We know high-functioning teams have great impact on student learning.  How might we grow in our strategic teaming to commit to the good, hard work it takes to meet the needs of our learners?

Last year during Pre-Planning, we began our intentional work to strengthen faculty teams (see Strategic Teaming: 3 Big Ideas Learning Communities Embrace for details.)

Today, we asked each team to review and discuss the 3 Big Ideas high-functioning teams embrace along with the 4 key questions these same teams routinely ask themselves.

 

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As we grow in our leadership, teaming, and collaboration, how might we learn more?

In today’s session, we used the first 4:15 and the last 0:45 of Julian Treasure’s How to speak so that people want to listen.

I hope our teams will return to the talk to watch what we skipped.  The big takeaways for me are

• …spreading sunshine and lightness in the world.
• …authenticity…standing in your own truth.
• …what would the world be like if we were creating sound consciously and consuming sound consciously and designing all our environments consciously for sound? That would be a world that does sound beautiful, and one where understanding would be the norm, and that is an idea worth spreading.

Strong teams regularly self-assess how well they function within their norms – the hopes and dreams for how they are when together.

Each team had a quick open discussion of their work, successes, and struggles with last year’s norms.  We strive to strengthen our teaming by setting new norms.We turned to another expert and provocateur by watching the first 5:45 of The Myth of Average: Todd Rose at TEDxSonomaCounty.

 How might we dramatically expand our talent pool?

Each team worked to update their norms and discuss tools they might use to hold to these norms and provide feedback when necessary.

As Marsha Harris and I closed this Pre-Planning session, we wanted to  connect to Tuesday’s Division Meetings.

We hope to model the connectedness, commitment, and collaboration we seek in our teaching teams. Maryellen Berry and Rhonda Mitchell both closed their faculty meetings by showing Android: Monotone as a metaphor and message.

One fear we encounter while forwarding the tenets of professional learning communities is the perceived loss of autonomy.  We wanted to send the message

Be together; not the same.

To reinforce and support Maryellen and Rhonda’s message, Marsha and I showed Android: The Making of “MonoTune.” In the above video, Ji makes it look easy.  It’s not.

When we are in harmony and in unison but we are all distinctly different, that’s when magic happens in the world.

Be together; not the same.

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GoogleMobile. “Android: Monotune.” YouTube. YouTube, 15 Feb. 2016. Web. 12 Aug. 2016.

GoogleMobile. “Android: The Making of “Monotune”” YouTube. YouTube, 15 Feb. 2016. Web. 12 Aug. 2016.