Leading a cultural change: where do you start Barbara Laidlaw Brentwood Secondary College Watsons Ro

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Leading a cultural change where do you
start?Barbara LaidlawBrentwood Secondary
CollegeWatsons Road, Glen Waverley 3150ph 8545
0300 fax[phone]lai_at_brentwood.vic.edu.au
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• Transformational leaders know what is wanted,
  communicate those intentions successfully,
  empower others, and know when and how to stay on
  course and when to change.
• Developing and maintaining relationships is a key
  part of this process of developing a shared
  vision for the future of a school, as is
  innovating new ideas and evaluating their
  progress and overall effectiveness.
• Thomas Sergiovanni, Leadership and Organisational
  Culture (1984)

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Sergiovannis Leadership Domains

• Technical
• Human
• Educational
• Symbolic
• Cultural
• THE-Secondary College

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• Technical plans, organizes, coordinates,
  manages resources.

Human supports, encourages, motivates

• Educational professional knowledge about
  learning,
• Community of Learners.

• Symbolic modelling goals and behaviours,
• walk-the-talk, eg, how we
  speak to students please thankyou

• Cultural strengthens articulates
  values,
• beliefs, cultures and
  traditions.

• www.sofweb.vic.edu.au
• Blueprint for Victorian Schools Building
  Leadership Capacity

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November 2002 the position was advertised LT2
Information Resources/Library Services
ManagerWhy did I apply? I needed a
sea-change!Research the position No tour of
the school! No background on the vacancy! Not
much on the library page on the web site! The
ICT managers job e-mailed to me!I walked
around the outside of the school on Sunday
morning to try to get something about the place!
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Prepare for the interviewI went into swat for
the exam mode!Thankyou to my coaches Joy
Board - Beaconhills College, Pakenham Chris
Clayton Cranbourne S.C. Mary Manning the
SLAV publicationsPrepared an Action Plan to
leave with the panel for the last questionDo
you have anything you would like to
add?(included in your notes)
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• History of Brentwood Secondary College library
• Long-serving staff
• 1 full time library manager,
• 1 0.7 Teacher-librarian (2 history classes),
• 1 0.5 library assistant

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• Premise behind decisions affecting the library
  prior to the arrival of the current Principal
• Books are out, the internet is in.
• Therefore
• no need for much of a budget to waste on books
• no need for more library staff because theres no
  need to buy many books
• Thus 75 of the book stock was gt10yrs old

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• I came to BSC with a completely different
  approach to the library. This was an opportunity
  to do things differently.
• This was a sideways step on the career ladder and
  I was relieved to have a change of leadership
  position.
• I changed how I thought about my role as Head of
  the Library.

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• INSIDE-OUT THINKING
• The way we see the problem is the problem.
• Inside-out means to start first with self
  even more fundamentally, to start with the most
  inside part of self with your paradigms, your
  character, and your motives.
• The inside-out approach says that private
  victories precede public victories it is futile
  to put personality ahead of character, to try to
  improve relationships with others before
  improving ourselves.
• The 7 habits of highly effective people by
  Stephen R. Covey(1990)

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• The 3 Rs vital for a learning community

Relationships!
Relationships!
Relationships!
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• How can I hope to have students and teachers
  enjoy coming to the library if I dont show that
  Im happy to be here too?
• Relax gt Smile gt Chat gt Greet them
• Every time they come into the library!

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• ESTABLISHING PRIORITIES
• Have a plan with a time-line
• Discuss this with a critical but sympathetic
  friend
• Get your own house in order first
• Set short-term goals the to-do list
• Keep checking in on your long term goals

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• THE LIBRARY TEAM
• Listen a lot and speak a little
• Ask non-judgemental questions
• Dont be comparative about previous schools
• Build trust through building relationships
• Act on matters that are important to the team

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• Distributed leadership empowers team members.
• Performance Development
• What are their particular skills and areas of
  expertise?
• What PD would they like to undertake?
• Make this happen!
• Be the guide on the side with your staff and
  not the sage on the stage!
• Leadership that is genuinely devolved builds
  confidence and strengthens your team

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• Advertise! Advertise! Advertise!
• Success breeds success!
• Spread the word about how good your team is!
• Praise your staff to students and teachers.
• If a colleague thanks you for a job, ask them to
  thank your team member who actually made it
  happen!
• Students are keen observers of adults and they
  KNOW what library staff think of each other and
  of the teachers.
• Big people are the role models for the young
  people they see and hear EVERYTHING

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• 2006 BSC library team
• 1 full time Library Manager appointed start of
  Term 2
• 1 0.7 teacher librarian who has control of the
  fiction budget, Premiers Challenge, Yr 7
  program, author visits, reading club
• 1 Library Technician cataloguing, invoices, AV
  library bookings on-line
• 1 Library Technician the Library monitors,
  library displays, circulation
• 1 0.5 Library Assistant AV equipment off-air
  recording, book processing
• Integration aides whose students are absent
• Use data to support the application for an
  increase in staffing

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• Staff Difficulties
• Its tough get some PD if you need it keep a
  member of the Principal team informed
• Focus on the work and service to the clientele
• Keep expectations clear and explicit
• OHS and Work-Cover claims are not personal. Get
  independent advice eg a workplace assessor
• Examine your own behaviour monitor your own
  reactions
• Check that Duty Statements accurately reflect the
  tasks, including hours of duty
• Get your own copy of the SSO guidelines and
  check that you are managing within these
• Behaviour unchallenged is behaviour condoned
  Poor work practices that have become entrenched
  have also become normalised. To challenge these
  will cause upset.

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• Have fun! Share a laugh! Have a joke!
• Birthdays
• Easter Bunny
• Morning Tea on Report Writing days
• Go out for Arvo Tea
• Have lunch together for special birthdays
• Most of us spend more time during the week with
  work colleagues than we do with our families!

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• LIBRARY SERVICES
• Outside-in approach
• What do library users want and what do they
  value?
• Focus on customer service because that is what
  they will notice!

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• Teachers
• Faculty orders given the highest priority
• Buy the resources they suggest notify them when
  theyve arrived
• Faculty/Staff meetings in the library to display
  new resources
• Books Bubbly gathering
• PLT on Webquests
• Support teachers with planning assignments
• Value added make their time worthwhile
• Discourage any talk of us them in your team
  by keeping the focus on student learning

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• Finance
• Use data to apply for a budget increase
• Your relationship with the Business Manager is
  crucial
• Be accurate efficient
• Excel spreadsheet of library suppliers
• Excel spreadsheet Subscriptions
• Accounting Excel Spreadsheet
• Improves your tracking of orders
• Provides a service to Heads of Faculty
• Streamlines your contact with suppliers

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The students build connectedness with this
click go generation. (Andrew Fuller)

• Relax with them
• Smile
• Greet them as they come into the library
• Music before school
• Board Games
• Chess Club
• Robotics
• Fiction browsing

• Use fine money to buy popular magazines
• Displays
• Competitions
• Special events
• Food Easter Eggs, Black Cats

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• How do you measure your success with the
  students?
• Sheer volume of students in the library at
  recreational times, class bookings and students
  on passes
• The happy vibe
• Kids talking to you
• Students putting pressure on the teachers to book
  into the library
• The volume of items borrowed

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LIBRARY MONITORS

• Distributed leadership Library Technician
• A student leadership position in the college
• Have status celebrate their contribution
• graduation from training party
• badge presented by the Principal
• Newsletter
• School Magazine team photo
• Genuine responsibilities
• Place to belong for the lost lonelies
• Develops social skills and confidence through
  providing customer service

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The Library Manager as an educational leader

• First manage yourself!
• Your personal image
• Dress code
• Work ethic
• Work practices
• Manner
• Relationships
• Conversations
• What are you saying to the school community about
  yourself? Consider the inside-out message.

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Contribute to and lead educational discourse
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• Know your stuff the Blueprint, The Flagships
  Strategies, VELS, PoLTS, D.E.T. initiatives.
• Read professional journals/newsletters SLAV
  the Education Times, the AEU the VIT eg, the
  Renewal of Registration discussion paper.
• Inside-out thinking read literature on
  educational leadership change management
  Elmore, Fullan, Hargreaves, Marzano, Perkins,
  Sergiovanni.
• Go to the big event PD that is on offer, rich
  and stimulating.

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Are you the custodian of the sheets of music or
are you the conductor of the orchestra?
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• Clean up the library
• Throw out the old books with no pick-up
  attraction for the kids. Be RUTHLESS!
• Create room on the shelves for books that staff
  students are encouraged to ask for!
• Start collecting data age of the collection
  circulation loss rate bookings for library
  spaces numbers of students at lunchtime.
• Make sure that cataloguing is consistent without
  being unnecessarily pedantic. Kids cant cope
  with huge Dewey Numbers!

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• Master Plan Process Library design conference -
  invite your AP to go with you!
• Have a go at using the schools report package
• Join School Council
• Get onto the Management Committee
• Education Sub-committees
• PLTs Professional Learning Teams
• Deliver PD to staff
• Talk to ALL staff, visit staff rooms, go to
  social gatherings
• Get library events onto the school calendar

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• It is easier to re-create yourself in a new
  school coming into a new job
• It is hard to be a prophet in your own land
• You can do a Lazarus! It takes inside-out
  thinking, positive self-talk energy

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• Cultures do not change by mandate
• they change by the specific displacement
• of existing norms, values, structures and
  processes by others
• The process of cultural change depends
  fundamentally on modelling the new values and
  behaviours that you expect to displace the
  existing ones.
• Richard Elmore, 2004

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Applying for a leadership position
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There are 3 parts to the process

• The written application
• The interview
• Referees
• Research the school website Charter
  curriculum network ask your contacts.

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The written application the purpose of the
application is to get you short-listed for an
interview!

• Opening letter give the panel some flavour of
  who you are, your educational philosophy and what
  you bring to the college.

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• CURRICULUM VITAE
• Name
• Home address
• Business address
• Record number
• Classification
• Current (leadership) position
• Qualifications post-graduate first
• Professional memberships
• Professional work history chronological order
  starting with the most current include the years
  
• 2003 current 2002-1997
• Subjects taught

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• Positions of Responsibility Relevant to the
  position
• List chronologically from most recent most
  senior, back. Use the school as the sub-heading
• Professional Development
• Organise with sub-headings, eg, Management
  Educational Leadership Curriculum.
• List chronologically from most recent

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• CONFIDENTIAL REFEREES
• Choose carefully
• Principal/AP your leadership
• Peer collegial relationship significant
  understanding of your work
• Library team member
• Professional courtesies inform Principal ask
  the referee in person give referees a copy of
  application indicate particular areas you want
  them to emphasise.
• Gender balance.
• Tell all referees when you are short-listed or
  you receive notification that you will not be
  interviewed.

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SELECTION CRITERIA

• Dont exaggerate.
• All examples used must be able to be
  substantiated.
• Avoid repetition and dont pad it out
• Avoid empty EDUSPEAK!
• Have the application edited

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SELECTION CRITERIA cont

• A.T.Q.! Answer the Question!
• Include aspects of the Duty Statement through the
  answers to the criteria.
• Demonstrated capacity code for can develop the
  skills, not necessarily experienced, show the
  transferable skills relevant to the position.
• Demonstrated ability experience to a high level.
• Examples of experience WHAT you did WHY WHO
  was involved HOW did you plan implement
  evaluate OUTCOMES.
• Use paragraphs and dot-points.

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The interview

• Do your homework.
• Questions will come from the selection criteria.
• Draft questions plan responses vision
  educational trends library team charter
  priorities professional learning student
  learning.
• Extended answer with follow up questions.
• Organise a mock interview.
• You can prepare question/s for the panel.
• Prepare a concluding statement to draw the
  interview to a positive conclusion.

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Recruitment-on-line

• Register yourself and elect to be notified of
  library positions and/or Leading Teacher
  vacancies.
• Check your e-mail.
• Prepare a basic application as a word doc.
• Alter it according to the selection criteria for
  the individual school. Check the document to make
  sure you use the correct name of the school.
• Copy and paste into the on-line application.
• Check with the college that they received your
  application.
• Send a hard-copy (or more if specified) to arrive
  by the closing date.

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GOOD LUCK!
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• Are you the custodian
• or
• are you the conductor?