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Issue 1: Three-Box Year in Review

  • Writer: Mike Peck
    Mike Peck
  • Jun 25
  • 6 min read

Updated: 6 days ago

June never feels sleepy in a tech office. It feels different. The hallway noise fades, servers hum, and we finally have a moment to reflect: Did our work this year truly advance learning, or did we simply keep the lights on?


Mentor and fellow futurist Randy Ziegenfuss often borrows Vijay Govindarajan’s Three-Box Solution to frame this question:


  1. Manage the Present

  2. Selectively Let Go of the Past

  3. Create the Future


This lens has guided me through a year filled with door controllers that fail at dawn, AI advancements and hype that only seem to accelerate, and a school community learning how to navigate tomorrow's complexity. Here’s how the 2024-25 school year looked in each box, along with a preview of my plans for 2025-26.


1️⃣ Managing the Present: Keeping the Lights On and the Trust Meter Full


The first box is not glamorous. It's a daily commitment to ensuring what already works continues to function. Before we chase any shiny new AI tools, the doors must still buzz open. The intercom should carry morning announcements, and the chilled-water loop should stay at 42 °F. Nothing erodes credibility faster than a "transformative" initiative launched on top of broken Chromebooks or malfunctioning software.


Social media is a hub for trends, learning, and connection. However, it's easy to get lost in the algorithm. It might feel like you're falling behind. But the real work occurs in your school and classroom. Here, you can contextualize new ideas, technologies, and strategies for your staff and students.


The challenge lies in carving out enough bandwidth for future-focused work without neglecting core operations. Every minute spent fixing a camera feed is a minute not invested in planning next year's pilots. Conversely, ignoring that camera could cost us valuable staff trust.


At the same time, we need to guard against Parkinson’s Law — the odd paradox that suggests the amount of time we take on tasks expands to fill the time available, irrespective of complexity. We must not let present challenges derail our future opportunities. Each time we resolve an issue or implement a new tool, we gain insight into what we can let go of next. If a process consumes hours without adding instructional value, documenting that pain now helps us identify what to retire later.


Strategies for Balancing Present and Future Needs


Here’s how we maintained this balance this year:


  • Ecosystem Maps First: Your technology teams understand workflows across your organization. As we expanded our digital footprint, every new request was carefully mapped: from user journey to data flow and potential breakdowns. This process keeps us honest about ripple effects before adding new devices or AI services.


    For instance, we recently migrated from a legacy phone system to a state-of-the-art IP-based phone system. This migration entailed several technical hurdles, but we focused on the needs of front line staff who answer calls and families reaching out to the school. Understanding these various needs was crucial in our planning.


  • Here’s a link to Miro showing how to create an ecosystem map using an open canvas tool like Miro or Figma.


  • Targeted Professional Development (PD): Offering focused and timely PD is challenging, especially where staff balance many tasks. However, a "just-in-time" approach often yields the best results. Meeting teachers where they currently are—without jargon and with manageable tasks—provides immediate benefits and has compounding effects over time. Our focus is less on saturating skills or tools and more on accumulating trust; transformation moves at the speed of trust.


  • Guidance Over Policy: Many school leaders rushed to develop policy in response to AI’s rapid evolution. However, crafting detailed policies can feel like building a house on quicksand, where shifting sands can erode policies swiftly. Our strategy has been to develop simple guidance focusing on short, practical rules generated through collaborative conversations. Short rules encourage usability; long rules often collect dust.


By holding this line, we maintain vital resources and practices while building social capital for larger initiatives outlined in the second and third boxes.


2️⃣ Selectively Letting Go: Trading Familiar Routines for Better Outcomes


Letting go sounds simple in theory, but in practice, it's a balancing act. Each piece of decommissioned hardware or software—whether an old phone system or a grading tool—must pass two filters before we pull the plug:


  1. Does the change deliver a clearly defined win for students or the community?

  2. Have those impacted by the change had a significant role in shaping it?


Phones: A Live Test of the Rule


Before transitioning to our new SIP phone system, we consulted the people who use those handsets the most: secretaries managing calls, administrators available 24/7, and our transportation team coordinating bus dispatch. Their wish list boiled down to three outcomes:


  • Improved call quality.

  • More consistent features for various roles.

  • Enhanced functionality for mobile call handling.


With these outcomes in mind, we initiated our planning and built out the new system tailored to our essential users' needs.


AI Road-Mapping: The Same Discipline, Different Stakes


Professor Narayanan captures my thoughts on the state of AI in education and beyond. Yes, there is a lot of hype, yet we may be underestimating its future impacts.


AI impacts on education

Navigating systems change is complex. A rush to policy or purchasing tools can lead to unintended consequences. Instead, our careful approach to exploring and understanding AI first has proven beneficial. This past year, we built on our year-long exploration with staff to assess new AI tools through three advisory conversation layers:


  • Teachers: What tasks require high effort? How can AI help? What educational values should align with AI use?

  • Students: What feedback helps you learn? What feels like unnecessary busywork? What skills are crucial for your future careers?

  • Community Mixed Panel: Parents, employers, and school board members engaged in dynamic discussions alongside teachers and students, sharing fears and hopes.


These conversations revealed patterns, highlighting the necessity for AI literacy programs and clear guidance that translates AI from theory to practice. The ongoing discussions across various advisory groups will help shape our future and allow us to retire outdated methods.


Go Slow to Go Fast


In both projects, we opted for a gradual, collaborative approach rather than a top-down solution. While this took additional time and planning, the result positioned us to accelerate our work moving forward.


The Question Students Keep Asking


One student in the advisory panel perfectly articulated a key concern: "If AI can already answer almost anything, what is it we still need to learn?"


This question reframes our future work. Once the foundational systems are solid, our focus turns to purpose.


3️⃣ Creating the Future — Sketches from the Runway to 2025-26


I’ll dive deeper into the practicalities in July’s Strategy Edition. Here’s the headline: our innovation strategy now follows two parallel tracks—incremental gains and transformational bets. These tracks should complement, not conflict.


On the incremental side, we will continue seeking quick wins: AI tutors that reduce grading time, prompt workflows to provide sharper feedback, and infrastructure adjustments to enhance uptime and access. These small efficiencies create the cognitive and financial freedom needed for the second track.


The transformational track poses a different question: What does school look like when AI is everywhere? To explore this, we’ll utilize strategic foresight techniques—scenario maps and preferred-future back-casting. Yet foresight alone isn’t sufficient. Each insight must link back to actionable steps needed to achieve our desired learning outcomes. This compounding loop—imagine, prototype, operationalize, repeat—transitions us from idea to execution.


Creating the future is less about crystal-ball gazing and more about swift action: one foot firmly planted in the present while the other tests new ground. While the pace might feel slow now, I'm convinced we will look back and recognize that the pivotal moment wasn’t the launch of ChatGPT. It was when teachers, parents, and students began collaborating to build futures together.


Current Reads on My Desk


Quick-Lift Resources (Grab-and-Go)


What’s New at Peck Education?


I've been preparing several new initiatives under the Peck Education umbrella over the past weeks. As I near the launch, here are a couple of quick updates:


✅ AI Workshops for School Leaders: If you're in the Lehigh Valley or Greater Philadelphia area in Pennsylvania, check out my upcoming workshops through Chester County IU. Both bootcamps are tailored for school and district leaders, combining theory and hands-on experience. You can view the event listing here!


🧭 AI Leadership Lab: I'm making progress on Version 1 of a short course designed for school leaders on strategies for managing systemic change in the age of AI. Aiming for a July launch!


🚨 TechAdvisor AI: More updates to come, but I’ve finally set up last-minute integrations in preparation for launching my first public build for school leaders!


Call to Action


If this recap resonated with you, please forward Compass EDU to a colleague balancing uptime with ambitious goals. Encourage them to join before July’s Strategy Edition drops. Each new reader expands the network of practitioners working together to shape the future, one incremental win (and one bold bet) at a time.


---wix---

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