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TGIF
TEACHER DESIGNED SCHOOLS TGIF Volume 4, Number 6 Wednesday, November 14, 2007 LEADERS TEACH MENTAL MODELS Dear Friends, The 2007 journey across six countries to support schools within the TDS Network has come to an end for John and me. He is enjoying a relaxing time in Brisbane with his family, while I am high atop Douglas Mountain in the Rockies removing the road dust of seven months of travel. Travel Fact: I guess I am a real jet-setter because 34 of those days have been “fly” days! The final segment for me was working very successfully in the UK and Norway with James Nottingham where the Network is growing at the steady rate we want: from 5 schools in 2006 to 9 schools this year with confirmations of 15 schools in 2008. John and I now have that essential design element, quality time together to begin planning for 2008. In fact, John is already working closely with Oz and New Zealand schools to define next year’s itinerary. For the Network to evolve we are developing a team of topnotch facilitators, who will work closely with John and I, to continue to powerfully grow the Network and its processes. As John eases himself towards a more design and strategy focused role with the Network from 2009, others will begin to work schools with me and our Network Coordinators. Some of you have already expressed an interest in such a role; please keep John and I informed of your passion for this. We are steadily building our database showing the impacts of the TDS process in schools: measures such as effects on student learning and well-being, and staff learning and well-being. One task I am engaged in toward this effort is going on-line and studying the recent New Zealand ERO (Education Review Office) Reports on Network schools and pulling from those reports specific references to the impact shared visioning is having on school success. Please send us your data to enrich our Network database. And, don’t forget to utilize the Networking Contact Information we sent out with the last TGIF. As your school’s leader you must know the mental models that must be in place for the school to become what it wants to be. Our mental models determine how we behave. That’s why your shared vision is so important. Embedded within the vision are the mental models required to make it a reality. Remember, these are the values, beliefs and assumptions that we see lived out every day. Do you know the mental models in your vision that the school must embed to create the school culture implicit in your shared vision? Our mental models have developed over time and are immune to change. We do not adopt new ones easily. You all are aware of my current struggle to develop new mental models around diet and exercise. It is bloody hard work! This requires that leaders make, as their priority, the teaching of the mental models necessary to move toward vision reality. This teaching assignment is extremely complex, because we can’t coerce or mandate that someone change a mental model and, because it takes time. If you still believe there are quick fixes to life’s issues there is very little chance to build new mental models. Making it even more complex is that we often work with outside forces demanding the quick fix. The secret is continuously creating the conditions where the staff will choose to make the new mental model part of their lives. Continuously becomes the key. You must influence the use of the new mental model over and over again. Robert Fritz, in his book “The Path of Least Resistance” reminds us that help someone change we have to make the new mental model, or behavior, the path of least resistance for them. This takes time, focus and patience. In Europe three of our schools have designed long-term plans that have “assessment for learning” as the first task they are implementing. The mental model transition from “teacher as evaluator” to “teacher as facilitator of authentic assessment in collaboration with the student” is huge. It cannot be done tomorrow and cannot be done by happenstance. Only a carefully designed and continuous long-term teaching strategy will make it a reality. The Butler Model has been my teaching road map for such transformations since 1988. I could easily make the case that using the Butler Model to embed mental models into the culture of the school is why we earned outstanding status in the USA. We have attached John’s most recent iteration of the Butler Model for you to study. At the same time you ought to look at the last TGIF – Volume 4, Number 5 as a companion to the Butler Model and this TGIF. I would actually teach the Butler Model to my staff. The model itself would be our very first lesson. The six elements of the model gave us a common language. I would also teach “the pit”, action learning and provide my staff with a journal to foster reflection. These lessons were done as a prelude to teaching a mental model. What I did was use the six elements of the model to design “A Six Step Lesson Design.” Let me take you through it. We will use assessment for learning as the example task we are trying to implement. The task that follows comes from one of our Network schools. I have bolded the mental models I SEE embedded within the task.
“Our children understand what progress they are making and know how to improve their learning. They are confident in understanding what they are learning and why. We provide a secure environment in which to give constructive verbal and written feedback. (MM1) Our children trust adults and peers to give valuable and constructive feedback. (MM2) We value time for reflection and thinking. (MM3) We focus children to think about their own learning using the attitudes, skills and knowledge model. Our children know that attitudes, skills and knowledge are interdependent.” For this task to be completely up and running with quality across the school all three mental models would need to be lived out daily by the staff. If I were the Principal/Head Teacher I would begin by teaching two mental models simultaneously because in this case they are complementary: (1.) ADULTS AND PEERS GIVE VALUABLE AND CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK (2.) TIME FOR REFLECTION AND THINKING. My assumption is it would take at least a year to have these mental models in place. I will have to teach these mental models continuously for a year. The beauty of the leader teaching mental models is that each teaching episode offers the leader powerful opportunities to hold staff accountable to take action around the mental models. Be clear, that the teacher does not have to be you – you can use other members of your leadership team, or staff, to do such teaching. At the same time, such powerful modeling from the top worked well for me. What do we mean by teaching a mental model lesson in relationship to time? In my experience a lesson takes 90 minutes. What I found out was that I didn’t have to complete a lesson in a single session. In reality I never had that luxury of such time. By union contract I could hold 57 minute staff meetings. I was forced to learn how to teach mental models within that constraint and the lessons still worked beautifully. If you can find 90 minutes at a session with the whole staff 5-6 times a year you are in mental model heaven! What makes time a non-obstacle is the fact that mental models build gradually over time until they become embedded in practice. So time gaps are always a part of mental model development designs. Social constructivism and action learning were they key instructional strategies I utilized in designing these lessons. Bill’s Six Step Lesson Design · Step 1 – Public Information · Step 2 – Current Practice · Step 3 – PPK – Personal Practical Knowledge · Step 4 – Mental Models · Step 5 – Reflection · Step 6 – Generation (Action Learning) Remember, before the lesson began I would have taught the Butler Model, the Pit, and Action Learning to the staff. STEP 1 – PUBLIC INFORMATION (15-20min. approx.) Note: I would always attempt to get information out to staff a week ahead of the lesson. Public information “is out there.” We get information from articles, books, the internet, going to workshops, watching TV, etc. I would find public information related to ADULTS AND PEERS GIVING VALUABLE AND CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK. Maybe it would be the article “Barriers and Gateways to Communication” by Carl Rogers (which you can find on the Harvard Business Review website) that John speaks of so often. I would ask them to read and study the Public Information prior to the lesson and ask them to identify what they think are the most important sections of the article. When the staff came together for the first lesson I would have identified a strategy for them to study the information together. Over the years I have used several different strategies consistently: Pair and Share; the Text Based Seminar; Chalk Talks; and the Final Word. I found that having a variety of strategies to use influences more staff energy. Having a Public Information data-based strategy is much more effective than telling the staff, “Find someone to talk to about the important ideas you found.” I would give staff 15-20 minutes to interact with the information. Then I would move to Step 2. STEP 2 – CURRENT PRACTICE (15 min. approx.) The goal of this step is to influence the staff to compare the Public Information to their Current Practice. My strategy here was often a dialogue episode where two pairs formed a group of four. Each person is asked how their Current Practice compares to the Public Information with someone from the other pair. A partner watches the dialogue and then shares back what they heard the partner say about their Current Practice. So far we have asked staff to study information related to the mental model and compare it to their current practice. Now it is time for Step 3. STEP 3 – PPK – PERSONAL PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE (15 min. approx.) No one else has lived the life we have lived. Our life is unique. It is inside us. We drive our performance off our PPK. A key to success is to use our PPK powerfully and choose to grow more. If we can influence staff to choose to grow more PPK then we have developed a key opening for new mental models. Within that choice to grow more PPK exists the opportunity to begin to transform mental models. They are closely related! Walk and Talks have always been a good strategy in this step. I wanted staff to discuss with one another what their lived lives had taught them about the topic under consideration, in this case barriers and gateways to communication. At this stage we have mixed Public Information, with their Current Practice and the staff’s PPK. Step 4 is next. STEP 4 – MENTAL MODELS (30 min. approx.) Our values, beliefs and assumptions drive our behavior. They wash through everything we do. They also are the key to outstanding schools. Behavior of staff must flow from the mental models necessary to accomplish what the school desires. In this step you must get the staff to articulate their Mental Models as they relate to the Public Information, Current Practice and PPK. What are your values, beliefs and assumptions around the issue (in this case, barriers and gateways to communication)? This is where Facilitative Questioning was so important in my schools. FQing was another tool I taught staff as soon as I could, so we always had a positive strategy with which to focus on our Mental Models. We would use triads to do the facilitative questioning episode. I have always felt that these four steps acted much like a washing machine. We have taken an idea and spun it through several cycles: Public Information, Current Practice, PPK, and Mental Models. Now it is time to reflect. STEP 5 – REFLECTION (20 min. approx.) At the beginning of every school year I provided my staff with a learning journal. I asked that they write their thoughts in it related to personal and collective learning over the course of the year. They were asked to use these journals throughout every mental model lesson. At this point I would ask staff to group themselves in any manner they desired with the exception they could not choose to be alone. Historically, they grouped themselves by friendships. For 20 minutes they would reflect privately on all that we had done. For the following ten minutes they would share their reflections openly to the group they had chosen. Now we must act. STEP 6 – GENERATION (ACTION LEARNING) – (15 min. approx.) This is the critical step. I would ask them to design two actions they would take and do back in their workplace related to our topic (here, barriers and gateways to communication) based on our study and reflection. They could work together in their groups to help one another design actions. I WOULD ALWAYS COLLECT COPIES OF THE ACTIONS BEFORE THEY LEFT THE MEETING. We would collate the actions and distribute them for use by all staff. HERE IS WHERE THE POWER OF ACCOUNTABILITY COMES INTO PLAY. I would make it clear to the staff that they must complete their actions prior to our next mental model lesson. I explained that the data they collected from doing their actions would be the PUBLIC INFORMATION we would use to begin the next lesson. In subsequent lessons we would use the data from their actions along with more public information. For instance, in relation to this mental model we are using as the example, I would begin to ply them with information on giving and receiving quality feedback. And we would cycle through the next lesson, always leaving with new actions to take. Then a professional development program to teach staff the skills of giving and receiving quality feedback would be integrated into the lessons at appropriate times. I would teach this mental model until I awoke some morning and saw it being lived out by everyone in the school to the best of their ability. Then I would move on to the next mental model. Notice how I said earlier that I would teach the second mental model TIME FOR REFLECTION AND THINKING simultaneously with the FEEDBACK one. Notice how the Butler Model teaches that mental model naturally? A key would be to ask staff to design actions around this mental model as well. I cannot think of a time in my career when this lesson design did not influence the mental models we desired. In fact, when you begin to live the model it becomes the language by which you interact with staff on a daily basis: What are you mental models on this issue? What has your life taught you about this? How is your current practice developing around this? What public information are you basing your thinking on? Maybe as important as teaching mental models, the Butler Model is a beautiful tool to use to deal with resistance. Please let me know if you have any questions about this description. If I have not been clear enough let me know and I will try to do better. John and I both hope you experience the happiest of holidays! With best wishes, Bill
TEACHER DESIGNED SCHOOLS TGIF Volume 4, Number 5 Friday, September 21, 2007 LEADER AS TEACHER Dear Friends, Our hope is wherever your shared vision journey finds you that you are experiencing great success and living well-balanced lives. Currently, I am home on the mountain while John is practicing retirement with family in Brisbane. On October 2nd I rejoin James Nottingham in the UK and Norway to facilitate seven schools through Phases 1 and 2 of the CDS processes and John is preparing to keynote the Australian ASCD Conference in Sydney as well as beginning to finalize the TDS Network itinerary for 2008. Throughout the year, as we have traveled from school to school, there has been growing interest in utilizing the networking power the Network affords. To that end I am attaching a document entitled “Community Designed Schools Contact Information.” It includes the name and location of every school, the name of the Head Teacher/Principal, the e-mail address of that individual and the list of themes that are driving the school’s journey. We hope this document will make it easier for schools to contact one another. We leave it to each of you to decide how to allow your staff to access the networking information from you. Shared visions emerge from personal visions. Think about it. The Inquiry Probes are designed to tap the PPK, the lived lives of the staff, by drawing forth the values, beliefs and assumptions that reside within each person describing the perfect school. They come from the personal vision of the individual. Then we cause consensus to happen. Every shared vision is a composite of mental models flowing from personal visions. This mental model synergy between personal and shared visions is a very good thing. It makes the mental model work required of leaders easier. A vision is truly shared when you and I have a similar picture and are committed to one another having it. When people truly share a vision they are connected, bound together by a common aspiration and common mental models (Core Values). They act as our agreement of how we will live together and create a sense of alignment in telling the truth about our current reality so that we can sustain creative tension. This motivates actions to move closer and closer to our vision. This will ALWAYS encompass ensuring that our mental models are in alignment with our vision. The Head Teacher/Principal is responsible for this alignment. Leadership is about mental model transformation. The leader must be the TEACHER of the mental models. It helps that many mental models are already inside us in some way. Complexity arises during the Preparation for Action Stage as the school identifies NEW mental models that must become part of the culture to realize the shared vision. Leaders must design magnificent lessons that meet both mental model challenges: influencing new mental models to become embedded in the culture and ensuring that the mental models already there (Core Values) become the agreement of how everyone will live and work together. The hard thing is that we can’t command or coerce anyone to transform a mental model. Teaching mental models is about designing lessons that create an environment where each person will want to choose the mental model as their own. John and I are both emphatic about the power of extracting your core values and identifying the mental models that will drive your long-term improvement plan as soon as possible. This is also the beauty of having a shared vision and doing the preparation to make it a reality. Without this process you are always wandering aimlessly trying to decide which mental models you need. The process ensures that you will always know the mental models that will drive your improvement. What mental models are you teaching to your staff presently? What mental models will your staff need to master to realize your shared vision? We know our mental models are resistant to change. This makes mental model teaching one of a leader’s greatest challenges. Teaching MM requires leadership time. We will not develop or transform a mental model with a snap of the fingers. Mental model lessons must influence people to take action on the new value over time – a long time. And then THEY must choose to make it their own. This is why the one-shot professional development event is virtually useless and a waste of money. This is why being strong and smart in the face of mandates and requirements are both stressful and essential. Yes, we must work effectively within the larger system but, at the same time, we cannot ever abdicate our leadership responsibility of being the lead teacher of our new mental models. In America, it was the shared vision and long-term improvement plan that acted as our protector and crap deflector. I did not find it difficult to align our WELL RESEARCHED BEST PRACTICE WORK or our mental model work with any mandate or requirement. Did it take some work to do so? Yes. But, once accomplished, it provided EVERYONE with more leadership opportunity as well as making time for the essential mental model transformations. This is a primary reason we work with you over three years. It takes that long to begin to embed new mental models as the school culture. It is also the reason John and I live our lives based upon Social Constructivism and Action Learning. Whether you call them models or strategies, these concepts are essential to the leader’s design of mental model lessons. These lessons must emphasize continual feedback (Social Constructivism) and continuous loops of Action Learning (take action, gather data, reflect, and take action again). This offers the best chance that we will embed new mental models into our life and add to our PPK (Personal Practical Knowledge). PPK is our most valuable resource. Most of you are familiar with the story of how I met John at a thinking conference in 1988 and how the presentation he made changed my life forever. As a new principal I had just come to the mind-bending conclusion that my school’s success would be dependent upon adults changing. Even more frightening, I would have to be the catalyst of those changes as leader. That’s why when John presented “The Model of Human Action and Change” I hung onto every word. It is now the Butler Model named after John’s friend and long-time research colleague, Dr. Jim Butler. Immediately the essence of the Butler Model made sense to me. This past year I have come to call it “Bill’s Six Step Lesson Design” to teach mental models. As a lesson design it has never failed me. Leader as Teacher to me has always meant that I will identify the mental model we must learn and use the six steps of the Butler Model, Social Constructivism and continuous cycles of Action Learning to teach the mental model FOR AS LONG AS IT TAKES to make it a reality. One mental model at Monroe took a year of continuous cycles of these lessons. Another took four years! Improvements were observed as soon as the teaching began. Next week I will publish a follow-up TGIF on how to construct mental model lessons using the Butler Model and ask John to send you an abstract they have created about the Butler Model. In the meantime think of the mental model you are teaching your staff at present. What teaching strategies are you finding successful? You will be able to compare your strategies to mine. If send your strategies to me I will collate them so they can be distributed to everyone. I will show how to design a mental model lesson utilizing the six components of the Butler Model: Step 1 - Public Information Step 2 – Current Practice Step 3 – Personal Practical Knowledge Step 4 – Mental Models Step 5 – Reflection Step 6 – Generation (Action) My hope is that these two TGIFs will give you food for thought to continue to meet the challenge of being the Lead Teacher in your school.
TEACHER DESIGNED SCHOOLS NETWORK TGIF Volume 4, Number 4 Sunday, July 8, 2007 Dear Friends, Warm greetings go to everyone from the Rocky Mountains where I am taking a short respite while John and Kate Perkins are in Perth completing work with our Western Australia schools. The pace has been blistering over the past four months, especially since leaving Australia in early June. Circumstances caused me to head to the UK and Sweden while John stayed in Brisbane to support family issues that all had positive outcomes. The pace has caused us to be one edition of the TGIF behind this year. This one is the first of two TGIFs that will come to you in July to “catch up”. John and I re-connect later this month to work with our final Australian schools for 2007 in Queensland (Stretton College) and Tasmania (Lilydale District School and Parklands High School) and the grand finale, the first Australian Network Leaders’ Day at the Melbourne Zoo on Saturday, August 18th. Our European Coordinator, James Nottingham, and I traveled from one end of the UK to the other in early June. As a result, five new schools have joined the Network with the distinct possibility that our second Norwegian school may come on board in the next few days as well. At the same time, an additional six schools in Australia and New Zealand and one in the US have confirmed. And this is only the tip of the iceberg! Several other schools are currently in conversations with us and John is presenting at two national Australian conferences over the next two months while James and I will be doing several workshops and conferences across the UK, Sweden and Norway in September and October. Such presentations are the way many schools come into the Network, but the international power of your learning, networking and successes are the seeds for this current surge in growth and interest. This was on display magnificently in Sweden with the International Conference on Thinking being the seeding machine: · Dick Brown, Principal of Douglas Park in Masterton, NZ traveled and got his feet wet presenting with James and me across the UK prior to the conference. Dick’s authenticity, huge sense of humor and three year collection of personal TDS stories regaled everyone with whom he came in contact. · Mary Wilson and I conducted a well-received interactive workshop on Facilitative Questioning at the conference that supported Mary to continue to refine an already high level professional reputation she has established in Europe. Everyone we came in contact with was awed by the successes at Baverstock Oaks in Auckland where Mary is principal. Prior to leaving for the UK, Baverstock Oaks became the 10th Network school in NZ to receive an outstanding ERO Report. · Ragnhild Isachsen, principal of Hognes Kindergarten and Primary School in Tonsborg, Norway and James did a workshop on Hognes’ shared visioning journey to an audience of over sixty people. The feedback was incredible. · Raewyn Matthys-Morris, Principal of Glenfield Intermediate in Auckland, attended the conference with a large contingent from the West Auckland Education Center. · Kate Perkins, the TDS Coordinator in Australia, presented a workshop with her husband, Terry Price. · I presented a plenary session in John’s place that got rave reviews and James and I did a featured presentation on the TDS process with over 300, mostly Sweden, educators in attendance. · James’ Featured Presentation on Philosophy for Children that highlight’s a dramatic use of “the pit” was a conference highlight. · Patrice O’Connor, a teacher from Douglas Park, came to learn and share her TDS journey as well. · Sara Mills, the CEO of Kangaroo Island Regional Health Service, who you often hear John and I refer to, did a presentation on her life in “the pit”! · These were the Network people I talked with there. My apologies go to those I missed who were also there! Your passion and commitment to shared visioning as a positive way forward has carried these powerful models and processes far beyond John and me. You are the reasons this way of life will continue to grow and the past six weeks absolutely drives home the current reality of 2008. This is when John begins to move toward retirement. This is when I will begin to work schools with many of you who are interested. This is when our coordinators will begin to look to you to work schools with them, if you so desire. Your courageous choice of leadership to live a life of shared visioning in your schools is the catalyst for all that is happening. We are constantly reminded of how difficult that choice is. You see, the world we live in wants the quick fix. We know there is no such thing. Changing the mental models of those we live and work with (including our own) is arduous, time consuming work. And we can only improve and change if our mental models are in alignment with the future we seek. Real change happens only after experiencing “the pit” that Sara Mills and James Nottingham talked so eloquently about in Sweden. So the best changes are seldom close in time and space. The best results come after the requisite mental models become the new norm; after we roar out of “the pit”. This tension between the quick fix that relies on events and the reality that change is born of the patience necessary to embed new mental models over time underscores the leader’s need to meet the six challenges of leadership that have dominated my life for over two decades. As I move through each challenge reflect on how your personal journey in meeting them is traveling. LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE 1 – LEAD INSTEAD OF MANAGE The Levels of Perspective may be the most vital model within the Network. As John and I travel from school to school, it is your struggle to figure out how to balance your leadership-management seesaw and those of your staff that determines your speed of change. More management means slow change. More leadership equals quicker, deeper change. How are you traveling at choosing leadership? Have you continued to use the Levels to help your staff choose more leadership? Are you teaching the Levels of Perspective to your staff? In school after school we are seeing dramatic successes by teachers who have taken the Levels into their own classrooms. LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE 2 – KNOW YOURSELF, KNOW YOUR PEOPLE Many days in my schools our greatest obstacle to growth and change was looking back at me from my mirror each night. To this day I am trying to know who I am and what I stand for. I have these mental models you see, and they are damn resistant to change. Many are functional. Many are not. These are the ones that ought to give us huge warning signs, but we can’t see them without feedback. It is amazing to me how a school often takes on the personality of its leader. Are you clear on the mental models your school community sees in you each day? If there are issues in your school nagging at you, are you fueling them with your own values, beliefs and assumptions? Who are you getting rich feedback from? How have you action planned to control your dysfunctional mental models? Beware of the feedback you get from your “groupies”, staff members who think you are a hero. Feedback is not about having our egos stroked. Often the best source of feedback will come from your resisters. Personal visioning is the vehicle to use to know staff. If they have one, they will perform at higher levels. How have you helped staff design personal visions? How do you support them to fulfill them? LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE 3 – KNOW HOW TO GET PEOPLE ALIGNED Shared vision is the most powerful place to take action! Every leader needs a set of visioning tools in their leadership toolkit. The TDS process has always been mine. Choosing the TDS process is not event thinking. It absolutely is about leadership and living at that level. John and I now understand this reality. Leaders who engage with commitment actively in the process and genuinely lead it always do well in growing their schools and influencing alignment. Leaders pay attention to what is important to them. Coming into the Network is a huge commitment to your school community. Pay attention to the process. Those leaders who don’t take it seriously or who look at it as another toy to play with until the storm arrives will struggle. When staff feels ownership in the life of the school alignment will surface. This helps minimize the number of resistors. Remember what organizational research says. You only need 33% of your staff behind an initiative to be successful. In my schools shared visioning assured I had 98% at my intermediate school and 93% at Monroe High School. Those are two examples from my own experiences. Many of you are experiencing the same power. It would be great if you would share with John and me some of your percentages of alignment! LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE 4 – HOLD YOUR NERVE IN THE STORMS Of all the leadership challenges we face this may be the toughest of all. So many factors try to make you blink: Our own mental models of blaming outward, fear of Ministries and National mandates, the storm behaviors and all those siren voice trying to lure us onto the rocks. I’m lucky. I learned to LOVE this period. If you don’t brave the storm you doom yourself to the events and patterns of behavior that are your current reality. So much learning occurs in the storm. I know that the best learning I have ever done happened in my battles with the racist culture deep in the heart of Texas. Remember what gets you safely through storm. Be who you say you are everyday. Thunderbolts and collective pits are part of leadership. Being true to yourself (back to Leadership Challenge 2) will see you through. The really good stuff is always on the other side of the storm! Many of the best stories from within the TDS I have heard lately are “storm” stories. How are you and your staffs embracing the storms? We could do an incredible international conference together around a day entitled Storm Surge! LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE 5 – SURFACE CURRENT REALITY Tell the truth! Our schools are the way they are. Pretending they are something they are not portends no good end. Current reality is our ally, not our enemy. An accurate, insightful view of current reality is as important as a shared vision. If both are clear we can sustain creative tension and move closer and closer to the vision. If we don’t tell the truth about our current reality we begin to descend into emotional tension and watch the vision begin to erode. This becomes a powerful lesson leaders must teach – the current reality. How is your school traveling at bringing to the surface the “un-discussible”, those potentially embarrassing and threatening issues that prevent you from learning? LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE 6 – ONE MIND, ONE VOICE You and your leadership team must speak with one mind, one voice when you are out with the people you lead. We certainly hope your leadership group is a congenial lot! That always makes for better Friday afternoons. But congeniality doesn’t bring much to the transformation table. Collaboration is what is needed for change. And, at the heart of leadership team collaborations, are those brutally frank and honest conversations that go on behind closed doors. In the end it is essential that the leadership team make decisions about those issues they will be of one mind, one voice when they open the doors. As a slide we use from one of the NZ teachers states, “If you don’t…you will unravel the rest of us.” How is your leadership team doing around this challenge? As always, please stay in touch with John and me. We love hearing from you and coaching throughout the year is part of the package. Remember to continue to send us artifacts of your successes so we can continue to document the positive results within Network schools. And, continue to share your “pits” with us so that we can stand with you at those times! With best wishes, Bill P.S. I have attached a Power Point I use when talking about the six challenges. TEACHER DESIGNED SCHOOLS NETWORK TGIF Volume 4, Number 3 Wednesday, April 11, 2007 LESS IS MORE – SLOWER IS FASTER Dear Friends, NETWORK LEADERS ALERT: Attention Network leaders:
Wow! John and I are coming near the end of a fantastic trip across the length and breadth of New Zealand. Because of school holidays we have entered the only real lull on our journey between now and November. That respite will be broken tomorrow when we make a quick trip to oz to work with a corporate client in Sydney and then travel to Brisbane to present at an education conference on Monday. When we return to Auckland Monday night we will be on holiday ourselves prior to beginning work with Taupaki School and Baverstock Oaks on April 25th which effectively closes our work in NZ for the year. On May 5th we join our friends in oz! The work we have encountered in NZ is stunning, and as always, many new lessons are emerging that will make the Network more and more powerful in the future. What stuns us in school after school is the power of the collaborative teacher/staff voice. Your staff has an incredible force in the sum of your lived lives. Together you can create innovations that the world’s experts are incapable of producing. School after school that trusts their own voices are creating initiatives that can not be matched anywhere. TRUST YOUR VOICES! TRUST YOUR VOICES! That is where our schools are finding their best answers. That is where the West Coast Eagles found their Grand Finale win. That is where SA Regional Health has discovered the wherewithal to become more than they could ever imagine. That is where Avondale Intermediate has found their Dream Curriculum. That is where Murupara has discovered their Maori thinking dispositions. That is where Mountain View High has re-discovered the “Mountainview Way.” That is where Cannon Hill has discovered work-life balance! TRUST YOUR OWN VOICES. Only you are capable of finding your own answers. Allowing the voices of a school to be heard, nurtured and then developed into incredible forces to grow learning is the task of the school leader! You are the cultural caretaker who either makes it happen or sets limits to the volume of the voices. And in school after school there is one shrill siren voice trying to distract you – SPEED, HURRY – HURRY, DO EVERYTHING AT ONCE, SACRIFICE YOUR VALUES FOR MONEY, CAVE INTO THE LATEST FLAVOR OF THE MONTH, BELIEVE IN THE QUICK FIX. Schools simply try to do too much. In doing so we violate two simple and elegant organization principles: less is more and slower is faster. As our schools look at the tasks they must accomplish to realize their visions, human nature influences them to assume they can do more than is realistic. This is a dysfunctional mental model we observe in national school system after national school system. Why we cave into this mentality I do not know. In reality we understand mental models are difficult to change. They are so resistant! In my experience it takes one or two years to embed a new mental model in a school and to do so is serious, serious leadership work. Our ability to do so is directly correlated to our acceptance of the responsibility to be the school’s head teacher. We must teach the new mental model!! John and I are now very clear on this. At Monroe High School I had a huge staff capable of doing more tasks at a time. Most of our Network Schools do not have that luxury. YOU MUST GO SLOW. Less is more! Doing one task and embedding the aligned mental models will allow you to more over the long term. If you go slower and implement a task with great quality you will end up going faster. The accompanying MM will have a chance to be embedded. The fast, energy draining pace seems to be the norm in schools. The Network is about changing this reality. We know our most valuable resource is the well-balanced human being working alongside us in our schools. IF, IF we take care of those individuals so they can produce great quality we will produce great learning. If we continue to view life as a horse race; we will simply become very, very tired and always be wishing and hoping that we win, place or show! Look very carefully at your long-term plans. Are you able to execute them with outstanding quality? Have you made sure that each task is at the vision, mental models or systems/structures level of perspective? Have you planned the implementation strategies so that the task is done with high quality and that the mental models necessary to accomplish it are solidly in place? Are you implementing at a pace conducive to high quality? The inability to go slow is a common obstacle John and I are seeing in the emerging long-term plans in schools and with our corporate clients. What we see as a common trait in schools traveling beautifully is the choice they have made in the first or second year to get the values embedded in their shared vision firmly in place. This exercise seems to create an automatic break on pure speed. Schools tend to slow down when working at their core values and that tactic leads them to see where they need to go next and a quality pace is the result. School staffs seem more than willing to start the change process by modeling and articulating the core values of their shared vision. Cambewarra in NSW, Douglas Park in Masterton, NZ and Stretton College in Brisbane are prime examples of this! Less is more and slower is faster! Stay strong and keep smiling. Stay in touch! John and I love hearing from you. See you soon, Bill TEACHER DESIGNED SCHOOLS NETWORK TGIF Volume 4, Number 2 Wednesday, March 14, 2007 Dear Friends, John and I are happily into our 2007 schedule across New Zealand where we have experienced and been stunned by the work emerging in Phase 3 Schools. Avondale Intermediate’s Dream Curriculum, Murupara’s Maori Thinking Dispositions Program and Lincoln Heights Leadership Culture represent as good of educational initiatives as you can find in the world today. And it is the respect for the TEACHER VOICE that drives the beautiful learning environments in each school. Today we embark on a 16 day road trip across New Zealand with stops at schools across the TDS spectrum –one Phase 1, two Phase 2 and two Phase 3 schools. We return to Auckland on March 30th. A common conversation thus far in schools has been the 13th International Conference on Thinking that will be held in Sweden from June 16 – June 21. We know many of you plan to attend. It promises to be a huge moment for the International Network of Teacher Designed Schools. Though John has been a long-standing member of the Thinking Conference Committee, this year will be the first that he has been invited to do a keynote presentation. Yours truly has been asked to do a featured presentation while James Nottingham, our European Coordinator, along with European Network leaders will be presenting a workshop as well. And Mary Wilson from Baverstock Oaks and I will do an interactive workshop together. The Network presence will be felt! And it should. Together, each of us is part of an improvement process gaining great momentum across the globe! The Thursday and Friday prior to the conference will find John and me teaming up with Art Costa and James to present a two-day workshop together in Glasgow, Scotland. Maybe some of you could arrange your travel schedules to take that in as well. WE WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHO WILL BE GOING TO SWEDEN. JOHN AND I THOUGHT THAT WE COULD ARRANGE FOR AN EVENING OF PUB SOCIALIZING FOR US. Please let me know via e-mail if you or any of your staff will be there and we will organize a location and date to enjoy seeing one another. For New Zealand schools, please mark Tuesday, May 1st on your calendars. That is the date of our NZ Network Leader’s Day. Remember, each school is invited to bring up to five people on the day. Beth Dungy, our NZ Coordinator, is organizing the day and will let everyone know shortly the location. She is thinking of a spot closer to the airport this year for the convenience of those traveling from outside of Auckland. For Australian leaders, John and I are in the final thinking stages of where our first Australian Leadership Day will be held later in the year. The CDS Joint Leadership Day in Europe is scheduled for Wednesday, October 17th. We will be in touch soon with additional information about these magnificent opportunities to share stories and learn from one another. Student learning is our business. John and I feel every school should continually track a set of academic excellence indicators to prove to the community how well students are learning. The standard that schools must meet to prove learning varies dramatically from country to country, and in the USA and Australia, from state to state. The smart principal would track those indicators important in his or her community/nation. The Teacher Designed School’s purpose is to allow you to improve so that great student learning is the product of your work. We all know that there are both affective and cognitive dimensions to this. Well, the results are beginning to emerge within the Network. New Zealand schools are now four for four in earning glowing Educational Review Office Reports and what comes next is a sampling of the kinds of improvements showing up in Network schools. Many of you have asked me how Monroe High School improved. I have included how our academic excellence indicators changed as well. The International Network of Teacher Designed Schools A Sampling of Change Monroe High School, Monroe, Michigan Bill Martin – Principal Michigan MEAP Test Scores Math 1996 57.6% 2000 62.1% Reading 1996 46.9% 2000 67.0% Writing 1996 26.0% 2000 48.0% Science 1996 38.8% 2000 52.1% Student Behavior: 1996 – 2000 75% reduction in out-of-school suspensions 25% reduction in zero tolerance infractions School Attendance 1994 89% ADA 2001 93% ADA Drop-outs 1994 9% 2001 3% Success in Earning Course Credit 1994 68% 2001 89% Innovative Practices Block Scheduling Student Resource Period Personal Adult Advocate and Family Groups Freshman Seminar Freshman Success Academy Career Clusters and Academies Interdisciplinary Core Academic Teams – 9th grades Thinking Skills Infusion Program Integrated Curriculum Accolades Small Learning Community Grantee ($500,000) Michigan State Blue Ribbon School Accredited With Recognition – State of Michigan Lafayette High School, Lexington, Kentucky Mike McKenzie - Principal Discipline Incidents 2004-05 4132 2005-06 2277 46% reduction in one year Suspension Data Total Suspensions for Year 2004-05 536 2005-06 277 48% reduction in one year Advanced Placement Data Students enrolled 2005-06 555 Students enrolled 2006-07 794 Accolades Small Learning Community Grantee ($500,000) Model School – USA Model Schools Network Lincoln Heights School, Auckland, New Zealand Claire Hocking – Principal Murupara Primary School, Murupara, New Zealand Mandy Bird – Principal Glen Eden Intermediate, Auckland, New Zealand Terry Hewetson – Principal Mokoia Intermediate School, Rotorura, New Zealand Deb Epp - Principal These schools all received 5 Star Educational Review Office Evaluations (ERO) from the National Office of Education in New Zealand in 2006. Cambewarra Public School, Cambewarra, New South Wales, Australia Susan Hilliar – Principal Relief (substitute) Teacher Budget 2005 $20,000 2006 $11,000 “Staff is happier to be here each day!” Student Enrollments 2006 222 2007 270 “We have grown two classes and have a waiting list so something energetically is certainly shaping up out there.” St. Margaret’s College, Christchurch, New Zealand Claudia Wysocki – Principal “2006 has been a great year for St. Margaret’s. I have been excited, not just by the success of the girls and by the excellent profile that we now have but by the professional development work that we have continued to do with staff.” -Implemented the recommendations of the Balance and Pastoral Care Team -School wide and department goals reflect implementation of our vision statement -Infusing “Value Added” and “Habits of Mind” as recommended by the Academic Research Team -Implemented a reflective practice model within our appraisal system -Restructured our Leadership Team and management roles so that the LT can get on with leading and others do the managing. “For me it has been exciting to see how there is a synergy in all the developments and the Teacher Designed Schools has become the umbrella for everything we are doing.” Stretton State College, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia Tracye Cashman – Principal “Our values are in place and aligned to the Stretton Spirit. The students have embraced them well and know exactly what we are talking about. The most interesting result for me has been the reaction from the community. Everyone comments to me on how well the school is perceived by the local community. My boss keeps telling me we are doing a fantastic job. We have not suspended or excluded anyone. The perception is that we are a “strict” school. We aren’t. We stick to our values and our vision and make it crystal clear to everyone. Our values are our basis for all decisions. It works. In 2007 we jump from 383 students to 650 and from 15 classroom teachers to 28. I am totally committed to this journey. I find it to be so “in-sync” with the way I intuitively like to lead, that t is really energizing to see my strategies strengthened by your fabulous methods and beliefs in how schools should be run.” We know many of you are beginning to see similar results, but getting you to share that information with us is like pulling teeth! Please, if you have data to share on how you are growing and improving, please let John and I share it among the Network and with the world. Though it is the teacher voice that is the fuel and energy for change and improvement in Network Schools, the principal or head teacher is the most important person in the school. You are the primary leader. Your importance is understood by educational establishments for all the wrong reasons. The easiest way to change a school to many people in our profession is to change principals/head teachers! We know why that simplistic view is the rule. When you put different mental models in the principal’s office there will be change. The new person’s mental models will be different than the last. Presto, there is change. The principal is the most vital structure in the school for this precise reason. YOUR SCHOOL WILL BE A REFLECTION OF YOU! There is no blame. Your school will take on your personality. If the entire school is whinging and moaning at the moment, that will be a perfect reflection of the leadership of the school. If you blame, the staff will blame. If you practice impatience, the staff will practice impatience. A school always will become the reflection of its leader. When I wanted to see why my school was not performing to my expectations all I needed to do was go home and look in a mirror. I was the leader. I was to blame; no one else. YOU MUST ALWAYS BE WHO YOU SAY YOU ARE! THIS IS THE ULTIMATE LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE. Coming through storms is where we forge our character as leaders. What will you reflect to your staff today? As always, John and I love to hear from you. Speak to us. With best wishes, Bill
TEACHER DESIGNED SCHOOLS NETWORK TGIF Volume 4, Number 1 Sunday, February 11, 2007 Dear Friends, For John and me the 2007 excitement begins now! My mate is currently with the West Coast Eagles in Perth and will be spending today with Lindsay Harby from Marangaroo and Jo Bednall from Tranby College to catch up on the TDS excitement in those Phase 3 schools. Steve Gaskin, our USA Coordinator, has been here with me on Douglas Mountain for the past week where we have secured our first Colorado school, Valley High School; whose staff will begin the journey with John and me in November. James Nottingham, our European Coordinator, rode a train to Glasgow, Scotland yesterday to meet with officials to finalize negotiations with up to three schools there as well as completing work on a two-day conference that John, Art Costa and I will do together the week prior to the International Conference on Thinking in Sweden. Many of you will be attending and actively involved in that conference as well. This final flurry of activity is the prelude to John and me connecting in Auckland on February 27th to begin this year’s work with from 38-50 schools across five countries. Our work at Avondale Intermediate on March 1-2 is the beginning! We are thrilled at the explosion of interest in the TDS Network world-wide. Much of that interest is flowing from you as you live your professional lives and talk of your schools’ progress on your shared vision journeys. John and I thank you for that. This is the first of eight TGIFs for 2007. Our publication schedule will be February, March, April, May, June, August, October and November. So many great voices have been talking to John and me from within the Network the past three months. In 2007 we want to make those voices a powerful part of each and every TGIF. We begin with this one. WE ARE HEARING PRINCIPAL VOICES; Cambewarra Begins the Journey By Susan Hilliar, Principal How does one try to describe the Teacher Designed Schools process in a way that does not somehow limit the endless possibilities that have emerged in just 8 short months? Our school began the journey into the unknown last June and from that day onwards life at Cambewarra School has altered and continues to daily change as we design the magnificent school that we have all dreamed of for most of our educational lives. As a school leader for some 16 years I had only been shown the generic style of leadership using inspirational words and sayings such as “be a democratic leader” and how to organize and manage my school. Sadly I was never shown what to lead and what to use to educationally lead my school. Yes I had become just like my brilliant colleagues – I was an exceptional administrator and manager but in truth I was not an educational leader. I did not know the way. I was a big events manager and knew the predictable patterns of behaviour of students, teachers and parents. I even knew my own patterns of behaviour so well. But nothing even changed and we all drove our own agendas. So some 8 months later with an unwillingness to compromise the shared vision that our teachers created we are seeing some remarkable changes in our school. The schools reputation continues to strengthen with enrolments up by 40 in just 8 months, two additional teachers, our casual relief expenditure has been halved, collegiality has become unshakable and professional learning has opened and expanded with 100% of teachers actively researching within the TDS groups. We have seen a shift in student achievement in some areas of the basic skills tests and expect to see higher learning standards over the next few years. There is new vigor and enthusiasm in our school and a trust in one another that the shared vision is the single most important road that we walk together. Perhaps the most important foundation stone was working through the 10/4 voting to determine which core values were at the heart of our school. Our values of respect, responsibility, care, kindness, doing your best and fairness have been the glue that has bound us together. It is the common language and consistency in our behaviour which has allowed each of us to move into the pit and support one another. The core values have bought about a safety by defining the parameters in which we agree on with students, parents and with one another. These values have made the pit a safe place to experience and to move through at our own pace. It is these values that have allowed me to support the teachers in those tricky and sometimes gnarly moments with our community. Yes the storming is a reality and I am beginning to wonder if it is in this rough dark place that in fact brings about the deepest shifts and greatest openings. The leadership team very early on designed a shared leadership vision to support the teacher designed shared vision. To be honest there are times that I have wobbled and fallen down behind the closed door but the magnificent leadership team has always been on high alert to remind me and insist on staying clear, strong and focused. I am thankful that I don’t do this alone! We have much work to do to bring about the best possible school for our children but we are clear, strong and focused. Our shared vision isn’t up for negotiation with our Department of Education. We are getting better at saying “no that does not align to our shared vision” My gratitude and thanks are whispered each day as I drive to school. Our lives have been changed in that one day that we came together to dream up and articulate our vision. It is this vision that drives and determines what we will not compromise on and what hill we are willing to die on to make certain that Cambewarra Public School is the magnificent place of learning for students, teachers and our community. This is deep transformational work that goes beyond what words can truly describe. Bring it on! Networking in Norway By Mary Wilson The life of a principal is all about relationships and connections, well it should be. I have just been to Norway for the second time in four months and for a girl who had not ventured in to that part of the world before it has been awesome. Both times I have been to present at conferences about the amazing journey of starting a school from scratch. For me that journey started May 2004. The first visit last September was to talk about setting up a positive and effective learning culture, this time in January 2007, was about how we had established effective distributed leadership across the school and its impact on classroom programmes. Both aspects, as all parts of our school, hinge off the power of the shared vision. It is truly the cornerstone and affects everything we do. On both occasions I have been lucky to made connections with colleagues in the network. Ragnhild in Norway is the first principal to launch in to this challenge and I have had great meaningful discussions with her on both occasions. In September I met with James and some of the principals in Northumberland, England who were about to start the journey. The emails I have had since then show things are changing and the process is well underway. As a principal I strongly believe we must keep our eyes and minds open outside our schools not just in our own neighbourhood but also nationally and globally so that we don’t become insular and closed to new thoughts and ideas. The conversations I have had with TDS colleagues both within New Zealand as well as overseas have been enriching and helped greatly to strengthen belief in what we are trying to achieve is well worthwhile for learners and a very positive step forward. I encourage all within education to keep outward looking and form relationships and connections widely. Once this is done keep the communication going, never be too busy. These links are vital to stay vibrant, passionate and focused leaders. Thoughts from Norway to share with other Teacher Designed Schools around the world! By Ranghild Isachsen My Deputy, Steinar and I had 2 great and powerful days in Drammen, Norway a fortnight ago, meeting and listening to two powerful ladies, Mary Wilson and her Deputy Genee Crowley from Baverstock Oaks School, Auckland, NZ ! The first day Mary spoke about “School Leadership that works – A Kiwi distributed leadership model” – the model Bill Martin and John Edwards have built up/created, a Teacher Designed Schools Journey... the process of creating and living a Shared Vision. A journey we are a part of as being a Network School. Mary mentioned also that day how many schools there were in the Shared Vision process in NZ, Australia, US, UK – and one school in Norway!! That’s our school/after school club (AFC) and kindergarten in Tonsberg! We were very proud, you can imagine with 200 heads and deputies there... Especially the second day was most interesting for us. Mary and Genee guided us brilliantly through their Shared Vision process so far, their TDS Journey more in details, and shared all their experiences with us. Since Baverstock is in the 2nd year of the process, a year ahead of us, we learnt a lot of what is wise to do and what doesn’t work out to the benefit of the staff, students and parents. Mary and Genee showed us their key components in building a rich learning culture at Baverstock, from the core of their Shared Vision. We got in other word quite a lot of very good ideas to bring home to our process and research groups being in the pit... They are struggling finding time to meet. But I think by now some of them are through the first pit and little storm, I guess there will be more pits and storms later on, quite natural. We have made our 4th draft of the Shared Vision, by now we are very satisfied. I met Mary the first time in September 06, and then she had a rather too short lecture about the school system and leadership in New Zealand. Thanks to Mary and Genee for sharing powerful tools with us, powerful leadership, showing us their enthusiasm and energy and their love for doing this process at Baverstock..... and together. Staff retreat, their learning cycle, learning strategies, de Bono's thinking hats, portfolio and personal vision for the students as well as the teachers impressed us. At Baverstock all are learners, that’s sure! They are learning together as the journey’s going on... and so are we at Hogsnes school/AFC and Kindergarten as well! Meeting other Network Schools, sharing experiences and learning from each other is very, very powerful, indeed. It’s far to New Zealand, but we hope to visit Baverstock one day! It is as we have known each other for a long time! Ragnhild Isachsen Head, Hogsnes School/ASC and Kindergarten Cannon Hill - Prelude to 2007 By Chris Ling, Principal Our planning for 2007 is based on the curriculum conversations we are currently having with each team i.e. P-1; 2-3; 4-5; and 6-7. Our 3 Way reporting project strongly influenced by what we are learning about the Reggio approach is ready for implementation. Now we need to be ready to do it. We can only do this by talking together, challenging ourselves and each other and being prepared to take the well-thought–out risks that will enable us to move to our Vision. “As students develop a rich set of lifelong learning tools(Building Learning Power), they take responsibility for their own learning with enthusiasm and commitment (3 Way Reporting Philosophy). Teaching programs are based on skilled teacher observation(Reggio Documentation, Portfolios) of student learning and on consultation with individual students(Goal setting and feedback)” (Vision 2004) During this year we have had time to plan, trial, learn and reflect. We have scaled down our 3 Year Plan twice to get it to the achievable stage. It still calls for challenging adaptations to our work. We now have some real meat on the bones of our ideas, specific strategies to do on a daily, weekly basis to create a culture of student responsibility for learning with enthusiasm and commitment in our student body. We need the work of all staff members to support this change, Aides, Office Staff, Grounds staff, Specialists and Class teachers. In line with the professional development we did with Bill and John, I have gradually changed my role to more leadership functions e.g. vision (where we are going together), mental models (what we are thinking, believing and valuing) and systemic structures (how we are organising) and less management functions which I have found that teachers and other staff are doing with far greater skill and far better results than I could have a | ||