Federal Programs Fall
Directors’ Conference
Embassy Suites
Charleston, WV
October 12-13, 2011
Effective Team Organization
and Communication
Lisa Youell
State School Improvement Specialist
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Groups do not
become
teams
by accident!
What Makes a Group a Team?
 They all own shared goals
 Members are interdependent
 organized around a process, each
performing a critical function required
for success
 They work collaboratively and
purposefully to achieve the goals
 There is accountability WITHIN the
team
Improving Schools One Teacher at
a Time
Individual growth does not ensure
organizational growth.
Organizations need more than welldeveloped individuals. Effective
leaders focus on developing the
culture and the collective capacity
of the organization.
Center for Creative Leadership (2003)
Michael Fullan (2007)
Richard Elmore (2006)
Individual Growth Does Not
Ensure Organizational Growth
Student achievement gains and other
benefits are influenced by organizational
characteristics beyond the skills of
individual staff. We saw schools with
competent teachers that lacked the
organizational capacity to be effective with
many students. The task for schools is to
organize human resources into an
effective collective effort.
Newmann and Wehlage,(1995)
Collaboration
The purpose of collaboration--to help
more students achieve at higher
levels—can only be accomplished if
the professionals engaged in
collaboration are focused on the
right work.
Learning By Doing
Case Study
Learning By Doing
First edition: pages 89 – 91
Second edition: pages 117-118
Scenario
The Principal of a middle school had worked tirelessly
to promote collaboration and had taken a number of
steps to support teachers working together:
• He organized each grade level into an
interdisciplinary team.
• He created a schedule that gave teams time to meet
together each day.
• He trained staff in collaborative skills, consensus
building, and conflict resolution.
• He emphasized the importance of collaboration at
almost every faculty meeting.
Teams Focused On…
• the behavior of a student who had become
increasingly disruptive
• strategies for achieving their team goal of reducing
disciplinary referrals for tardiness to class
• a lively debate about whether or not members
should accept late work from students, and if so,
how many points they should deduct for each day
late
• roles and responsibilities of each member to ensure
all the tasks associated with an upcoming field trip
were addressed
What Advice Would You Give?
How can we provide the parameters
and framework to ensure teams use
their collaborative team time in
ways that have a positive impact on
student learning?
What are your
schools’ teams
doing?
Administrative Team
School Leadership Team
Collaborative
Team
Collaborative Collaborative Collaborative
Team
Team
Team
Focus
Team(s)
Student
Assistance Team
Local School
Improvement
Council
School Improvement Teams
Defined
Each of the teams described has
multiple functions. This document
outlines only those functions that
apply to school improvement.
 Read over the team descriptions and
discuss at your tables.
 Give us your feedback.
School Leadership Team
Uses a distributed leadership model
(sharing leadership responsibilities
across the organization) to support
the work of teacher collaborative
teams. The leadership team is made
up of school administrators, one
member from each teacher
collaborative team and others at the
principal’s discretion.
Collaborative Teams
Teachers are organized into
collaborative teams on the basis of
shared responsibility for addressing
the critical questions of learning with
a particular group of students – for
example, by content, course or grade
level. Team members work
interdependently to achieve a
common goal for which each
member is mutually accountable.
Team Leaders’
Roles & Responsibilities
• What is the role of a
team leader in your
district?
• What are the
responsibilities of a
team leader in your
district?
Roles & Responsibilities
Table Jigsaw
 Table distributes Roles and Responsibilities
of Teams amongst members
 Individually read assigned section:
 half read School Leadership Team and Team
Leaders
 half read Collaborative Teams and Team
members
 All read the information in the box
 Come back to whole group and share out
the part that resonated with you
School Leadership Team…
• Takes a balcony view of the school
• Assists the principal in making decisions to govern the school
(shared decision making)
• Ensures a focus on learning and continuous improvement
• Guides the work of the collaborative teams
• Supports and monitors the work of the collaborative teams
• Serves as the steward of the school’s mission, vision, core
values (commitments)
• Monitors achievement, climate and satisfaction data to
assure that the learning environment is producing results
consistent with the school’s stated goals
• Identifies gaps in performance or processes and plans for
their improvement
• Aligns school’s work with the district and classroom
Team Leaders
• Organize and facilitate all team meetings
• Must “communicate” with all team members and other
teams
• Hold each team member responsible for the core tasks
of the team
• Delegate the core tasks for equal distribution among
team members
• Share in the workload of the team
• Extend support and encouragement to new members
of the course/team – guide new team members to
gradually increase participation in the team
• See that time frame deadlines are met by all members
of the team
• Exhibit patience and a sense of humor
• Make a conscious effort of appreciation
The School Leadership Team seeks to
build the collective capacity of
collaborative teams of teachers…
• What do we need in order to conduct ourselves as a
high functioning team?
• What do we expect all teachers to know and be able to
do?
• How will we know when they are able to do it?
• How will we respond when teachers already know it?
• How will we develop first best instruction in our
professional development and support of teachers?
• How will we respond when teachers are struggling?
• How will we know if our support is the stimulus for
teacher’s professional growth?
Collaborative Teams…
• Focus on learning and continuous improvement
• Are responsible for service and program delivery
– Standards
– Assessment
– Instruction
• Manage the day-to-day services provided to students –
– Those who exceed
– Those who meet
– Those who do not meet
• Monitor achievement, climate and satisfaction data to
assure that the learning environment is producing results
consistent with the school’s stated goals
• Identify gaps in performance or processes and plans for
their improvement
• Align team’s work with the district and classroom
• Align with grade level before and after
Collaborative Team Members…
• Are prepared for each meeting
• Guarantee security for shared assessments
• Develop assessments, and personalize others to
their individual instructional style using shared
resources as a guide
• Share assessments, materials and ideas with all
team members
• Complete the assigned core tasks on time
• Provide voluntary participation and seek to help
the team facilitator as needed
• Make a conscious effort towards appreciation of
the team facilitator and other team members
Administrative Team
School Leadership Team
Collaborative
Team
Collaborative
Team
Collaborative
Team
Collaborative
Team
Leadership Roles
Build:
Trust
Interdependent work structures
From “Build, Promote, Guide,
Provide, Monitor” by Susan Huff in
The Principal as Assessment
Leader
Leadership Roles
Promote
: From “Build, Promote, Guide, Provide, Monitor” by
Susan Huff in The Principal as Assessment Leader
Unwavering focus on student
learning
Precise academic standards
High expectations
Common curriculum
Common assessments
Confirmed instructional practices
Systems of prevention &
intervention
Leadership Roles
Guide:
Collaborative teams
Job-embedded staff development
Collective growth
Inquiry
Shared personal practice
From “Build, Promote, Guide, Provide,
Monitor” by Susan Huff in The Principal as
Assessment Leader
Leadership Roles
Provide:
and manage data
From “Build, Promote, Guide, Provide, Monitor” by
Susan Huff in The Principal as Assessment Leader
Sharing Data:
Beginning of Community
Collecting data is the first
step toward wisdom, but
sharing data is the first step
toward community.
- Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Leadership Roles
Monitor:
Student progress
Reflective dialogue
Tangible products
From “Build, Promote, Guide, Provide,
Monitor” by Susan Huff in The Principal as
Assessment Leader
How do we do those things?
Through “gentle pressure applied
relentlessly.” Gerrita Postlewaite
How do we take the work of
teams to the entire school
district?
“Communication refers to the extent to
which the school and district leaders
establish strong lines of
communication with and between
principals, teachers and students.”
p. 46, School Leadership That Works: From Research to Results
District Administrative Team
School Administrative Teams
School
Leadership
Team
School
Leadership
Team
School
Leadership
Team
School
Leadership
Team
Communication
“Without credible communication and
a lot of it, change efforts are doomed
to fail.”
p. 20, Revisiting Professional Learning Communities at Work
Communication
Example of Effective
Communication
• The focus of administrative meetings
in most districts is on managerial
tasks rather than on leadership
issues that impact learning. A
central office could, however use
those meetings to help the district
staff and principals function as their
own collaborative team.
p.361 Revisiting Professional Learning Communities at Work
Team Organization & Communication
An Internal Focus
We make progress as a Team when
we move from a language of
complaint to a language of
commitment, from a language of
“they” to a language of “we,” from
focusing on what we can’t stand, to
focusing on what we stand for.
Collaborative Teams Network
http://wvde.state.wv.us/ctn