CCSA Conference
March 21, 2017
Sacramento, California
STAND UP IF…
How many people have been working in schools for
• less than 5 years?
• 5-10 years?
• 10-15 years?
• 15-20 years?
• 20-30 years?
How many Principals or CEO’s are in the audience?
How many APs, VPs or other administrative titles beyond
principal?
How many coaches/mentors/advisors?
How many teachers?
Anyone else?
FACILITATOR BACKGROUND
Dara Barlin – DARE Consulting
Matt Wunder – Da Vinci Schools
(And the Story of How They Met!)
LET’S BRAINSTORM TOGETHER
-What are toxins that you’ve seen or experienced that
have depleted trust in the workplace?
-What are some habits that you’ve seen or experienced
that support a culture of trust?
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY
Can we have a volunteer?
• Create a graphic representation of what a great
school.
“Change happens at the
speed of trust.”
-author unknown
“Culture eats strategy for
breakfast.”
originated by Peter Drucker,
made famous by Mark Fields, President at Ford Motor Company
By building a culture of trust in the
workplace, we can exponentially
increase the effectiveness of our
initiatives, productivity, innovation and
outcomes.
“Management is telling people what to do. Leadership is
inspiring them to do it.”
-Jeff Weiner
CEO, LinkedIn
“Managers do things right. Leaders do the right things.”
-Warren Bennis
GOOGLE STUDY
Psychological safety most critical factor of highly
effective teams.
Psychological Safety = confidence to try new things, take
risks and make mistakes. (Growth Mindset)
Psychological Fear = fear of retribution from mistakes
and failure. (Victim/Blame Mindset)
TRUST & CORPORATE AMERICA
Harvard Business Review - Trust is directly correlated with a
company’s financial performance.
CEO of Campbell Soup - “Contrary to popular belief,
cultivating a high-trust culture is not a ‘soft’ skill… it’s the
foundational element of high-performing organizations.”
Forbes Magazine – Stop rolling eyes and making Kumbaya
jokes long enough to take-in the collateral damage of
unsafe work environments: “poor performance, poor
decision-making and missed opportunities for innovation.”
TRUST AND SCHOOL RESEARCH
In schools where teachers report strong trust
and cooperation among adults, students said
they felt safe and cared for, as well as more
academically challenged. And stronger
student test scores often bear this out.
TRUST-RICH INSPIRED ENVIRONMENTS
• Easier collaboration
• Higher productivity
• More innovation
• Increased student achievement
• Better financial performance
• Joy of teaching and learning
TRUST-POOR ENVIRONMENTS
• Low productivity
• More Infighting
• More Feet-dragging
• More Sick Days
• More Headaches/Mental Illness
• Everything Feels Harder
• Low inspiration
• Low innovation
• Poor decision-making
LARGE URBAN SCHOOL SYSTEM SURVEY
25%
23%
19%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
15%
11%
PILOT SCHOOL IN NYC
100% of school educators reported that feelings of
frustration and infighting were getting in the way of
focusing on student learning.
WHAT IS THE MOST POWERFUL CHALLENGE TO
TRUSTING SCHOOL CULTURES?
Video: Would You be a Good
Samaritan?
Video Link: http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/video/goodsamaritan-4403966
OTHER FACTORS MAKING IT HARD TO
MAINTAIN INSPIRED, TRUST-RICH
ENVIRONMENTS…
• Lack of time
• Pressure from
external
stakeholders
• Extremely high
expectations
• Communication
challenges
NATURE OF MANY LARGE URBAN SCHOOL SYSTEMS
Blame, Frustration, Stress = Diminished focus on great schools
CONSIDER
• How many initiatives are not being implemented effectively
because people are feeling stressed out and overwhelmed?
• How many great ideas to improve the school are going
unrealized because educators don’t feel safe enough to take
initiative?
• How much talent is leaving your school because they don’t
feel connected to their colleagues?
• How much time is being spent on blaming one another (i.e.
parents, public schools, unions, school boards, etc.) instead
of on finding solutions that help all schools and kids succeed?
WHAT WOULD IT BE LIKE IF ALL EDUCATORS…
• Felt a deep sense of purpose and passion around their work
• Collaborated with other offices/stakeholders with ease
• Had resilience to overcome obstacles to meet all goals
• Took initiative to make changes to improve their work
• Sought to innovate and create new tools and strategies to
improve outcomes for their whole school
• Felt joyful, trusting, supportive relationships with colleagues
• Left work feeling calm, rejuvenated, fulfilled almost every day
DARE CONSULTING
HUMAN-CENTERED LEADERSHIP PD PROGRAMS
• Climate Transformation Program
(Conflict Resolution using the EVAPIT!TM System)
• Continuous Improvement Program
• Communicating to Influence Program
PAIR UP WITH A NEIGHBOR AND SHARE
• What resonated about what was presented?
• What surprises surfaced?
• How does this apply in your setting?
2 minutes to share with a neighbor.
12 WAYS TO BUILD TRUST IN A CHARTER SCHOOL
1) Be generous in giving credit. Take responsibilities for mistakes.
2) Celebrate mistakes and failures as learning opportunities.
3) Nip Blame-Gaming in the bud!
4) Find the “Right” level of management (macro vs. micro)
5) Include people in the decisions that impact them
6) Create a safe space for employees to air concerns
7) Have an intentional Hiring Process
8) Integrate team-building activities regularly
9) Celebrate successes (large and small) every day
10) Let go of pretense of power
11) Generate school-wide norms to create ideal atmosphere
12) Under promise and over deliver
STRAW POLL:
Use your sticky dots to vote based on the following
questions. (You can use all 3 on 1 or spread them out
across principles.)
1)Which principles are the most important
for building a trusting culture?
2)Which principles do you most want to
talk about today?
REVIEW GRAPHIC
REPRESENTATIONS
HOW DOES IT FEEL WHEN…
• Someone takes credit for your work?
• When someone changes your work?
TRUST-BUILDING STRATEGY #1
Give credit for everything good.
Take credit for other’s mistakes.
TRUST-BUILDING STRATEGY #2:
CELEBRATE MISTAKES AND FAILURES
Growth mindset among students
vs.
Growth mindset among teachers
DEVELOPING A GROWTH MINDSET WHERE
MISTAKES ARE CELEBRATED
1) Make an explicit group norm - learning from
mistakes is a good thing.
2) Make your own mistakes very public early and
often. It models for others that it is OK to do
the same!
*Example from Matt*
DO YOU THINK WE CAN’T SEE YOU?
TRIAD BREAKOUTS AND REFLECTION
Break up into groups of three and respond to the
following questions:
• What is scary about going public about mistakes?
• What can you do to support more people giving credit
to one another?
• What would it take to make a growth mindset for
adults and credit generosity a reality in your school?
TRUST BUILDING STRATEGY #3:
NIP THE BLAME-GAME IN THE BUD!
Ending the dysfunctional vortex of Blame!
Mistake is made  People look for someone to blame 
Fear, shame and anger surface  Fingers start pointing
in all directions  Fear, shame and anger gain steam 
People try to hide their mistakes  People develop
negative judgments about one another  Conflicts or
longer term resentments build  Work feels more
stressful and harder  Distraction away from solving
the problem first created by the mistake  Problem
takes longer to fix, or doesn’t get fixed at all!
THE SOLUTIONS-ORIENTATION VORTEX…
Mistake is made  People talk about how to fix the
mistake and address the issue in the future so we can
learn from it  Everyone becomes smarter for
moving through the issue  Everyone feels validated
and psychologically safe  People feel open to
making and sharing mistakes  more inspired, more
creative and happier to be at work.
BLAME-GAMER
Blame Game starts with one person making an accusation,
and others standing by or eventually joining in.
YOU CAN STOP THE BLAME GAME! BECOME A
BLAME-NIPPER!!
• Empathize with the person who made the mistake.
• Validate their decision by acknowledging how you
(or others) would have likely make the same
mistake.
• Refocus conversation by reframing as a good
learning.
• Focus attention on finding a solution.
• Possibly remind folks that “problem-solving will
lead to a quicker resolution than finding someone
to blame.”
*Matt give example of the board meeting that ALMOST went
into blame-game scenario.
PRACTICING NIPPING BLAME IN THE BUD!
(THE ACTUAL BLAME GAME!)
Everyone stand up and move into new triads (groups of 3).
Identify the following roles:
• one person as the mistake-maker
• one as the blame-gamer
• and one as the blame-nipper
I will give you a scenario. The blame-gamer will try to blame
the problem on the mistake-maker.
The blame-nipper’s job is to use the strategies discussed to nip
the blame in the bud and refocus the conversation on
problem-solving. You will have 2 minutes to do this. After
you are done, we will re-assign the roles so everyone has a
turn, and you’ll be given a new scenario.
BLAME-GAME: SCENARIO #1
“A survey to all new teachers didn’t go out in the
timeline defined. Michael, the data specialist,
has been overwhelmed with data requests, and
accidentally missed this deadline.”
•
•
•
Blame-nipper:
Empathize with Michael.
Validate his decision by sharing how you or others might have
made the same decision.
Refocus conversation on the ‘learning’ and problem-solving.
BLAME-GAME: SCENARIO #2
“A report has just gone out to all of the staff and all
members of the school board. It is a high stakes report
that has implications for future funding streams. After it
goes out someone realizes that there is not 1 but 2
typos on the cover of the report. Barbara was the
author of the report, so she is the one who is blamed
for the error.”
Blame-nipper:
•
•
•
Empathize with Barbara.
Validate her decision by sharing how you or others might have made the
same decision.
Refocus conversation on the ‘learning’ and problem-solving.
BLAME-GAME: SCENARIO #3
“Latisha is running a successful program at the
school. The local paper asks to interview her and
in the interview she says something that the
reporter takes out of context, and gives the
school a black eye that is hard to recover from.”
Blame-nipper:
•
•
•
Empathize with Latisha.
Validate her decision by sharing how you or others might have
made the same decision.
Refocus conversation on the ‘learning’ and problem-solving.
TRUST BUILDING STRATEGY #4:
FIND THE “RIGHT” LEVEL OF MANAGEMENT
Micro vs. Macro
(with local touch-points)
“Best way to mind your flock is to give them a lot of
pasture and watch them.”
– Buddhist Proverb, Ambassador Frank Baxter
TRUST BUILDING STRATEGY #5:
INCLUDE PEOPLE IN THE DECISIONS THAT
IMPACT THEM
• No one likes change done to them unless it is
absolutely and unequivocally positive.
• Including people in the thought process early and
often is not only a smart strategy for buy-in/ease of
implementation, it will likely make your idea, concept,
initiative far better than you envisioned.
• You can most always have your say, but you may not
always get your way.
TRUST BUILDING STRATEGY #6:
CREATE A SAFE SPACE FOR EMPLOYEES TO AIR
THEIR CONCERNS
•
•
•
•
Default -- challenges and frustrations will go unsaid.
“Don’t rock the boat” syndrome.
Voice goes inward
- Resentment builds
Conflicts surface later
Trust is lost
Intentional spaces for feedback give people permission to talk
about their issues BEFORE they turn into resentment and
conflict. Makes employees feel heard. Trust is gained.
REFLECT WITH A NEIGHBOR
Turn to a neighbor and discuss the following prompts:
• Why do many schools have a top-down decision
making tree?
• What steps could they take to support more voices in
those decisions?
• What ways could a school create intentional, safe
spaces where educators and employees can share
their concerns?
STRATEGY #7: INTENTIONAL HIRING PROCESS
• Handout of Da Vinci Hiring Process.
• Think about values and results.
EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT
RESULTS & VALUES AND RESULTS & POTENTIAL
Results and Values
Quadrant 4: High
achievement, high
values
Quadrant 2: High
achievement, low
values
Quadrant 3: Low
achievement, high
values
Quadrant 1: Low
achievement, low
values
FINAL THOUGHTS ABOUT OTHER TRUST
BUILDING STRATEGIES…
8) Integrate fun team-building activities regularly into
school day
9) Celebrate successes (large and small) every day
10) Let go of pretense of power
11) Generate school-wide norms to create ideal
atmosphere
12) Under promise and over deliver
THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME!!
For a copy of this PPT or to learn more about trustbuilding and continuous improvement, go to:
www.dareconsulting.org
Contact: dgbarlin@gmail.com