This article describes an Invitational Theory of Practice that can be used to create and maintain safe and successful schools by addressing the total culture of the educational environment. Key concepts include transforming how people communicate with each other, assessing 5 critical components of a school (people, places, programs, policies, and processes), and using a group process exercise to set goals and action plans to meet school goals.

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Leaders enlist others in their visions because they are capable of sharing their thoughts in vivid colors and compelling metaphors. Metaphors invite people to think to fresh ways and to create new paradigms.Color symbolism is one of the most universal of all types of symbolism (Cirlot, 1962), and has been used extensively in liturgy, heraldry, art, and literature. This article presents a blue and orange metaphor that can be used to positively influence interactions between and among faculty, staff, and students. The blue and orange card metaphor presents a guide for understanding the symbolic meaning of what really happens in and around schools. Although the focus of this article is on schools, the blue and orange metaphor is useful in many settings.