With a specific school or centre context, these factors could look like:
- The boss must buy in: The support and engagement of the leadership in the entire programme and its outcomes is the most critical single factor in schools, centres and for Red Teaming.
- Outside and objective, while inside and aware: Those leading or supporting any programs or changes must be aware of the culture of the organisation and effective ways of engendering change within it. They must also understand who the official and unofficial leaders are and who it is most effective to work with and through to get the desired outcomes.
- Fearless sceptics with finesse: Don’t make assumptions — check them, break them, challenge them, and change them. Dance carefully around and between the things and people that may be blockers or impediments to change. Work carefully and skillfully with those people who may not be as on-board as others.
- Have a big bag of tricks: If one strategy doesn't work effectively, good change leaders always have other ways of getting things to happen. They will know who the effective people are to collaborate with, and what strategies are most useful to work with them to get the change they desire.
- Be willing to hear bad news and act on it: Once again, effective leaders will be constantly reviewing and checking that they are on track for the outcomes they are seeking. They will be prepared to make changes along the way, and, if necessary, refocus their efforts in ways that will promote the long-term outcomes and gains they are seeking.
- Red team just enough but no more: You can over plan! At some point you need to get on with it and implement change, not just plan it and think about it. Fullan often quotes an inverse relationship between the overt ‘quality’ of strategic planning and the ‘quality of the outcomes’.
Redteams.net has a moto of “Plan, execute, vanish”. Again this has a strong education parallel:
- Plan well and for all contingencies.
- Do what you planned, and said you were going to do.
- Re-focus your change management attention and get on with the next thing when you have achieved your goal/s.
So, as you reflect on 2015, and really begin to ramp-up your school or centre development in 2016, what elements of Red Teaming can you include?
- Do you actively try to break goals and plans while they are at the formative and intellectual stage so you are less likely to be surprised by something you never thought of?
- Do you actively seek out the wacky and weird ways things that may go wrong – because they often do?
- Do you seek the perspectives of those you disagree with or ask the dissenters for their ideas?
- Do you over or under plan?
- Are you even planning and actioning the right things, the ones that will have the greatest impact?
- Do you over-labour things and not move on to the next thing you need to do?
- What will you do if your plan does begin to falter? Can you bring it back on track because the challenge you are facing is something you have already considered?
What other questions do you need to ask yourself to ensure that you achieve the things you aspire to for yourself, you students and your school/centre this year?

Greg Carroll

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Kia ora Greg thoroughly enjoyed this blog. Got me thinking and inspired me to take on the Red Teaming kaupapa in the mahi I do. Refocused and redefined some of the way Im thinking and working…..Ngā mihi
Tēnā koe Greg, your post is genuinely exciting to read. It can be so hard to actively break the goals in their formative stage and face the daily resistance that process brings with it, but it doesn't mean we shouldn't stop trying! I really appreciate your level of sharing and thinking as it has certainly helped me refocus my thinking around a challenging situation… Definitely adding redteams.net to my reading list for the week. Ka kite. James
Hi James,
In the work I do people seem to appreciate that I am actively soliciting the diverse and challenging perspectives. Rather than people feeling like I am pitching a 'product' to them it is about challenging and changing personal beliefs.
Tools like the eLearning Planning Framework online tool are great ways that schools and kura can gather this information for themselves too.
Thanks
Greg
Kia ora Phoebe
Glad it has prompted some reflection and thinking …. that was the intent :-). I think we have lots to learn about change management and effective strategic planning from fields that are very different from the sometimes quite insular and closeted world of education. Lets face it, if you are in the military (for example – to take the extreme case) the stakes could well much higher for ineffective strategic or short term planning.
Thanks, Greg
Tēnā koe Greg.
Many thanks for sharing your thoughts on Red Teaming. I recently used the term 'disrupt' with regards to options for designing school curriculum to include financial capability, and received a positive response from some people – and a "Ooh, that's a bit violent" response from others. Good to be reminded that we all respond to such visceral words differently, which may or may not help promote an idea. I appreciate your suggestion of Red Teaming as an alternative – and I like its historical link, too. Will go back to your earlier blog so thanks for revisiting. Ngā mihi. Angela.
Hi Angela
In the business world Red Teaming (or maybe scenario planning or some other term) is widely used to enable companies to plan with as much certainty as possible and predict the future so as to be prepared for multiple possible outcomes. In schools we are sometimes blindsided by the 'didn't expect that reaction' scenario. The RT concept may help us predict and be prepared for this a little more?
I agree language is a key part of change leadership isn't it. I know in my work I tend to frame things as provocations (deriving the concept from the Reggio sense of a stimulus or something that makes us think). Change is disruptive by definition and sometimes in schools and education people being completely happy all the time is given too great an emphasis I believe. Creative discomfort is a good thing? I had a principal colleague once who observed that his staff were often too comfortable and he needed to provide them with a little bit more discomfort in order to promote more rapid change (for the benefit of the kids).
(provocation alert ….) We do expect kids to be uncomfortable and challenged in their learning every day. But in the staff room happiness and comfort are sometimes the indexes of success? Should this be the case?
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