Action Team February: TeamWorks International-The Four Color View

Today, our district invited those of us, "in the middle" to work with Julie Goldsmith from TeamWorks International to learn about the Four Color View, adapted from work by Carol Ritberger, Ph.D. and her "Color Personality Indicator" (CPI). The overarching concept is that the "color" of our personality influences how we relate to one another, and the more we understand about ourselves and our colleagues, the better we will be able to interact and improve the culture of our organizations.

TeamWorks believes that the Four Color View is a "lens for the different stages of Decision Making, Whole System View, and Guiding Change components of the Frameworks.

An overview of the day:

Self Awareness

• Authority and Power
• Operating in the Present
• Growth and Transition Framework

Group Awareness

• Leadership Choices Framework
• Decision Making Framework (group)
• Growth and Transition Framework
• Participation Framework

System Awareness

• Decision Making Framework
• Transition and Change Framework

We began by looking at Self-Awareness, to see what color is our personality.

These are the traits and characteristics. Traits are hard wired into us, characteristics are learned behaviors. Our personality is determined through our experiences, education, culture and family blended in our brain.

Based on the answers I gave, my score indicated:

Red: 3 Yellow: 12 Orange: 12 Green: 21

Characteristics of Greens are: Intuitive, Creative, like gathering information with Pictures and intuition, Use feelings and emotions to process information and make decisions, and primarily operate in the right brain. They like to look at the "big picture", and randomly explore data which I do! Greens can also be "chameleons", living in other colors for a time, but also cannot last in that color very long without feeling stress.

Reds like to "get er done!", gather information through the senses, use thinking and logic to process information and make decisions and operate primarily in the left brain.

Orange people wish folks could "just get along", gather information through the senses, use feelings and emotions to process information, and make decisions, cross from left to right brain for decision making.

Yellows gather information using both intuition and senses, primarily use logic to process information, will also use feelings, but not as much, and are hardwired in ALL four quadrants of the brain. Yellows might be thought of as the "devil's advocate." They sometimes are slower decision makers because of the way they process.

When working with people whose dominant color is different, knowing characteristics about their color can assist us in understanding differences and conflict, and how best to work and interact with one another.

We completed an interesting scenario, where we were given $30,000 for new technology in the district, and were asked to develop a description questions about first steps for our color to solve the problem, what aspects of the process would trouble us, what part of the process we would find rewarding, what good things others would say about us, and what complaints others have about us.

After a break, we looked at data from Ritberger and Teresa Heck from St. Cloud State University on "Other Awareness."

General Population		Licensed Teaching Staff
Red: 85%		Orange: 40-50%
Orange: 7%		Green: 30-40%
Green: 6%		Red 5-8%
Yellow: 2%		Yellow:3-5%

This data may explain the disconnect between parents and educators and how we perceive one another. It also gives good information to help frame problems/solutions with education reform.

Communication with both verbal and non-verbal cues can be impacted by our personality.

We then started looking at how communication works best with each of the colors. I questioned some of the date in regards to presentation and each color type. This got me thinking about Gar Reynold's and Presentation Zen, and some of the data presented regarding learners and images vs. text presented at ISTE by Ian Jukes. If the general population really is dominantly red, what does that say? Julie mentioned that the inventory is most effective with people over age 14-15, where parental and peer influence may be less of a factor.

If we are not heard, responded to and understood, we are end up responding according to our color lens on the world.

Next we looked at conflict, and how it can arise based on our personality color. One of my colleagues made a great point that where your positional authority is within the organization can influence your reaction to the conflict.

Partnership

Through active partnering, there is better balance, greater commitment to the outcome and more successful results.

Peer Coaching

How do we communicate, solve problems and lead other colors? Our activity involved beginning with a "storyteller" who shared a situation, 1 minute sharing of the situation with 9 minutes of peer coaching. We discussed situations where we in the middle have to be the "messenger" and have to present data to different color types. NCLB is such a "red" designed mandate, and we as teachers are much more "orange" and "green."

Knowledge of our own color personality and the color personality of those we work with in an organization can profoundly impact how we work together, and the process of how we work on different initiatives.

Ric Dressen our superintendent hopes that we can use this framework to guide us, understanding the importance of "what", "why" and "who" before we look at "how."

Some take-aways from our group:

• The context of relationships and how it can impact the work that we do
• Dealing with differing opinions in a non-threatening way
• Value of team perspectives
• We can be chameleons, but that we need to recognize the stress of working outside our color, and our need to recharge.
• Different definitions of process/trust.
• Language that is helpful to those we work with. This can help us recognize how to best help those whose colors are different from our own.
• "Re-Languaging"-reframe language when we default to our own.
• How do we build cultural capital and competency capital with people in differing groups.

Teacher Leadership Development: Session 1-Mapping the Territory

Edina Public Schools has contracted with Dr. Jennifer York-Barr to work with staff on Teacher Leadership. During the 4 sessions, we will focus on:

1. Mapping the Territory-Lessons about Teacher Leadership
2. Engaging Adult Learners-Learning is Change
3. Mediating Peer Learning-Facilitating Peer Learning-Facilitation and Reflective Practice
4. Learning By Design-Structure is Your Friend

Part of the goal is to help plan for the coming 2011-2012 school year.

Today we were introduced to "chunks" for the learning series and for Dr. York-Barr to get an idea of our learning interests.

Grounding

We began by looking at each of the 4 topics above and shared which we were most interested in with a partner. We had to listen, paraphrase what the partner said, share our own ideas, and then plan what we would share with the main group. My partner and I saw "Engaging Adult Learners" as our key area of interest, as we observe teachers put up barriers when we approach sometimes, because they're plates are full and they are reluctant to learn something new.

We then paraphrased one another. This structure of "Grounding" allowed us to actively engage in the topic to help us focus on the learning we wanted to do. We also had choice, and based on the feedback we provided, gave us the opportunity to provide input on the outcome.

We were thinking about the topic, active, involved, listening, and we personalized our learning around the topic and then we had to collaborate and communicate back to the group, which lent a sense of accountability. This process allowed for all of us to participate. "Every Voice in the Room!" (She noted that even the most obstinate person will engage if people are 1 on 1, standing up and asked to engage.) People behave better with people they don't know as well.

She noted that having people different buildings interact

Dr. York-Barr said, "Buy-in gets compliance, but it doesn't get commitment!" We need teachers to be engaged and own the learning in order for it to be successful. To move the idea from outside the person to inside the person.

She then showed a model of engagement where people move from Expectation, to Participation, to understanding, connection, decision-making, ownership, Commitment to implementation to finally ongoing reflective practice with collegial support. This moves the concept from outside to inside.

Often today, new initiatives pop-up, and they don't move to buy in.

We then watched a video called Pulling it Together. (Great for Community Building)

System View of Professional Learning

Efficacy comes after people have attempted new practices and see the positive effects of change. When teachers are blaming children, we need to recognize that the teacher is discouraged and does not feel connected to helping them. As teacher leaders, our work is to support them. As a system, we need to build highly efficacious teachers.

In schools with high levels of efficacy, there is a higher level of trust.

Teacher expectation for student learning is the largest variable in student success.

One of my colleagues pointed out that in our job, we have a "hat" in District support, ongoing professional learning, teacher practices, curriculum, instruction, formative and summative assessment, student learning and achievement, and teacher efficacy.

She recommends that the more opportunities people can take on teacher leadership positions, the better prepared they will be to

Characteristics of Teacher Leaders:

• Competent and Credible- Leading from practice strength, interest and expertise
• Builds Relationships and Trust-Leading through influence, horizontally and vertically
• Initiator and Leaner
• Organizational Savvy

We then looked at York-Barr's 12 Lessons About Teacher Leadership as a jigsaw.

Structure and nurture intertwine to support engagement.

Action Team December 8 meeting with Dennis Cheesbrow: Walking the Tightrope!

Today our Action Team had the opportunity to meet with Dennis Cheesbrow, from TeamWorks International. Our district has several issues moving forward in the coming year, and Cheesbrow was brought in to look at initiatives involving facilities, resources, technology and learning.

Dr. Ric Dressen, our superintendent has talked in the past that our role as a teacher-leader walks between the classroom and administration, but without the authority and power. Cheesebrow will work with us today to help us walk that tightrope.

He started by asking what does it sound like and feel like? Some responses:

Sound like:

From the outside, do more with less

Can you do this for me

Negotiating time and needs

Opportunities

Feels like:

Advocate

Resource

Pressure, yet exciting

Cheesbrow talked about Barry Oshry's work operating in the middle, where accountability, performance, and partnership exist. We need to be orientated up and out, a world of tearing and accountability. High accountability with no resources.

There are two conditions of the middles:

Diffuse and separate while meeting other people's agenda

The also need to integrate for their own health

The system needs "middle's" to be independent in thought and action. He said that one of the best things he did when he was in the middle in corporate, was to meet with others in the same position. He always seemed to come out of those meetings with strategies.

Everyone in an organization has 3 types of authority:

Organizational-Easy to get, but hard to lose based on title and position

Cultural-Authority and capital, relationship and story, hard to get and easy to lose

Competency-Based on knowledge and experience, hard to get and hard to lose

Ask yourself, if I push this initiative, what cultural authority will I burn up if I want to do something three months from now. Can you find someone with the cultural authority to do what you need to do!?

What is something that needs to be done in the next 30 days?

For me, that might be Bring Your Own Laptop, assisting with planning for Technology Referendum, Moving toward TIES grade book at Middle Level, and determining what a teacher's Web presence will look like at the secondary level.

With the different frameworks, Cheeseborough said that they help identify where you are at in the process and use that to help formulate decisions.

We discussed that in the middle, as soon as you get a title, your competency is now called into question. You also never have full Organizational Authority because you are not a decision maker.

In the middle, you are an integrator. You may not have pushed the button to make things happen, but you played an important role. He said that "the middle" hasn't been around organizationally that long. In schools, it is less. Cultural Authority is where you work and play. You can increase others trust and competence by your hard work. The reward is watching the system move and improve.

The district NEEDS us to do that! The presence and growth of the "middles" is critical. By middle, he doesn't mean "middle management." We help maintain the relationships.

Oshry uses a "sewer pipe analogy." Middle's need to stand in the middle but neither drink it or plug it up!

The role of producers is to resist all change, the role of admin is to manage change. The middles work in between.

If we are asked to get something done, but the only way to do that is through relationships, we need to let people in on our world and what we experience and see. We need to tell others of our world and make sense of that in a dialog as a way to make this happen. I may need to operate differently from the way the admin is telling, to get the same result. "In my world I see this. What do you see?" I know I experienced this in our 1:1 laptop learning experience!

Often Middles are charged with communicating what people see, think, want and feel.

He recommends, Clear Leadership by Dr. Gervase R. Bushe as an excellent resource on leadership. Bushe is a protege of Oshry.

He finished by reminding us of the strategic growth and change model, where choices get made and then something needs to leave the system. The middle's help provide the energy and also articulate what needs to leave.

He suggested that if we found something in his talk valuable, we should try it 3 times in the next 10 days and then report on the results and share with our colleagues.

I will take him up on it!

Individual Reflection Log #3: Culture and Change

From Educon 2.1 taken by the author

Culture: What impact does the creation of a positive school culture have on school reform?

I believe that the creation of a positive school culture plays a crucial role in any school reform effort. Prior to beginning a reform effort, there needs to be a positive cultural foundation in place, or the reform effort will crumble. These "pillars" of positive criteria include a focus on learning for staff and students, a trusting environment, shared decision making, a belief that all can learn, respect and caring for all, physical space that all can take pride in and stories, rituals and celebrations that reinforce the values of the community. By having a sense of identity, the goals set forth in the reform effort can be aligned to the mission and vision of the organization. If there is a negative culture to begin with, there will be little support for the reform when implementation dips occur. It is incumbent upon educational leaders to focus first on developing a positive culture prior to implementing a reform effort. Once the organization has the positive components in place as a foundation, real reform building can begin.

Deal, Terrance E. and Peterson, Kent D. (1999). Shaping School Culture: The

Heart of Leadership. Jossey-Bass, Inc. San Francisco.

Change: Based on your understanding of the Marzano reading, which of the 21 responsibilities and day-to-day management of a school are most necessary for second-order change? How does the complexity of second order change demand a very thoughtful and flexible administrator?

Over the past two years, I have had the opportunity to lead a pilot of 1:1 Laptop Learning in my district. This represented a second order change, as teachers were working to alter their pedagogy to a more student centered approach, while maintaining rigorous academic standards. Due to issues related to network infrastructure, limited shared decision making, and the lack of student financial buy in, it was impossible to determine the effectiveness in meeting the goals set forth. It was with great practical interest then that I read the chapter on the two types of change outlined in School Leadership That Works: From Research to Results. Marzanno, Waters and McNulty (2005) identified seven of the 21 leadership responsibilities as being related to second order change:

• Knowledge of the Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment
• Optimizer
• Intellectual Stimulation
• Change Agent
• Monitoring and Evaluating
• Flexibility
• Ideas and Beliefs

Of these seven, I believe the one that plays the most important role is knowledge of curriculum, instruction and assessment. By being knowledgeable in curriculum, the leader will understand the impact that the change on each curricular area so that they can understand the impact of the change on teachers in those areas and be prepared to offer guidance. By being knowledgeable of instructional pedagogy, the leader will be able to assist staff with any pedagogical changes that may result from the reform. By being knowledgeable of assessment techniques and requirements, the leader will be able to offer guidance in how the innovation impacts formative and summative assessment and provide strategies for staff to best implement the change to have the greatest impact on student learning.

Marzano, R., Waters, T. and McNulty, B. (2005) School Leadership That Works: From Research To Results. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development

Team Story 3: Edina Leadership Workshop

On Tuesday, August 10, I attended the Edina Action, Administration and Lead Team meeting.
Dr. Ric Dressen, our superintendent started by discussing today's realities:

• Mission, Vision and Core values have not changed.
• 85% of our work is mandated
• Policies and Work agreements
• Resources are limited!
• Evolving societal shift-moving into the management of info world, diversity, global
• Work Drive: Autonomy, mastery and purpose
• Power of Team
• Evolutionary Biology-how kids manage time and information
• Need for Celebration

The title of the session was "To 2010-2011 and Beyond!"

Toy Story 3

Fostering Collective Creativity

Find joy while mission-focused

Develop Team-protocols

Trust is a foundation

Use cross-disciplinary

Focus on Big 3 goals

1. Enhance the Students’ Personalized Learning Experiences

2. Improve the Coherence of Grades E-12 Programs and Services

3. Enhance the Support for and Effectiveness of the District Team

We then participated in a 0-100% Learning Activity around the following quotes:

Leadership is every one's business-Kouzes and Poster

Quinn's quote from Deep Change

Trust=(Credibility + Reliability +Intimacy)/self-interest Maister-Trusted Advisor

The 0-100% activity

5 minutes of individual reflection

15 minutes of sharing

5 minutes summary thought

Chris Holden, principal at C Elementary: If you want to be an authentic leader, you have to start with leadership through service. Our group came up with the following insight: Leadership through service has the potential to foster trust, clarify expectations and produce shared outcomes.

After listening to other group's ideas, we then began looking over the district's Leadership Plan for 2010-2011 including the "Big 3 Goals":

1. Enhancing the Student's Personalized Learning Experiences

• Enhancing Equity Efforts
• Implementation of Instructional Intervention
• Pilot Online, Hybrid and College Partnerships
• Study Summer Academy

2. Improve the Coherence of Grades E-12 Programs and Services
3. Enhance the Support for and Effectiveness of the District Team

Coherence rather than alignment: Logical Interconnections and Consistency

Hargreaves defines coherence as bringing diverse people together to work skillfully for common cause.. and has them moving in the same direction. The four catalysts are sustainable leadership, integrated networks, responsibility and accountability, differentiation and diversity.

The Power of Team

Great Community-We are a first ring suburb that is growing in enrollment. Not many are.

Great Families-Parent involvement is a plus here.

Great Staff

Great Youth

Leadership's Collective Creativity

District leadership shall seek to..

• Live by core values and norms
• value Team members
• utilize problem solving tools
• embrace Courageous Conversations
• Implement Policies
• advance Leadership Training
• find JOY in our work-finding the joy in reaching the mission

Norms

Respect Schedules

Communicate Openly and Honestly

Reveal Your Interests and Work to Common Good

Decisions shared publicly and conversations held confidentially

In the stuffing inside of us, why did we go into education...

We then looked at what district leadership does well. Our group identified:

• Identifies strengths and weaknesses
• Focus on the big picture
• strong mission and vision-living the mission and vision
• Forges partnerships with the community
• Knowledgeable and professional staff
• Service to others
• Hires quality staff

Areas where district leadership needs to grow included:

• More focus
• better boundaries
• Focus on what is good for ALL kids
• Learning is our primary service and function
• Team-more sharing and collaboration
• We need to learn with and from one another

Our group felt district leadership should consider...

• Adopt a classroom
• Ask Questions-find out what we don't know
• Hire more diverse staff
• Celebrating success in a more authentic way, daily basis
• Encourage our personal purpose and passion for what we do
• expanding our perspective and promote them

Overall, the session was a great way for me to see our district leadership in action, and it gave me insight into plans for the coming year.

Photo credit

It Begins!!

Yesterday, I started Effective Leadership, the first course in the JHU-ISTE program.

After ISTE, I spent 10 days essentially, "off the grid", at least for me, and now I'm working to get back into the flow.

This morning, I created an introduction for the class and posted it to the discussions. I used PhotoPeach, a fairly nice tool. Initially, I struggled with how to create the captions, but once I got back into edit, it was fairly straight forward.

Michael Walker Introduction on PhotoPeach

I started reading Gardner on Leadership yesterday, and have continued looking at some of the content today. I like the ideas he is presenting, and find my philosophy/experience to match pretty closely. As I think about myself as a leader, I see my ability to grasp the "big picture" and vision, as a good sign. Where I need help, and why I am in this program are to gain political skill, to better communicate my ideas and as Gardner put's it, "bind constituencies."

I found it interesting that Gardner's words, written in 1990 refer to how historians will look at certain leaders. I wonder what he would have said about the last 3 presidents!