The Three C's of Staff Development

Staff Development Three C's: Communication, Collaboration, and Culture

Sustaining the Change Initiative The Three C’s Communication Collaboration Culture

Sustaining the Change Initiative Through Communication Effective communication is essential to the change process. Develop and articulate specific plans, the preparation and public presentation of the plan signals the significance. What’s monitored gets done. Questions posed communicate priorities and give direction. People communicate most effectively through their actions. Time devoted to an issue tells people what is really valued. Progress towards the vision must be made apparent. Those who violate the vision and values must be confronted. Keep it simple (KISS)

Communicate the importance of issues by: Identifying the criteria with which it will monitor the advancement toward its vision, the presence of its values, and the accomplishment of its goals. Systematically gathering information on those criteria. Sharing data with the entire staff. Engaging the entire staff in collective analysis of the information that is gathered. Developing new strategies for achieving its objectives more effectively. Carefully monitoring the results of implementing those strategies. Dufor; R., & Eaker, R. (1998). Professional Learning Communities at Work. Reston, VA: Solution Tree. (P. 108)

Sustaining the Change Initiative Through Collaboration Transforming a school into a professional learning community is a collective endeavor. Collaboration by invitation does not work.

Collaborative Teams Schools must create structures to ensure that every staff member is assigned to a team that works together on important issues. Implement the team concept by: Grade Level Shared Students School Wide Task Force Area of Professional Development

Collaborative Teams Effective teams are characterized by: Shared beliefs and attitudes. High levels of trust that in turn result in open communication, mutual respect for people and opinions, and a willingness to participate. The belief that they had the authority to make important decisions and a willingness to assume responsibility for the decisions they made. Effectively managed meetings with clear operational norms or ground rules, agendas developed with input from all, defined roles for members, and minutes to provide continuity Ongoing assessment of and discussions regarding the functioning of the team. Dufor; R., & Eaker, R. (1998). Professional Learning Communities at Work. Reston, VA: Solution Tree. (P. 120)

Collaborative Teams Prerequisites: Time for collaboration must be built into the school day and year. The purpose of collaboration must be made explicit. School personnel need training and support to be effective collaborators. Educators must accept their responsibility to work together as true professional colleagues.

Sustaining the Change Initiative Through Culture The culture of a school is founded upon the assumptions, beliefs, values, and habits that constitute the norms of that school. The most effective strategy for influencing and changing culture is simply identifying, articulating, modeling, promoting, and protecting the shared values.

The Stories We Tell Sean Martinson They don’t make ‘em like they used to. Even though I’d be considered a young, maybe even “inexperienced” teacher I’ve found myself saying that kids today aren’t like they used to be, and not like it was when I was growing up. Matt Erholtz Nobody know the troubles we’ve seen. I find myself placing blame on external forces for many problems I see in school. I often question what values / responsibilities families instill in their children.

The Stories We Hear Sean Some of the most common stories that I hear are related to kids changing, families not taking responsibility and that this too shall pass. Principal “ Nobody knows the troubles we’ve seen…” This attitude takes the wind out of the sails of change. It leads to the feeling of helplessness and the thought that the power to change is out of your control. Matt The most common thing I hear is “Been there, done that.” The profiles of learning have gone away to new standards. Over the years much work has been done, put into a file cabinet and then reinvented. Principal “ If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Our district has been high achieving and many do not want to rock the boat due to the results.

Effective strategy for changing culture? Sean Identifying and modeling the preferred culture. It’s hard to influence and change the culture of a school when the community involved doesn’t even know what it is that they are talking about or what it even looks like. Matt Reflective dialog. Taking time on a regular basis to interact with colleagues to examine processes and best practices. Once you truly understand your past, then you can move forward (I’m sure that’s a quote by someone, I just don’t know who). Looking at how one can improve upon what worked and what didn’t.

Which “C” is the Most Critical? Sean Communication Communication finds its way into all of the C’s and effects the change process. As the authors state communication is essential to the success of the change effort and in contrast inattention to communication is a common cause to the of failure of change. Matt Collaboration This is pretty much a tie with communication, but I feel that if people truly are working together they are communicating well. Ownership of ideas and greater follow through are outcomes from collaboration.

Which “C” is the Most Underserved? Sean Communication One could argue that since I see this as an area of importance I am hyper-critical of communication. They’d be right, at this point in my District’s change initiatives I don’t feel the staff know what’s going on, where we’re going, or why. The question their-in lies how do I bring this to the attention of our administration in a positive light? Matt Collaboration In regards to time needed to do so. We spend a lot of time planning individually, but are not given specific time to work together. One of our district’s goals is to improve this process and better integrate our subjects.

Thank you for your time! Sean Martinson & Matt Erholtz

The Three C's of Staff Development

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The Three C's of Staff Development