Teams have been such a huge part of my life. Hockey teams, leadership teams, teacher teams, family teams, friend teams, hockey mom teams, coaching teams… and they are everything to me. It has been these types of communities that have held me up when I needed it the most, pushed me when I needed a nudge, and cheered me on when I scored or assisted a goal. Teams have been the root of my success, my goals, and also, a boost to my mental health.
It got me thinking about how teams affect my leadership and success of learning in our school, and the powerhouse that those teams are when we start and implement them effectively and intentionally. Let’s talk about how to craft the perfect types of teams so that you can walk away knowing exactly how to get people into your world, sitting at your table, and become lifelong action takers and team members.
Teams are so necessary for so many reasons. Like I mentioned before, teams lift you up, nudge you, and cheer you on. But there is even more benefits of having powerful teams in your leadership and your life. Teams help you to find clarity with next steps to take because there are like minded people at the table unpacking ideas for a common goal. Not to mention, there are more people, which means more work can get done, and more ground can be covered in a collaborative way. In other words, this leadership thing does not have to be all on you! Different types of teams require different experts and gurus to make things happen. This is because it is a passion of theirs and it also helps the people on those teams to grow and learn from each other. Teams are community. This means that leadership doesn’t have to be that lonely place that so many of us talk about in our own leader lives. It takes a village….and we need a village. We simply cannot do it alone. But, it is how we build that village and different types of communities that surround us that can be the ticket to more passion and purpose. So let’s dig into that.
It is one thing to say teams are important. You already knew that… and you probably have a lot of different teams happening within your school. Teams such as grade teams, vertical teams, leadership teams, admin teams, social coordinator teams, etc. But are they working to their potential? Are they even going at all, or is everyone just doing their own thing? Don’t get me wrong, there is a time and place to work alone but there are even more times that effective, efficient collaborative teams could make things a whole lot easier. Here is a system that has worked wonders for our school on how to build productive, efficient teams that make an impact and are sustainable:
Step 1: Decide the types of teams you need in your school with your leadership team and decide on the purpose for the teams. As an admin team, sit down and make a list of the types of teams that require some major A+ effort to make things happen around the school. So for us, some of our A+ teams are grade/department teams, vertical teams, team leader teams, admin teams, etc. Then make a list of the teams or committees that require more of a B+ effort and don’t need to meet as much. For example, these might be sports teams, art clubs, patrollers, etc.
Step 2: Co-construct expectations as a whole staff on what is important when contributing to teams. Go into your whole school meetings and do a mini lesson on the importance of effective, efficient teams and how they build communities. Have your staff write down all the teams in their lives and let them discuss with each other how these teams impact their lives. Give them time to talk and realize that teams are one of the keys to helping them and making them happier in their lives. Next, talk about how we can set up a more intentional teamwork type of community within the school to make more of an impact. As a whole school, co-construct criteria on what is important when contributing to teams. It acts as a to learn, to do, to prove blueprint for all the teams so that everyone is on the same page. This criteria list becomes a type of contract to hold people to the expectations everyone set. This criteria list that was co-constructed as a whole group then matters to everyone because they were the ones who created it. Once you have that list, you always come back to it to reflect and refine and perhaps redirect to those expectations when needed.
Step 3: Have each team declare an outcome that they want for short or long term. Once your teams are created which you can designate or perhaps some teams will be a choice, have them set one result they want to get. Notice I said one result, not a bunch of results. Remember less is more. Have them set their top result they want to get that would make a huge impact for their team.
Step 4: Carve out space for them to meet or set up a structure for them to meet that is not on their own time. I like to call it Tiger Time. This is so important. Teams that are expected to meet on their own time usually will not work or will not produce the best work. This is because they have other teams to get to. Teams like mom teams, family teams, sports teams, etc and those are important too. If you make your school teams happen within school hours then you will get better work, focus, productivity, efficiency and overall happier team members. So for our school, we set up timetables so that each grade team will meet for one hour and a half hours each week during school hours. We make sure that those team members have a common prep attached to a lunch so they can meet. It is tricky, but has been a game changer in productivity, efficiency, overwhelm, and has made the teams so much happier. Our district has an expectation that we meet for one hour staff meetings after school. So…we decided to only do this once a month and that it was going to be a short gathering time as a whole school for a quick mini lesson and the rest would be dedicated to teams. If we didn’t have to meet every week, we just didn’t because the work wasn’t going to happen anyway because it was always on borrowed time rather than during school hours. People were checking out. So for us, we knew that once a month was doable and that we would dedicate it to teams and support for each other. By giving them back some time to meet in teams on school time and not their own time, will automatically boost the effectiveness of their teams. It also motivates people to live up to the expectations of work during team tiger time because you have committed to respecting their time. Therefore you can ask for that same respect back because they know you value their time.
Step 5: Develop a system for them to set a goal to conquer a top priority, three step by step actions to work towards it, and teach them how to collect evidence along the way. This is huge! As leaders, you know the power of systems and structures to make clear roadmaps to make things happen, to help support, and to delegate. If people know what is expected and know the clear next step, then it is not as overwhelming. Therefore, it is important to teach them a system so that they can make their desired results happen in an efficient and productive way. I teach a proven problem solving system called the Leadership Edit System in my digital course called School Administrator’s Academy. It is a system that teaches leaders how to solve a schoolwide top priority, how to use the same system to teach teachers how to solve their own top priority in teams and independently, and how to use this system to empower teacher leaders, get teachers coaching each other, and how admin can support teachers inside the classroom. It is a system that we use over and over again each year that has built more resilient, solution seeking team members. The doors open for enrollment in Jan, 2022.
Step 6: Make your mini lessons and staff meetings less about the next best program or initiative and more about habits to boost productivity and efficiency. We all want to be more productive and efficient, and within that we can choose what we focus we want to be more productive and efficient with. If we teach the habits then it will free up more time for them to prioritize what they need to learn about or implement. Now you might be saying, “Ok great Jacealyn. But what types of habits should I be teaching them and when do I have time to do this?” Great question. I suggest you do these mini lessons on productivity and efficiency inside of your staff meetings or professional development sessions. But only for 15 minutes and then send them to work on an action step. So often, people just want to use their time more effectively so they can have their lives back but they just don’t know how. By teaching them these habits it will not only affect what they get done in their teams but how they approach their time professionally and personally. This will eventually allow them to feel less overwhelm.
Now let me walk you through a few examples of what you might teach them in productivity and efficiency. Teach them how to goal set by setting up mile markers, three actions, and deadlines. You also want to teach them how to measure their progress and teach it to others. You might also want to touch on ways to organize or declutter classroom, lessons, or digital files, how to run meetings efficiently, how to set and implement action steps, how to batch your time, how to implement tiger time, etc. By the way, tiger time is where you focus on one thing only for a couple of hours and you get it done. I always talk to my community about ways to work on their passion and purpose outside of school as well and we learn about ways to schedule in tiger times for them to work on their passion projects too.
Step 6: Set up time for them to celebrate or share out their hard work at least 2-3 times a year. Set up a structure to notice and celebrate the hard work that your teams are doing. Carve out times in staff meetings and professional learning times to have them coach each other and share their evidence of hard work. You can even set up a google drive for them to post their roadmaps and where they are at on their roadmaps. So much of team work is about building community so build times for different teams and communities to come together….with food of course! Because we all know teams need healthy fuel as well!
Alright now you have a plan to make your teams way more intentional. So let’s get to the action steps. Here’s your action item. Make a loose plan of when you’re going to work on step one which is setting up teams and the intentions for your teams with your admin team. Set a date, put it on your calendar as a non-negotiable, and show up for it without any other distractions when the time comes. Now, the next step is implementing steps 2-6 once you have a solid plan for delivering your intentions for building your teams.
Holy cow that was a lot to cover but soooooo important! And the reason I say that is that I know team work habits aren’t easy to put into effect. I know you’ve got a lot going on right now. But trust me, this is so worth it in the long run. This is because you will end up with highly productive, efficient teams who are solution seeking, hard working, happier, and have their lives back. Guess what…so will you… because you are not trying to do it all. And the way you move into that, is you start changing the way you show up, and that really lies in the habits that you are committed to. You can get there, my friend, and I hope you’re fired up and feeling ready to tackle that transition into becoming a well-oiled community of team members who all contribute to their teams in the best way possible. Best decision I ever made was learning, teaching, and implementing healthy habits of team work and building community. And I want that for you as well.
Listen, I know it takes time. I know you’ve got to get uncomfortable. I know it’s not convenient. And I do believe something that people don’t talk about enough, it’s going to take some patience. But believe me, if you take the actions and you form the habits that we went over in this blog, I know that you’ll find yourself with teams that you absolutely love, ones that align with who you and your community are and teams that really gives you and your community the lifestyle that you all desire. And that’s my hope and goal for you.
And…have you joined our private facebook group called Principals and Leadership yet? Trust me, you will get so much out of this group because it is all about teaching step by step actions with my motto of…..”How can I break this down even more?”
Listen to our students from our school teach kids all about wellness and healthy habits. It is called Even If You Miss and it is a wellness podcast written by kids for kids. You can subscribe to it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!
Even If You Miss..... 