Wanda has been working on the bus for many years now, and she has the amount of effort it takes to get through the day down to a science. She knows exactly how long the route is and the best places to stop for a break. Most important, she knows precisely how to pace herself so she’s not too tired at the end of the day—because, after all, her bowling team needs her to show up with pep in her step and ready to win every Tuesday and Thursday night. Wanda doesn’t like change and, oh boy, she lets the driver know that when he announces an inconvenient detour. It makes her very nervous when Rufus starts spouting ideas and plans for so-called improvements. She also doesn’t understand why Rufus and Joan have to rush so much. After all, the route will get done whether they dash through it or take their time. Slow and steady, that’s Wanda’s motto!
It makes me sad to say that I have worked with many Walkers during my career.
These are the workers who do not contribute to any forward momentum at all. They plod and stumble and don’t even keep up with the Joggers. They are practically being pulled along by the bus, with their legs draggin’ as they trip over their feet. And they’ll often wonder out loud, “Why are we going so fast? Why are you always making more work for yourselves?”
Walkers love to point out everything that they see is wrong in the organization; they do this because they want to deflect any blame that could be placed on them. They will talk negatively about the Runners and declare the reason that those individuals are going above and beyond is because they want attention. Sometimes they will complain to the bosses that the Runners are “making them look bad,” and that they shouldn’t be expected to do things that aren’t in their job descriptions. They talk negatively about administration and spread bad energy. It’s a toxic crisis.
I once taught with a teacher who complained constantly and would say things like:
“Hey, did you hear the principal is going to make us do extra carpool duties? Well, I bet extra breakfast duty is next. Doesn’t that burn you up? She’s treating us like slaves.”
Or:
“Hey, did you notice that so-and-so came in at ten this morning? How did she pull that off without getting reprimanded? This place isn’t fair. If you or I came in late, we’d hear about it. Doesn’t that burn you up?”
The Walkers make comments like that because they are trying to pull people down to their speed. If everyone is moving slowly, it doesn’t highlight that one individual isn’t pulling her weight. And if everyone is united against the administration, there is safety in numbers, and the Walker isn’t alone in the protest. Unfortunately, in education, ultimately it is the students who suffer when a school’s faculty is made up of Walkers. An uninspired or negative teacher simply cannot motivate students to be their best selves or develop a lifelong love of learning. Within the public school system, the Walkers don’t just let the organization down; they have a negative impact on our society as a whole, as their plodding pace essentially creates a “lost generation” of children who may never reach their full potential.
The Walker I mentioned above would latch on to new hires quickly. As soon as a new teacher came on board, she would bake her a Bundt cake and take her a share of some of her school supplies. She would say, “I know how hard it is to get started, and I want to be here for you.” The new teachers would exclaim, “I just love her,” but I grew to recognize that she was just trying to grow her “posse of poison.”
Every day at lunch they would sit together in a huddle and whisper and gossip in hushed tones, and then they would all laugh. I said to myself, “She is ruining their lives.” She was growing her negative group, because there is safety in numbers, and Walkers know that if they can get everyone to walk there will be no demands for them to move faster. I realized those in her group would grow to see negativity everywhere and that they’d take that home to their spouses. I saw them having fights at home and eventually getting divorced. I saw their own children resenting them and growing apart from them when they got older. I saw those teachers just getting old and sitting in rest homes all alone, bored and miserable. Yes, that’s extreme, but isn’t it the truth?
In the corporate world, new hires within the organization are often a favorite target of veteran Walkers. They will latch on to these new workers quickly. They will befriend them, pop by their cubicles with a lunch invitation, and offer to help them get adjusted in whatever way is needed. They will share “advice” with their new colleagues and take them out for a drink after work, and, quite honestly, they will seem to be wonderful colleagues. The problem with this, however, is that they are often trying to recruit new Walkers. They want to bond with the new hires so they can pull them in and form an alliance with them. Because, let’s face it, the last thing a Walker wants is for a new hire to come in and outrun her. Walkers need the new hires to listen to them, to trust them, and to slow down to their level. They want to get more people to slow down, because then the bus goes slowly, and Walkers are content at that speed.
Don’t trust the Bundt cake.
I have noticed that Walkers tend to be very focused on themselves. You will hear them wonder out loud why they were passed up for a promotion or why they were not chosen to attend a conference. They often feel picked on and will claim that the work environment—specifically the favoritism shown to Runners—is extremely unfair. I once sent five Runners to a conference that was costly for the school. They, however, had earned it and deserved it. A Walker said to me, “I see the favorites are getting to go to the conference.” I said, “Excuse me,” and she replied, “It’s fine, Mr. Clark, it’s just that I didn’t even know I had an option of going to the conference.” To that, I replied, “You didn’t.” That afternoon in the faculty meeting I explained that the “favorites,” as she called them, are the people who work hard and do their job to the best of their abilities. The position of a favorite in life, I explained, isn’t chosen, it’s earned, and anyone who has the desire to reap the rewards of hard work can and should do so.
Well, I make it quite clear at RCA that it is my intent to treat everyone fairly, but I am certainly not going to treat everyone equally.
I make it a point to treat my Runners differently from my Walkers, because as soon as the Runners realize they will receive equal treatment no matter how hard they work, they will begin to decelerate. There is nothing more frustrating than to give 100 percent to a cause and see others who produce halfway work receiving the same pay, same bonuses, same perks, and same treatment.
Take our education system, for example. Teachers are paid based on how many years they have been in the system, rather than having their salaries based on their performance. Imagine what would happen if we ran our major corporations that way. Can you envision telling all of the corporate executives that they will get paid the same amount, with no hope for a promotion, as long as they hang around and manage not to get fired? It’s an antiquated concept, yet in businesses across the country, corporations are rewarding midlevel employees equally, regardless of their contributions to the organization.
Here’s how it works at RCA: If I receive funding for new desks for a classroom, it goes to the Runners. If we have money to get a class a set of computers, it goes to a Runner. And when Walkers complain that they don’t receive perks, or not enough, I explain that rewards have a direct correlation to performance. It may seem uncomfortable or harsh, but it’s necessary if you truly want to create an organization where your bus is going to fly. If you don’t operate in this manner, your Runners will feel devalued and they will leave, and then you will be left with a team of Walkers who are not only barely moving your bus, but actually are driving your organization into the ground. You are supposed to be the Driver, so don’t let the Walkers take over your job, because they will if you let them.
The good news is that Walkers (as well as Joggers) can often improve under a system that rewards performance. In chapter 15, you’ll read about a teacher at RCA who started out walking but is now running.