Creating Tomorrow
Newsletter May 2016
This month the newsletter contains great news from the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) as they launch their School Leader Self-Assessment Tool. I have also included a way of thinking about what's really happening in dysfunctional meetings and an interesting paper on system leadership.
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Pat Collarbone
School Leader Self-Assessment Tool (SAT)
The free online questionnaire identifies specific strengths and areas for further development, and provides a personalised developmental pathway. Using the tool, leaders can also create a plan for learning and growth, gain access to leadership resources linked to learning needs, and track and compare results over time.
Creative Public Leadership
"Rather than focusing on where we need to innovate - something that has been and continues to be debated extensively - this report focuses on the tougher question of how to create public education systems that are conducive to widespread innovation and possess the capacities to adopt and scale those innovations that are shown to work. The authors and contributors make a strong case for a practitioner-centric approach that is informed by evidence-based research and where the natural laboratories for innovation are the classroom and the school".
I found it a stimulating read.
Experiences in groups
- Dependency - In this state, the group seeks a leader who will relieve them of all anxiety. This leader is expected to be able to solve all their problems. If this person does not come up to scratch, then they will be attacked and a replacement sought. Thus a cycle of leader-seeking, idealization and denigration occurs. The group behaves passively and has little to say.
- Pairing - Instead of looking for an individual leader the group hopes to be rescued by two members who will pair off and somehow solve their problems. The group members listen eagerly and attentively with a sense of relief and hopeful anticipation.
- Fight/Flight - The group acts as if its main task is to fight or flee from some common enemy who may be found either within or outside the group. In fight, the group is characterised by aggressiveness and hostility; in flight, the group may chit-chat, tell stories, arrive late in order to avoid addressing the task at hand.
I have noticed groups will often switch between these states, sometimes very quickly or they may become stuck in one. When you are next in a meeting that appears to be going nowhere think about what is happening using this framework; I have found it helpful in understanding why difficult external realities are being ignored. The best way to avoid such behaviour is to have a process that keeps the group on task and in role.