Over the last few months, I’ve found myself returning again and again to a single question: How do schools know when they’re ready to change?
In my new role at Scott Goldberg Consulting (SGC), it’s a question that sits right at the heart of our work. Every strategic plan, every coaching relationship, every conversation about improvement begins there. We do have a kind of “secret sauce” when it comes to readiness and change — a structured way of thinking about the human, cultural, and operational conditions that allow schools to grow. But before I ever helped design readiness tools, I spent twenty years as a head of school trying to build them by feel.
Looking back across three headships, and what I learned through my time serving at Schechter, Prizmah, and (still) at DSLTI, I can see that readiness wasn’t about whether we had the right plan on paper. It was about the energy in the building, the trust between people, the willingness to name what wasn’t working. Readiness lived in the conversations that felt a little scary but still possible.
What Readiness Is Not
It’s tempting to think readiness is about timing or resources: when the budget balances, when enrollment climbs, when morale improves, then we’ll be ready to take on change. But in my experience, those are lagging indicators. Real readiness shows up before the conditions are perfect. It’s not a function of abundance; it’s a function of honesty.
The schools that were most ready to change weren’t the ones with the most money or the newest facilities. They were the ones that could tell the truth. The ones that could sit in a room together and say, “This is where we are — and this is where we need to go.”
The Human Signals of Readiness
When schools ask whether they’re ready for change, they usually expect a checklist. (And, yes, at SGC, we do have tools and diagnostics that help answer that question.) But long before we pull data or map systems, you can feel readiness in the people.
You see it when a leadership team starts to ask data-informed questions, not just opinion-driven ones. You hear it when a teacher says, “We’ve tried this before and it didn’t work — what would make it different this time?” You sense it when stakeholders stop defending what is and start imagining what could be.
At its heart, readiness is relational. It’s built on trust, the belief that naming a problem won’t be punished. It’s powered by curiosity, the willingness to learn something new about ourselves or our institutions. And it’s sustained by alignment, enough shared purpose to move forward even when not everyone agrees on every detail.
That’s why at SGC we talk about systems and data in the same breath as culture and trust. Systems create clarity. Data keeps us honest. But people create the conditions that make change possible. You can design the most elegant theory of change in the world, but if the culture isn’t ready to hold it, it won’t last.
Not every change unfolds according to plan, of course. The most meaningful shifts are rarely linear. Sometimes they begin with a Nachshon moment – a courageous first step into uncertain waters. Other times they follow the pattern of na’aseh v’nishmah; we act first, and understanding follows. Readiness, in those moments, isn’t about having everything figured out. It’s about having enough faith in each other, and in the process, to begin.
The Systemic Signals of Readiness
Because our team at SGC works with schools across so many domains, from Hebrew language and literacy to strategic planning, executive coaching, governance, finance, and operations, we get to see the full ecosystem of day school life from multiple angles. That breadth offers perspective: when you’re in conversation with dozens of schools each week, you start to notice patterns. The schools that move from aspiration to action share certain systemic habits.
They have clear decision-making pathways; people know who owns which calls and how information flows. They use data to inform, not to defend. Metrics are a mirror, not a weapon. Their systems talk to each other. Finance understands how scheduling affects teaching; board priorities align with classroom realities. And perhaps most importantly, they build feedback loops that translate insight into iteration.
None of that sounds flashy, but it’s the infrastructure of change. When systems are aligned and transparent, energy is freed for the work that matters most. When data is timely and trusted, leaders can focus on learning rather than reacting. Readiness at the systemic level isn’t about perfection; it’s about coherence. It’s about the way people, structures, and information interact in service of a shared purpose.
At SGC, this is the connective tissue across our work. Whether the conversation begins with Hebrew reading, a head search, a financial model, or a strategic-planning retreat, the readiness question is always the same: Is the system strong enough, and honest enough, to hold the next stage of growth?
Why Readiness Matters
In every school I’ve served, and now in every school I have the privilege to support, the success of any plan ultimately rests on readiness. A brilliant strategy in an unready system is like tefillah without kavanah: technically sound, spiritually empty. But when readiness is high – when people are aligned, systems are coherent, and trust runs deep – change stops being a project and starts becoming culture.
That’s why we focus on readiness at SGC. It isn’t a phase; it’s a condition. It’s the climate that determines whether ideas take root. And it’s built slowly, through relationships, data, and the courage to name what’s true. We can model it, measure it, and nurture it, but ultimately readiness is about faith – faith in people, in process, and in possibility.
Not all change happens in straight lines or predictable steps. Some transformations follow the textbooks and theories; others begin with a Nachshon moment, when someone simply steps forward before the sea has split. And sometimes, as in na’aseh v’nishmah, we act before we fully understand, trusting that meaning will follow action. The best school leaders I know – the ones I’ve learned from as a head, a mentor, and now a consultant – are the ones who find that balance between planning and courage.
Readiness is that balance. It’s what allows a community to take a leap that’s grounded in learning, guided by data, and sustained by systems.
Every school can get there. Every school deserves to.