The Intiative Graveyard

Every school has one — that quiet space where good ideas go to die. In this episode, Lee Crockett explores The Initiative Graveyard: why promising programs fade, what it costs our culture, and how school leaders can design systems that make change last.

Drawing on research from Fixsen, Durlak, DuPre, Fullan, Hattie, and more, Lee unpacks the real causes of initiative fatigue — and shares five powerful design shifts that turn short-term enthusiasm into lasting excellence.

Key Takeaways

• Schools don’t fail for lack of ideas, but for lack of systems that sustain them.
• “Front-loading and forgetting” kills more initiatives than bad strategy ever will.
• Coherence beats complexity — focus builds trust.
• The antidote to initiative fatigue is disciplined iteration, not constant innovation.
• Sustainable change happens through five shifts: define the finish line, prioritise momentum, design for clarity, close before you replace, and build capacity where practice lives.
• Culture doesn’t change through speeches — it changes through systems.

Soundbites

• “Every failed initiative teaches staff something — usually, that effort doesn’t last.”
• “It’s not the complexity that breaks us. It’s the incoherence.”
• “Momentum beats magnitude.”
• “Distributed leadership isn’t freedom from structure — it’s freedom through structure.”
• “Celebrate endings, and people will trust beginnings again.”
• “Culture doesn’t change through speeches — it changes through systems.”
• “Don’t launch harder. Embed smaller, sooner.”

The Initiative Graveyard: Why Good Ideas Keep Dying in Schools

Every school leader knows about it — even if they’ve never named it out loud.

It’s that quiet space in every school where good ideas go to die.

The ones that began with promise, enthusiasm, and great intent — but faded before they ever became culture.

It’s what I call The Initiative Graveyard.

Today we’ll explore why that happens, what it costs us, and most importantly, how to stop the drift — how to design change that actually lasts.

I’m Lee Crockett. Welcome to The Culture of Excellence Podcast.

The Pattern of the Graveyard

You can feel it before the first slide even flickers on. A new initiative. Fresh graphics, new posters, a catchy slogan — “Reignite Learning”, “Every Child Every Day”.

There’s genuine excitement in the room. Teachers lean forward; leaders explain the vision; people want to believe.

And yet … somewhere between Week Six and the end of term, the rhythm fades. Resources half-finished. Meeting notes never revisited. The follow-up quietly vanishes from the calendar.

The initiative slides into that familiar place — the graveyard of good intentions.

I hear the same line in schools across the world:

“We launch new programs … and then quietly bury them months later.”

It isn’t laziness or cynicism. It’s fatigue. People haven’t stopped caring — they’ve stopped expecting things to last.

Over time, engagement becomes polite, momentum becomes episodic, and culture becomes cautious. That’s the essence of Leadership in Triage — the first of our three core barriers in the Culture of Excellence framework.

But here’s the truth: this graveyard isn’t inevitable. It’s not about bad people. It’s about systems that can’t sustain good intentions.

Why It Keeps Happening

Implementation science has been telling us for decades that how we implement matters as much as what we implement.

Researchers like Dean Fixsen, Roger Durlak, and Barbara DuPre proved that successful innovation depends on routines that make new practice observable, supported, and reviewable.

And that’s what’s missing in most schools — not passion, but structure.

Two recurring traps fill the graveyard:

1. Front-loading and forgetting.

We spend weeks on the launch — PD days, glossy decks, big ambitions — and then the rhythm disappears. Between meetings, no one knows when to act, how to check progress, or where to share evidence. Without built-in feedback loops, initiatives drift.

2. Too much, too fast.

Leaders spread effort thin, layering programs on top of programs. As Michael Fullan warns, “Coherence collapses when priorities outnumber capacity.”

The ACU Principal Health and Wellbeing Surveys (2023–2024) name role conflict — too many competing demands — as the top stressor for school leaders.

It’s not the complexity that breaks us; it’s the incoherence. When everything’s urgent, nothing’s important.

So the question isn’t, How do we get people more motivated? It’s How do we make progress unavoidable?

The Human Cost

Every failed initiative teaches staff something. It teaches them that energy doesn’t matter. That feedback changes nothing. That effort is temporary.

So the next time leaders announce a new priority, the reaction is professional … but guarded. That’s not apathy — that’s self-protection.

In the Culture of Excellence model, this shows up as Staff Complacency. But complacency is often just experience wearing armour. I’ll never forget a principal in Queensland telling me:

“Every initiative starts like fireworks — bright, loud, impossible to ignore. But no one ever stays to clean up the ashes.”

That line captures it. Because when implementation dies, trust dies with it. And when trust dies, culture contracts.

People retreat to what’s safe, what’s proven. That’s why sustainable change must rebuild trust through Engagement, Achievement, and Well-being — one of the six Aspects of Excellence.

When people feel valued and seen, they risk believing again.

The Reframe: Continuous Learning

So how do we move beyond the graveyard? The answer isn’t passion; it’s design. And it begins with the Aspect we call Continuous Learning and Development.

Continuous learning isn’t endless motion; it’s disciplined iteration. It’s the deliberate act of improving one thing, quickly, together.

When schools work in short, evidence-rich cycles — six weeks, say — everything changes. Teachers speak in data, not slogans. Leaders focus on impact, not announcement.

I worked with one school that adopted a six-week rhythm for literacy routines. By Week Three they’d shaved two minutes off every transition. That’s fifty extra hours of learning a year — with zero extra effort.

As John Hattie’s research reminds us, feedback and visible progress are the top drivers of collective efficacy.

Small wins compound. And that’s the essence of Efficiency and Adaptability — another core Aspect of Excellence. Systems that learn beat systems that launch.

The Five Shifts That Keep Good Ideas Alive

These are the five design shifts that turn short-term enthusiasm into long-term excellence. They’re not slogans — they’re habits. And each links directly to the 6 Aspects of Excellence.

Shift 1: Define the Finish Line

Most initiatives fail because no one can say what “done” looks like. When you define the finish line, you anchor belief. Ask your team, “What does success look like six weeks from now?”

At one Victorian secondary school, the leadership team decided that success meant students could articulate their learning goal in one sentence.

That clarity changed everything — planning meetings became purposeful, coaching conversations sharper.

Defining the finish line connects to Realising Purpose and Vision. Because clarity isn’t just strategic — it’s motivational. People don’t burn out from hard work; they burn out from aimless work.

Shift 2: Momentum Beats Magnitude

Big plans collapse under their own weight. Momentum, not magnitude, builds belief.

In my work with a network of international schools, we moved from annual reform plans to six-week sprints. Teachers led micro-projects: feedback routines, reflection journals, parent partnerships.

By the third cycle, engagement doubled because everyone could finish something and see progress.

This shift lives in Efficiency and Adaptability again — systems that move, learn, and evolve instead of waiting for perfection.

Remember what Heifetz and Linsky said about adaptive leadership:

“The work is not about technical fixes but about regulating disequilibrium.”

Short cycles keep that equilibrium healthy — just enough stretch to grow without collapse.

Shift 3: Goodwill Collapses Without Design

Distributed leadership sounds noble — until no one knows who’s actually responsible. That’s when goodwill turns into confusion.

At a New Zealand primary school I worked with, every initiative had a Role Map and Action Log. Nothing fancy — one page each. But every teacher knew who was leading, who was supporting, and what the next visible step was.

That simple structure turned a staff of 40 into a high-trust network.

This shift embodies Empowerment and Agency. Because agency isn’t freedom from structure — it’s freedom through structure. When roles are clear, accountability feels fair, not forced.

As Andy Hargreaves once wrote,

“Professional collaboration without clarity is just collective confusion.”

So make the work visible. It doesn’t kill trust; it creates it.

Shift 4: Retire Before You Replace

Nothing new launches until something old is formally closed.

In one regional network I mentor, leaders now hold what they call a Closure Conversation. They meet, review the data, decide what to keep, what to stop, and what to sustain. They even write a short Closure Note to the staff — acknowledging effort, summarising outcomes, and thanking contributors.

That simple ritual re-energised the culture. Because closure gives people permission to let go.

This is Engagement, Achievement and Well-being in action. Completion reduces cognitive load and restores balance.

And here’s the paradox: when you celebrate endings, people trust beginnings again.

Shift 5: Capacity Is the Engine; the Initiative Is Just the Road

Sustainability isn’t about more time; it’s about more capability. Professional learning shouldn’t live in a binder; it should live in the classroom. When teachers rehearse routines, observe peers, and reflect openly, learning sticks.

At one Perth college, leadership embedded practice labs — short, live sessions where teachers practised feedback protocols. Within a term, their shared language for feedback was tighter and more consistent than any PD day had achieved in years.

This shift embodies Continuous Learning and Development again — but also Community and Stakeholder Engagement. Because when practice becomes public, community pride follows.

As Viviane Robinson notes,

“The most effective leaders build capability, not dependency.”

That’s the heart of sustainable excellence.

From Graveyard to Garden

I often tell leaders: the Initiative Graveyard isn’t proof that educators don’t care. It’s proof that we’ve been asking them to sustain change in systems that weren’t built for it.

When we define finish lines, shorten cycles, make contribution visible, close loops, and build capacity deliberately — initiatives stop being events. They become culture.

And that’s what the Culture of Excellence framework is designed to do — to move schools from Leadership in Triage to cultures of trust, rhythm, and renewal.

So maybe this term , instead of launching something new, pick one initiative that drifted.

Run a single six-week cycle. Define the finish line. Give people visibility and closure.

Because culture doesn’t change through speeches — it changes through systems. Design them well, and the graveyard becomes a garden.

This has been The Culture of Excellence Podcast. I’m Lee Crockett — thanks for listening.