Tag: Case Studies
Reflection on Case Study 6 – Wellbeing
Prioritising tasks and making time for personal wellbeing is easier said than done and I have realised this along the course of the case studies. While I was initially judgemental about the head teacher in the case study not following my advice from case study 1, I am more understanding now.
It is very difficult to focus and critically analyse and apply information when you are emotionally distracted by familial or personal issues. It is important to be proactive and have support structures in place before a stressful event occurs, such as recognising possible triggers and identifying coping strategies to deal with those triggers – much like we do as teachers by setting up our classroom structures.
Much like the head teacher librarian in the case studies, I have a lot on my plate. Work for me has been tumultuous for nearly my entire adult life. I have only been employed as a permanent employee for a mere 6 of my 32 years in gainful employment. I have had several genetic defect and life-threatening operations and 2 complicated pregnancies. I have immigrated from the U.S. and have lived for 22 years in Australia without my birth family. I have lived for 6 years in the Far West of NSW and have found the climate (both in terms of weather and work) challenging. Thus, I have had to work very hard over the years to try to prioritise travel and home life over work and career status…not easy when teaching is your passion!
I thought I had it all together!
I’ve tried to develop some hobbies that do not require other humans (photography, gardening, reading, playing with my dog) and learnt to take time to do these hobbies when I am feeling overwhelmed.
I have tried to prioritise my home life over my work life by shutting off and leaving work at 5:00pm each day. This has been made easier by only working 2 days a week and working in a NSW Department of Education Preschool that locks its doors at 3:30 each day.
I also set limits on parts of the house for electronics as to where they are not allowed (e.g. the kitchen/dining areas, toilets and bedrooms) in order to ensure that our family are sharing spaces appropriately and interacting authentically together in these spaces.
I have tried to combat the lack of permanence in my job and lack of power and control over my destiny, by attempting a masters degree in Teacher Librarianship. (Although my work hours have been modified to include this, which adds to my stress).
I try to live life in the moment, focussing on what I need to do in the next minute, rather what I need to do later or tomorrow or in 5 years time. It is great to have a vision, and strategies to achieve that vision and I’m very thankful to finally have this. It is also important to recognise that sometimes the steps towards the vision begin by simply swinging your legs out of the bed to start the day and thinking of nothing else until you’ve achieved that goal.
Then something happens that isn’t expected – as it always does.
Both of my children are on the autism spectrum, and it is likely both my husband and I are also (although only my youngest is the only one to recently obtain a diagnosis of ASD, ADHD and SPD). While I’ve always known that my boys are different and I appreciate and enjoy difference and I was not worried about going to Manly for a week for the diagnosis process, the final diagnosis of my youngest, particularly when there is a major assignment due for my degree, has caused my life to re-enter a state of flummox. What I didn’t plan for, was how to tell him about his diagnosis and how to deal with his emotional state following that discussion.
Thankfully I have my very supportive husband has looked after the children full time to enable me to complete it. Thankfully, we’ve been talking to the children regularly about ASD, so the news, when we can sit down and discuss the plan for delivering it, won’t come as such a shock.
Thankfully, through the support structures were in place through CSU, I had applied for and was granted a week extension on my assignment.
I’ve also located the ‘Personal (Wellbeing) Strategic Plan’ provided by the ETL504 course resources, have saved it to my files and will include it in my repertoire (see also the link in the menu on the left side of this blog). I hope this will help me in the future to be more proactive in my personal wellbeing and possibly help others too.
Reflection on Case Study 4 & 5; Roles in Groups and Teams
The Creation of our Group
The creation of our group may have been, according to Belbin (2010) doomed from the start due to the way the group members were selected (which was, presumably and due to the constraints of our online study, fairly random). The creation of a balanced team is very challenging (as detailed in my previous post) and some of the problems that we are showing (mere cracks really, not necessarily conflicts) are indicative of the challenges of creating that balance.
Roles and Participation:
I think our group at this stage of the process are struggling to identify our roles. The person who previously accepted or chose the role of submitting the final ‘Case Study 3’ group post, was displaying a need to maintain that role in the ‘Case Study 4’ post (although she had put her hand up at the start to say that she would not be able to participate as much in case study 4 due to her workload constraints and I was the person in charge of the final submission this week). Perhaps her need to exert herself was a result of her feeling like she had something to prove e.g perhaps she was not happy with her level of participation (Roberts, 2012)?
I know I was not 100% happy the previous person in charge of the submission, as she cut several sentences from my work without checking with me. Rather than approach her regarding this, I chose to defer on the side of caution and recognise that, at the end of the day, working together as a team was more important than the integrity of my work being recognised.
Moreover, leading by example, when it was my turn to be responsible for the final submission, I was very careful to only lightly edit the other team member’s work so that it maintained a consistent and positive flow (e.g. changing the word ‘staff’ to ‘team member’ or ‘library team’). When the person in charge of the previous submission questioned this and suggested I edit the text, I explained why I had not ‘micro edited’ the work of other team members as it can become ‘problematic.’ I am not sure if she got the message but I am hopeful that it doesn’t cause further conflict.
Communication:
The lines of communication are also having a negative impact on our group dynamic (Roberts, 2012). Aside from the communication being 100% electronic (and therefore limited in volume, tone and body language) one of the participants bar myself and one other have contributed to the ‘getting to know you’ forum in our group. In a physical / face-to-face setting, everyone would join in on the discussion about themselves less likely to just sit silently and ignore the conversation like they are in online communication.
Furthermore, the communication is challenging as there are so many options. Some are posting their submissions in the wrong case study and feeling like there are too many areas where the submissions could go (the blog, the discussion the wiki or email).
Where to from here?
The creation of my team in the future will need careful consideration from the employment stage right through to the project completion stage.
In terms of communication, I’m not sure how to make it more clear except to say that a better understanding of where we are meant to chat versus submit our individual work could be more narrow? Maybe if everything was done in either the discussion section as a draft and then in the blog as a final and not anywhere else?
I think, in the future, I might need to be more assertive–rather than avoiding the conflict (Plocharczyk, 2013) and when it is my turn to be ‘in charge’ I lead the team in identifying everyone’s roles or at least helping them be more aware of the possible range of roles that we take on in groups at any given time (such as those listed in my previous post from Roberts, 2012; Porteus, n.d.):
Leadership Thought: Is the case study group work about learning the leadership content better or is it a means in which to learn how to interact in the group as we mean to go forward in our own library or school teams?
References:
Belbin, R. M. (2010). The art of building a team. Chapter 9, pp. 97-106. Team roles at work (2nd ed.). Retrieved from ProQuest Ebook Central.
Plocharczyk, L. (2013). Managing conflict and incivility in academic libraries. In K. Blessinger & P. Hrycaj (Eds.), Workplace culture in academic libraries. Retrieved from ProQuest Ebook Central. [Elsevier Science version]
Porteus, A. (n.d.). Roles people play in groups. Stanford University. Retrieved March 5, 2017 from https://web.stanford.edu/group/resed/resed/staffresources/RM/training/grouproles.html
Roberts, R. (2012, September 12). How identifying the different roles can help groups work better together [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://elt-resourceful.com/2012/09/12/how-identifying-the-different-roles-we-play-can-help-groups-work-better-together/
Case Study 2 & 3 Reflections of Group Work
Case Study 2 – online meeting discussion / chat
I found the format for the chat a little disconcerting. When it was time to have my ‘say’ about the issues in the case study, I felt intense anxiety at how fast everyone’s comments were flashing up. I wanted to read them, not only to learn but also to make sure I wasn’t doubling up or saying something totally off the wall compared to what everyone else was saying but it was just too fast. So, I had to just look quickly at my notes and put up a short comment.
Where to from here:
If given the chance in the future, I will try to have something ready that I can just cut and paste quickly.
Case Study 3 – group post
I tried to utilise the strategies for leadership that I felt were important, not in terms of me being the leader, but in terms of what it would take for us to work well together as a group. I wanted to take the time at the beginning to get to know each person in the group.
However, the resulting responses (and almost entire lack thereof) showed that the other members of the group (bar one and myself) did not want to or were not able to take the time to offer any information about themselves. They seemed to simply want to either 1. make it known that they expected us to pick a leader off the cuff (supposably them?) or 2. appropriate time and responsibilities based on their external commitments.
I suppose I went wrong by oversharing or putting nearly everyone off in the way my ‘about me’ was worded in the link to my blog page. Perhaps getting to know each other is seen as a waste of time when everyone else simply wanted to ‘get down to business.’
Overall, I was left feeling out of sorts. As if I’ve missed some social cue, or misread the situation and am now outside the group. I feel as though I’ve set myself apart, rather than made sure I led from the middle, as I had hoped.
Where to from here:
For now, I will let it go and hope for a better result next time. Maybe I will just start smaller with simply a few sentences about myself and hope that others feel comfortable sharing more as we go along…
Case Study 1 – Reflection and Ideas
The background of case study 1 from CSU Interact2 ETL504 Module 1 (Downloaded on 17/7/19)
Case study 1 from CSU Interact2 ETL504 Module 1 (Downloaded on 17/7/19)
Firstly, it must be said that I am vastly under-qualified for the leadership position at the facility in this case study.
- Luckily, it is a hypothetical situation or I might have to have a nervous breakdown as the first thing I would do on Monday morning’s diary entry. Thus, my first reaction is that I need to use something like the graph from Skills You Need to start managing my time more analytically and prioritising tasks more effectively. For example, am I trying to chair too many committees when my staff are falling apart? Am I too busy trying to make myself look good to bond with employees who are running the library, possibly inefficiently?
- Perhaps delegating the sorting of my correspondence, reports, memos and emails into ‘now, soon, later’ by a secretary, who could then create my schedule for the week, would be a good idea. If this isn’t in the budget then I will need to allocate time specifically in each day to organise myself.
- After reading the background of the case study, I am similarly overwhelmed. In my work experience in marketing, I was at a corporation of similar size to this school and it required a Human Resources (HR) team to support the smooth running of the management and staff. We had a vibrant HR manager who, following a corporate restructure, ran a series of ‘meetings’ where we worked together to improve the workplace culture, and I believe this workplace is in serious need of these HR intervention ideas.
- The video from the Bastow Institute’s Tracey Ezard on ‘Building Trust and Collaboration’ (2015) supports this view, offering helpful tips on how to improve the quality of relationships and build trust and risk taking through: discovering each person’s potential and capabilities, admitting my own failings as a leader, appreciating each other and being authentic in what we say and do.
- Some ideas on how to achieve an improved workplace culture specifically would be to: do the VIA character traits survey and discuss the results; Build individual and communal philosophies via the GoogleDocs survey that I created; Then collate the results of these into the school library website or intranet to encourage pride and unity.
- I would also seek to enhance the external support for those staff members who have challenges at home with childcare and children with disability, possibly through a crèche or respite care. (Not sure what to do about the bloke sleeping at his computer in sight of students. Maybe a having a friendly, helpful and private chat about his health and some options for improving his engagement at work would solve the issue?)
- It is clear that some training is necessary and I would look to provide opportunities for the Berry Street Educational Model (BSEM) training for the whole team, but particularly for Liam, Peta, Dani, Victoria, Shelley and Bobbi, who (for various reasons) are not connecting appropriately with students and/or teachers and library staff. While the BSEM training was created to help educators support students with trauma backgrounds, it has the simultaneous effect of building skills in educators like empathy and understanding and the ability to form connections, as well as opening us up to changing our environments, responses and attitudes to better suit the students.
- Similarly, the whole team would benefit from a visit from Keynote Speaker: Rachel Robertson, who explains her ‘No Triangles’ strategy as well as many other useful ideas for improving workplace culture.
- Further training in relevant technology used by the library and possible ideas for additional technology is also needed, particularly for Shelley, Allison, Bobbi & Melissa. This could be achieved in house by training sessions by Lydia, Liam, Derek & Malia. In support of the staff, I should also have an understanding of the relevant technology and use it daily.
- Marlia & Liam could also be trained in the ‘LANS & Networking configurations’ by Derek, who is likely to leave and take his knowledge with him. (And what’s up with that Derek? Do you need to feel more valued or has that ship already sailed?)
- The issue of lack of student and teacher engagement in the library needs a whole team approach. Data needs to be collected, possibly through surveys or programs like Oliver to determine the severity or areas of disengagement. Once the data has been collected and collated, it will need to be analysed by the whole staff and ideas for improving engagement need to be shared with everyone based on and supported by recent information science and educational practise research. One aspect of this would be the whole staff having more input and contributions during the actual teaching of student lessons.
- Finally, due to the constant staff turnover, a lack of clear direction or goals, and a lack of unity, everyone has ambiguous roles and responsibilities-including me. While I see from the diary that I am meeting with them one-on-one, this needs to be formalised into a performance and review schedule where I first meet with everyone around the same time to determine the specific roles and detailed responsibilities of the respective jobs within the sub-groups of the library, e.g. my roles, the TL’s roles, the tech’s roles, the assistant’s roles and the IT department’s roles. Atlassian has a great structure for a team meeting activity to help achieve this. Some 6-12 months afterwards, I could meet with individuals to review their performance and determine their success or needs relating to their roles and responsibilities.
The task at hand is large. I’m glad it is just hypothetical and am looking forward to hearing input from others in this subject on how they would handle it on Monday…
References
BastowInstitute. (2015, July 27). Building Trust and Collaboration – Tracey Ezard [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/kUkseAdKyek
