Reflection on Module 3.3 Change Leader – SO MANY IDEAS!

“Change management is important but change leadership is essential” (Pennington, n.d.). Leadership versus Management:

Have a clear understanding about the difference between leadership and management, because if something turbulent happens that means an organisation or school is required to implement change and we are stuck in management tasks, we can’t lead (Kotter, 2013).

Therefore, leadership (leading) is: creating a strategy and vision for the future and creating an environment that motivates others to join the vision and strategy; whereas management (functional) is: planning, budgeting, organising, staffing controlling and problem solving (Kotter, 2013).

[I won’t write too much more about management versus leadership because I think I’ve written loads about this in my blog posts for ETL503 Resourcing the Curriculum]

Nick Skillcom's (2019) definition of innovation — Nick Skillcom’s (2019) definition of innovation (Permission to use image granted by Nick Skillcom)

Innovation versus change:

I think we also need to have a clear definition as to what is innovation versus change. The two seem to be being used interchangeably in this course, and in some ways that could be dangerous, particularly given the ‘change fatigue’ discussed in my previous post(s). Innovation is change that is adding value for both the company and the customer [as detailed by Nick Skillcom from Idea to Value (2019)], but change doesn’t necessarily do this and promoting a ‘change culture’ frightens me. We need to remember to match innovation (and subsequent change) to goals. Perhaps a ‘change culture’ is an innovative culture that is open to change, but not necessarily constantly changing?

Innovation by Nick Skillcom (2019) (Permission to use image granted by Nick Skillcom).

These are interesting, given the wording of the principal standards from the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL): “Identify the need for innovation and improvement; Develop a process and common language for change; Maintain their values whilst adapting flexibly and strategically to changes in the environment; Embed a culture of continuous improvement (AITSL, 2015).

Innovation: In order to recognise necessary innovations, I need to identify my passion. What’s my passion? Literacy. Quality literature. Education of children. Helping others find their passion. Encouraging colleagues to promote the social and emotional learning of students.

Professional Goals: 1. linking my practices to research; 2. linking my practices to the ASLA librarian standards.

Leading from the middle:

The whole premise behind this is to build capacity in others, which is what we do as teachers every day (Gottlieb, 2012). First we must lead by doing, and must get to know our team at a personal level. Gottlieb (2012) has many ideas about how to run a meeting or series of meetings to achieve this.

Morning meetings that build personal connections link to the teacher/students’ ‘morning meeting’ idea in the new wave of positive behaviour for learning and trauma informed practice pedagogy promoted by the Berry Street Educational Model (BSEM) or the Responsive Classroom.

Gottlieb (2012) also suggest we create a website page of our team ‘biographies’ to help team members get to know each other and reinforce such things as: What are your values or strengths? What excites you about our strategic plan or mission? Why are the things we do in our library important? What is your personal journey that has brought you here, or what is your personal teaching and learning philosophy?

Well hell’s bells, I thought of this ‘Spotlight’ idea too about two years ago and my supervisor at the time thought it was a great idea! Unfortunately, his son fell ill and he had to move away before the idea came to fruition (and his replacement did not renew my contract). Time to dust off the idea and utilise it in my future library!

Implementing an innovation culture (not a change culture!):

Opinion based on my own experience: Changing the work culture in a school is a really big deal. Some might even say, insurmountable. When inundated with ‘top down’ policies, budget constraints, and a ‘to be run like a business’ mantra (influenced by a employment policy for administration staff that literally advocates for nepotism; ‘local schools local decisions;’ promotion on ‘merit’ being rorted – particularly for leadership positions; the bullying of bureaucrats and top-level executives resulting in the bullying of leaders; resulting in bullying of teachers, resulting in bullying of students, resulting in bullying on the playground; the oversupply of teachers (particularly new scheme teachers) in primary and the undersupply in secondary; the push to employ more (new scheme) temporary contract teachers (who struggle with building relationships with students – one of the main indicators of academic success) in primary over offering permanent positions – pitting the temps’ against each other in competition for the few permanent positions that arise; laying off temps in favour of ‘free trial’ teachers in from the city on incentive schemes, etc) trying to change a school culture from the bottom up, (or ‘the middle’ as per Gottlieb, 2012) at this stage is all but futile.

And while I agree that we need to develop as teachers, I am struck by Lortie’s (1975 in Oberg, 2011) terms “presentism, conservatism; and individualism” as being hinders to the change process. When I read this, I saw it as the bureaucratic level trends in society and global political trends rather than or in addition to the trends in teacher attitudes towards ‘change’ / innovation.

A Google dictionary search defines the terms as: “Presentism: uncritical adherence to present-day attitudes, especially the tendency to interpret past events in terms of modern values and concepts.”…”Conservatism: commitment to traditional values and ideas with opposition to change or innovation; (or) the holding of political views that favour free enterprise, private ownership, and socially conservative ideas.”…”Individualism: the habit or principle of being independent and self-reliant; (or) a social theory favouring freedom of action for individuals over collective or state control.”

Wealth doesn’t ‘trickle down,’ but leadership attitudes seem to, as supported by Harvard Business Review (Zenger & Folkman, 2016).

The trick is to try to stop the ‘trickle down’ effect from reaching the students – and in that, the buck stops with me! I’m reminded of the social emotional lesson (learned from BSEM trauma informed practice teacher training) that I teach to students about things they can control. (I can’t control the bureaucrats or political arena, but I can control myself!)

Thus, to combat anti-innovative mindsets, I will aim to address my personal presentism, conservatism and individualism mindset(s) through: professional development, personal reflection, collaboration, questioning the validity of top-down changes (such as data collection, standardised testing, and mandatory curriculum), as well as battling the conservative practices of social inequity and lack of cohesion that trickle down to school inequities–further disadvantaging marginalised students (Oberg, 2011).

Regarding ‘top down’ changes and conservative practices: I will confidently ask my team(s) the question: ‘How can this innovation (such as a behaviour peg chart or stoplight ‘welfare’ policy), which is intended to improve teaching and learning, contribute to making a difference for all stakeholders and all students, or will it make a difference only for those already advantaged (such as those who are meeting outcomes, have social capital, or who come from economically stable, privileged backgrounds)?’ (Oberg, 2011 p.2).

I will get to know the teaching and learning philosophies influencing teaching practices, the school’s attitudes towards innovation (or if it is simply ‘change’), how the teachers interact (in isolation or collaboratively), the executive team roles and goals, and the methods for determining success – both professionally and academically (Pratt, 2017; Oberg, 2011, p.2; Green 2011).

I will proactively start in ‘my’ library by being patient with the innovation process (Pratt, 2017; Oberg, 2011), working flexibly and collaboratively with all stakeholders, setting SMART goals that are based on both the school mission/strategic plan/library mission/strategic plan of improving teaching and learning as well as based on evidence/research based innovations of 21st century teaching practices such as differentiation (Oberg, 2011; Green 2011).

Things I currently lack but need in a future teacher librarian role (according to Green (2011, p.23)): “established authoritative position, credibility amongst peers, a vision that is based on best practice and, importantly, a mandate to implement or produce change (innovation).”

I need to utilise my skills in linking practice to researched evidence, marketing, ICT and QTR (as well as from training and experience received from BSEM, L3, AL and TEN, etc) in my library and collaborate with teachers, offering professional development in these areas, in order to help them utilise evidence-based practices, helpful computer technologies, effective lesson structures or to professionally and collaboratively evaluate their lessons or units of work (Green 2011).

References

Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL). (2015). Interactive leadership profiles. In AITSL.Retrieved from https://legacy.aitsl.edu.au/leadership-profiles/interactive-profiles/leading-improvement-innovation-and-change

Gottlieb, H. (2012, October 30). Leading from the middle: Bringing out the best in everyone [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://creatingthefuture.org/leading-from-the-middle-bringing-out-the-best-in-everyone/

Green, G. (2011). Learning leadership through the school library. Access, 25(4), 22-26. Retrieved from http://www.asla.org.au/publications/access.aspx

Kotter, J. (2013, August 15). The key differences between leading and managing [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEfgCqnMl5E [4.23 mins].

Oberg, D. (2011). Teacher librarians as cultural change agents. SCIS Connections, 79. Retrieved from https://www.scisdata.com/media/1353/connections-79.pdf

Pennington, R. (n.d.). How to make change work. In Educational leaders: Leading and managing change. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Leading-change/Leading-and-managing-change

Pratt, A. (2017). The challenge of implementing change. SCIS Connections, 103. Retrieved from https://www.scisdata.com/connections/issue-103/the-challenge-of-implementing-change

Skillcom, N. (2019). What is innovation? 15 experts share their innovation definition. Retrieved from https://www.ideatovalue.com/inno/nickskillicorn/2016/03/innovation-15-experts-share-innovation-definition/

Zenger, J. & Folkman, J. (2016). The trickle down effect of good and bad leadership. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2016/01/the-trickle-down-effect-of-good-and-bad-leadership

Reflection on ETL504 Module 3.2 (2019): Leading Change

Leading change, solving problems, building teams, effective communication & conflict resolution

Kotter’s 8 steps for leading change (in Madsen, 2016):

Create urgency – a compelling case for change
Form a powerful coalition – a team formed with key people as change champions
Create a vision for change – short, clear, understandable, emotional, relevant and creative
Communicate the vision – showcase it and demonstrate it
Remove obstacles – physical or emotional, fears, concerns; use feedback to overcome obstacles
Create short term wins – phases or steps where each step offers reward
Build on the change – repeat the steps 1-6 so that it becomes routine
Anchor the change – embed it into every day practice

“When facing a problematic situation, people can consciously choose to draw on powerful ways of thinking and acting—such as striving for accuracy and drawing on past knowledge. And as a person becomes more disposed to use a particular facet of practical intelligence, that disposition can grow and become more sophisticated” (Claxton, et al., 2016 p. 4).

Soft Skills / Dispositions / & 7 Ways to Problem Solve:

Soft skills or the preferred term: ‘dispositions’ are necessary for today’s workforce: effective communication, collaboration, ability solve problems and fitting in within the school vision. Claxton (et al., 2016)

Removing obstacles & Problem solving is probably the most challenging aspect of soft skills/dispositions (that and fitting in to the school vision – or what is perceived as the school vision). Complex problems cannot be solved easily and have to have a different approach as listed below (BNET Video, 2011; McNamara, 2017; & Belbin, 2010):

Define the problem / Identifying needs in a statement or group of statements from stakeholders: What, where, how, with whom, when and why is a problem happening and what is the most urgent aspect? (Role titles: shapers and coordinators);
Collect data about the problem (the what) and its causes (Role titles: Team members);
Analyse the data for the cause (the why) (Monitors, Evaluators and Specialists);
Plan a solution or action plan and implement it (the how); Consider what end result we want, plan the steps for success (use SMART steps), identify resources required including time and participants; and determine the roles of each stakeholder for the process; (Role titles: Plants and Resource investigators);
Evaluate the success or failure based on more data; How will we know we have achieved our goal and solved the problem?; (Role titles: Monitors, Evaluators and Specialists)
Standardise a solution – make it work in other areas; (Role titles: Implementors and Coordinators); and
Learn something from this process as a team- what did we do well / poorly / where to next? (Role titles: Motivators; Team workers; Resource investigators; Completer finishers & Implementors).

This problem solving process is also applicable to our teaching practice as pointed out by Claxton (et. al., 2016, p.4), in that we can encourage soft skills / dispositions in our students by having them solve problems by asking themselves questions like:

“How can I draw on my past successes with such problems? What do I already know about the problem, and what resources do I have or might I generate? How might I approach this problem flexibly, looking at the situation in a fresh way? How can I draw upon my repertoire of problem-solving strategies? To make this challenge clearer, can I break this problem into its component parts and develop a strategy for understanding and accomplishing each step? Are there data I can draw on? How do my beliefs, values, and goals interact with this problem? Are any attitudes or emotions blocking—or enhancing—my progress?”

What is a team?

While reading Belbin (2010) I am struck by the realisation of what was motivating my previous employer to choose me as the teacher who needed to be the one to not have their contract renewed: he didn’t believe I conformed or ‘fit’ into his vision of the school or the culture he and his executive team were building…and maybe there were times that I was taking a counter-productive role…?

It is interesting to me that Belbin (2010) suggests that the word ‘team’ is often maligned as to mean a ‘group’, ‘flock,’ ‘squad,’ or ‘audience’ rather than what it should be: reciprocated and dynamic engagement between unique and varied individuals.

Effective companies create a balanced or hybrid culture &/or a hybrid team, capable of protecting the company from problems that arise and the destructive work culture cycle [As a ‘team’ arises (however it may come about), a ‘visionary’ work culture is created and the need to be connected to the culture results in conformity. Conformity then results in an inability to speak up and solve problems, which, in turn, results in a leaders becoming ‘hard nosed’ towards members of the team in order to motivate and engage them. A group of leaders become ‘the shapers’ and a group of followers become ‘the team’ (Belbin, 2010)].

Creating a balanced team in 8 steps:

Creating a balanced team begins with the vision of employment based on a need for a diverse range of team members, rather than someone who ‘fits’ with those already employed – a focus on skills rather than personality or conformity (Belbin, 2010);
Goals of the company need to be clear as this will effect the creation of individual job roles (Belbin, 2010);
Roles need to be well communicated so that all stakeholders are knowledgable about the abilities within the team (Belbin, 2010);
Roles need to be flexible, so that as the team grows or changes, so too can the roles and voids can be filled or accommodated (Belbin, 2010);
There are many kinds of roles that people can have, but according to Porteus, (n.d).; and Roberts, (2012), they all have one of three themes: Roles for tasks: Initiator- contributor: suggests new ideas; Information seeker: clarifies details; Opinion seeker or consensus tester: looks for opinions or values of others; Elaborator or clarifier: provides examples; and Orienter: summarises and keeps everyone focused. Maintenance roles (working smoothly): Encourager: Offers acceptance or praise; Harmoniser: mediator in conflicts; Expresser: senses group feelings and seeks clarification; Gatekeeper: keeps communication flowing; Compromiser: one who attempts conflict resolution; and Standard setter: testing overall group satisfaction with the process. Counterproductive roles: Aggressor: putting others down; Blocker / Un-cooperator: negative, stubborn and difficult; Withdrawer: removed from interactions either physically or mentally; Side-conversationalist: whispering, giggling, or having private conversations that distract or exclude others; Degrader: puts people down either directly or through jokes; or Dominator: is controlling or monopolises the group;
Start with a talented person in the required area and find a manager who can relate well to that person, defending, guiding, supporting or mentoring them (Belbin, 2010);
Keep team numbers small wherever possible (Belbin, 2010);
The team must form an agreement on their operational style (Belbin, 2010).

Photo of Christy Roe’s training notes from a Skillpath seminar (2002)

14 Rules for Effective Communication:

I worked in a call centre in the finance sector for many years in my 20’s just after I immigrated to Australia. Luckily, my employer was a large, publicly listed company who invested heavily in employee training and as a result, I have an in-depth understanding of communication — I just need to remember it all! Much of what was said in the videos in Module 3.2 (2019) Leading Change was a refresher for me.

In the communication video (Alanis Business Academy, 2012) and in the Ceconi video (Nohria, 2016), Davies (n.d.), Minute MBA (2012) and in the Bender (2005) book chapter, I think it was important to note:

Even when we don’t communicate, we are always communicating, either directly or indirectly – [which links to the ‘NSW DET Positive Behaviour for Learning’ and other child services mantra that ‘all behaviour is communication’];
We need to recognise and follow the school’s hierarchy (seeking clarification and improving policies in times of doubt);
We need to keep communication open even in challenging situations, utilising a variety of communication formats and refrain from being distracted;
We need to remember to begin and end with positives and emphasise areas in which we agree (particularly, in Australian settings, performing an Acknowledgement of Country and brief welcome to individuals at the start of every meeting);
We must consider the communication device carefully, taking into account ease of communication, our (direct) words (30% of communication) as well as the other (indirect) 70% of communication: body language, tone and volume (or lack thereof in digital formats);
We need to consider our own encoding barriers and the barriers of our receiver: environment preferences, knowledge, age, personality, habits, background, social customs, emotional and mental diversity;
Because of the barriers listed in #6, we also need to make a real effort to be careful and thoughtful of what we say and how we say it, e.g. adjusting language to suit the situation; using jargon, technical terms versus informal language; and trying to use ‘I’ statements wherever possible as opposed to ‘you’ statements;
We need to be respectful, (rather than the most recently maligned ‘political correctness’) in both formal and informal situations;
We need to be clear, concise and consistent when communicating across all platforms, regardless of whether your communication is about positive or negative information;
We need to keep and open mind and be willing to compromise – and not just expect compromise from the receiver;
The receiver decodes the message amongst ‘noise’ in the background, physical, mental or emotional issues that must also be considered; We need to monitor the receiver for active listening;
Request or expect regular and ongoing feedback from the receiver (eg. ‘what I heard you say was…’) which we should not be jumping to conclusions, getting distracted nor thinking of our own response but instead, we must actively listen to the receiver’s message and remember what they have said; and
We should respect the receiver’s confidentiality and avoid gossip [‘triangles.]
We need to follow up and action anything that comes up in our conversations and survey our team to see if we are being productive leaders, such as a 360 Degree Feedback Survey (or similar).

Conflict Resolution:

Conflict (or ‘dissensus’) can be a great avenue for ‘win/wins’ and authentic change in an organisation (Plocharczyk, 2013, p.308). Our job as leaders in times of conflict is: timely, transparent and open communication, listening (actively), responding with new points of view and perspectives, and resolution by encouraging creative innovations – never avoidance (Plocharczyk, 2013, p.311). We need to focus on the process/’the how’ the work is being done, rather than the people/’the who’ doing the work (Johnson in Plocharczyk, 2013 p.316). We need to have proactive, clear guidelines and policies for behaviour defined and communicated simultaneously, so that everyone understands the policy and the restorative practices that will occur in the event of inappropriate behaviours.

Types of conflict (more than one can occur at a time): Intra-personal (conflict within yourself); Solution: releasing anxiety through talking to others; Interpersonal (individual conflict with another person); Solution: adjustments or mediation; Intra-group (individual conflict within members of a team); Solution: embracing the conflict as necessary part of problem-solving (see this article by Jacob Stringer on New Compass about consensus versus dissensus) and goal achievement or mediation; Intergroup (a group conflict with another group in the organisation); Solution: clarification of goals, interests, competition, resources, or group identity (Evans, 2013); and Task / Organisational (individual conflict with others based on the constructs or policies of an organisation such as tight budgets, shared resources, unequal workloads, unclear future employment, boredom or undefined values, goals, objectives or role descriptions); Solution: ‘integrative conflict management’, collaboration, analytical thinking, problem solving, mediation from a third party, or clarification/revision of company policies (Plocharczyk, 2013, p.311).

So what kind of conflict manager will I be? I took the survey suggested in the module but I didn’t really get much out of it. The questions seemed repetitive and out of context. I often get emotional at conflict situations, depending on who they are with. (I have anxiety, undiagnosed, in all social situations but particularly those that are new or unfamiliar). I recognise that and try to listen more than I speak.

I like the idea of having a policy on behaviour (like the NSW DET Code of Conduct) and utilising the Positive Behaviour for Learning / Restorative practice techniques that we use with students also in my work team. I realise there are those who disagree that behaviour is communication but I do believe that it is. And it is my job to listen to that behaviour and act appropriately. I will try to use Judy Ringer’s checklist in times of conflict, and a 360 Degree Feedback Survey (or similar) to make sure I am communicating and responding appropriately… Hope I will be up to the challenge!

References:

Alanis Business Academy. (2012, August 2). Episode 19: How the communication process works [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6u0AVn-NUM
[7.35 mins]

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.

Bender, Y. (2005). Building effective communication, Part 1, p.3-18. The tactful teacher: Effective communication with parents, colleagues and administrators. Chicago, IL: Nomad Press. Retrieved from ProQuest Ebook Central.

BNET Video. (2011, June 8). 7 step problem solving. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZXDGQSuF9I [4.38 mins]

Claxton, G., Costa, A., & Kallick, B. (2016). Hard thinking about soft skills. Educational leadership. 73-6 p.60-64. Retrieved from https://www.learningpersonalized.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Hard-Thinking-about-Soft-Skills.pdf

Davies, L. (n.d.). Effective Communication. In Kelly Bear. Retrieved from http://www.kellybear.com/TeacherArticles/TeacherTip15.html

Evans, B. (2013, August 16). Types of conflict: Four classifications [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.typesofconflict.org/types-of-conflict/

Madsen, S. (2016). Kotter’s 8 step change management model [Video file]. Retrieved Mar. 2017 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qlJ_Y8w5Yk [4 mins]

McNamara, C. (2017). Problem solving and decision-making. In Free Management Library, Retrieved from http://managementhelp.org/personalproductivity/problem-solving.htm#guide

Minute MBA. (2012, November 13). Let your ears do the talking: How good managers listen [Video file]. OnlineMBA.com. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk1VnXTC1_I [1.39 mins]

Nohria, N. [HR360Inc]. (2016, January 7). Steps to successful employee communication [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/bRXLTZMvy-U

Plocharczyk, L. (2013). Managing conflict and incivility in academic libraries (part 12). 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/

Creating a Shared Vision, Goals, or Strategic Plan – Some Practical Tip Websites

Based on my readings of Module 4 and 5, I’ve added a GoogleDocs Survey to help create or evaluate a strategic plan, mission, vision and values to the left menu bar of this blog.

Here are also some practical websites offering tips and steps for creating and evaluating the process of a shared vision, strategic plan, objectives and goals:

Creating a vision by Clearpoint Strategies

Shared vision by Jessie Lyn Stoner on Leadership

Shared vision by Ellevate Network

Shared vision by Magazine Vunela

Shared vision by ASCD

What are SMART goals by Smart Goals Guide

Setting goals by Ellevate Network

Setting goals by Bplans

Setting and evaluating goals by Mindtools

Writing a strategic plan by Chron

Writing a strategic plan by the NSW DET

Reflecting on Module 3.1: Change in Organisations

ETL504 Module 3.1-Change in Organisations (2019): Improving the impact of change conflict with a shared vision and strategies for improving the work culture or climate

Change can be put into effect by various ‘change agents’ (managers, team members or consultants) and can be planned or unplanned and is either required based on internal or or external demands. Change from external demands is from sources such as: the marketplace / SES of the LGA; governing bodies / laws / regulations such as those required by ACARA or NESA; technological advances; the labour market such as the availability or oversupply of teachers; and economics / funding / the economy / budgets (Module 3.1, 2019).

Change required based on internal demands is from things such as: the school structure / eg. the school’s strategic plan, the library’s strategic plan, the school vision, the library vision, the school mission statement or the library mission statement; the workforce–from the principal to the GA; equipment, eg. buildings / pencils and; attitudes–the various backgrounds, experiences, religions, ethnicities and cultural groups of the stakeholders of the school (Module 3.1, 2019).

Some blockers to change might be caused by uncertainty, personal loss for ‘the way we’ve always done it,’ or genuine concern that change isn’t in the schools best interest (Module 3.1, 2019).

Change Management Strategies: “Planned, incremental change is always best” because work, workflow, attitudes & behaviours are all impacted by change (Module 3.1, 2019).

Change is initially confusing and challenging, but leaders can reduce change conflict or change-induced fatigue or stress by: linking the benefits of the change to the school vision or long term goals, anticipating where conflicts might arise and having a plan ready for how to ease them, education, communication, participation at all levels of the organisation and leadership facilitation, support & negotiation (rather than manipulation or coercion) (Module 3, 2019).

In schools it is key that we create a ‘learning organisation’ within 7 dimensions classified by Kools and Stoll (2016): “1) developing and sharing a vision centred on the learning of all students; 2) creating and supporting continuous learning opportunities for all staff; 3) promoting team learning and collaboration among staff; 4) establishing a culture of inquiry, innovation and exploration; 5) establishing embedded systems for collecting and exchanging knowledge and learning; 6) learning with and from the external environment and larger learning system; and 7) modelling and growing learning leadership” (Kools & Stoll, 2016, p.3). This can also be understood by points listed in this infographic by elearning infographics.com (2013):

eLearning Infographics. (2013). (Image provided for uploading and embedding into blogs for free by eLearning Infographics).

Teams should also meet regularly for ‘wellness checks,’ including all stakeholders (leaders, staff, students and families) and change agents must remember that people learn best through: interdependence, change and the social constructs of reflective practise, conversing, inquiring and acting (Fleet, et al., 2016).

Fleet, et al., (2016) point out that positive change initiatives require: effective leadership, a positive school culture or climate, effective employment procedures, support, participation at all levels of the school (promoting a sense of respect for leaders who are able to perform the tasks that they expect others to be able to perform, individual ownership, consensual involvement & team-wide willingness to participate in changes or innovation) and creating a shared vision and mission statement.

‘Transformational’ or ‘distributional’ leaders need to develop a shared school vision in order to develop trusting relationships, solve complex problems, have a clear focus on teaching and learning, and a willingness to engage with the community (Fleet, et al., 2016; & Holmes et al., 2013). When creating a shared vision, Holmes, et al. (2013) reminds us that it takes a lot of time (sometimes frustratingly), as well as effective communication skills and patience in order to ensure inclusivity. Furthermore, sharing and communicating the school’s journey of change initiatives with the community promotes a shared understanding (Fleet, et al., 2016).

If every change or proposal (organisational, financial, teaching & learning) links to the school vision and strategic management plan then the changes are ‘well justified’ can receive whole school and organisational support and funding and this, in turn, further contributes to a positive school learning culture or climate and creates a ‘bottom up’ (rather than ‘top down’) influence (Fleet, et al., 2016; & Holmes, et al., 2013).

Bitmoji: ‘Bottom Up!’ influence Top down influence:

‘Top down’ influences often sidetrack school innovations, change or reforms and super-cede relationship building because trust takes more time than what is allowed by governing bodies (Holmes, et al., 2013). ‘Top down’ mandated changes have very little uptake by teachers, because they react with a range of negative emotions, believe they aren’t given neither time nor education to understand changes nor support prior to or at implementation, and that changes from the top are transitory and will soon be obsolete (Clement, 2014, p. 42).

A whole school approach to change is more likely to have teachers driving the change based on the school goals and agendas and within their own time parameters, leading to more understanding and less stress or conflict (Clement, 2014, p. 43). ‘Change fatigue’ or ‘innovation fatigue’ or ‘reform fatigue’ can result in teachers as we are in a constant cycle of mandated education reform (such as continual curriculum change) which presents as dissatisfaction, exhaustion and perceptions of increased workload, lack of support, training and resources and unrealistic mandated implementation timelines (Dilkes, et al., 2014).

“Cynical, realistic and even enthusiastic teachers suffer change fatigue after years of rapid and continual curriculum change” (Dilkes, et al., 2014 p.45).

Bitmoji: Following the leader Leadership:

“Principals must be managers as well as leaders, dealing with the pragmatics of managing a complex system, being the human face of relationships amongst school personnel, learners & the community, as well as offering constructive visionary leadership to carry the school through the mundane, through the complexities of diversity, politics & bureaucratic infrastructures to the desired future” (Fleet, et al., 2016, p. 73). Humour, patience, flexibility, accountability, commitment and thoughtfulness are the skills of “visionary” leaders, as well as the ability to understand that knowledge and genuine learning communities and pedagogies are socially constructed (Fleet, et al., 2016 p 74).

Teachers can often express that they feel stress, physically, mentally and behaviourally (Module 3, 2019) and some ideas to help alleviate stress are: develop a whole school approach to growth mindset, flow and/or mindfulness; encourage a work-life balance (eg. stick to a work timetable then stop working at that agreed time-including emails, and think about something other than work every day, etc); do a ‘what I can control versus what I can’t control’ mind-map in order to identify stress triggers; ‘don’t sweat the small stuff’ by prioritising or focusing on what really matters to you or what is a top goal; do a ‘stress’ survey and discuss the stresses identified openly as a team; find someone to talk to or to collaborate with; set S.M.A.R.T. goals; accept and give recognition to and from colleagues; seek and offer appropriate training and supports; and say ‘no’ and encourage others to say ‘no’ sometimes (Bailey, 2013; Cross, 2015).

Reflection on change conflict, fatigue and stress:

Is change conflict, fatigue and stress in my school representative of: individual and whole school stress management or coping mechanisms not being in place; a lack of a true growth mindset in teachers or leadership, a lack of a ‘invested interest’ from all stakeholders because of ‘top down’ mandated change, a lack of understanding of the benefits of the particular change and how it relates to the school vision and student outcomes, poor communication about the change(s), a lack of understanding about how to implement a change, insufficient time given to implement the change, a history of consistent change creating a ‘why bother’ mentality, backlash from the community who’ve been left out of the decision making process or who haven’t had adequate communication about the change, or a reaction to the change itself due to consistent change creating ‘change fatigue?’

Reflection on downsizing:

Bitmoji You're fired — Bitmoji – You’re Fired

I have worked for a clothing company who when into administration and closed down.
I was also retrenched once from a marketing position.
Later, as a temporary teacher, I did not have my contract renewed at one school and
I did not have my contract renewed at another school the following year.

In the first and second and third instances, I felt that my employer looked after me to some degree, two found me work elsewhere (to some degree), one gave me access to external counselling and an external c.v. creation training service at no cost, but one (the last and most recent) did hardly anything to ensure my mental and financial health was in any way looked after as recommended by Wolfe (2019). I put this down to inexperience and arrogance of the leader(s) who thought downsizing by not renewing my contract was in the best interest of their school…although, it would have been better to have asked the staff for alternatives to laying off a teacher (Wolfe, 2019).

Similarly, as suggested by Wolfe (2019), my extreme level of poor mental health was not assisted by the lack of communication as to why I was selected to be ‘downsized’ but the other 8 temporary teachers were not, many of whom were not communicated with regarding my situation, creating a terribly insecure work culture (without any communication from the top, most asked me what happened, resulting in further distress).

References

Bailey, A. (2013, November 6). 10 ideas to help teachers beat stress. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/nov/06/teachers-beat-stress-10-ideas

Change in Organisations: 3.1 [Study notes]. (2019). In ETL504: Teacher librarian as leader. Retrieved from Charles Sturt University Faculty of Education and the Art’s Interact 2 website: https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_42385_1&content_id=_2928579_1

Clement, J. (2014). Managing mandated educational change. School Leadership & Management, 34(1), 39-51. doi:10.1080/13632434.2013.813460

Cross, D. (2015). Teacher well being and its impact on student learning [Slide presentation]. Telethon Kids Institute, University of Western Australia. Retrieved from http://www.research.uwa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/2633590/teacher-wellbeing-and-student.pdf

Dilkes, J., Cunningham, C., & Gray, J. (2014). The new Australian Curriculum, teachers and change fatigue. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 39(11). doi: 10.14221/ajte.2014v39n11.4

elearning infographics.com. (2013). How is a learning organisation differentiated. Retrieved from https://elearninginfographics.com/how-is-a-learning-organisation-differentiated-infographic/

Fleet, A., De Gioia, K. & Patterson C. (2016). Engaging with educational change. Retrieved from ProQuest Ebook Central.

Kools, M. & Stoll, L. (2016). What Makes a School a Learning Organisation?, OECD Education Working Papers, No. 137, OECD Publishing, Paris, Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1787/5jlwm62b3bvh-en.

Holmes K., Clement, J. & Albright, J. (2013). The complex task of leading educational change in schools, School Leadership & Management, 33:3, 270283, DOI: 10.1080/13632434.2013.800477

Wolfe, L. (2019, April 7). Here are some alternatives to laying off employees when downsizing. In The balance careeres, Retrieved from https://www.thebalance.com/alternatives-to-laying-off-employees-when-downsizing-3515483

Creating a Collaborative Climate – The Triple C’s

[Reflection of ETL401 & ETL503 (The TL Role in Collaboration)] (*addendum 16 September 2019 for ETL504)

I think I’ve been pretty clear in my stance on the impact of temporary and casual work environments to the collaborative climate. If not, then I suppose I should mention here how much it wears away at collaboration to have individuals fighting for the renewals of their contracts: completely and utterly.

The casualisation of the teaching workforce, particularly in my personal working context, is not something I am able to change as an individual. Helping create a collaborative climate (despite the political climate) however, I can try to change.

Before we jump head first into collaborating with classroom teachers on an inquiry unit of work, let’s take a step back. I mean, yes we want to design and implement inquiry learning and literature programs and we certainly want to help embed digital formats. But we need to confront the elephant in the room in stead of simply shrugging our shoulders and saying ‘some teachers just don’t want to collaborate.’

I would argue that some teachers haven’t had positive collaborative experiences in the past (experiencing – much like a lot of students must experience – forced compliance rather than collaboration) or some teachers expect judgement in disguise rather than collaboration.

We ran into this in a school where we were trying to roll out Quality Teaching Rounds (QTR). We surveyed the staff to identify their concerns and these were the results:

Q. Why do we have to? (Comfort Zones: Not comfortable being watched / observed / critiqued; Doubt ‘teamwork’ capabilities; Criteria for involvement unclear; Feel pressured to do it).

A. (summarised) Be the change you wish to see in the world. Also, the NSW DET require a colleague observe you once a year so it might as well have a clear structure and limits and offer real improvement to your teaching.

Q. What’s the benefit? (Is there follow up; What do ‘we’ get out of it; Evidence of benefits; How does it improve the school; How valuable is it versus mentoring which we do already).

A. (shown QTR training slides proving benefits based on research)

Q. How could we possibly do it? (Logistics / Resources: What types of lessons have to be observed, eg 1:1, whole class, small group; Time off class; Casuals; Time required for prep work outside school hours).

A. (Thankfully, the principal had budgeted for the resources and did not have a set idea of what sort of lessons were required for observation).

The QTR team did our best with the resources and research provided by the QT Framework training to answer these concerns in a specially allocated staff meeting. We then surveyed the staff to determine their level of interest, which was about 70% in favour, and a few other teachers joined the second ‘Quality Teaching Round.’

Furthermore, in this process and in the readings for ETL401 Module 4, it occurred to me that an aspect of (primary) teaching that impacts collaboration is an ingrained and embedded culture of isolation. A teacher, predominantly alone in a room of students (or a Teacher Librarian on their own in the library) cannot effectively collaborate with other teachers as well as someone working in an office filled with cubicles or a group of engineers on a building site.

Another aspect of collaboration are the social norms of either Australian culture, or the culture of a town or city, or the culture of a school context. An immigrant and possible ASD person myself, I struggle with social norms on a daily basis.

I am also struck by the massive gap in the expectations of our TL role as collaborators, where we are expected to just jump in there and collaborate with teaching and learning programs with people who don’t know anything about us and of whom we also know very little…it is a bit ‘chicken before the egg’!

The OECD-UNICEF (2016) Education Working paper’s ‘dimensions of learning’ for organisation transformation touches on this (developing and sharing a student centred vision, having a culture of support for staff learning opportunities, promoting team collaborative professional development and embedding systems that support it, establishing daily expectations or ‘culture’ of inquiry, innovation and exploration–including staff in leadership roles, and learning with and from larger learning systems outside of the school context or direct governing body).

Logistically though, what does this look like? I love the idea of the ATSI community’s ‘yarning circle’. But how do I help create a ‘yarning circle’ or gathering spot where we can get to know each other and our contexts and socialise professionally? How do I help draw people out of their shells and into the safe environment of a collaborative climate?

Creating a Collaborative Climate (The triple C’s):

I can’t do it alone. There are things the executive must do to help improve the collaborative climate and things that they will need from me as well. However, once I’ve developed a rapport with the principal by helping them achieve their ideas, I will liaise with the principal to allow for time and budget amounts to be determined and allocated to enable some or all of the following of MY (8) ideas for creating a collaborative environment each year as follows:

In an allocated staff meeting or staff development day, we sit in a ‘yarning circle’ and discuss ourselves, our school and any concerns openly and freely, using the ideas from this link as a guide: ATSI community’s ‘yarning circle’.
Everyone completes the School Context Survey (draft version also in links on the right side of this blog) either collaboratively or on their own in time provided.
Everyone takes the VIA Character Survey and shares their top 5 / 10 character traits for the year (they can change slightly each year).
Everyone completes the Philosophy of Teaching Survey (draft version in links also on the right side of this blog). My own philosophy of Teaching has been updated for 2019 using the survey questions and can be used as a guide.
A photo of the teacher is either created or supplied with their permission (see #7 below for format ideas) using the Photo Permission Form Template created by the American Library Association (or similar).
The results of the school context, VIA, and philosophy surveys can then be sent electronically to the TL to be added to a electronic photo of the teacher(s) (with their permission), &/or collated and presented on an intranet or school website (which, unfortunately I do not have at present as I am not attached to a particular school).
I even have ideas (I have a marketing background, don’t forget!) on what the end result would look like and have pinned these ideas onto my Teacher Spotlight Pinterest board. (This board could also, theoretically, be made available for all of the school staff to edit).
And finally, (and this is where it gets a bit heavy), introduce Quality Teaching Rounds (in which I am an advocate and trained to deliver) to the school at least once a year if not twice, depending on budget and time allowances.

From here, collaborating on programming and teaching collaborative inquiry units are a walk in the park.

*16 September 2019 ETL504 addendum: See the template link on the left of the blog for initiating a collaborative inquiry unit with a classroom teacher Created by Christy Roe, based on suggestions from Carr, J. (Ed.), (2008) p.13-14; 28; 39; and Bishop, (2011) p.7.

WHEW! Its a big task. I hope I’m up to the challenge!

References:

Bishop, K. (2011). Connecting libraries with classrooms. Retrieved from ProQuest Ebook Central.

Carr, J. (Ed.). (2008). Leadership for excellence: Insights of the national school library media program of the year award winners. Retrieved from iG Library.

OECD-UNICEF. (2016). What makes a school a learning organisation? A guide for policy makers, school leaders and teachers. Retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/education/school/school-learning-organisation.pdf