CHAPTER 4 - PROTOCOL 1

Culture Discovery

TIMETwo weeks + 60-minute synthesis

OWNERPrincipal with representative discovery team

ARTIFACTLived-culture findings + one priority tension

SUCCESS CRITERIA

Evidence comes from multiple roles, settings, and experiences.
The team distinguishes stated culture from lived culture.
Findings include strengths, contradictions, and patterns—not isolated complaints.
One priority cultural tension is selected for deeper study or action.

IMPLEMENTATION STEPS

Frame the inquiry

Name the cultural question, groups whose experience matters, and evidence sources that can reveal the lived pattern.

Listen and observe

Gather low-inference notes, stories, artifacts, and feedback across roles, times, and settings.

Surface the pattern

Identify repeated strengths, contradictions, unwritten rules, and differences between groups.

Name the cultural tension

Select one gap between the school’s promise and lived experience and schedule the next conversation.

WORKING ORGANIZER

Run the protocol.

Your responses save on this device. Use Print / Save PDF when you are ready to keep or share the artifact.

01Frame the inquiryName the cultural question, groups whose experience matters, and evidence sources that can reveal the lived pattern.What are we trying to understand about how people actually experience this school?02Listen and observeGather low-inference notes, stories, artifacts, and feedback across roles, times, and settings.What do people repeatedly see, hear, experience, or avoid?03Surface the patternIdentify repeated strengths, contradictions, unwritten rules, and differences between groups.What pattern is visible across evidence—not just in one voice or event?04Name the cultural tensionSelect one gap between the school’s promise and lived experience and schedule the next conversation.What should not keep happening, and what evidence must we understand next?

Evidence to bring backReturn date

Your protocol can be complete here. Save or share the artifact and use it for the need in front of you.

REFLECTION PROMPTS

Whose experience is easiest for leaders to miss?
What positive cultural asset can support the next shift?
What have we normalized because it is familiar?

EQUITY GUARDRAILS

Protect confidentiality and avoid tracing candid feedback back to individuals.
Do not treat dominant-group experience as the universal culture.
Discovery is not permission to delay action when harm or safety concerns are present.