Creating Conditions – Building Capacity Conditions – Building Capacity NESA Fall Leadership...

www.tomschimmer.com [email protected]

Creating Conditions –

Building Capacity

NESA Fall Leadership Conference 19 October 2016

Doha, Qatar

Tom Schimmer

www.allthingsassessment.info @TomSchimmer

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ © Tom Schimmer (2016) – Creating the Conditions – Building Capacity @TomSchimmer

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Creating Conditions – Building Capacity

When did you get it wrong?

The Confident Leader

“With the greatest leader above them, people barely know one exists. Next comes one whom they love and praise. Next comes one whom they fear. Next comes one whom they despise and defy. When a leader trusts no one, no one trusts him. The great leader speaks little. He never speaks carelessly. He works without self-interest and leaves no trace. When all is finished, the people say, “We did it all ourselves.”

-Tao Te Ching (Verse 17)

Why do you think love and praise comes second? How do you/can you balance the theory of invisibility with the reality of having to lead?

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“It’s easier to act your way into a new way of thinking, than to think your way into a new way of acting.”

-Pascale, Sternin, & Sternin (2010) The Power of Positive Deviance, p. 38

“I have found, however, that the most effective leaders are alike in one crucial way: They all have a high degree of what has come to be known as emotional intelligence.”

-Daniel Goleman (2011)

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Implementing with fidelity…

• FLUENCY"means"you"have"the"depth&and&breadth"of"what"is"being"implemented."

• CAPACITY"means"you"have"the"skill"(or"have"a"clear"sense)"of"how"to"go"about"the"implementation"process.

Emotionally Intelligent Leaders (Daniel Goleman, 1996)

• Self%awareness"refers"to"our"own"strengths,"weaknesses,"drives,"values,"and"impact"on"others."

• Self%regulation"refers"to"controlling"or"redirecting"disruptive"impulses"and"moods."

• Motivation"refers"to"relishing"achievement"for"its"own"sake."

• Empathy"refers"to"understanding"other"people’s"emotional"makeup."

• Social8skill"refers"to"building"rapport"with"others"to"move"them"in"desired"directions.


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Leadership Self-Reflection 1) Strengths & Strengthening: My three strongest characteristics/habits as a leader are: My two characteristics/habits in need of strengthening are: 2) “Paul” or “Stacy” Who are your Paul or Stacy? If you could go back and do it all over again, what would you change? Why? 3) Being an Emotionally Intelligent Leader Self-Awareness

1. Has any situation ever led to one of your strengths actually being a weakness?

2. What situations have the potential to bring out the worst in you?

Self-Regulation

3. In what ways does your temperament as a leader reflect the culture of your school?

4. “I am comfortable with ambiguity.” (Strongly Agree – Agree – Disagree – Strongly Disagree) Explain.


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Motivation

5. What specifically drives you everyday? (Beyond “students” or “making a difference”)

6. What specific leadership challenge/goal have you set for yourself for 2016-17?

Empathy

7. How do you remain empathetic even when facing difficult decisions?

8. “It’s easy for me to admit my mistakes.” (Strongly Agree – Agree – Disagree – Strongly Disagree) Explain.

Social Skills

9. How do you find common ground and build rapport with colleagues you know you wouldn’t normally connect

with?

10. How do you maintain authentic relationships while trying to lead/ignite an agenda of change/improvement?


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The Leadership of Others “Effective change leaders - or any people who are successful in any walk of life - don’t start with imagining the future. They walk into the future through examining their own and others’ best practices, looking for insights they had hitherto not noticed.” “The creative premise for the change leader is not to “think outside the box” but to get outside the box, taking your intelligent memory to other practical boxes to see what you can discover. And if it makes sense and actually works in your situation, you have a new theory in action.”

-Michael Fullan (2011)

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How do you balance the importance of leading with the importance of being attentive to adult learner characteristics?

“Leadership is not about the leader, it is about how he or she builds the confidence of everyone else. Leaders are responsible for both the big structures that serve as the cornerstones of confidence, and for the human touches that shape a positive emotional climate to inspire and motivate people.”

-Rosabeth Moss Kanter

What is the net result when your change effort has too much structure and not enough soul? What is the net result when your change effort has too much soul and not enough structure?

Does your current change effort have the right balance? Explain.

“Leadership and management are two distinctive and complementary systems of action. Management is about coping with complexity; Leadership is about coping with change.”

-John Kotter (1990)

Adult Learners

Self-Directed Practical

Healthy Skeptics

More IntegrativeExperienced

Motivated


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The Evolution of a New Idea (1) Knowing that in most cases leaders must manage individuals at every stage simultaneously, determine what the most effective course of action should be for leaders at each stage. In other words, what should leaders do when some staff are complacent toward a new idea, ridicule the new idea, or criticize the new idea? What about those who’ve accepted the new idea? (Be Brief)

Stage Most Favorable or Appropriate Course of Action

Complacency/Marginalization

Ridicule

Criticize

Acceptance

Adapted from Virus of the Mind (1997) by Richard Brodie

Capable Incapable

Willing

Unwilling

Develop an implementation plan with immediate, short,

& long-term goals.

Provide opportunities to gain the fluency and capacity; develop individual local

examples/mentors.

Develop a modified implementation plan that

requires low effort, but has high impact.

Implementation is premature. Develop the

willingness; provide ‘soft’ exposure to new ideas.

WILLING & ABLE?


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Leadership Planning Specific initiative/change effort: 1) The HARD & the SOFT of Leadership: Phrase a rationale for your change initiative that incorporates both the hard (appeal to the intellect) and the soft (appeal to the emotions). 2) Attending to Adult Learners: Consider each characteristic of adult learners. Rate your current efforts as they relate to each characteristic, then plan for how you might move at least one level higher (i.e. from disagree to agree).

Adult Learners Rating Specific actions required to move one level higher

Self-Directed

Teachers have been given the autonomy to make important

decisions (without principal approval) within the framework of our

implementation efforts.

Strongly Agree

Agree

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

Practical

The approach to our implementation

plan has been to emphasize the practical and immediate application of the theories that support our change

efforts in the classroom.

Strongly Agree

Agree

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

Healthy Skeptics

The reason why our change effort is so

crucial to our students’ success has been well articulated, discussed, and

agreed upon.

Strongly Agree

Agree

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

More Integrative

Teachers are clear that our change efforts will have a wide, relevant

reach within their day-to-day work. They see the connection between all

of our collective efforts.

Strongly Agree

Agree

Disagree

Strongly Disagree


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Experienced

Though our change effort represents a

relatively new approach to what we do, we have been purposeful in

honoring and utilizing the collective experience of our teachers throughout

our implementation process.

Strongly Agree

Agree

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

Motivated

We have been purposeful in allowing our change effort to grow as bottom-up

as possible and only as top-down as necessary. Teachers’ levels of

motivation are high as a result of our cultivating a shared

leadership/decision-making process throughout.

Strongly Agree

Agree

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

3) Willing & Able: Now examine the willing and able quadrants through the lens of individual teacher groupings. Begin thinking about some immediate, short, and long-term goals for each profile. Be as specific as you can when thinking through potential actions and assume that the plans for the previous period (i.e. immediate goals) were successful.

Profile Immediate Goals (Next 6 months)

Short-Term Goals (By next year)

Long Term Goals (In 2 years)

Willing & Able

Develop an implementation

plan with immediate, short, & long-term goals.

Willing, but not Able

Provide opportunities to gain the

fluency and capacity; develop individual local examples/mentors.

Unwilling, but Able

Develop a modified

implementation plan that requires low effort, but has high impact.

Unwilling and Incapable

Implementation is premature.

Develop the willingness; provide ‘soft’ exposure to new ideas.


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Navigating Implementation Challenges

Tia, one of the more veteran teachers and someone of influence with other staff members, sat down in the chair across from your desk. She had asked to meet with you about the new reassessment policy as she had some concerns that she wanted to discuss. The policy itself was developed by a steering

committee of teachers and adminstrators beginning last December and was discussed at every faculty meeting through to the end of the year. The policy itself wasn’t finalized until early this year as there were some questions as to how teachers would manage their elctronic gradebooks, including the communication of reassessment results in the online parent portal. The repsonse (subsequent new procedures) from the vendor’s techincal support team were not finalized until mid October, which meant that the new policy itself wasn’t fully adopted (i.e voted on) in its totality until the early November faculty meeting. Your meeting with Tia was a week after that faculty meeting. “Thanks for meeting with me Tia began. Personally, I’m onboard with the new reassessment policy, but some teachers are saying that we’re moving too fast. I’ve heard this enough to think it was important to bring it to your attention. Some are concerned that we’re changing policies after the year has already started and that they’ve had no time to think through what the new policy will actually look like in their classrooms. I know we worked on it all last year, but until we got the answers to our questions many teachers were a little unclear as to how to proceed. For me, it’s what I’ve always done so it’s no big deal, but other teachers are really stressed out. Is it possible for us to just put the policy on hold until next year? Maybe this year can be a pilot year for those who want to adopt it, but for those not comfortable, maybe they can wait until next year. Who knows, maybe we find out the policy needs tweaking. What better way to learn about the effectiveness of our new policy than to let some try it while others wait, right? Why are we in such a hurry to implement this new policy when teachers and parents don’t fully understand it? Not to mention the students. Many of them think it’s unfair that students get second chances. Why are we going ahead when there are still so many unanswered questions?” Assuming Tia’s expressed concerns are legitimate:

1. How would you balance the concerns of staff with the fact that the policy had been developed almost a year ago?

2. How would you respond to Tia in that immediate moment?

3. What other information would help clarify the most appropriate course of action with the rest of the staff?

4. Would you address the issues Tia brought forth on behalf of parents and students? Why or Why not?

5. What other issues need to be considered before moving ahead? You suspect that Tia has an ulterior motive:

1. Based on what she said, what do you think her ulterior motive is?

2. How would you respond to Tia in that immediate moment?

3. How would you balance your suspicions of her hidden agenda without damaging your relationship with Tia?

4. What actions could you take to try to neutralize her hidden agenda while still maintaining your professional relationship with Tia?

5. What other issues need to be considered before moving ahead?

A


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The last 30 min of the faculty meeting was dedicated to a discussion that focused on your school’s potential move to standards-based grading and reporting. While most of the faculty seemed to be in favor of it, the science department was visibly perturbed by the entire discussion. As you circulated

around the room listening in on each department’s discussion about the possibility, the science department’s discussion had quite a different tone than the rest of the tables. They were visibly agitated and, from what you heard as you moved past their table, seemed to be against the idea of standards-based grading and reporting. Prior to the discussions you had asked that each department be prepared to report out on the gist of their discussions. Amir, the science department chair, stood as he delivered his summary of the science department’s discussion; he was the only one to do so. Amir began: “We think this move to standards-based grading is a terrible idea. This is exactly the kind of softening of our education system we’ve been trying to prevent for years. We have to prepare our students for college and when they get to college they are not going to be coddled they way they will be when we allow kids to turn there assignments in whenever they feel like. We are a high performing international school where the majority of our students graduate through the I.B. program. We can’t, as a department, support the dumbing down of the system just so more kids can feel better about themselves.” Sophia, the ELA Department Chair interrupted Amir, “Who said anything about dumbing down and who said anything about kids doing things when they feel like it?” “Sophia,” Amir responded, “I didn’t interrupt you while you were talking so I’d appreciate it if you wouldn't interrupt me.” Sophia remained quiet but was still visibly not pleased with Amir. “As I was saying, we feel that we need to maintain high expectations for our students. Not having homework, turning in assignments late, everyone being an A student, that’s just not how the world works. Our parents expect their kids to be prepared for college and they won’t be if we move to standards-based grading. Our students will be disadvantaged since their first real experience with grading won’t be until freshman year of college. That’s seems professionally irresponsible.” Sophia, though she tried to resist, couldn’t help but interrupt again. “Oh, so now we’re all professionally irresponsible? Seriously Amir, that’s a pretty heavy accusation to hurl at the rest of us, don’t you think?” “Sophia,” Amir replied sounding a little more forceful and annoyed, “we were asked to discuss what we thought about standards-based grading and report back to the staff which is what I’m doing. You don’t have to like or agree with what I’m saying but I’m speaking on behalf my team and trying to let everyone else understand where we are coming from. I’d appreciate it if you could just be quiet and let me finish.” You realize that this conversation is becoming counter-productive.

1. How would you attempt to end the meeting gracefully? What would you do? What would you say?

2. Hypothetically, is there anything you could have done ahead of time to try to prevent this kind of escalation?

3. How would you follow-up with Amir? How would you follow-up with Sophia? What if Amir was a strong teacher and Sophia a weak one? What if Amir was weak and Sophia was strong? What changes? Anything?

4. What are all of the issues that emerged during the discussion? How would you approach or address each of them?

B


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8 Steps for Transforming Assessment & Grading

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8"Steps"to"Transforming"Organizations"(John"Kotter,"2007)

1. Establishing a Sense of Urgency

2. Forming a Powerful Guiding Coalition

3. Creating a Vision

4. Communicating the Vision

5. Empowering Others to Act within the Vision

6. Planning for and Creating Short-Term Wins

7. Consolidating Improvements; Producing More Change

8. Institutionalizing New Approaches


How$can$you$establish$an$internal$sense$of$urgency$while$maintaining$

an$external$sense$of$patience?


Who$are$the$people$within$your$context$who$have$enough$power,$

influence,$and$credibility$to$lead$the$transformation$of$grading$practices?

3. Creating a Vision

Does%your%current%vision%for%your%grading%reform%efforts%still%suffice?%

OR%

What%should%the%vision%for%your%grading%reform%efforts%be?


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4. Communicating the Vision

What%would%be%the%most%effective%and%efficient%means%for%communicating%your%vision%to%the%others%within%your%

context?%What%about%other%stakeholders%(i.e.%Parents)?


How$do$you$plan$the$strike$the$right$balance$between$universal$alignment$

and$individual$autonomy?


What%short)term%wins%do%think%are%possible%within%the%next%3%to%6%months?%%

What%will%it%take%to%accomplish%those%wins?

7. Consolidate Improvements -

Produce More Change

Is#there#a#way#to#consolidate#all#of#the#individual#‘small#wins’#into#a#more#cohesive#approach?#

What#must#be#considered#to#ensure#a#medium#to#long<term#focus#on#grading#reform?


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“For the occupations that require discretion and judgment in meeting the unique needs of clients, the profession guarantees the competence of members in exchange for the privilege of professional control over work structure and standards of practice.” “Professional authority does not mean legitimizing the idiosyncratic or whimsical preferences of individual classroom teachers…It is precisely because practitioners operate autonomously that safeguards to protect the public interest are necessary.”

Linda Darling-Hammond (2009)

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References Black, P. (2013). Formative and summative aspects of assessment: Theoretical and research foundations in the context

of pedagogy. In J. H. McMillan (Ed.), Sage handbook of research on classroom assessment (pp. 167-178), Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Brookhart, S. (2013). Classroom assessment in context of motivation theory and research. In J. McMillan (Ed.), Sage handbook of research on classroom assessment. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Inc.

Brodie, R. (1996). Virus of the mind: The new science of the meme. Carlsbad, CA: Hay House. Darling-Hammond, L. (2009). Teaching and the change wars: The professionalism hypothesis. In A. Hargreaves and M. Fullan (Eds.), Change wars (pp. 45-68). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press. Gladwell, M. (2000). The Tipping Point. New York: Little Brown and Company. Goleman, D., McKee, A., & Boyatzis, R. (2002). Primal Leadership: Learning to Lead with Emotional Intelligence. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press. Kanter, R. M. (2004). Confidence: How winning streaks and losing streaks begin and end. New York, NY: Crown Business. Kotter, J. (2007). Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail. Harvard Business Review. Schimmer, T. (2016). Grading from the inside out: Bringing accuracy to student assessment through a standards-based mindset. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree.


Which%aspect%of%sound%grading%and%reporting%in%your%context%is%closest%to%

becoming%a%universal%policy?%%

What%steps%are%still%needed%to%ensure%the%policy%is%successfully%introduced%and%

implemented?


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Transforming your Organizations

Step Guiding Question Action, Details and/or Notes


How can you establish an internal sense of urgency while maintaining an external sense of patience?


Who are the people within your context who have enough power, influence, and credibility to lead the transformation of grading practices?

3. Creating a Vision Does your current vision for your grading reform efforts still suffice?

OR

What should the vision for your grading reform efforts be?

4. Communicating the Vision What would be the most effective and efficient means for communicating your vision to the others within your context? What about other stakeholders (i.e. Parents)?


How do you plan to strike the right balance between universal alignment and individual autonomy?


What short-term wins do think are possible within the next 3 to 6 months? What will it take to accomplish those wins?

7. Consolidating Improvements; Producing More Change

Is there a way to consolidate all of the individual ‘small wins’ into a more cohesive approach? What must be considered to ensure a medium to long-term focus on grading reform?


Which aspect of sound grading and reporting in your context is closest to becoming a universal policy? What steps are still needed to ensure the policy is successfully introduced and implemented?

Adapted from: Kotter, J. (2007). Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail. Harvard Business Review.

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