Teamwork

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Teamwork Collaboration

• Whittier City School District

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Big Ideas of PLC

• We accept learning as the fundamental purpose of
  our school and therefore are willing to examine
  all practices in light of their impact on
  learning.
• We are committed to working together to achieve
  our collective purpose. We cultivate a
  collaborative culture through development of
  high-performing teams.
• We assess our effectiveness on the basis of
  results rather than intentions. Individuals,
  teams, and the school seek relevant evidence and
  information and use that information to promote
  continuous improvement.

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Todays Objectives

• Become familiar with the stages of team
  development
• Anticipate potential challenges of working within
  a team and develop potential solutions
• Explore processes to enhance collaboration
• Develop skills to have crucial conversations

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Barriers to a Learning Community

• Reflect on the attempts to honor the teaching
  profession in film.
• What movies have been made to honor teaching?
• Is there a trend to their message?

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The Fallacy of the Isolated Teacher

• Quality teaching is not an individual
  accomplishmentThe idea that a single teacher,
  working alone, can know and do everything to meet
  the diverse learning needs of 30 students every
  day throughout the school year has rarely worked,
  and it certainly wont meet the needs of learners
  in years to come.
• -Carroll, National Commission on
  Teaching and Americas Future,
  2009

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What is a Team?

• A team is a group of people working
  interdependently to achieve a common goal for
  which members are mutually accountable.

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Groups Vs. Teams
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• Great schools row as one they are quite
  clearly in the same boat, pulling in the same
  direction in unison. The best schools we visited
  were tightly aligned communities marked by a
  palpable sense of we.
• -Lickona Davidson

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Stages of Team Development

• Forming
• Storming
• Norming
• Performing

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Jigsaw Activity

• 1s Forming
• 2s Storming
• 3s Norming
• 4s Performing
• Task
• Read about the stage of team development that
• corresponds to your number
• As a team, create either a visual or a skit to
  teach others about your stage
• 
  Stages of Team Development pgs. 3-4

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Stage 1 Forming

• In this stage, team members exhibit polite
  behaviors, try to figure out their roles in the
  team, and test their relationships with each
  other. It is common for a few individuals to
  dominate discussions as the group begins to
  define its tasks and acceptable group behavior.

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Stage 2 Storming

• During this stage, conflicts emerge within
  team, especially around interpersonal issues.
  Individuals clash over control of the group and
  its work. Members may become defensive or
  competitive. Unrealistic goals may cause
  frustration among group members.

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Stage 3 Norming

• Teams begin to work together more productively
  and a positive team identity emerges. Members
  begin to see the value of collaboration and
  actively attempt to avoid conflict. Meetings are
  likely to focus on achieving consensus, with the
  team making effective use of formal roles and
  rules to maintain harmony.

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Stage 4 Performing

• The team at this stage reaches a high level of
  functioning. Strong interpersonal relationships
  lead to members feeling a real sense of
  attachment to the team. These relationships
  allow team members to disagree in constructive
  ways. Formal team rules and rules become less
  important as the team is able to work in an
  organic way. The team identifies and executes
  self-chosen tasks that focus on continuous
  improvement.

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• Members of a professional learning community
  must be prepared to slosh around together in the
  mess, to endure temporary discomfort, to accept
  uncertainty, to celebrate their discoveries, and
  to move quickly beyond their mistakes. They must
  recognize that even with the most careful
  planning, misunderstandings will occur
  occasionally, uncertainty will prevail, people
  will resort to old habits, and things will go
  wrong.

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Reflection

• Think about your grade level/department
• team.
• Where is your team at regarding the stages of
  team development?
• What support do you need to further your teams
  development?
• Reflection pg. 1

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Reading

• At what stage would you consider this team to be
  performing? Why?
• What are the challenges this team faces?
• How might they overcome these challenges?
  
• Negotiating Personalities and Conflict pgs.
  5-7

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Anticipating Challenges

• In table groups, brainstorm potential challenges
  you may confront when working within a team.
• Generate solutions to address each problem.

Potential Challenges Solutions

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Gallery Walk
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10 Min. Morning Break
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What is Collaboration?

• A systematic process in which we work
  together, interdependently, to analyze and impact
  professional practice in order to improve our
  individual and collective results

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Collaboration is not enough

• The fact that teachers collaborate will do
  nothing to improve a school. The pertinent
  question is not, Are we collaborating? but
  rather, What are we collaborating about?
• Coblaboration
• is not an option!

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What is the right work?

• What do our students need to know and be able to
  do?
• How will we know if each student has learned it?
• How will we respond when some students do not
  learn?
• How will we extend and enrich the learning for
  students who are already proficient?

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Processes to Enhance Collaboration

• Norms
• Team Roles
• Agendas

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Norms

• When done well, norms can help establish the
  trust, openness, commitment, and accountability
  that move teams from the trivial to the
  substantive. No team should work without the
  benefit of clearly defined collective
  commitments.
• (Dufour, 2009)

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Tips For Developing Norms

• Each team should create their own norms.
• Norms should be stated as commitments to act or
  behave in certain ways rather than beliefs.
• (Ex. We will arrive to meetings on time and stay
  fully engaged throughout the meeting. vs. We
  believe in punctuality.)
• Norms should be reviewed at the beginning and end
  of each meeting for at least 6 months.
• Tips For Developing Norms pg. 8

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Additional Tips For Norms

• Teams should formally evaluate their
  effectiveness at least twice a year.
• Are we adhering to our norms?
• Do we need to establish a new norm to address a
  problem occurring on our team?
• Are we working interdependently to achieve our
  team goals?
• 5. Teams should focus on a few essential norms
  rather than creating an extensive laundry list.
• 6. Violations of team norms must be addressed.

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Developing Norms

• Think about some of the challenges of your
  grade level/department meetings.
• Develop norms to prevent these problems and
  promote more effective team meetings.
• Reflection pg. 1

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Norms of High Performing Teams

• Respect for all perspectives
• Active listening and participation
• Maintain a positive outlook and attitude
• Proactive problem-solving
• Assumption of positive intent
• Norms of High Performing Teams pg. 9

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Team Roles

• Team Leader/Facilitator
• Recorder
• Timekeeper
• Team Roles Task Cards pgs. 10-11

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Agendas Are Essential

• A meeting without an agenda is like a boat
  without a rudder. Eventually both will end up on
  the rocks.

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Sample Agendas

• What do you notice about the format content of
  the agendas?
• How does this relate to what we have discussed
  today?
• Think about your meeting agendas. Whats the
  same? Whats different?

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Tips For Developing Agendas

• Tips For Developing Agendas pg. 14

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Seven Keys To Effective Teams

• Embed collaboration in routine practices of the
  school with a FOCUS ON LEARNING.
• Schedule time for collaboration into the school
  day and school calendar.
• Focus teams on critical questions.
• Make products of collaboration explicit.
• Establish team norms to guide collaboration.
• Pursue specific and measurable team performance
  goals.
• Have frequent access to relevant information.
• Seven Keys To Effective Teams pg. 15

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Stoplight Reflection

• Something I want my team to continue is..
• I would like my team to try..
• I think my team should no longer continue to
• Reflection pg. 2

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Crucial Conversations

• The processes of conflict are critical to
  understanding what distinguishes a professional
  community that maintains stability and the status
  quo from a community engaged in ongoing inquiry
  and change.
• (Achinstein, 2002)

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Lets Read All About It

• Crucial Conversations
• By Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan,
  Al Switzler
• ,
• What connections can you make to the text?
• What resonates with you?
• Holding Crucial Conversations pgs. 16-19

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Strategies For Crucial Conversations

• Identify Your Motive
• What is the real issue?
• Make It Safe
• Communicate that you care about the other person
• Create a sense of mutual purpose
• Speak honestly using Dont/Do statements
• Master Your Own Emotions
• Separate facts from stories
• Work to Understand Others Perspectives
• Focus on listening and an assumption of
  rationality and good faith

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Collaborative Moves

• Set The Stage
• Set The Tone
• Set The Pace
• Encourage Depth
• Monitor The Process
• Close the Process
• Collaborative Moves pgs . 20-21

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Collaborative Moves

• Which moves can be used to support some of your
  potential challenges?
• Highlight the moves that you feel will be most
  useful to you and your team.
• 
  
• Reflection pg. 2

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What move would you make?

• Although arriving on time is a norm, team members
  are always late.
• Enforcing The Norms
• A team member begins to talk about a topic that
  is not on the agenda.
• Redirecting
• You are having a hard time understanding the
  ideas of a team member.
• Clarifying
• The meeting is coming to an end and you want to
  be sure everyone is clear about their
  responsibilities.
• Stating Actions Responsibilities

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Lets Practice

• How would you respond effectively?

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Reviewing Our Objectives

• Become familiar with the stages of team
  development
• Anticipate potential challenges of working within
  a team as well as develop solutions
• Explore processes to enhance collaboration
• Develop skills to have crucial conversations

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• Talking is not doing. Planning is not doing.
  Goal setting is not doing. Training is not
  doing. Even directing resources to support a
  plan is not doing. It is not until people are
  doing differently that any organization can
  expect different results.

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Lunch Time!

• Our work will resume promptly at 1230.