Y5. Organise for clarity
Create systems that reduce cognitive load. Organisation supports focus and effectiveness.
Resources to support growth in this behaviour
Whether this behaviour has been chosen through Step 1. Diagnose, highlighted through reflection or coaching, or identified as a school or trust priority, you can now follow the steps below to develop and embed it in your daily leadership practice.
Step 2. Learn: Read Everyone Succeeds: 54 Leadership Behaviours to Transform Your School to understand what great leadership looks like in practice. Each behaviour is grounded in research and real examples from schools and businesses.
Step 3. Reflect: Use the Everyone Succeeds Workbook to apply ideas to your own context.
Guided reflection, practical actions, and space for planning turn understanding into improvement.
Step 4. Apply: Work through the Leadership Toolkit for this behaviour. Use the Organise for Clarity toolkit to create systems that reduce cognitive load and bring order to your work.
Step 5. Coach and practice: Use the Organise for clarity Coach and Practise Frameworks to strengthen the behaviour through action steps that simplify systems, rehearsing organisation so cognitive load reduces.
These can be used individually or with colleagues to embed key behaviours.
Step 6. Plan: Set measurable goals using the 90 Day Leadership Planner.
Turn improvement into action by tracking your focus and progress over time, with completed examples for different career stages.
Step 7. Lead: Apply your learning to real situations through the Scenario Finder.
Over fifty scenarios link directly to the behaviours that help you solve the challenges that matter most in your school.
One book suggestion
Getting Things Done – David Allen (2001).
This book helps you apply the behaviour by providing clear tools for structuring work, reducing overwhelm and improving focus. Buy the book.
References from the Everyone Succeeds book
Allen, D. (2001). Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. New York: Penguin Books.
Levitin, D.J. (2015). The Organised Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload. London: Penguin.
Sweller, J. (1988). Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning. Cognitive Science, 12(2), pp. 257-285.