COACHING FOR EXCELLENCE

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COACHING FOR EXCELLENCE
Welcome back!
Professional Learning Communities At Work
High Five Regional Partnership for High School
Excellence PLC Coaching Academy 2006
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Leading change is a planned journey into
uncharted waters with a leaky boat and a mutinous
crew. Michael Fullan
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PURPOSE

• To support the implementation of Professional
  Learning Communities by providing educational
  leaders with the knowledge, tools, and skills to
  effectively lead schools and staffs through the
  change process

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Session Two DESIRED OUTCOMES

• Insights gained from collaborative reflection and
  analysis of steps taken
• Working knowledge and tools for
• Pyramid of Interventions
• Building Consensus Managing Resistance
• Establishing SMART Goals
• Common Assessments
• Team Clarity on Current Reality Next Steps
• Confidence and Enthusiasm!

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Todays Agenda

• Welcome Back!
• Reflections on Steps Taken
• Collaborative Problem-Solving
• Case Studies
• What do we do when some students dont learn?
• OR
• Consensus and Conflict in a PLC
• Teamtime
• Wrap-up

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Think Team Share

• What animal are you most like in your
  professional life? Why?
• What new learning do you hope to take away from
  this session?
• What goals do you have for your teams time
  together?

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NORMS for LEARNING

• Listen through the filter of a question.
• Share experiences to enrich others.
• Set aside preconceived notions.
• Pay attention to your feathers.
• Learn by doing apply to your own work.
• Postpone distractions.

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Shaping our Reflections

• Steps Taken
• Squared with previous knowledge/experie
  nce
• Diamonds in the Rough
• Still Circling Around

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With your team

• Share your reflections.
• Identify and agree on common thinking.
• Be ready to post and share your individual and
  team reflections.

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Carousel Sharing
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What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are
insignificant compared to what lies within
us. Oliver Wendell Holmes
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Breaktime!
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Lets Dig In!

• Choose an area of focus
• How Will We Respond When Some Students Dont
  Learn?
• OR
• Consensus and Conflict
• in a PLC

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Consensus and Conflict

in a
Professional Learning Community
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Reflection

• Consider Principal Roths efforts to build
  consensus for an improvement process and his
  approach to dealing with a staff member who was
  unwilling to support the process. What is your
  reaction? Can you identify alternative
  strategies the principal might have used that
  would have been more effective?

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Leaders are visionaries with a poorly developed
sense of fear and no concept of the odds
against them. Robert Jarvik
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Barriers to Success

• The process Principal Roth used did not include
  the establishment of a clear decision-making
  process or a shared definition of consensus.
• 2. He did not utilize effective strategies for
  confronting conflict.

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• Leaders are always in a better position to
  confront when they act as the promoters and
  protectors of decisions, agreements, and
  commitments of the group.

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Heres HOW

• Reach agreement on the decision-making process
  and the definition of consensus.

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Maximum Appropriate Involvement
Level of Ownership
Consensus
Fallback
Gather Input from Team Decide
Gather Input from Individuals Decide
Decide Announce
Level of Involvement
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Maximum Appropriate Involvement

• What are the advantages and disadvantages of
  using consensus as a decision-making process?
• What decisions fit each level of involvement?

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How do you define consensus when your team
considers a proposal?
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Continuum of Reaching Agreement

• All of us can embrace the proposal.
• All of us can endorse the proposal.
• All of us can live with the proposal.
• All of us can agree not to sabotage the proposal.
• We have a majority at least 51 - in support of
  the proposal.

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Consensus in a PLC

• A group has arrived at consensus when
• All points of view have been heard.
• The will of the group is evident even to those
  who most oppose it.

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Lets Try It!

• All departments are required to create and
  administer common assessments and to
  collaboratively analyze the results.

PROs
CONs
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Consensus in a PLC

• A group has arrived at consensus when
• All points of view have been heard.
• The will of the group is evident even to those
  who most oppose it.

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Time for Lunch
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Successful groups know how to fight gracefully
they embrace the positive aspects of conflict and
actively minimize the negative aspects . . .
Conflict is an important resource for forging
better practices. Garmston Wellman, 1999
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Heres HOW

• Reach agreement on the decision-making process
  and the definition of consensus.
• Confront disagreements and violations of
  commitments.

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Crucial Conversation

• A discussion between two or more people where
  (1) stakes are high, (2) opinions vary, and
  (3) emotions run strong.

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Strategies for Engaging in Crucial Conversations

• Clarify what you want and what you do not want to
  result from the conversation.
• Attempt to find mutual purpose.
• Create a safe environment for honest dialogue.
• Use facts because gathering facts is the
  homework required for crucial conversations.
• Share your thought process that has led to the
  conversation.
• Encourage recipients to share their facts and
  thought processes.

Crucial Conversations by Patterson, Grenny,
McMillan, Switzler (2002)
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Crucial ConversationPractice

• Form a triad.
• Identify each member as A,B, or C.
• Follow the Structured Inquiry protocol.

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• Listening is not only the skill that lets you
  into the other persons world it is the single
  most powerful move you can make to keep the
  conversation constructive.
• Difficult Conversations

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Heres WHY

• Conflict is an inevitable by-product of the
  substantive change process. In fact, the absence
  of conflict suggests the changes are only
  superficial because conflict is essential to any
  successful change effort.
• (Fullan, 1993)
• Changes in attitudes follow, rather than precede,
  changes in behavior.
• Unwillingness to follow through sends mixed
  messages about what is important and valued.

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Where are we now?
Where do we go from here?
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Stretchbreak!
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Teamwork Matters

• Interdependence is what organizations are all
  about. Productivity, performance, and innovation
  result from joint action, not just individual
  efforts and behavior.
• 
  Pfeffer Sutton,
  2000

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Coaches Reflection

• What activities and strategies did you experience
  today?
• How did your experience feel? What stood out for
  you?
• What did you learn?

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Team Time!

• Share your learning, experiences, and feelings
  from today.
• When/how/with whom might you share your learning
  experiences?
• Be prepared to share your plans.

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Let's Share!
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REFLECTIONS

• Ive learned . . .
• I was surprised by . . .
• I feel . . .
• I look forward to . . .

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Feedback please . . .
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Until you are willing to be confused about what
you already know, what you know will never
become wider, bigger or deeper.
Milton Erickson, M.D.