Why consultants can't solve your biggest problem

Happy Friday

The clocks have sprung forward, and so has the pace in our schools. Energy is buzzing through corridors as we race toward the final term. I see it schools I work with: leaders with fire in their eyes, packed calendars, and that mix of drive and tiredness that has come to define April. Feel familiar?

It's during this intense sprint that I've noticed something fascinating. A subtle but powerful phenomenon that Efraim Lerner (my co-author) and I call "the slow death of organisational confidence." This concept sits at the heart of our new book, Change Starts Here.

What strikes me most in my chats with school leaders is how often I hear variations of:

Yet these same schools are filled with talented professionals who understand their contexts better than any external consultant ever could.

Why has this happened?

I think we're witnessing a significant confidence crisis in education. Years of reduced autonomy has left many feeling like robots following orders rather than skilled professionals. And nature hates a vacuum. This gap in confidence fills quickly with outside voices: consultants, products, frameworks. They promise fixes but often weaken our own abilities.

The education world has shifted dramatically toward frameworks and checklists. We've packaged teaching, leadership, and learning into tidy boxes. These simplify complex work, yes. But they often miss what matters most: context.

Context lives between the boxes. It grows in the relationships and small details that make your school yours. It's why the same plan works brilliantly in one school and fails in another.

And I'm not suggesting we ignore external expertise. Far from it.

But what if?

What if everything your school needed was already right in front of you? What if sustainable change could begin by reconnecting with the wisdom already within in your community?

This term, take a moment. Ask yourself what thinking you're giving away that could stay in-house. What wisdom already exists in your school that you're not using? How might your team drive change from within?

I'd love to hear your stories of when your school found its own answers. What worked? What challenges did you face? Send me a reply.

Until next week,

Shane

PS: My new book Change Starts Here: What if Everything Your School Needed was Right in Front of You? is now available to preview online. Check out our model for real, community-driven change here.

Here’s a few of my latest episodes to take you in to the weekend: