March 1, 2024

Getting the T into Team: why our old habits often don’t help

Background

While many schools’ leaders talk about the value of collaboration and taking risks in the classroom, making those same things happen in the admin team meeting is rarer, and often for good reason. Most school leaders were successful during their time in school, which means they were good at following the academic rules and norms, and thereby earning the rewards the system was designed to produce. 

The problem for the admin team of today is that the ground has shifted.  Many of the norms have been slow to evolve towards real collaboration and cross-functional strengths at the administrative level; the cry for bringing collaboration and risk taking to Administrative Teams is soft or nonexistent in most places. Why is this?

Current Condition

There are some valid reasons, like overwhelming and overstuffed work expectations. But as often as not, the reasons that admin team behaviors don’t match classroom aspirations are simple and human. According to Chip and Dan Heath in their wonderful book, Upstream, there are four primary anchors slowing the evolution of school leadership to better fit the needs of…