The Lovett School
An Embedded Experience
By L+D Partner Ryan Burke
If we start with the end in mind, it is helpful to understand the impact of this partnership through what has been created as a result:
In partnership with Lovett, the partnership helped to create monthly advances for the senior leadership team. This habit of gathering monthly for a full day has persisted for five years, and has led to a transformative practice of learning. What other independent school do you know that has actively gathered its senior leadership every month for a full day over five years? It just doesn’t happen. People will say, “we don’t have the time” but at Lovett, in partnership with L+D, they created the time.
New LS, MS, and US Schedules
Designed and implemented a system for employee growth and evaluation. This includes reaching 500+ employees at Lovett.
Designed and implemented a new faculty orientation program that gathers new teachers to Lovett monthly to move from onboarding to a consistent and regular way to continue to train and learn from new teachers.
Designed and implemented a Parent Education Program called, For the Love of Parenting. In its first year, over the course of four sessions, this program brought together over 100+ elementary school parents to talk about the challenges of partnering to educate the school’s youngest learners. In year two, this program will expand to middle school and reach even more parents.
Over five years, L+D has coached and facilitated work with a variety of teams including: Admissions and Enrollment, Advancement, Divisional Leadership, Counselors, Learning Specialists, Librarians, Department Chairs, Deans, and the partnership between the Head of School and Associate Head of School.
Over five years, we have sent 50+ Lovett employees to L+D open enrollment programs providing a mix of amazing PD experiences, but also connecting their work together with shared language, experience and a sense of shared experience.
50+ formal training sessions led for feedback and difficult conversations.
100+ hours of facilitated practice sessions for Lovett Leaders in areas of capacity building.
Designed and Implemented a Leadership Lab in partnership, and this partnership has led to a national program that serves leaders from all over the country. Lovett hosted the first ever Leadership Lab in 2022, and this lab has now been hosted in Salt Lake City, Atlanta, New York and Los Angeles.
The Difference between Consulting and Partnering: A consultant is used in a certain way and serves a certain purpose, and there is a reason they exist, but a partner is different. A partner is invested, and the work is not transactional. A partner is familiar enough to get the real story, hear the actual truth and confront the actual challenges, but removed enough to enter those challenges without the baggage that often helps to sustain the status quo. A consultant is paid to do their thing and leave. A partner is paid to accomplish an outcome together with the folks that are in mud doing the work.
L+D’s work at Lovett is evidence that outside support and expertise can also be inside support and expertise, and that different ways of working can sometimes create different outcomes. Beyond the tangible impact measured by outcomes, the partnership over five years has created trust and leverage to do hard things. We are past introductions and norms, and we are able to go deep and wide. If you are reading this, I hope you will consider the value of a partner in your work that is not mired in your day to day context. One of our values at L+D is the value of transformation, and this deep partnering work at Lovett is one pathway that has felt transformational.