Ten Principles for Maximizing Influence on State-Level Reform*

Following are some lessons learned by the National Business Roundtable in ten years of experience with state coalitions. Adherence to these lessons can maximize the effectiveness of a state's reform initiative - and enhance a leader's involvement.

1. Speak with one voice. If the business voice is fragmented, its impact will be minimized. Thus, individual companies and business organizations should unite behind a common reform agenda, adapt and update as needed, but be prepared to stick with it over time.
2. Develop a strategic focus. The more success business coalitions experience, the more business leaders are asked to doe. Developing and adhering to a well-defined strategic focus keeps education reform efforts on target and helps coalitions avoid getting entangled in competing or peripheral agendas.
3. Seek out allies. Collaborate with educators who recognize that such change and forge alliances with state leaders from the governor to members of the state legislature.
4. Take clear positions and lobby on their behalf. Those who want to preserve the status quo are entrenched and powerful. As major employers and community leaders, CEOs are forceful, credible advocates of reform positions and an influence candidates' and elected/appointed officials' views on key education issues.
5. Make strategic use of business expertise. Strategic planning, using data to drive improvement, creating performance incentives for employees, measuring customer satisfaction, providing ongoing training to staff, using the tools of communications and marketing, and overseeing total quality management - these are among the areas where business' extensive in-house expertise can be invaluable to reform-minded schools and state education departments.
6. Use research effectively. Business can stimulate reform by supporting public opinion research, identifying gaps between employer needs and the skills of high school graduates, benchmarking effective practices in the United States and around the world, and involving national experts on critical state issues.
7. Recognize importance of communication. Many initiatives have failed - or achieved limited success - because of poor or nonexistent communication with the public. Business groups can spearhead ongoing efforts to listen to the public's concerns and help parents, educators, and citizens to understand the benefits of higher standards, better tests, and sensible accountability systems.
8. Balance agitation and collaboration. The most difficult role for many business coalitions is to balance two potentially contradictory objectives: pushing constantly and aggressively for fundamental change while working with educators, legislators, and citizens to forge consensus positions.
9. Balance patience with urgency. Many previous reform efforts have foundered because advocates did not persevere and recognize that education improvement takes years to accomplish. At the same time, the system must be pressured to move as quickly as possible. Thus, business must stick with its reform agenda, continue to build public awareness and support, and push for accelerated improvements.
10. Keep replenishing the leadership supply. Most CEOs and 49 of the 50 governors were not in their current positions when the BRT's Education Initiative began in 1989. A central challenge for state coalitions is continually to identify and recruit top executives - and provide them with the background they need to be effective advocates.

Note: In some states, one business group takes the lead in all of the areas mentioned above. In other states, different groups assume different roles. For example one organization may lobby and another may take responsibility for communications or research.

*This document draws heavily upon "10 Lessons Learned" from CEO Education Reform Orientation Guide (1999) published by the Business Roundtable and is used with permission. It has been slightly modified for use with both business and non-business audiences while, at the same time, helping non-business audiences to gain understanding of the business viewpoint regarding involvement in education.