How do we make our leadership go from this ....
.....to this!
...a somewhat natural occurrence that appears seamless, organised, streamlined and coherent, with everyone heading in the same direction?
My spiral of inquiry is to explore a deeper level of understanding about the process, thinking and skill base to create this scenario.
My Scanning
My role of overseeing Yr 4 - 8 is new this year.
In my scanning phase these are a few things I notice;
- Yr 4 very collaborative, but on an island. Have their own team meeting minutes, efficiently planning, reflecting and setting an environment that reflects their pedagogy.
- Mahuta - new leader, two new team members with little or no experience in collaboration, new learning space,
- Tuakana Whetu - streamlined and efficient, data driven teaching, holistic, collaborative??
All three islands have different takes on when and how to use collaboration. Flexibility in their views is challenging, all are feeling time pressured, many feeling lost and some even overwhelmed.
For consideration
- is this being extended into our community, who are already unsure of collaboration and open learning spaces
- we require a shared understanding and relationships which are key to collaboration to be effective but have different views of what this looks like.
- for change to take place we need trust, respect and have a shared understanding of roles and responsibilities within our school.
My Focusing
My goal is to up skill in requirements in becoming an effective leader who empowers teachers, reduces workload and is structured through a collaborative approach to leadership, pushing the boundaries of the possibilities in equity, collegiality, moral purpose in how we work towards a desired outcome. After all we are all here for the same purpose - aren't we?
In the past, my experiences and own personal philosophy has grown from a place of fractal leadership. Over the years I have achieved a vast amount of change by working alongside people, walking the talk that I expect from others, modelling best practice for teachers across the country. This, in my experience has the greatest method of achieving change and implementing best practice with a solid shared understanding at the fastest pace. While that is now the role of a team leader I believe we are all responsible and accountable for the direction of our school in achieving our vision and raising student achievement.
So, what could this look like in a leadership role? 
What impact does it have on our team leaders?
What impact will it have on our teaching practice?
My Hunch
I asked my long time mentor, Cheryl Doig if she knew where I could source Fractal Leadership information. She describes it as Holocracy.
Some quotes to explain what this is;
"The traditional hierarchy is reaching its limits, but “flat management” alternatives lack the rigor needed to run a business effectively. Holacracy is a third-way: it brings structure and discipline to a peer-to-peer workplace."
Holacracy is a new way of running an organization that removes power from a management hierarchy and distributes it across clear roles. The work can then be executed autonomously, without micromanagement.
The work is more structured with Holacracy than conventional management. There is a clear set of rules, and processes for how a team breaks up its work and defines roles with clear responsibilities.
My Reflection
These are some of my own personal ethics, philosophies, morals etc
- reflective practice makes for best practice
- collaboration is the way forward
- walking the talk gains respect
- understand the people you work with
- guiding pathways to success, empowers and motivates people to be on board
- trust is key - that the team know what to do and how to do it well. Trust that they will make the good decisions that reflect well on the team, but also trust in me as a competent and capable practitioner / leader.
- My behaviours, attitudes and expectations will be highly contagious - whether these are negative or positive these will be used to justify others decisions.
- being self aware and gathering feedback will help me to grow
Must haves;
- clear expectations and transparency in what we do
- know what needs to be done
- valuable conversations that create safe environments, building trust and respect between one another
The entire concept of self-management in the workplace is relatively new to many;. It is complex and rather challenging for everyone, even those who feel like they just get it. -
See more at: https://www.zapposinsights.com/about/holacracy/10-ways-leaders-limit-success/#sthash.mRVxqQBB.dpuf
My Learning
My next steps in my learning journey;
What is a disciplinary approach?
What are the steps to achieve this?
What could it look like for us?
Each leaf represents a curriculum area - role and responsibility
All feeding into the stem that helps the plant to grow and stay connected and healthy
The pond of water that holds us together, following our own pathway through the working day to pool together again for moving forward as one.
I thought about aligning roles and responsibilities with our values, people, teaching and learning. I realised that our core job is teaching and learning. While this is very valuable it does not strengthen our capabilities to teach well. So for this reason I have gone back to curriculum expertise to be filtered in a carefully managed structure.
Literacy
STEM
The Arts
Maths
PE
Health
At the top of the fern where the growth is filtered out to
Lead facilitator and inspiratory of new thinking and learning. Asking provocations to pull curr together, people person, pastoral care facilitator.
Provocations;
How do we teach intensively?
How do we assess with purpose?
How do we teach to cater for diverse learning needs?
How do we capture the attention of our least engaged students?
- and what does this mean for us as leaders?
- how do we impact our teaching and learning?
This would be mirrored across two halves of the school junior and senior
Things that need to be considered when developing these roles;
- application of technology advancements
- pastoral care
- community support and communications
- student learning support, what does intensive teaching and learning look like in this area
- G&T - how is this catered for
- staff pd support and what this would look like
- assessment practices
- how can we grow our leaders - pd planned for
- transparency
- strategic priorities
- no more team meetings but teaching and learning meetings, a community of learning by collaboratively sharing strengths of our leaders.
Aspirational goals
- - develop leadership qualities across our school
- - develop intensive applications of the curriculum
- - increase accountability and responsibility across the school to lead, participate and contribute
- - All staff pd is distributed across the school
- - Total transparency - nothing is hidden
- - no hierarchy roles for blame
- - collaborative to the extreme
Rules that are transparent and upheld by all.
What small steps could we take that will empower my team, engage intrinsic accountability,
What would the boundaries and rules be in an education setting?
People in the know;
