Transcript Slide 1

Leading a cultural change:
where do you start?
Barbara Laidlaw
Brentwood Secondary College
Watsons Road, Glen Waverley 3150
ph: 8545 0300
fax:8545 0355
[email protected]
Transformational leaders “know what is
wanted, communicate those intentions
successfully, empower others, and know
when and how to stay on course and when
to change”.
Developing and maintaining relationships is
a key part of this process of developing a
shared vision for the future of a school, as
is innovating new ideas and evaluating
their progress and overall effectiveness.
Thomas Sergiovanni, Leadership and Organisational Culture (1984)
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Sergiovanni’s Leadership Domains
Technical
Human
Educational
Symbolic
Cultural
THE-Secondary College
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Technical:
plans, organizes, coordinates,
manages resources.
Human:
supports, encourages, motivates
Educational: professional knowledge about learning,
‘Community of Learners’.
Symbolic:
modelling goals and behaviours,
‘walk-the-talk’, eg, how we speak
to students – please & thankyou
Cultural:
strengthens & articulates values,
beliefs, cultures and traditions.
www.sofweb.vic.edu.au
[Blueprint for Victorian Schools – Building Leadership Capacity]
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November 2002 the position was advertised:
LT2 Information Resources/Library Services Manager
Why did I apply? I
needed a sea-change!
Research the position:
No tour of the school!
No background on the vacancy!
Not much on the library page on the web site!
The ICT manager’s job e-mailed to me!
I walked around the outside of the school on Sunday
morning to try to get ‘something’ about the place!
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Prepare for the interview:
I went into ‘swat for the exam’ mode!
Thankyou to my coaches:
Joy Board - Beaconhills College, Pakenham
Chris Clayton – Cranbourne S.C.
Mary Manning & the SLAV publications
Prepared an ‘Action Plan’ to leave with the panel
for the last question:
“Do you have anything you would like to add?”
(included in your notes)
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History of Brentwood Secondary College
library
Long-serving staff:
1 full time library manager,
1 0.7 Teacher-librarian (2 history classes),
1 0.5 library assistant
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Premise behind decisions affecting the library prior
to the arrival of the current Principal:
Books are ‘out’, the internet is ‘in’.
Therefore:
 no need for much of a budget to waste
on books
 no need for more library staff because
there’s no need to buy many books
Thus 75% of the book stock was >10yrs old
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I came to BSC with a completely different
approach to the library. This was an
opportunity to do things differently.
This was a sideways step on the career
ladder and I was relieved to have a
change of leadership position.
I changed how I thought about my role as
Head of the Library.
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INSIDE-OUT THINKING
“The way we see the problem is the problem.”
“ ‘Inside-out’ means to start first with self; even more
fundamentally, to start with the most inside part of self –
with your paradigms, your character, and your motives.”
“ The ‘inside-out’ approach says that private victories
precede public victories … it is futile to put personality
ahead of character, to try to improve relationships with
others before improving ourselves.”
‘The 7 habits of highly effective people’ by Stephen R. Covey(1990)
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The 3 ‘R’s’ vital for a learning community
Relationships!
Relationships!
Relationships!
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How can I hope to have students and
teachers enjoy coming to the library if I
don’t show that I’m happy to be here too?
Relax > Smile > Chat > Greet them
Every time they come into the
library!
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ESTABLISHING PRIORITIES:
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5.
Have a plan with a time-line
Discuss this with a ‘critical’ but
‘sympathetic’ friend
Get your own ‘house’ in order first
Set short-term goals – the ‘to-do’ list
Keep checking in on your long term
goals
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THE LIBRARY TEAM
1.
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5.
Listen a lot and speak a little
Ask non-judgemental questions
Don’t be comparative about previous
schools
Build trust through building relationships
Act on matters that are important to the
team
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Distributed leadership empowers team members.
Performance Development:
 What are their particular skills and areas of
expertise?
 What PD would they like to undertake?
Make this happen!
Be the ‘guide on the side’ with your staff and not
the ‘sage on the stage’!
Leadership that is genuinely devolved builds
confidence and strengthens your team
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Advertise! Advertise! Advertise!
Success breeds success!
Spread the word about how good your team is!
Praise your staff to students and teachers.
If a colleague thanks you for a job, ask them to
thank your team member who actually made it
happen!
Students are keen observers of adults and they
KNOW what library staff think of each other and
of the teachers.
Big people are the role models for the young
people & they see and hear EVERYTHING
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2006 BSC library team:
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1 full time Library Manager appointed start of Term 2
1 0.7 teacher librarian who has control of the fiction
budget, Premier’s Challenge, Yr 7 program, author visits,
reading club
1 Library Technician: cataloguing, invoices, AV & library
bookings on-line
1 Library Technician: the Library monitors, library
displays, circulation
1 0.5 Library Assistant: AV equipment & off-air recording,
book processing
Integration aides whose students are absent
Use data to support the application for an
increase in staffing
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Staff Difficulties:
 It’s tough – get some PD if you need it & keep a member
of the Principal team informed
 Focus on the work and service to the clientele
 Keep expectations clear and explicit
 OHS and Work-Cover claims – are not personal. Get
independent advice eg a workplace assessor
 Examine your own behaviour & monitor your own
reactions
 Check that Duty Statements accurately reflect the tasks,
including hours of duty
 Get your own copy of the SSO guidelines and check
that you are managing within these
 ‘Behaviour unchallenged is behaviour condoned’
Poor work practices that have become entrenched have
also become normalised. To challenge these will cause
upset.
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Have fun! Share a laugh! Have a joke!
Birthdays
Easter Bunny
Morning Tea on Report Writing days
Go out for Arvo Tea
Have lunch together for ‘special’ birthdays
Most of us spend more time during
the week with work colleagues
than we do with our families!
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LIBRARY SERVICES
‘Outside-in’ approach:
What do library users want and what do they
value?
Focus on customer service because
that is what they will notice!
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Teachers:
 Faculty orders given the highest priority
 Buy the resources they suggest & notify them
when they’ve arrived
 Faculty/Staff meetings in the library to display
new resources
 ‘Books & Bubbly’ gathering
 PLT on Webquests
 Support teachers with planning assignments
 ‘Value added’ – make their time worthwhile
 Discourage any talk of ‘us & them’ in your team
by keeping the focus on student learning
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Finance
 Use data to apply for a budget increase
 Your relationship with the Business
Manager is crucial
 Be accurate & efficient
 Excel spreadsheet of library suppliers
 Excel spreadsheet: Subscriptions
 Accounting Excel Spreadsheet
Improves your tracking of orders
Provides a service to Heads of Faculty
Streamlines your contact with suppliers
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The students: build connectedness with
this ‘click & go’ generation.
(Andrew Fuller)
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Relax with them
Smile
Greet them as they
come into the library
Music before school
Board Games
Chess Club
Robotics
Fiction: browsing
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Use fine money to
buy popular
magazines
Displays
Competitions
Special events
Food: Easter Eggs,
Black Cats
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How do you measure your success with the
students?
 Sheer volume of students in the library at
recreational times, class bookings and
students on passes
 The happy ‘vibe’
 Kids talking to you
 Students putting pressure on the teachers
to book into the library
 The volume of items borrowed
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Brentwood Secondary
College Library
CIRCULATION TOTALS
No of transactions
30000
25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
0
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
Year
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Brentwood Secondary College
Student Borrowing
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22.68
20.08
20
15.20
15
11.17
11.32
2001
2002
10
5
0
2003
2004
2005
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LIBRARY MONITORS
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Distributed leadership – Library Technician
A student leadership position in the college
Have status: celebrate their contribution
graduation from training party
& badge presented by the Principal
Newsletter
School Magazine team photo
Genuine responsibilities
Place to belong for the ‘lost & lonelies’
Develops social skills and confidence through providing
customer service
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The Library Manager as an
educational leader
First: manage yourself!
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Your personal image
Dress code
Work ethic
Work practices
Manner
Relationships
Conversations
What are you saying to the school community about
yourself? Consider the ‘inside-out’ message.
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Contribute to
and lead
educational discourse
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Know your stuff: the Blueprint, The Flagships
Strategies, VELS, PoLTS, D.E.&T. initiatives.
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Read professional journals/newsletters: SLAV ;
the ‘Education Times’, the AEU; the VIT eg, ‘the
Renewal of Registration’ discussion paper.
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‘Inside-out’ thinking: read literature on
educational leadership & change management:
Elmore, Fullan, Hargreaves, Marzano, Perkins,
Sergiovanni.
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Go to the ‘big event’ PD that is on offer, rich and
stimulating.
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Are you the custodian of the sheets
of music or are you the conductor
of the orchestra?
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 Clean
up the library
 Throw out the old books with no ‘pick-up’
attraction for the kids. Be RUTHLESS!
 Create room on the shelves for books that
staff & students are encouraged to ask for!
 Start collecting data: age of the collection;
circulation; loss rate; bookings for library
spaces; numbers of students at lunchtime.
 Make sure that cataloguing is consistent
without being unnecessarily pedantic. Kids
can’t cope with huge Dewey Numbers!
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Master Plan Process: Library design conference
- invite your AP to go with you!
Have a go at using the school’s report package
Join School Council
Get onto the Management Committee
Education Sub-committees
PLTs: Professional Learning Teams
Deliver PD to staff
Talk to ALL staff, visit staff rooms, go to social
gatherings
Get library events onto the school calendar
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 It
is easier to re-create yourself in a
new school coming into a new job
 It
is hard to be a ‘prophet in your own
land’
 You
can do a ‘Lazarus’! It takes
‘inside-out’ thinking, positive self-talk
& energy
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“Cultures do not change by mandate;
they change by the specific displacement
of existing norms, values, structures and
processes by others;
The process of cultural change depends
fundamentally on modelling the new values and
behaviours that you expect to displace the
existing ones.”
Richard Elmore, 2004
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Applying for a leadership
position
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There are 3 parts to the process
The written application
2. The interview
3. Referees
1.
Research the school: website;
Charter; curriculum; ‘network’ –
ask your contacts.
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The written application:
the purpose of the application is to
get you short-listed for an interview!
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Opening letter: give the panel some
‘flavour’ of who you are, your educational
philosophy and what you bring to the
college.
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CURRICULUM VITAE
 Name
 Home address
 Business address
 Record number
 Classification
 Current (leadership) position
 Qualifications: post-graduate first
 Professional memberships
 Professional work history: chronological order
starting with the most current; include the years
[ 2003 – current; 2002-1997]
 Subjects taught
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Positions of Responsibility Relevant to the
position:
 List chronologically from most recent &
most senior, back. Use the school as the
sub-heading
Professional Development:
 Organise with sub-headings, eg,
Management & Educational Leadership;
Curriculum.
 List chronologically from most recent
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CONFIDENTIAL REFEREES:
Choose carefully
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Principal/AP – your leadership
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Peer – collegial relationship & significant
understanding of your work
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Library team member
1. Professional courtesies: inform Principal; ask
the referee in person; give referees a copy of
application; indicate particular areas you want
them to emphasise.
2. Gender balance.
3. Tell all referees when you are short-listed or
you receive notification that you will not be
interviewed.
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SELECTION CRITERIA
 Don’t
‘exaggerate’.
 All examples used must be able to be
substantiated.
 Avoid repetition and don’t pad it out
 Avoid empty ‘EDUSPEAK’!
 Have the application edited
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SELECTION CRITERIA cont:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
A.T.Q.! Answer the Question!
Include aspects of the Duty Statement through
the answers to the criteria.
Demonstrated capacity: code for ‘can develop
the skills’, ‘not necessarily experienced’, show
the ‘transferable skills’ relevant to the position.
Demonstrated ability: experience to a high
level.
Examples of experience: WHAT you did; WHY;
WHO was involved; HOW did you plan –
implement – evaluate; OUTCOMES.
Use paragraphs and dot-points.
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The interview
1.
2.
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7.
Do your homework.
Questions will come from the selection criteria.
Draft questions & plan responses: vision;
educational trends; library team; charter
priorities; professional learning; student
learning.
Extended answer with follow up questions.
Organise a ‘mock interview’.
You can prepare question/s for the panel.
Prepare a concluding statement to draw the
interview to a positive conclusion.
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Recruitment-on-line:
1.
2.
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5.
6.
7.
Register yourself and elect to be notified of
library positions and/or Leading Teacher
vacancies.
Check your e-mail.
Prepare a basic application as a word doc.
Alter it according to the selection criteria for the
individual school. Check the document to
make sure you use the correct name of the
school.
Copy and paste into the on-line application.
Check with the college that they received your
application.
Send a hard-copy (or more if specified) to
arrive by the closing date.
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GOOD LUCK!
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Are you the custodian
or
are you the conductor?
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