Leading your staff through enhanced relationships, clarity of purpose, and clear communication …

Russ FacionePrincipal

Bingham Farms Elementary SchoolBirmingham Public Schools

rf03bps@birmingham.k12.mi.us

Personal Note- Who is this guy??Audience- Who am I talking to?

▪ You are here because you are leading others in the high risk area of 21st T&L!

Administrators, Teacher Leaders, others? Items-

Connector Relationships Enhancing via “Colors” Facilitating a great meeting with your staff Communication Strategies

Personal Note- Who is this guy?? Russ Facione- Born and

raised in Metro Detroit. Wayne High, Western

Michigan Taught in Wayne Westland,

then Birmingham Administrator for past 12

years. Married for 17 years, 4

Daughters. Softball Coach, Parrothead, “Drama Dad”

Connector -- The Take Away- What do you want to take away from today? Connect with others to tell them in 45

seconds or less. Switch at the chime sounds. Find 3 people you don’t know and share. Conversation-

▪ Name, District, School --- One Take Away. Stickies- Fill out 1-3 and place on the

TAKE AWAY sheet.

You are in charge of yourself and your needs. Be an Active participant today. Keep an open mind to items discussed. Multi-tasking is an individual preference. Anything that comes up but not be tied directly to

this goes in Parking Lot to be covered at the end.

Everything you see here and more is on my wiki at http://russfacione.wikispaces.com/BLC12+Conference

Communication How can we communicate effectively with

staff? Reflection

How can that communication lead to reflection?

Qualitative Change How can reflection and relationships lead to

qualitative change in your building?

Then how is impacts your journey!

These are re-culturing pieces.

One must RECULTRE a building as a whole,

THEN you can RESTRUCTURE.

If you restructure before you re-culture you get hostility and no buy in… folks must be ready for the changes coming.

How can we get staff to be reflective and challenge themselves in this high risk are of 21stC T&L?

TRUSTSo, then…..how can we grow our

mutual collective trust?

When in a time of change there needs to be a feeling or mutual “we’re-in-this-together”

You can achieve this by: 1. Exercises to gain awareness of each other. 2. How meetings are organized.3. How levels of communication are shared.

That is where our journey begins….

Mr. Rogers had it right… you need to know who you are in the trenches with, building the mutual trust works only when you look inside yourself.

What can you do? My favorite example is TRUE COLORS.

Book list #1 Showing Our True Colors, Miscsin.

What is it, how do you do it, and what do you do with the results? Staff fill out a quick sheet which has them

match up trios of words that best describe how they would naturally approach something…

Need to know each other to work together;

To understand ourselves, How we seem to others andHow they seem to us;

When you know what your core values are, you can perform at your highest level – and when you understand others, you have the basis to communicate and achieve common goals.

Four COLORS- GOLD, BLUE, GREEN, ORANGE

How do I determine my color spectrum? Dominant Color to a lowest color?

You could have a pair--- you could have a more even spread, or one slam dunk dominant.

1. Read each trio of words across 4 = Word list most describes down to1 = For the least describes;

You will have five rows filled out, with 1234 in different sequences reading across.

ActiveOpportunisticSpontaneous 2

ParentalTraditionalResponsible 3

AuthenticHarmonious

Compassionate 4VersatileInventive

Competent 1

CompetitiveImpetuousImpactful 4

PracticalSensible

Dependable 2Unique

EmpatheticCommunicative 1

CuriousConceptual

Knowledgeable 3Realistic

Open-MindedAdventuresome

LoyalConservative

Organized

DevotedWarmPoetic

TheoreticalSeeking

Ingenious

DaringImpulsive

Fun

ConcernedProceduralCooperative

TenderInspirational

Dramatic

DeterminedComplex

Composed

ExcitingCourageous

Skillful

OrderlyConventional

Caring

VivaciousAffectionateSympathetic

PhilosophicalPrincipledRational

= = = =

2. Then, take the four color sheets on the table, look at the picture on the front and the description on the back, see which one fits you best and rank them left to right:

Orange Card, Gold Card, Blue Card, Green CardLabel Under notes left to rightOrange, Gold, Blue, Green

ActiveOpportunisticSpontaneous

ParentalTraditionalResponsible

AuthenticHarmonious

Compassionate

VersatileInventive

Competent

CompetitiveImpetuousImpactful

PracticalSensible

Dependable

UniqueEmpathetic

Communicative

CuriousConceptual

Knowledgeable

RealisticOpen-Minded

Adventuresome

LoyalConservative

Organized

DevotedWarmPoetic

TheoreticalSeeking

Ingenious

DaringImpulsive

Fun

ConcernedProceduralCooperative

TenderInspirational

Dramatic

DeterminedComplex

Composed

ExcitingCourageous

Skillful

OrderlyConventional

Caring

VivaciousAffectionateSympathetic

PhilosophicalPrincipledRational

= = = =

ORANGE GOLD BLUE GREEN

3. Now we will add each column going down…

MAX is 24 for any one area—MIN is 6

Fill out your four color spectrum:Highest to lowest with totals;

Questionnaire Directions:

Famous Folks in your color

Your characteristicsYour strengthsOthers may see you as:

Oranges

GoldsGre

en

s

General Student Population vs. K-12 Educators

WHAT DO YOU THINK?Kids Staff

BLUE _____ % ______ %Orange _____ % ______ %Green _____ % ______ %Gold _____ % ______ %

General Student Population vs. K-12 EducatorsANSWER KEY- FOR TYPICAL SCHOOL

Kids Staff Blue 38 % 20 % Orange 38 % 5% Green 12% 5 % Gold 12 % 70 %

38 % OF KIDS ARE ORANGE WHILE 70% OF STAFF ARE GOLD- THEY ARE OPPOSITE

Celebrate your differences! Be open about working on your lowest. Stickers on mailboxes for instance, leads

to a more open appreciation. Make it a risk-free part of the culture.

At my school we have stickers on our mailboxes to subtly remind us.

You could have a TC Spirit Day, staff wear their “color”.

Make it a part of your building conversation.

So we’ve covered our first major point.

Deep Breath time. Think about in your capacity, what can

you do to enhance the relationships you have with those you work with or lead?

How could you use this True Colors information to help with that?

Share with neighbors around you. 1 minute. GO!

• Book List #2 “Facilitation with Ease”, Bens• Oakland Schools Work with Davidson and Childs

– Facilitation is a key in leading a meeting. – Process (How) over Content (What)– Get you flip charts ready! Group thought, etc; – Actively listen– Always have a Parking Lot

– Begin Meetings with Connectors- These are activities to promote trust and focus on the work at hand.

– Need LOTS of big paper and a process of documenting Group Thought, and of sharing it.

– Difference between Dialogue and Discussion• Share “ZCI” examples

– Levels of Decision Making when they come up.

Connectors are key activities to open a meeting: They Build trust in the group, deepen

relationships, increase emotional intelligence’ Open up relationships (like us today, we may

not know each other at all) Focus us on the work at hand in an active

engaging fashion. And no one sleeps or is correcting papers! Some examples of 30 second Connectors…

• What if your topic was your grade level teams and developing norms, a connector could be:

• “What was your best team experience growing up? What made it so positive?”

Other purpose of connectors- ▪ Build group energy▪ Practice listening skills▪ Create laughter▪ Enhance trust▪ Shared Purpose

• Now think amongst yourselves- • A meeting, its purpose what could be a connector to design?

Also, read the intimacy level of the group – how well do they know each other?

Now that you’ve connected, you’ve laughed you’ve deepened relationships…

Meaningful Meetings:Have an agenda, goal, and norms

(GOLDS need this)

Have an opportunity to share & connect(BLUES need this)

Have flexibility built in, activity, variety(ORANGES need this)

Have research, articles, process time (GREENS need this)

A perfect example- Your staff has an agenda item to review your mission statement or your values.

CRUCIAL POINT- Have you differentiated whether they are

in…

DISCUSSION or DIALOGUE

But aren’t those the same?????

OH no!!

Such an important and often overlooked item!

Be CLEAR with staff…. If you are in..

1.Dialogue- Divergent We are openly talking and informing everyone, to gain a mutual understanding of all sides.

2.Discussion- Convergent We have reviewed all the sides and need to make a decision, reach consensus and move on.

Now that you’ve gone through D&D, you now need to make sure you’ve established what level of decision making that the staff is in.

Several Levels- Be clear!! Which level is this decision under?

Level 1- I decideLevel 2- I decide with input from you

Level 3- We decide togetherLevel 4- You decide with input from me.

Level 5- You decideREFLECT- Where was a time you sat in a meeting that was either Dialogue and you thought it was Discussion or the Level of Decision Making was not clearly stated.

Basically there are three reasons people come and talk to you…..be comfortable asking for clarification.

1. Coach- I’m presenting to you a problem and I’d like to still own it, but I’d like your help.

2. Vent- I need to come and vent so I’ll feel better, just let me unload then I’ll be out of here!

3. Fix- I need you to solve this.

So imagine if there is a gap….could get pretty frustrating for both parties involved.

Our goal today was how to move our staff, things we can implement upon return to change the culture. We learned about learning about ourselves

and one another through True Colors We learned about Leading Effective Meetings

using those TC pieces. ▪ We learned about the importance of connectors.▪ We learned about clarity of Levels of Decisions

Making▪ We learned about Dialogue vs. Discussion and

Purposes for talking to once another.

You must address parking lot concerns at the end of all meetings. Remember especially your BLUES need that validation and open communication.

So what’s in our Parking Lot.

Once I fully understood my GREEN-ness we did voluntary summer reads, some of our/my books have been:

▪ Boy Writers, Ralph Fletcher * Out of Our Minds, Robinson▪ Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink * Making Thinking Visible, Ritchart▪ Global Achievement Gap, Wagner (Excerpts)▪ Drive, Daniel Pink (Excerpts) * Creating Innovators- Wagner▪ 5 Minds for the Future, Gardener * Conferring w/ Readers, Serravallo▪ Morning Meeting Book, Kreite

Celebrate yourself while ensuring the others!!How will your color show as a school leader? FINAL

REFLECTION EXERCISE. Share with a neighbor.

This is all available on my Wiki- http://russfacione.wikispaces.com/

BLC12+Conference

Please contact me and I’d be happy to help via coaching co-presenting or presenting for your building.

Russ Facione- Principal Bingham Farms Elementary School

248 203 3388 Officerf03bps@birmingham.k12.mi.us