I have been both a team member and leader who was not clear on my role and responsibilities. Through our research and practice, we have found at least two strategies that can help clarify expectations and communication processes teams need to accomplish tasks. These strategies include: defining team roles and improving communication.
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People are mourning the passing of Toni Hsieh (46), the former CEO of Zappos Shoes. You may wonder why I would mention Toni on a blog dedicated to helping schools. When I connect with secondary educators, I often hear that we should not use positive approaches with our students. Their reason is that when students enter the “real world,” businesses do not do “soft skills” things like teaching and rewarding behavior. That’s true..except for companies that are both successful with their teams and their finances.
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Schools should not have to worry about finding resources that would be acceptable to their team members to read or use, particularly those that require translation to secondary school language. My co-authors and I understand the dilemma. We spent years trying to find examples and approaches that would be useful for secondary settings. That led us to write this book, Implementing Systematic Interventions A Guide for Secondary School Teams.
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“While there is undoubtedly more to developing support for a school-based initiative, my point here is that administrative support is a critical system component. The strategies recommended here may be one way to build support for your efforts.”
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I am not saying that the secret to effective schools is that people should drink more wine! However, I do think that schools and districts should not “serve” practices until they have the systems to support them, or the data to evaluate them.
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