People Over Programs: How Great Leaders Build the Culture That Builds the School

A few years ago I was sitting in on a district leadership meeting where the conversation was entirely about programs.

Which reading program should we adopt? Which SEL curriculum should we purchase? Which intervention platform has the best data? The entire two-hour meeting was spent comparing vendors, reviewing slide decks from sales reps, and debating the merits of Program A versus Program B.

Not once did anyone mention the teachers.

Not the ones who would be asked to implement these programs. Not the ones who had been doing incredible work without them. Not the ones who were burning out, because they lacked support.

I've been in education long enough to have seen this cycle play out dozens of times. A new program gets adopted with great fanfare. There's a kickoff. There's a binder. There's a two-day training over the summer. And then…scattered support as more fires need attention.

By year two, the program is inconsistently implemented. By year three, there's a new program.

Sound familiar?

The Program Trap

Here's the thing. I'm not anti-program. Some programs are well-designed and grounded in solid research. The issue isn't the programs themselves, it's that we treat them as the solution rather than a tool.

A tool is only as good as the person using it. And the person using it is only as effective as the support system around them.

When we pour all of our energy, budget, and leadership attention into adopting the right program, we're making a bet that the system will do the work for us. That if we just get the right curriculum in place, learning will improve.

But that's not how it works. And deep down, we all know it.

The research shows us the single greatest in-school factor affecting student achievement is not a program, a platform, or a curriculum package. It's a teacher. It's a human being who knows their students, adapts in real time, builds relationships, and creates the conditions where learning actually happens.

So why do we keep investing in programs and underinvesting in people?

What It Looks Like to Put People First

I've been lucky to work with schools and districts that have figured this out. And what I've noticed is that the shift from "program-first" to "people-first" is about spending your attention differently.

It starts with how leaders think about PLCs, or distributed leadership.

In too many schools, PLCs (Professional Learning Communities) have become compliance structures where you show up on a Wednesday, bring your data, fill out the form and then move on.

That's not really a learning community.

Real PLCs (the kind that actually change practice) look nothing like that. They're spaces where teachers feel safe enough to say, "This lesson didn’t work and I don't know why." Where a colleague can say, "I tried something different, do you want to see it?" Where professional growth is something that happens with you in the mix.

The difference makes it about culture.

And culture doesn't come from a program. It comes from leadership.

The Leader's Real Job

If you're a principal, an AP, a curriculum coordinator, a department head, a coach—your job is to build the right people. Programs are always going to come and go, but the people are what makes things work.

That means doing things that don't show up in a slide deck or a board presentation.

Having honest one-on-one conversations with teachers about what they need and then actually following through.

Protecting collaborative time from being overtaken by logistics and announcements. Modeling vulnerability by sharing your own learning struggles openly.

Celebrating the process of getting better, not just the results.

Trusting your teachers enough to give them real autonomy, and supporting them when they take risks that don't work out.

This is harder than buying a program. Way harder.

But this is the work that matters.

A Coaching Mindset, Not a Compliance Mindset

One of the most powerful shifts I've seen in schools is when leaders adopt a coaching mindset instead of a compliance mindset.

A compliance mindset says: Did you implement the program with fidelity? Let me check.

A coaching mindset says: What are you trying to accomplish with your students? How can I help you get there?

The first approach puts the program at the center. The second puts the teacher, and ultimately the learner, at the center.

When I was working as an instructional coach, the most meaningful conversations I had with teachers weren't about programs or platforms. They were about kids.

Those conversations are what moves the needle, and it can't be purchased from a vendor.

What About AI? What About EdTech?

I think about this a lot, especially now. There's a new wave of programs coming into schools, and many of them are powered by AI. Adaptive platforms, AI tutors, automated feedback systems. So many of them have real potential. I’m already seeing them work in some places.

Are we investing in the technology, or are we investing in the people who will use it?

That is the question.

AI can personalize content delivery, and can give students practice at their level, maybe even save teachers time on certain tasks. But it can't build relationships. It can't know that a student's off day has nothing to do with the lesson and everything to do with what happened at home last night.

The teachers who use AI well are the ones who have been developed as professionals, and who understand learning deeply enough to know when the tool helps and when it gets in the way.

People over programs. Always.

The Culture Challenge

I know what some leaders are thinking: "This sounds great, but I have 100+ teachers and I'm being evaluated on test scores. I need something scalable."

I get that the pressure is real. All of us who have been leaders have felt this pressure.

Programs feel scalable, but they aren't, not really. Not when half your staff implements them one way and the other half another. Not when teacher turnover means you're retraining new people on last year's program every single fall.

You know what actually scales? Culture.

When you build a culture where teachers are growing, where collaboration is genuine, where coaching is embedded, where people feel value, then that culture outlasts any program. Teachers stay, and they get better, and they support each other. They ultimately take ownership of their own growth.

And the programs? They become tools that good teachers use well, because they've been supported to do so.

Start Here

If you're a leader reading this and wondering where to begin, I'd offer three places to start:

Audit your time. Look at how you spend your weeks. How much of your time goes toward program management versus people development? If it's lopsided toward programs, that's your signal.

Transform your PLCs. Take what you already have (your PLC time) and reimagine it. Make it a space for genuine professional learning. Bring in protocols that promote honest conversation, and then protect it fiercely.

Have the conversations. Sit down with your teachers to listen. Ask them what's working, what's not, and what they need from you. Then do something about it.

The best schools I've worked IN, worked WITH, and visited don't run on programs. They run on people who believe in what they're doing, who trust each other, and who are led by someone who invested in them first.

People over programs.