Resource: The One Thing Design Sprint

kmcneil — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 15:06:14 GMT

This week’s discussion invites you to step out of the never-ending to-do list and focus on something much harder and more powerful than productivity: priority.

When everything feels urgent, nothing feels solvable. But when you name the one thing that would most improve teachers’ experience at your school, you create a starting point that’s grounded, human, and actionable.

This resource is about resisting the urge to fix everything, and instead using AI to help you explore that one thing more deeply and realistically.

The One Thing Design Sprint

Purpose: Use AI as a thought partner to unpack one high-impact challenge and identify a small, doable action that could meaningfully improve teacher retention.

Try this:

Name your “one thing.”
From the discussion prompt, choose the first thing that came to mind, an issue that would create the biggest ripple effect for teachers if it improved.

Examples (yours may be different):

Inconsistent communication
Overloaded meetings
Lack of planning time
Unclear expectations
Feeling unseen or unheard

Clarify what’s really happening.
Before jumping to solutions, ask:

Where does this show up most often?
Who feels it the most?
What makes it hard to address?

Use AI to explore the problem before solving it. Refer to the suggested prompt, but feel free to revise or create your own prompt for this activity.

Prompt:

“The one thing that would most improve teachers’ experience at my school is tackling the challenge of [insert one thing]. Help me break this challenge into its underlying causes [Insert additional context with no personally identifiable information]. Then suggest 3 small, realistic actions a school leader could take within the next 30 days. Keep the tone practical, empathetic, and focused on progress, not perfection.””

Review, refine and test:

Which idea feels possible right now?
Which would teachers notice?
Which one could you test without adding more work?

Share:

Post the one thing you chose, the prompt you used, and one action you’re considering testing. Optional: What made this feel hard to narrow down, and what helped?

Deeper Dive:

Want to read more about AI tools and how some education leaders are looking at its potential for improving teacher retention? See Can AI ease teacher workload as a recruitment, retention strategy?

topic Resource: The One Thing Design Sprint in Discussion Space

Resource: The One Thing Design Sprint