Teamwork and collaboration

Harvey,Bearley and Corkum - Core steps in decision making - required reading - view that implementation must be part of decision making and problem solving. It is easy to discuss problems and make decisions - much harder to implement the solution. Thought the 6 step approach of value - particularly the Mind Set - the first part of how to think about the problem is probably the most important - what attitude do you bring to the problem? What do you think of it? Approach to the problem probably marks one's behaviour throughout the further 5 steps. In the organisational context - a sense of vision or mission in the organisation will make arrival at solution easier. Having no vision could make the process reactionary and negative.
Article goes on to describe the sort of problems that may arise - puts them into categories. What does the TL face? Probably all 4 at different times - TL needs to recognise what they are facing and how to deal with each situation whether it be an improvement or a new venture. As the TL is in a central position in the school, a number of different problems are likely to arise.
Hough and Paine - Collabortive decision making with teams - required reading - collaborative and collegiate methods - preferred methods in teams to resovle problems. Interesting discussion about committees not being such successful problem solvers in schools. Agree with this having worked with principals who believe every problem can be solved by forming a committee meaning that there is a plethora of committees but still no solution.
Collaborative processes require a principal who believes in collaboration and allow such decision making to take place. Team work goes hand in hand with collaboration not committees.
Forming, storming, norming and performing mentioned - current principal loves this process and constantly raises it at meetings - I'm not sure that we ever get to performing as there are so many changes to our daily/weekly/monthly lives.
Law and Glover - Leading effective teams - required reading - finally found out who created the development model for teams - Tuckman in 1965 - as mentioned above, current principal loves it to death. Article made more sense of it to me than principal.
Team roles p.82, found this very informative - helps put into perspective role of TL in teams - group dynamics - how does TL's role as a non-teaching classroom/subject teacher, work within a team? - caused a lot of reflection - TL needs to be flexible and collaborative perhaps more than others. If the reliance on individual skills may undermine team work, then it really does require a conscious effort in making the team work.
p.84 empathy, warmth, genuineness, concreteness - good basis for describing quality of relationships in leadership in teams
Beck and Yeager - Making teams work:an underused window of opportunity - required reading - have seen some of points about why teams fail - p.184 - gimmick approaches - someone read somewhere so let's try it. Discuss it in the team and then feel good about it - move away back to desk and what has changed? Not much. Requires vigilance that TL ensures new or old ways of making teams work are developed in a team spirit and constantly and carefully checked to ensure success.
p.188 - a team of 4 also means there is one more - the actual team or group of 4. interesting concept as the group can have a life of its own. Need to know how to diagnose the group's needs and how what sort of leadership style suits that group. I would add that there is a need to understand how that group fits into and relates to the whole of the school.
p.193 - shared responsibility , clearly empowered team members, clarity about who else will be involved in decisions and a leader who actively facilitates communication to build trust - team will work. A critical paragraph for my understanding of leadership skills fr a TL.

Response to forum comment 22 March 2011

Noted a post on forums which I found deserved a response but have chosen to add to blog. The writer questioned the necessity to spell words including pharaoh and hieroglyphic (both of which were spelled incorrectly) asking if it mattered if her daughter could spell those words. She queried whether students should know Pythagoras' theorem and how to multiply fractions without a calculator. She thinks these things are becoming obsolete as everyone can 'google it'. Further the writer thinks that one can change jobs every year not just stay in the same job for years and that students should not be forced to stay at school so that the 'government can claim low unemployment rates'. Spelling - language is living - it changes according to many things but most of all usage. Spelling and grammar will change over time, words come and go, but if youth does not have the basis of the structure including spelling, they may find it very hard to understand requirements in the workforce, written instructions in areas of safety, laws, tax etc. Pharaoh and hieroglyphic - it may not matter to some, but the Egypitan culture from whence these words originate, gave much to our society and it is worth respecting the knowledge we have now that came from them. To spell or not to spell correctly - it does help to understand much that came before. much that we need to know and much that will come after (even in a changed form). Pythagoras - well I was never much good at maths but I appreciate how much of our world revolves around mathematics (the writer didn't mention science which surprises me as so much of my world is made up of scientific matter!) It may not appear to matter now but many trades require mathematics as a basis for the skills therein and Pythagoras may matter. How do we know at a Year 9 level of school. If the student does not have that information they may not gain the qualification and therefore the skill, later. Fractions in your head - sharpens the mind - the brain is probably the most underutilised organ in our body - use it. If a person wants to change jobs every year - boy would they have to be well equipped with knowledge and skills. Schools are there to provide students with that knowledge - we are there to provide and guide. There are many faults with our schooling system but that is the intention. To 'google it' - well whatever you want may appear to be there but isn't this what TLs are supposed to be doing - teaching students not only how to find the information but to determine its authenticity, veracity, accuracy - does this really answer my question and if not what else do I need and how can I decide if it is appropriate? Spelling is my bug bear - I am tired of having to ask students in grade 5 what they mean - it is a critical part of communication in language - whether Pharaoh is important or not isn't the issue