A simple lever can move objects many times our own weight with remarkably little effort. Archimedes famously said, "Give me a place to stand and a lever long enough, and I will move the world." That same principle of mechanical advantage translates beautifully to our work in school communications.
In school communications, leverage isn't about creating more content in a world already saturated with information. It's about making your existing work travel further, connect deeper, and resonate more effectively across your community.
Consider your principals—those vital connectors between district vision and classroom reality. When equipped with clear, consistent messaging and the autonomy to contextualize it for their unique school communities, principals become powerful leverage points. A single message from the central office, amplified through the trusted voice of a building leader, can transform from a distant directive into a compelling local priority.
Click here to watch our free webinar about the Power of Principals with William D. Parker, host of Principal Matters podcast and the author of four books for education leaders.
Technology, too, offers unprecedented leverage. Your website is the source of truth and information—with the right levers, less effort is needed for more force. Apptegy, SchoolCEO’s parent company, announced its addition of the AlwaysOn AI chatbot. AI-powered chatbots on district websites can answer common questions 24/7, freeing staff to focus on more complex communications while ensuring families receive immediate responses. One well-designed digital tool can effectively multiply your communications team without adding personnel.
And if you've read SchoolCEO or listened to our podcast, you know how powerful the leverage of cohesive messaging and branding can be. When your district establishes a strong, consistent identity—visually, verbally, and values-wise—all communication builds upon itself. A recognizable brand doesn't just identify your district; it conveys credibility and builds trust with each interaction, creating a compound effect that grows over time.
When we talk about leverage in school communications, we're describing the art of taking existing work and making it more effective across people, assets, and platforms.
One question for you
What lever can give your existing work and effort more force?
Email us at editor@schoolceo.com or book a time on our calendar and let us know.
Two resources to help
1. We’ve said it before: No one person can be solely responsible for telling your district’s story. In the case of principals, this is true more than ever. Not only are they the ones creating the moments that make it to your district home page and social media; they’re also the ones responsible for sharing that information with the district office. To do this well, they need coaching, guidance and trust.
— Read The Power of Principals
2. Whether your focus is recruiting new teachers and families or serving those already in your network, maintaining a thorough and user-friendly website is essential to ensuring your audience comes back again and again.
Three ideas to get you thinking
1. Focus is leverage for attention…
“Leverage is built on the notion that small, well-focused actions can sometimes produce significant, enduring improvements if they are applied in the right place. Tackling a difficult problem is often a matter of seeing where the high leverage lies… A leverage point is where a small difference can make a large difference.”—Alan C McLucas, Decision Making: Risk Management, Systems Thinking, and Situation Awareness
2. Stories are leverage for information….
“Stories are more powerful than statistics because the most believable thing in the world is whatever takes the least amount of effort to contextualize your own life experiences. People go astray when forgetting that storytelling is like exponential fuel, so a great idea told poorly can be a fraction as powerful as an OK idea told persuasively." —Morgan Housel’s blog, Making Sense vs. Being Right
3. Training and feedback as leverage for culture…
“Most organizations hope that talented leaders will simply emerge; great organizations are more deliberate. They build systems that help all of their people continuously improve their leadership skills. That system requires two primary components: training and feedback.” —Neel Doshi and Lindsay McGregor, Primed to Perform: How to Build the Highest Performing Cultures Through the Science of Total Motivation. Listen to SchoolCEO’s interview with Neel Doshi here