Creating Tomorrow
Newsletter November 2016
Supporting and challenging others is part and parcel of being a leader and every critical friend takes up the role in a different way. One thing research has shown is those who use a process are the most successful. In this edition I describe a way which I have found helpful. Of course teams need help to talk about things as well, and sometimes there are subjects which never get tabled, these 'undiscussables' can be a significant barrier to moving forward. If you face this situation, I have included a simple tool that can help.
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Pat Collarbone
Behavioural Interviewing – The SAFE process
Asking challenging questions is part and parcel of being a critical friend. There are an endless number of questions that you could ask but there are some general principals that apply to all questioning.
- Challenge an individual’s behaviour not the person themselves
- Question the assumptions they make not the intelligence of the person
- Challenge their perceptions not their judgement
The way that your partner has done things in the past is often a good indication of how they will approach things in the future.
Use the four step SAFE process to gain a better understanding of past behavior and then start working together on whether this is the best approach and what alternatives there are.
- Describe the situation (S)
- How did they act (A)
- What did they feel (F)
- What was the effect (E)
For example:
Describe a situation where you set challenging goals for yourself and accomplished them:
- Why did you set yourself this goal?
- What did you want to accomplish and why was it important to you?
- In what way did these goals represent a challenge for you? How did you go about achieving this goal? What specific things did you do?
- What level of effort did you have to put in to achieve your goal? • What did you feel before, during and after?
- Why did you feel that way?
- How did others feel about your actions?
- What effect did this have on you and others? • How did your efforts pay off?
- Do you recognise a pattern here?
Social Partnership report
"With the benefit of hindsight, it is always possible to look back on a period such as that between 2003 and 2010 through rose-tinted spectacles. But the significance of this moment in the history of education in England and Wales should not be lost, and is apparent from the stories told by those who were inside the Social Partnership".
Chris Keates, NASUWT General Secretary
"Cultural change isn’t easy to achieve – there were particular things that would frustrate particular partners (and they would often vent those frustrations!) – but neither is it easy to dismantle. The legacy of the partnership’s collective, unrelenting focus on improving outcomes for all children and young people, boosting the professionalisation of teachers and the status of support staff, and increasing standards, is still felt by every child, in every school, every day. And that is something we can all be proud of".
Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, 2007-2010
Don't mention it - overcoming unspoken taboos
- Acknowledge the fear that accompanies this exercise
- Reflect upon ones initial response to each topic as it is read out
- Listen for what is said and not said
- Challenge ideas and assumptions not individuals
Give each person three plain postcards and pen (and ask them to write in capitals) a single 'undiscussable' on each card in sufficient detail that is easily understood. Then gather up the cards shuffle them and deal them out. Each person then reads aloud what is on the cards they have been dealt and posts them on a brown paper on the wall. When all the cards have been read out, the team can start to group them into themes.
The team must decide which themes they will tackle in this session and when they will address the remainder.
There are various questions to bear in mind whilst doing this:
- What is the underlying 'threat' that has made this a forbidden topic?
- How does this topic sit with our espoused vision and values?
- What do we want to do about this now it is in the open?