The Power of Conversation

Transforming Principals into Great Leaders

Barbara Kohm

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781317429227
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Powerful conversations facilitate powerful thinking. In The Power of Conversation, seasoned educator Barbara Kohm provides principals and mentors with a roadmap for growing into great leaders and transforming ordinary schools into great ones. Designed to harness the power of focused professional conversation, this book uses dialogues between a principal and a mentor or colleague to explore everyday school dilemmas, such as scheduling, discipline, budgeting, and instructional challenges. Each chapter explores transformational themes, provides strategies and guidelines for leaders to apply in their own schools, and includes reflective exercises. This book engages an accessible and thoughtful way for principals to talk about complicated issues, deepen thinking, develop skills, and fuel transformational leadership.

1
Building Trust

Honesty and Clarity Are More Important Than Perfection

Outstanding principals build their success on a foundation of integrity. Teachers, parents, and students trust them because their words match their deeds; they honor commitments and say the same thing to all listeners. The trust they build enables them to successfully move through the inevitable rough patches of transforming schools.

Most principals want to match words with deeds and honor commitments. But because they’re responsible to so many constituencies and face such complex problems, many find it difficult to be as clear and consistent as they’d like. As a result, other people assume selfish motives and perceive them as duplicitous. This lack of trust hampers their ability to lead their schools in positive directions.

In this chapter principals and their mentors discuss three ways to build trust in their communities:

• thinking out loud;
• separating intentions from actions and results;
• moving from an open door to an open school.

Thinking Out Loud

Principal: Kyle is the new principal of Oakville Middle School

Mentor: Catherine is a retired principal assigned to Kyle as a mentor

On a hot July day Kyle walked down the hall of Oakville Middle School, greeted the secretary, and exchanged a few words with the custodian. His heart pounded as he slid into the comfortable chair behind the large maple desk in his new office. He could hardly believe his luck. He had landed the job of middle school principal in one of the most innovative school districts in the area. He couldn’t wait to introduce some ideas he’d been experimenting with at his old school where he’d been a science teacher and assistant principal.

During the summer Kyle held conferences with teachers and thought he had a good idea of the issues facing the school. At his old school, he’d initiated a conversation about grading practices and how they affected student achievement. This study led to changes in their grading system that contributed to increased student achievement. He was eager to begin a similar conversation at Oakville.

In August, Kyle received a call from his assigned mentor, Catherine Hill, a retired principal from a nearby district. He’d heard good things about her and the transformation she led at her old school. They set up a meeting in September. Catherine suggested Kyle buy a journal and record any observations, thoughts, and questions he’d like to discuss.

When Catherine arrived on a Monday in September, she noticed there was already student work up in the halls. School was in full swing. She checked in with the secretary and as she waited for Kyle, she noticed how efficiently and warmly the secretary dealt with parents and students who came in the office. Kyle ushered her into his office, asked her to sit down, and offered her coffee.

Catherine: I like what you’ve done with this office. I can see you’re a reader. Me too. We’ll have to exchange book titles. I’m also impressed with the student work I saw in the halls and the warmth and efficiency with which your secretary handled parents and students.
How has the first month been?

Kyle: Great! I get the feeling teachers really care about student learning and seem open to new ideas. There have been a lot of new initiatives in recent years. I think some teachers are scrambling to keep up. There have also been a number of changes in leadership. While everyone is welcoming, I suspect they are taking a wait-and-see attitude about me. I think I’ll have to prove myself.

Catherine: Keen observations. What’s next on your agenda?

Kyle: Teachers work hard to design effective learning activities. What’s missing is a deeper look at how these activities are connected and ways structures such as grading might be affecting student achievement.

Catherine: How might you begin?

Kyle: The staff meets once a week after school for 45–60 minutes. Most of that time is spent on announcements and planning for future events. I’d like to change meetings to every other week for two hours. I’d reduce the number of announcements and make time for the faculty to learn together. I’d like to begin with discussions about the structures that affect students learning. We could start with how we grade student work.

Catherine: You’ve obviously given this a lot of thought, but I’m a little cautious. Grades are the foundation on which so much of traditional middle school education is based and you said some teachers are already feeling overwhelmed. I know you’re eager to get started but you might want to go slowly. Why don’t you start by journaling about some ways you might organize those discussions?

Kyle: Do you want me to write about anything specific?

Catherine: Just your ideas about how you would organize the meetings. It might be useful to read about dialogue in The Adaptive School: A Sourcebook for Developing Collaborative Groups by Robert Garmston and Bruce Wellman.¹

When Kyle and Catherine met in late October fall was in the air and the school was abuzz with activity.

Catherine: What’s happened since we last met?

Kyle: I’ve had a few parent complaints and discipline problems, but nothing major. As you suggested, I mapped out some possible staff agendas based on what I read about dialogue in The Adaptive School. The Oakville teachers have been working together as a team for a long time, so I’m not anticipating any problems.

Catherine: That sounds good, but before you get started, it might be useful to list any obstacles you think you might encounter.

Kyle: I don’t know what you mean.

Catherine: It’s always useful when launching a new initiative to slow down and think about potential obstacles, so you can avoid or prepare for them. This is particularly useful when you don’t think there are obstacles. In my experience they’re always are. It’s just that you don’t always see them. Some teachers might think these conversations are a waste of time, others might say they’ve been grading the same way for a long time with no complaints so why change.

Kyle: I see what you mean. I’ll give it a shot. I’m hoping to start some preliminary conversations in November.

When they met in November, winter had begun and Kyle’s honeymoon was over. Discipline referrals had increased, more parents were complaining, and many faculty conversations had become contentious. The faculty now seemed an obstacle rather than an engine of reform. Several teachers questioned Kyle’s motives for initiating the conversations about grades; trust in his leadership was eroding. Teacher resistance was now at the head of the obstacles list Kyle made for Catherine.

Catherine: You look worried. What’s going on?

Kyle: Our faculty discussions about grades have grown fractious. A few teachers seem interested, but most are questioning my motives for initiating these conversations. They think I have a hidden agenda. The math teachers assume I already have in mind the changes in grading I want to make and have organized the conversations to get them to buy in to decisions I’ve already made. When I say that’s not true, they don’t believe me. It’s disheartening. I think of myself as a trustworthy guy.

Catherine: That’s how I’ve experienced you. Explain again why you are organizing these conversations.

Kyle: Like you and I discussed, I want to begin an exploration of the strengths and weaknesses of our current grading system. I don’t have anything specific in mind. I just want us to explore the assumptions on which we base our practice. The conventional wisdom is that grades motivate students to do better. I wonder if that’s true. I want to see where our conversation leads us. We may or may not make any changes, but I hope we’ll have a better understanding of the role grades play in our educational process when we’re done. I want to use our time together to discover how our organizational structures affect student learning.

Catherine: Have you shared your thinking with the faculty?

Kyle: Not yet.

Catherine: Kyle, you have great ideas, you’re a deep thinker, and you sincerely care about the education you offer students. It would be helpful if you shared those ideas and the thinking behind them with your faculty. Tell them what you just told me about exploring assumptions on which they base their practice. If you developed the habit of thinking out loud, you’d go a long way toward building the trust you need to move your school forward.

Kyle: I’m not sure I know what you mean.

Catherine: Thinking out loud is an important leadership skill. It means explaining the thinking behind your decisions. It means saying things like this:

• The reason I’d like to initiate these conversations is …
• The reason I made that decision is …
• I plan to make a decision later in the week, but first I’d like to hear everyone’s thoughts.
• At this point, I’m considering several options, but I’m not yet ready to make a decision.
• The reason I’m questioning the wisdom of that idea is …
• I’m excited about that idea, but I’m also concerned that …
• I’m still undecided. I could be persuaded to go either way.

As you develop the habit of thinking out loud, you’ll find that concern and suspicion about your motives will melt away. Others won’t always agree with you, but since they know your thinking, they’ll be able to engage in conversations with you that focus on your ideas rather than your personality or motivation. It will have the added benefit of forcing you to clarify your thinking.

When this happens, I predict teachers will begin to trust you, your reputation for integrity will rise, and you’ll be able to create the strong, productive learning culture for Oakville students and teachers you envision. My own motto is to say out loud as much truth as I can stand. When I first started thinking out loud, it was scary. Some of my ideas were not yet fully developed and some turned out to be flat out wrong. But I found people to be very forgiving, particularly if I was clear and stayed open to their ideas. I found I made fewer mistakes and had less pushback when I shared my thinking with folks as we went along.

During the next month, record in your journal opportunities you have to think out loud and the effect thinking out loud has on other people and your own thinking.

Separating Intentions from Actions

Principal: Jessica is a third year principal at Jefferson Elementary School

Mentor: Brad is a veteran principal from another school in her district

Jessica had been principal of Jefferson Elementary for three years when the state department of education designated an adjacent school district as failing. As a result, students from the failing district could be bused to her district. This meant integrating students from an area that had been economically and academically impoverished into her predominately middle class school.

Jessica worked with teachers to make certain the new children and their families felt welcome and their social and academic needs were addressed. For the first month things went pretty well. However, around the middle of October the bus company began to report problems. There were four siblings on the bus: when one got involved in a fight, the others jumped in causing a major disturbance and an unsafe situation for everyone.

When Jessica called the students’ mother, she said her children were doing exactly what she told them to do. She said her neighborhood was a dangerous place and she taught her children to defend one another. She thought it would be confusing if she suddenly told them to stop. Jessica was stuck. She didn’t trust the mother’s solution, and the mother didn’t trust hers.

During her first two years as principal of Jefferson Elementary, Jessica had benefited from conversations with Brad, a veteran principal from another school in her district. She e-mailed Brad and set up a Skype session.

Jessica: Thanks, Brad, for taking time to talk to me. I have a bus problem. It started out small but has blown up into an issue I’m spending too much time on and getting nowhere. Even worse, I think I’m eroding rather than building trust with this family. They have four siblings that ride the bus together. The bus company called to report that squabbles or downright fights occur almost daily involving these students. The situation is unsafe for them and everyone else. I’ve tried exacting punishments but Mom always undermines me by insisting her kids are doing exactly what she’s taught them to do—defend one another. This puts me in an adversarial position with her and erodes the trust I’ve worked so hard to build with ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Meet the Author
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1. Building Trust Honesty and Clarity Are More Important Than Perfection
• 2. Establishing and Maintaining Focus Knowing What Not to Do Is as Important as Knowing What to Do
• 3. Developing a Learning Culture From Fixing People to Building Capacity
• 4. Building a Competent, Cohesive Faculty The Whole Is Bigger Than the Sum of Its Parts
• 5. Building a Collegial Culture No More Insiders and Outsiders
• 6. Making Purposeful Decisions The Building Blocks of a Cohesive Culture
• 7. Resolving Conflicts Avoiding Winners and Losers
• 8. Planning Meetings Learning and Leading Together
• 9. Collecting and Using Data What Story Does Your Data Tell?
• 10. Improving Curriculum and Instruction From Creating Orthodoxies to Continual Change