Trust Me

A recent report published by the Pew Research Center examined the public perception of trust in people that hold various positions of power. (You can read the Washington Post article on it here) The report found that the public has lost trust in many traditional positions of power. Despite that, one position did surprisingly well in the survey. School principals rated consistently high or highest in all parts of the survey. That's interesting, but I don't think that the story should stop there. School principals are extensions of the school. Nothing that I say would matter, if the teachers and other adults in the building did not validate those words through actions. I can say that we want the best for your child, but it is usually others in the school that perform the tasks of teaching, caring, feeding, clothing and all of the many other aspects expected of educators today for students.

In a world that seems more divided and jaded than ever, the public seems to have a renewed trust in the adults that their children spend the most time with. This is exactly why we have to continue communicating with families, no matter how hard it is to fit that into our schedules. It is easy to be anxious or nervous about calling home, with thoughts of what may happen on the other end of the line. And while every experience may not be a great one, that shouldn't stop the important work of talking to families about their child's progress in school. This has been something that I've tried to push for a few years now, and since then, I've had numerous teachers who either did or did not receive information from their own child's school tell me how important they realized communication was as a parent.

People believe what I say, because of what you do. My words without your actions would lead to distrust. This survey simply validates the work that our school and so many others are doing to include families in the education of their children, rather than it being our responsibility alone. So trust me, your efforts matter.

Teams

I recently read that basketball was the sport where teamwork and coaching mattered least, and individual talent mattered most. The argument was that while a football or soccer team of average players can overcome a team of less than average players with one star, a basketball team with one star can often do very well. I talked with Coach Edwards about this and he quickly agreed, especially in today's NBA. He talked about how NBA players often get confused when they play international teams because the international teams still utilize a more teamwork-styled play.

Despite the fact that a star can make a difference, it's still very important that the star be with the right team. Victor Oladipo is a great example. While with the Magic, he averaged between 13 to 17 points per game over three years. He then goes to the Thunder for one year and averages just under 16 points per game. But when he moves to the Pacers, he finds the right fit on the right team and the same player now averages 23 points per game. That's a huge difference. Being on the right team has been studied quite a bit in the working world as well. One study showed that surgeons perform much better at one hospital over another despite their years of experience. The same can be said of pilots. A study found that 75% of airplane crashes happen when the pilot is put with a new crew. Even sleep-deprived flight crews and pilots dramatically outperform crews that do not usually work together.

So with all that this tells us, why do we focus on individual success and improvement? Doing that seems a little counter-productive. If we take lessons from the research, we should probably be focusing on how well our teams work together. Everything shows that this leads to individual improvement of all of the team members and wins for the group as a whole. This concept in education probably isn't that strange for elementary or middle school teachers. But the higher up in grade levels you go, the more you start to see teachers focus more on what is going on in their own rooms. But when you do see high school teachers that reach beyond their rooms to build a functioning team, great things tend to happen. So the next time you are sitting at a department meeting, ask yourself what all you are doing to build your team. Chances are, it's the single most important thing that you can
do to improve your own performance.

Disagreeable

When is it ok to disagree with your boss? It's a strange question and probably has more to do with the relationship you have with your boss and the culture of the organization than it does with the reason for disagreement. While this question usually brings about the idea of a confrontational or uncomfortable meeting, employees also do this in many other ways. Perhaps the most prevalent method is being passive-aggressive. We've all done it. We find ourselves putting off a task or doing a particularly bad job at something that we didn't agree with doing in the first place. We all have to admit that we have probably been guilty of that at some point and getting called on it is never fun.

But aside from being passive-aggressive, there are constructive ways to disagree with the boss of your organization in general that can lead to greater productivity. Most organizations fall under one of two categories. They can either be relational-oriented organizations that care most about the people or they can be task-oriented organizations that care most about getting stuff done. Despite the fact that they may not fit in, having people that are the opposite of the culture can be pretty important. Having leaders that are opposite of the organization culture can produce huge results. The problem is, we don't usually like those people. The principal that only cares about test scores would be hated by the teachers that work hard to build relationships. Likewise, the principal that worked hard to love and care for everyone, may not get good results for the school or value the teachers that do
. Every organization needs balance.

This week we will elect our School Improvement Team that will help guide our decisions for the next two years. I always like it when there are one or two people on that team that have the guts to question decisions and make us think about why we do the things that we do. I don't always agree, but I enjoy having to think about whether the decision is worth defending.

I encourage you to think about your classrooms in the same way. If you're getting pushback on an assignment or a practice, think about why we do it. If your only defense is, "because I said so" or "because I'm in charge," you might want to think about the practice a bit deeper. Sometimes having that misfit can make you improve in ways that you didn't quite understand before.