While skimming over Twitter posts this morning, I came across a link from a colleague to a book on having fierce conversations with colleagues. Within our leadership work in education in recent times, much has been said, written and done about ‘courageous’ conversations. I’ve been involved in professional learning myself on how to communicate your concerns to colleagues, without having the issues lost in a sea of off-topic talk, or in spin that attempts to make you feel like you said what you wanted to say, while not upsetting anyone. When the conversation is not ‘courageous’ it often either doesn’t happen, gets aggressive, or is so passive that the person you are speaking to doesn’t perceive the need to change.
The post this morning sparked a thought within me. It’s probably one that plenty of other people have already had, but I’m writing about it now because it’s the first time it’s really entered my consciousness. So far, much of our work in promoting courageous conversations has been within our leadership team. It is important that our leadership teams can have courageous conversations, certainly, but to only focus on the leadership team can only be a starting point. Otherwise, it can contribute a culture where the leadership team ‘are in charge’, that they always know what should be done, and will tell you what to do and what not to do.
If we’re serious about collegiality and the professional contributions of every teacher, then every teacher needs to be able to have a courageous conversation. If they can’t, you often end up in the situation where staff are complaining amongst themselves about directions taken within the school, or about other colleagues, rather than naming the issues that are getting in the way of learning and a positive school environment. Many school leaders (and I know I’ve had this experience myself in the past) can at times feel like they’re in an information vacuum, where no one is prepared to tell them (or doesn’t know how to tell them) directly what concerns they have, and the only way of finding out is along the grapevine from your more sympathetic colleagues, or when the whole situation blows up suddenly. Everyone needs to develop the skill set required for contributing to the ongoing professional conversation that takes place in a school. It would also then empower staff to see themselves as part of the solution, rather than part of a problem.
It's Crowded in Here 