"Culture eats strategy for breakfast." ~Peter Drucker
This quote summarizes the importance of culture in an organization. On December 12, 2017, Dr. Shelly Dunaway, Executive Principal at Two Rivers Middle, and her staff used the collaborative inquiry process to analyze culture and climate data for informing culture and climate change at Two Rivers Middle.
The meeting began with a strategy called visual synectic. In this strategy, two seemingly unalike ideas are compared. It is an excellent brainstorming activity and helps develop psychological safety at the beginning of the meeting. For this meeting, staff members engaged in a conversation about "culture is like Walt Disney World because...."
After activating and engaging staff members in the conversation about culture, the staff participated in the culture and climate data dive. During the data dive, staff members were asked to make observations of the following culture and climate data sets:
The observations were organized and integrated using the Traffic Light protocol (Lipton & Wellman, 2012) to discuss what might be some next steps to stop, continue, and start for Spring 2018.
If you'd like to learn more about their work, go here: www.mnpscollaboration.org/two-rivers-dec-2017-culture-and-climate.html
A BIG SHOUT OUT and THANK YOU to everyone who has been part of the MNPS Collaborative Inquiry work as you are part of work that's being recognized nationally by others.
Lipton, L., & Wellman, B. (2011). Groups at work: Strategies and structures for professional learning. Sherman, VT: MiraVia, LLC.
You might see that acronym BHAG and be thinking......"what in the world does that mean?" Well, Cole Elementary has brought BHAGs to their school (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) as a way of having "unrelenting focus, clarity of thought, consistent communication, alignment of resources, innovation, discipline, and teamwork" (Sparks, 2007, p. 13).
Cole Elementary started the year with a literacy BHAG and decided to create a BHAG for math. To create the math BHAG, they used the collaborative inquiry process during grade level team meetings to get teacher voice about the math BHAG. Once the teachers' BHAGs were compiled, the leadership team met to finalize the math BHAG. Then, on November 16th, grade level teams are meeting to collaboratively develop action plans for achieving their math BHAG.
To read more about their BHAG work, go here: www.mnpscollaboration.org/cole-elem-bhag-fall-2017
Cole Elementary also participated in the SEL Culture and Climate Walk-through. On November 6th, the collaborative inquiry process was used to help them analyzed the data and discuss actions they might stop, continue, and start to continue working on the culture of the building.
To learn more about that exciting work, go here: www.mnpscollaboration.org/cole-elem-culture-and-climate--2016.html
If you have a collaborative story to share or would like to request assistance, please contact Margie Johnson at firstname.lastname@example.org.
Sparks, D. (2007). Leading for results: Transforming teaching, learning, and relationships in schools. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
The culture and climate work at John Early Museum Middle continued on November 2, 2016. Dr. Margie Johnson used the collaborative inquiry process with grade level teams to develop draft vision and mission statements. These statements will be used by the leadership team to revise, edit, and finalize the vision and mission statements.
Activating and Engaging
What is your Vision for John Early Museum Middle Magnet?
Exploring and Discovering
Organizing and Integrating
Draft Vision and Mission Statements
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