Learning from Wicked Challenges

How a Wisconsin school system deployed an army of improvers to light the way during a year of volatility

An “army of improvers” is at work in the School District of Menomonee Falls in Wisconsin, where staff are learning how to increase student engagement, improve parent confidence, keep their people safe and sustain learning outcomes in 45-day cycles of improvement.

These are remarkable lessons to learn during a pandemic. Consider the collective power under normal conditions.

Like educators everywhere, schools in Menomonee Falls stopped and restarted at a frenetic pace 13 months ago. The COVID-19 pandemic threw up barriers in front of every decision maker, rendering familiar routines useless and challenging even experienced leaders to tackle wicked challenges in their complex systems.