Week 6 Task: Identify a story in your organisation that helps explain issues that need to be addressed.
The Story:
We have a group visiting our school this week. They are looking at how we operate and if our mission statement is borne out in the classroom. The group arrives on Friday and are set to meet the 12 member 'Philosophy and Objectives' (P&O) group first. This meeting is scheduled on a Sunday so they can get a sense of the school's ethos before the observation starts in earnest on Monday. All members of the P&O group are expected to attend. However, one of the P&O members is running an AYP camp program from the Thursday afternoon through to Sunday morning. They have informed him that he is still expected to attend the Sunday afternoon meeting. So he'll arrive back at school after camping with students for three days, go home, wave to his family, have a shower, get dressed and go back to school to sit in a room just to show the visiting team that the school's commitment to it's P&O. He is not the leader or a critical member of the group so his input would be minimal.
The point is:
The irony is that our P&O document talks about respect to individuals. The staff member involved will, in effect, work 13 days straight. Also if that staff member speaks up and airs his grievances to the visiting team, what will they think of a school that forces staff to do that? By trying to show how engaged staff are in the precess they may alienated them. This is a one-off incident, but it goes to show how important context is. It also illustrates the importance of empathy in decision making. Senge's notion of 'Mental Models' is applicable here as the assumptions and understandings of the different players are not clearly stated or understood. Fullan's idea of Moral Purpose is also applicable here as the school management felt they had one I asking staff to attend. The staff possibly felt their 'Moral Purpose' has been clearly covered by a three day camp with students. Both groups felt they were doing something that was making a meaningful impact on the other. So maybe the Moral Purpose needs to tempered with one of Fullan's other ideas, that of 'Relationship Building' and understanding 'Commitment' and what that means. I guess the stronger the relationship, the easier it is to not only understand the commitment boundaries, but also to push those boundaries!
As a Learning Organisation:
The school could use this example to help develop a policy that would prevent issues like this happening in the future. This would empower staff allowing them to point out the policy if they were faced with this situation. It would make it acceptable for staff to 'opt out' of events that see them working prolonged periods of time.
Sources:
Fullan, M. (2009). Motion Leadership: The Skinny on Becoming Change Savvy. SAGE Publications.
Senge, P. M. (2000). Schools that learn: a Fifth Discipline fieldbook for educators, parents, and everyone who cares about education. Doubleday.
Great example of a story Tony - this one incident really illustrates a wider organisational issue.
ReplyDeleteCertainly it seems that individuals at different levels of the organisation are having difficulty at looking at situations from the perspective of others. In the particular incident you cite, management comes of as looking rather hypocritical. As you say, Senge's mental models discipline is particularly useful in this context. Managers would benefit from stepping back and looking at their own assumptions about what they expect from individuals.
Hi Tony，
ReplyDeleteI used to think that often happened in mainland China. I am totally wrong, people in the organization should be seem as good resource not a tool. In your story, your leader treat your colleague as a temporary tool. Individual should be respected as your said, this is the first and important thing the organization should be done.
Hi Tony,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post. The management of your organization needs to put what they concerned into practice. It's true that it's more powerful to show what you do than what you say.
Edward (MITEChange)