Imagine Heathside:
Creating An Exemplary Place to Learn and Work
Interview Guide for Governors
SUGGESTED OPENING STATEMENT:
"Thanks for agreeing to be interviewed as part of the Imagine Heathside
project. This effort will involve everyone in the school in helping create the
Heathside of the Future.
We will be doing "appreciative interviews", asking people to tell stories about
times when they saw things working at their BEST.
Usually we ask about things that are broken - the problems - so that we can fix
them. In this case, we’re trying to look at things at their best -- the successes -so that we can find out what works and do more of it.
This should take about 45 minutes.
Before we start, do you have any questions?”
________________________________________________________
Tips for successful interviews
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Help the other person tell his/her story; help them remember the details.
Be genuinely curious about their experiences, thoughts, and feelings.
Here are some possible questions to use to probe further if the person needs help sharing the
story:
 Tell me more.
 What was going on that caused you to feel that way?
 What makes that important to you?
 How did that affect you?
 What was your contribution?
 What was the school doing that helped you do this?
 What were other people doing that helped?
 What do you think was really making it work?
If someone doesn’t want to, or can’t answer any of the interview questions, that’s okay; let it go
and go on to the next question and try and come back to the question you missed before the end
of the interview.
Taking notes - Make sure you write down the person’s words, phrases of quotes that excited you.
WRITE SO OTHERS CAN READ IT!
When you are finished with your interview, please immediately and neatly fill out the
Interview Summary Sheet. Then take your interview notes and the summary sheet to
the school office and put them into the proper boxes.
Summary Sheet in box 1
Answers to questions 1-5 in box 2
Answers to Questions 6-7 in box 3
Thanks from the Core Team
Imagine Heathside
Interview guide for Governors
Who is being interviewed? ___________________________________
How long has this person been a Governor? ___________________
Who is doing the interview? _________________________________
Date: _______________________________________________________
1. Will you please tell me about a time when you felt most
excited and enthusiastic about Heathside?
2. Can you think of a story that demonstrates the caring
atmosphere at Heathside?
Governor Interview____________________ p. 2
3. As you think back over your involvement with the Board of
Governors, can you tell me a story about one of those
special moments when you felt that you were really
contributing to the well-being of the school -- a time
when you felt particularly proud about your involvement
with Heathside?
4. We believe people do their best when challenged to excel
and are given the encouragement and support to do so. Will
you please share a time when the Board pushed Heathside to
be its very best and provided the necessary support to
succeed?
5. What do you think gives life to Heathside? What is at the
center of this school, which if it did not exist, would
make Heathside totally different than it is today?
Governor Interview____________________ p. 3
6. If you had three wishes for Heathside which would make it
an even better place to learn and work, what would they be?
a.
b.
c.
7. If you visited the school tomorrow and one small thing had
changed making the school better, what would it be?
Imagine Heathside
Interview Summary Sheet for Governors
Date: ________________________________________________________
Who was interviewed? _________________________________________
How long has this person been a Governor? __________________
Who did the interview? _______________________________________
1. What was the most exciting story or stories you heard
during the interview?
2. What were the best quotes that came out of the interview
and which question does each come from?
3. Other interesting things you heard in this interview?