The Ruckus Report
Quick take: Most districts are dumping water into leaky buckets while wondering why they can’t fill them. Nate Eklund shows us why we’ve been solving the wrong problem — and how “punching the shark” creates the workplace conditions that make educators want to stay.
Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker
Nate Eklund is the founder and CEO of Vital Network, a national organization focused on improving educator retention and well-being through workplace improvements. A former classroom teacher and author of How Was Your Day at School? Improving Dialogue about Teacher Job Satisfaction, Nate brings deep experience and research-backed insight to the conversation on creating sustainable, joyful workplaces for educators everywhere.
Breaking Down the Old Rules
In this episode, Nate Eklund challenges traditional education paradigms:
Key Insight #1: We Don’t Have a Recruitment Problem — We Have a Retention Problem
- What’s broken: Districts frantically recruiting new teachers while ignoring why good ones leave
- The shift: Focus on the “leaky bucket” — in Minnesota, there are more licensed teachers NOT teaching than teaching (enough to fill the Vikings stadium)
- Impact: When you fix workplace conditions instead of just hiring more people, you solve the math problem at its source
Key Insight #2: Burnout Isn’t a Personal Failing — It’s Environmental
- What’s broken: Treating burnout as individual weakness (“eat more kale, get more sleep”)
- The shift: Recognize burnout as systemic depletion that no amount of self-care can overcome — you can’t “kale your way out of your fifth reading curriculum in two years”
- Impact: Leaders stop blaming teachers and start designing better workplace conditions that prevent burnout
Key Insight #3: There Are Two Versions of Every Educator
- What’s broken: Accepting that some educators are just “difficult” or “burned out”
- The shift: Understanding that everyone has a “fired up” version and a “deflated” version — external factors determine which one shows up
- Impact: Instead of writing people off, leaders create conditions where the best version of every educator can thrive
Quotable Ruckus
Your Do School Different Challenge
Ready to implement these ideas? Start here:
- Tomorrow: Ask yourself: “What external factors are keeping my best educators from showing up as their best selves?”
- This Month: Survey your staff about workplace conditions — not just morale, but actual day-to-day systems and decision-making processes
- This Semester: Implement one “Punch the Shark” moment — tackle an uncomfortable workplace issue head-on with your team
Connect & Continue
Get the full episode transcript: here
Follow Nate Eklund: http://www.vitalnetwork.com
Follow Nate Eklund: Twitter
Follow Vital on LinkedIn
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