Some good questions to ask before hiring an outside helper

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School resources are always limited, whether they be time, money, attention, energy, or personnel. Before you hire an outside helper for your school(s), here are some questions you might ask…

• Are we bringing in this person to actually help us do something?
• Or do we just want to dabble and/or pretend that we care about the topic? 
• Or are we just doing it because others are / it’s a hot topic right now?
• How does this work fit in with our other current initiatives?
• How will we help our employees, students, and families understand the connections with our other work?
• How much of a priority is this work compared to our other initiatives?
• What will we do beforehand to optimize our employees’ chances of being successful with this?
• What’s our follow-up plan afterward?
• What additional support structures, leadership behaviors, professional learning, expectations, timelines, deadlines, financial and time resources, personnel, monitoring mechanisms, etc. will be put into place to support this work?
• Will this work be supported at the very highest levels of the school organization? How?
• Are these new supports adequate for the work to be successful?
• Do we have a fighting chance to actually do this right now?
• Or are we just fooling ourselves?
• Do we have both the will and capacity to actually make this happen?
• What are we currently doing that conflicts with or will obstruct our success with this new work?
• What concerns will our employees, students, and families raise about this work?
• What is our plan for addressing those?

Some questions to ask the outside helper (before you hire them) include…

• Can you actually help us do something? (i.e., can you help us with the WHAT and the HOW, not just the WHY?)
• Or are you just going to tell us we should do something and then leave?
• What should we do beforehand to optimize our employees’ chances of being successful with this?
• How much time do we need with you to get started successfully on this?
• What will that work look like (and why)?
• How much time do we need after you work with us to get started successfully on this?
• What does that work look like (and why)?
• What barriers, challenges, and other concerns should we expect as we head into this work?
• How can you help us with those?
• What kinds of follow-up resources and supports can you provide us?
• What do those look like (and why)?

These are just a few to get started… What else would you add here?

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