The Better Leaders Better Schools Podcast | The #1 Downloaded School Leadership Show

📋 The Ruckus Report
Quick take: Most systems are designed to control people, not empower them.This episode shows what happens when a leader flips that script — and trusts the people closest to students to lead.
🙋‍♂️ Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker
Dr. Lindsay Whorton is president of The Holdsworth Center, a nonprofit building stronger leaders for public schools. She's the author of A New School Leadership Architecture, a bold blueprint for redesigning leadership roles so educators are supported, developed, and able to help students thrive.
⚒ Breaking Down the Old Rules
In this episode, Dr. Lindsay Whorton challenges traditional education paradigms:
🧩 Key Insight #1: Stop Hoarding Power at the Top
What's broken: Central office controls decisions, budgets, and strategy.
The shift: Push power, money, and responsibility to campuses.
Impact: Faster decisions, stronger ownership, and leadership at every level.
🧩  Key Insight #2: Collaboration Isn't a Meeting
What's broken: PLCs and meetings that waste time and kill momentum.
The shift: Create space for real-time, problem-solving collaboration between educators.
Impact: Teachers stop retreating and start growing together.
🧩 Key Insight #3: Scarcity Is a Leadership Trap
What's broken: Leaders fixate on what they don't have (budget, staff, time).
The shift: Reframe constraints into creative opportunities using available resources.
Impact: Innovation increases, victim thinking decreases, and results improve.
💬 Quotable Ruckus
"You're not punishing anyone but your students if you stay stuck in scarcity." – Dr. Lindsay Whorton
🧗‍♂️ Your Do School Different Challenge
Ready to implement these ideas? Start here:
Tomorrow: Ask your team: "What decisions are we holding at the top that should live closer to students?"
This Month: Redesign one meeting into real collaboration — focused on solving a live student problem
This Semester: Pilot a shared leadership model that gives teachers real authority, time, and responsibility
🔗 Connect & Continue
🎯 Get the full episode transcript ****here
👩🏻‍💻 Follow Dr. Lindsay Whorton:
Website: https://holdsworthcenter.org/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsay-whorton-9685aa26/
Holdsworth Center on X: https://x.com/HoldsworthCentr
Holdsworth Center on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HoldsworthCenter/
Holdsworth Center on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/holdsworthcenter/
📌 Ruckus Makers Don't Just Listen — They Act
If education ain't a bit disruptive, then what are your students really learning?
This show isn't about doing school better.
It's about Doing School Different — and joining a growing movement of bold, creative school leaders who reject legacy models and reimagine what's possible.
🧠 Four Ways We Can Help You on Your Do School Different Journey
📬 Subscribe to the Free Newsletter — An opportunity to Do School Different 3x a week. Tools, mindset shifts, and strategies that actually work:
https://ruckusmakers.news
🗞 Read Ruckus Maker Media — Exclusive content on Substack. Premium leadership insights, AI prompts and custom GPTs, new books before the bookshelf.
https://ruckusmakers.media
💥 Join The Ruckus Maker Club — Our private network + workshops, The Automatic School tools, AI Prompt Library, and more:
https://ruckusmakers.club
🧨 Apply to the Mastermind — Weekly coaching, peer mentorship, and our proven leadership system (The Ruckus Maker Flywheel) to help you transform your campus:
https://betterleadersbetterschools.com/mastermind
📌 Ruckus Makers Don't Just Listen — They Act
If you're waiting for more resources, more clarity, or more permission… you'll be waiting forever.
The leaders changing schools right now aren't waiting.
They're redistributing power, building leaders, and creating campuses worth showing up for.
🤝 Today's RUCKUScast in Partnership with:
ODP Business Solutions®: Looking to create the kind of campus experience students never forget? ODP Business Solutions® transforms ordinary spaces into extraordinary learning environments.
🔍 Learn more: https://odpbusiness.com/education
IXL: Over 1 million teachers rely on IXL because it is empowering, it helps them make better decisions with reliable data, and it adapts instruction based on student performance.
🔍 Learn more: https://ixl.com/leaders
Frontline Education: 1,000+ school leaders just weighed in on staffing, absenteeism, AI, and funding shifts. The 2026 K-12 Lens Survey Report gives you a national view of where the pressure is — and where momentum is building.
🔍 Learn more: https://frontlineeducation.com/leaders
© 2026 Twelve Practices LLC | If Education Ain't a Bit Disruptive, Then What Are Your Students Learning?

🎯 The Ruckus Report
Quick take: You can't force engagement — but you can design for success. Tommy Floyd breaks down how one meaningful win can transform disconnected students into confident, motivated learners.
🎓 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker
Tommy Floyd originally became involved in NASP® in 2003, while serving as a high school principal and NASP® coach. Several of the first NASP® state champions were on the Somerset High School team that Tommy coached.
He has seen, first-hand, how the program positively impacts students, parents, and teachers.
He has seen NASP® promote constructive teacher/student relationships, academic motivation and the promotion of students becoming involved with their school – many for the first time.

🔨 Breaking Down the Old Rules
In this episode, Tommy Floyd challenges traditional education paradigms:
😎 Key Insight #1: You Can't Force Engagement
What's broken: Schools rely on surveys, incentives, and interventions to "drive" engagement.
The shift: Create authentic success experiences first.
Impact: Students become intrinsically motivated and eager to participate.
📌 Key Insight #2: The "Invisible Middle" Doesn't Need More Programs
What's broken: Schools focus only on high achievers or behaviour problems.
The shift: Design opportunities for the disengaged majority to feel capable and connected.
Impact: 68% of students report feeling more connected to school.
🧰 Key Insight #3: Motivation Comes After Success (Not Before)
What's broken: Expecting students to care before they've experienced competence.
The shift: Give students a win → build confidence → unlock effort.
Impact: 34% of students say they work harder in class after experiencing success.
🎙️ Quotable Ruckus
"Every child needs success. What are you doing?" – Tommy Floyd
🧗‍♂️ Your Do School Different Challenge
Ready to implement these ideas? Start here:
Tomorrow: Identify 5 "invisible middle" students and ask: where can they experience a quick win?
This Month: Launch or pilot one new opportunity (club, program, experience) designed for belonging — not performance
This Semester: Build a system where every student experiences success in at least one meaningful domain on campus
🔗 Connect & Continue
🎯 Get the full episode transcript here
👩🏻‍💻 Follow Tommy Floyd:
Website: https://www.naspschools.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/naspschools/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ArcheryintheSchools/videos
📌 Ruckus Makers Don't Just Listen — They Act
If education ain't a bit disruptive, then what are your students really learning?
This show isn't about doing school better.
It's about Doing School Different — and joining a growing movement of bold, creative school leaders who reject legacy models and reimagine what's possible.
🧠 Here are four ways we can help you on your Do School Different journey
📬 Subscribe to the Free Newsletter — An opportunity to Do School Different 3x a week. Tools, mindset shifts, and strategies that actually work: ruckusmakers.news
🗞 Read Ruckus Maker Media — Exclusive content on Substack. Premium leadership insights, AI prompts and custom gpts, new books before the bookshelf. ruckusmakers.media
💥 Join The Ruckus Maker Club — Our private network + workshops, The Automatic School tools, AI Prompt Library, and more: ruckusmakers.club
🧨 Apply to the Mastermind — Weekly coaching, peer mentorship, and our proven leadership system (The Ruckus Maker Flywheel) to help you transform your campus: Apply Now
🎙 Today's RUCKUS cast in Partnership With:
ODP Business Solutions®
For over 30 years, ODP Business Solutions® has helped schools transform from whiteboards to smartboards. Why? Because when you get the right tools, everyone wins.
🔍 Visit odpbusiness.com/education to revolutionize your school's learning spaces.
IXL
Over 1 million teachers rely on IXL because it is empowering, it helps them make better decisions with reliable data, and it adapts instruction based on student performance.
🔍 Get started today at ixl.com/leaders
Frontline Education:
1,000+ school leaders just weighed in on staffing, absenteeism, AI, and funding shifts. The 2026 K-12 Lens Survey Report gives you a national view of where the pressure is — and where momentum is building.
🔍 Learn more: https://frontlineeducation.com/leaders
© 2026 Twelve Practices LLC | If Education Ain't a Bit Disruptive, Then What Are Your Students Learning?

📕 The Ruckus Report
Quick take: Most strategic plans fail for one simple reason — leaders try to sell a vision the community didn't help create. Drew Howick and Dr. Jeffrey Axelbank reveal how the Future Search process flips that script by putting the whole community in the room to design the future together.
🫂 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Makers
Drew Howick is the founder of Howick Associates, a highly regarded consulting firm based in Madison Wis, and is well regarded as a trusted advisor and collaborative partner to hundreds of schools districts, most of which are in Wisconsin.
He is the author of the book, The New Compleat Facilitator: A Handbook for Facilitators.
Dr. Jeffrey Axelbank is a psychologist and consultant based in Highland Park, NJ.  His consulting work focuses on strategic engagement - getting everyone pulling in the same direction.
He is particularly passionate about whole-system interventions such as Future Search, to help diverse stakeholders in organizations and communities discover common ground in their vision of their shared future.
🔨 Breaking Down the Old Rules
In this episode, Drew Howick and Dr. Jeffrey Axelbank challenge traditional education paradigms:
🧰 Key Insight #1: Stop "Selling" Strategic Plans
What's broken: District leaders build a strategic plan internally, then try to convince the community to support it.
The shift: Bring 60–160 diverse stakeholders together to co-create the vision.
Impact: When people help build the future, they defend it, support it, and help implement it.
🎯  Key Insight #2: Replace Hub-and-Spoke Engagement
What's broken: Schools collect feedback separately through surveys, focus groups, and stakeholder meetings.
The shift: Put parents, teachers, students, business leaders, clergy, nonprofits, and civic leaders in the same room so they talk to each other.
Impact: Silos disappear, polarization drops, and the community discovers real common ground.
🧨  Key Insight #3: Make Strategic Planning an Event, Not a Process
What's broken: Two years of scattered meetings that lead to a plan nobody owns.
The shift: A 12-hour Future Search event across three sessions where stakeholders explore the past, analyze the present, and design the future together.
Impact: Stronger trust, better ideas, unexpected partnerships, and a plan the community actually wants to execute.
🎙️ Quotable Ruckus
"Strong schools require strong community partnerships — and those partnerships don't just happen. Someone has to start the conversation." – Drew Howick
"When people help create the vision for the future, they don't fight the plan — they help build it." – Dr. Jeffrey Axelbank
🔗 Connect & Continue
🎯 Get the full episode transcript here
👩🏻‍💻 Follow Drew Howick:
Website: *www.howickassociates.com,*
AASA JSP Comm'ty Engage using Future Search.pdf
👩🏻‍💻 Follow Dr. Jeffrey Axelbank:
website: https://axelbankconsulting.com/
The website of the Future Search Network: https://futuresearch.net/
Amazon page for the book, Future Search: Getting The Whole System in the Room for Vision, Commitment, and Action: https://a.co/d/0dMt4o3p
The article can be found on the web here: https://www.aasa.org/resources/resource/community-engagement-using-future-search-a-systematic-evaluation-of-the-wisconsin-experience
🧗‍♂️ Your Do School Different Challenge
Ready to implement these ideas? Start here:
Tomorrow: Ask three stakeholder groups (students, teachers, and parents) one simple question: What are you glad, sad, and mad about in our school system?
This Month: Map the full ecosystem of your school community — businesses, nonprofits, faith groups, civic leaders — and identify who's missing from your conversations.
This Semester: Host a community vision event that brings diverse voices together to define what success for students actually looks like.
📌 Ruckus Makers Don't Just Listen — They Act
If education ain't a bit disruptive, then what are your students really learning?
This show isn't about doing school better.
It's about Doing School Different — and joining a growing movement of bold, creative school leaders who reject legacy models and reimagine what's possible.
🧠 Here are four ways we can help you on your Do School Different journey
📬 Subscribe to the Free Newsletter — An opportunity to Do School Different 3x a week. Tools, mindset shifts, and strategies that actually work https://ruckusmakers.news/subscribe
🗞 Read Ruckus Maker Media — Exclusive content on Substack. Premium leadership insights, AI prompts and custom gpts, new books before the bookshelf.https://ruckusmakers.media
💥 Join The Ruckus Maker Club — Our private network + workshops, The Automatic School tools, AI Prompt Library, and more: https://members.ruckusmakers.club/plans/1428145?bundle_token=e8203ab7f9df767a6cf6b98e18a4ff0d&utm_source=manual
🧨 Apply to the Mastermind — Weekly coaching, peer mentorship, and our proven leadership system (The Ruckus Maker Flywheel) to help you transform your campus: https://www.betterleadersbetterschools.com/mastermind-application
🎙 Today's RUCKUS cast in Partnership With:
ODP Business Solutions®
For over 30 years, ODP Business Solutions® has helped schools transform from whiteboards to smart-boards. Why? Because when you get the right tools, everyone wins.
🔍 Visit odpbusiness.com/education to revolutionize your school's learning spaces.
IXL
Over 1 million teachers rely on IXL because it is empowering, it helps them make better decisions with reliable data, and it adapts instruction based on student performance.
🔍 Get started today at ixl.com/leaders
Frontline Education:
1,000+ school leaders just weighed in on staffing, absenteeism, AI, and funding shifts. The 2026 K-12 Lens Survey Report gives you a national view of where the pressure is — and where momentum is building.
🔍 Learn more: https://frontlineeducation.com/leaders
© 2026 Twelve Practices LLC | If Education Ain't a Bit Disruptive, Then What Are Your Students Learning?

🧰 The Ruckus Report
Quick take:
This episode flips the script on school culture and student motivation. Adrian Ireland shows why most engagement issues aren't about effort — they're about environment — and what to do instead.
🫂 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker
Adrian Ireland is an international educator, systems thinker, and author who reimagines the architecture of learning by challenging traditional, standardized education models. With experience leading across Asia and Europe, he champions learner-centered approaches that elevate curiosity, individuality, and creativity.

🔨 Breaking Down the Old Rules
😎 Key Insight #1: Schools don't have effort problems — they have architecture problems
What's broken: We blame students and teachers for being unmotivated.
The shift: Redesign the system so motivation is the natural outcome, not a constant battle.
Impact: Transforms passive learners into engaged problem-solvers without more effort.
📌 Key Insight #2: Culture isn't spoken into existence — it's built by design
What's broken: Leaders treat culture like a vibe or vision statement.
The shift: Treat culture as the emergent result of your systems, structures, and incentives.
Impact: A culture of belonging and excellence that sustains itself beyond PD days and posters.
🧰 Key Insight #3: Startup Week proves a different architecture delivers better results
What's broken: End-of-year burnout and throwaway lessons.
The shift: Reclaim that time with a high-agency, high-authenticity program rooted in design thinking.
Impact: Students work harder, retain more, and surprise themselves — even in the last week of school.
💬 Quotable Ruckus
"Culture is really system architecture in disguise." – Adrian Ireland
🧗‍♂️ Your Do School Different Challenge
Ready to implement these ideas? Start here:
Tomorrow: Audit your current systems. Where are students swimming upstream?
This Month: Start planning a low-stakes sandbox where your staff can test new structures.
This Semester: Launch a Startup Week-style program to unlock student agency and authentic learning.
🔗 Connect & Continue
🎯 Get the full episode transcript here
👩🏻‍💻  Follow Adrian Ireland:
Website: https://designingdifferent.carrd.co/
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/adrian-ireland-413191278
📕 Book: Designing different
📌 Ruckus Makers Don't Just Listen — They Act
If education ain't a bit disruptive, then what are your students really learning?
This show isn't about doing school better.
It's about Doing School Different — and joining a growing movement of bold, creative school leaders who reject legacy models and reimagine what's possible.
🧠 Here are four ways we can help you on your Do School Different journey
📬 Subscribe to the Free Newsletter — An opportunity to Do School Different 3x a week. Tools, mindset shifts, and strategies that actually work: ruckusmakers.news
🗞 Read Ruckus Maker Media — Exclusive content on Substack. Premium leadership insights, AI prompts and custom GPTs, new books before the bookshelf. ruckusmakers.media
💥 Join The Ruckus Maker Club — Our private network + workshops, The Automatic School tools, AI Prompt Library, and more: ruckusmakers.club
🧨 Apply to the Mastermind — Weekly coaching, peer mentorship, and our proven leadership system (The Ruckus Maker Flywheel) to help you transform your campus: Apply Now
🎙 Today's RUCKUS cast in Partnership With:
Play Piper
Every student starts with curiosity — Piper keeps it alive. Our hands-on STEM kits turn gaming passion into real engineering skills.
🔍 Spark confidence in your students at playpiper.com/ruckus.
ODP Business Solutions®
Still scrambling for supplies like it's 1999? ODP streamlines everything from pencils to projectors so you can focus on what matters — making an impact.
🔍 Visit odpbusiness.com/education to learn more.
IXL
If you could differentiate instruction in 20 minutes or less, would you do it? Over 1 million teachers use IXL to make data-informed instruction effortless.
🔍 Start today at ixl.com/leaders.
© 2026 Twelve Practices LLC | If Education Ain't a Bit Disruptive, Then What Are Your Students Learning?

📕 The Ruckus Report
Quick take: Danny tells the brutal story of a "worst first day of school ever" moment — when half the students had no schedules — and uses it to make the case for a 90-day entry plan that builds trust fast, reduces stress, and keeps your campus from spiralling into avoidable chaos.
🔨 Breaking Down the Old Rules
In this episode, Danny challenges the "vibes-only leadership" approach and lays out why leaders need a real plan — what you're doing, why you're doing it, and how you'll execute — especially in the first 90 days.
🧨 Key Insight #1 — The real "first day" starts months earlier
What's broken: Treating the first day of school like a one-day event you can "wing."
The shift: Build and execute a time-based entry plan with clear milestones and check-ins.
Impact: Fewer fires, fewer surprises, and a campus experience worth showing up for. — starting day one.
📌 Key Insight #2 — Chaos is often a systems failure, not a people problem
What's broken: Blaming individuals when a breakdown happens (or silently absorbing it alone).
The shift: Own the outcome, stabilize the system, then fix the root cause with a plan you can communicate.
Impact: Faster recovery when things go wrong — and fewer repeat disasters.
🎯 Key Insight #3 — Close the "Belief Gap" at 3 levels
What's broken: Strategy that sounds good but doesn't create confidence.
The shift: Close belief gaps for: You (internal confidence),
Your team (shared belief + clarity),
Stakeholders (parents/ board/ community buy-in).

Impact: More trust, more autonomy, and more momentum — because people believe the plan is real.
🎙️ Quotable Ruckus
"As school leaders, we make a promise to our community — and it's important that you deliver on that promise, especially in the first 90 days."
— Danny Bauer.
🧩 Your Do School Different Challenge
Ready to implement these ideas? Start here:
Tomorrow: Identify the one predictable breakdown that could derail your next "first day" (schedules, transportation, staffing, supervision, etc.) and write the prevent-it list.
This Month: Draft a 90-day entry plan with milestone check-ins (what success looks like by week 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12).
This Semester: Share the plan in a format your team can repeat back — then measure whether belief is rising across you/team/stakeholders.
🔗 Connect & Continue
🎯 Get the full episode transcript here
👉Apply to The Entry Plan Intensive: https://entryplanintensive.com/
Applications close March 20th at 11:59:59 pm ET.
📌 Ruckus Makers Don't Just Listen — They Act
If education ain't a bit disruptive, then what are your students really learning?
This show isn't about doing school better.
It's about Doing School Different — and joining a growing movement of bold, creative school leaders who reject legacy models and reimagine what's possible.
🧠 Here are four ways we can help you on your Do School Different journey:
📬 Subscribe to the Free Newsletter — An opportunity to Do School Different 3x a week. Tools, mindset shifts, and strategies that actually work: https://ruckusmakers.news/subscribe
🗞 Read Ruckus Maker Media — Exclusive content on Substack. Premium leadership insights, AI prompts and custom gpts, new books before the bookshelf: https://ruckusmakers.media/
💥 Join The Ruckus Maker Club — Our private network + workshops, The Automatic School tools, AI Prompt Library, and more: https://ruckusmakers.club/join
🧨 Apply to the Mastermind — Weekly coaching, peer mentorship, and our proven leadership system (The Ruckus Maker Flywheel) to help you transform your campus: https://betterleadersbetterschools.com/mastermind
🎙 Today's RUCKUS cast in Partnership With:
ODP Business Solutions®
For over 30 years, ODP Business Solutions® has helped schools transform from whiteboards to smartboards. Why? Because when you get the right tools, everyone wins.
🔍 Visit odpbusiness.com/education to revolutionize your school's learning spaces.
IXL
Over 1 million teachers rely on IXL because it is empowering, it helps them make better decisions with reliable data, and it adapts instruction based on student performance.
🔍 Get started today at ixl.com/leaders
PLAY PIPER
This episode is brought to you by Play Piper. At Piper, we believe STEM doesn't have to feel out of reach. Too many kids love gaming but give up on science and engineering because school doesn't spark their interest. That's where Piper comes in - They have hands-on STEM kits designed to turn curiosity into confidence and keep the pipeline of future innovators flowing strong.
🔍 Learn more at playpiper.com/ruckus
© 2026 Twelve Practices LLC | If Education Ain't a Bit Disruptive, Then What Are Your Students Learning?