Building Strong School Teams

Title I School Improvement Workshop

Essential Questions

• What does a well-functioning team look like?

• What does it look like when there is a lack of trust? How do we confront distrust?

• How do we begin to rebuild or strengthen trust?

Celebrations

• Think about something that is going well that you want to share with the rest of the team.

Revisiting PLCs

PLC Audit

• Complete audit individually

• Discuss audit with team

• What items did you rate the same?

• Where did the ratings differ?

• Come to consensus about where you are at this point.

Study

• What’s working?

• What isn’t working?– What changes need to be made?

– What needs to be abandoned?

Leading with Trust

How to Build Strong School Teams

BARRIERS TO TRUST

Distrust is the confident expectation that another’s motives, intentions, and behaviors are sinister and harmful to one’s own interests. In interdependent relationships, this often entails a sense of fear and anticipation of discomfort or danger. Distrust naturally prompts us to take steps that reduce our vulnerability in an attempt to protect our interests. Accordingly, our distrust of others is likely to evoke a competitive (as opposed to cooperative) orientation that stimulates and exacerbates conflict.

~Lewicki and Tomlinson, 2003

Barriers to Trust

• Discuss: What barriers to trust exist in your school?

• Fear

• Betrayal

• Carousel of Leadership

• Unions and School Leadership Confrontations

• Inappropriate Staff Development

Research Study on Trust

• Read “Research and Trust: Facts and Definitions”

• Individually complete section, “You and Your School”

• Compare where each team member rated various groups within the school

• Were your perceptions similar or different?

Distrust and PLCs

• Trust is necessary to the implementation of a PLC

• Trust cannot be assumed – it must be assessed

Trust Assessment Surveys• Leader Self-assessment Survey

• Staff Feedback about Leader

• Staff Trust Survey

BUILDING TRUST

Rebuilding or Strengthening Trust

• Three levels of trust-building activities– Low, high or medium

• Personal vs Interpersonal

“Building personal capacity has to do with the active and reflective construction of knowledge. It begins with a confrontation with the values, assumptions, belief systems, and practices that individuals embrace… This knowledge empowers them to begin a search for new knowledge and to reconstruct their personal narrative.”Coral Mitchell and Larry Sackney, as quoted in Leading with Trust

Personal Capacity

• Face your Fears– Pain to Power Chart– Dialogue with a Trusted Colleague– Identify What You Control

• Ask for Feedback– Self-reflection– Feedback from Staff

AdditionalPersonal Capacity

• Have a Positive Attitude

• Keep Your Sense of Humor

• Continue to Get Feedback

• Johari Window

• Self-assess

• Trust Yourself

• Walk your Talk

• "If you can laugh together, you can work together"

~Robert Orben

Link to gratitude dance

Interpersonal Capacity

• Student Learning

• Build Relationships

• Facilitation Team

• Staff Feedback

• Have Fun

• Acceptable Conduct

• Personal Stories

• Real Issues on the Table

• Issues to Actions

I’ve Been Framed

Individually reflect on:1. My personal beliefs about student learning

2. Why I became a teacher

3. Why I choose to stay in this career in a school

In pairs and then groups of two pairs, reflect on the answers. This is a simple sharing not a time to comment on anyone’s answers. The principal should share his or her ideas after everyone else.

Hot Buttons

These things/actions are critical to the success of the team

These things/actions pull our team off-task

When our team…I feel a real sense of accomplishment

These are my “Hot Buttons” on the team

This is my symbol for a well-functioning team

On the Table or Under the Table?

• Open up about them– Least serious to most serious– Better to deal with before they get worse

• Activity page 68 in Leading with Trust– Use questions to get staff to talk about

why this occurs– Pretend in parking lot and put comments

on sticky notes– Sort as a group

Action Plan

• Deal with the issues now on the table– Level One Fix

• What need to be fixed immediately

– Level Two Fix• Improve the process the led to the problem

– Level Three Fix• Improve or redesign the system that created the

process that caused the problem

Build on Success

• Brainstorm specific success

• Divide large group into smaller ones

• Brainstorm actions that led to the success

• Small groups report out

• Large group, list common themes and actions

• Apply these strategies and actions to a new problem

Graffiti Board

• Useful for getting other perspectives

• Quick, people can do on own time

• The problem proposer can evaluate the suggestions and choose those that will work

• Link

Open Space Technology

• People who are ready, willing and able will focus on issues they are passionate about.

1.Open space

2.Facilitator introduces theme and staff volunteer to facilitate a topic

3.The rest of the staff determines which group to join

4.Groups move to other areas to work.

Summary

• PLC development is ongoing

• There will be bumps in the road

• Trust is vital to strong PLCs

• Trust can be strengthened

• High trust = high problem solving ability

Resources

Gregory, G & Lin Kuzmich (2007). Teacher Teams that Get Results.

Stephenson, S. (2009). Leading with Trust: How to Build Strong School Teams

Exit Slip

3 Things I Learned Today …

2 Things I Found Interesting …

1 Question I Still Have …