The team leader taps away furiously at her computer. “I know we decided this last spring in our release day. Don’t you remember?” Her teammates watch with a variety of expressions as the harried leader searches for the decision. Time slips by—30 seconds, then a minute.

Finally, out of the polite sidetalk and sudden influx of email checking, a team member says, “Jean, I’ve been talking with Ted here, and we both agree that we said we would use the old version of the assessment until after we analyzed the data again this year.”

As the room slides into debate over the accuracy of this memory, I can see that the best intentions of this team leader facing a familiar hurdle to PLC implementation: if experience shapes attitudes, how can teachers experience quicker and more visible success—and thereby speed up the buy-in process?

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