Consensus - The "Fist to Five"

Building consensus can be a challenge. While often the preferred way to make decisions, consensus can be fleeting. It doesn't mean that everyone agrees wholeheartedly with the decision, but it does mean that everyone can support the decision. At a minimum, everyone should agree they can live with the decision.

One tool I've found to be useful is "Fist to Five." It can help you seek common ground and is a quick way to assess the support among every participants. Ask every participant to indicate their level of support from a closed fist (no support) to all five fingers (enthusiastic support). Most groups I work with agree that the discussion continues until everyone holds up at least three fingers. Here's the complete set of descriptors adapted from those prepared by Adventure Associates (2009)

Fist	“I need to talk more on the proposal and require changes to support it.”
1 Finger	“I still need to discuss some issues and I will suggest changes that should be made.”
2 Fingers	“I am moderately comfortable with the idea but would like to discuss some minor things.”
3 Fingers	“I’m not in total agreement but feel comfortable to let this idea pass without further discussion.”
4 Fingers	“I think it’s a good idea and will work for it.
5 Fingers	“It’s a great idea and I will be one of those working to implement it.”

I've used "Fist to Five" many times and it is always helpful to gauge the level of support for a decision. I'm convinced that we made a better decision when we worked to build a higher level of support. I'd enjoy hearing from you about how you work with groups to reach agreement. I'd also enjoy learning about your experience using the "Fist to Five" approach.

Summer Hiring

Summer always includes some unexpected personnel changes. Teachers transfer, they move or may take another position. Finding the right people can occasionally be a challenge. When I was a principal I once conducted an interview with a teacher who called from a phone booth in a campground. It was a great interview and I ultimately offered her a job but it certainly was one of the most unique interviews in which I've participated.

Hiring is often guided by district policy but there are some important things you will want to consider. First, develop your selection criteria. Each criterion should be relevant to the work. Differentiate between the skills or characteristics that are required and those that are simply desirable.

Second, create and use a set of standard interview questions. They should be linked to your criteria but open-ended enough so that they provide in-depth information about the candidates. Principals I've worked with have suggested these examples because they don't lend themselves to a single answer and allow you to assess how the candidate responds.

• What do you see as your strengths and how will they help you in this position?
• As you think about your past work experience, what has been your biggest challenge?
• Talk with me about the things you consider when designing a lesson.
• When you're teaching a lesson how do you monitor whether students are learning?
• Imagine you were hired for this position and it is a year later. What was the best part of your first year and what was your biggest challenge?

Finally, follow the same process for every one you interview. Even when you realize early in the interview that a person is not the best fit for the job, you need to respect the candidate and finish the interview. Otherwise they can suggest that they were not given an equal opportunity to share their background and skills.

I also like to send everyone who interviewed a short written note thanking them for applying and considering my school. Even if the person is not a fit for a particular job they might be right for another position in the future.

Schools are basically people places. So it is important to hire the right people and nurture talented employees so that they feel part of the school. That can begin during the interview and hiring process. Asking about student learning and professional growth sends a signal about their importance to you.

I'd enjoy learning from you about your experience with hiring and look forward to hearing from you.

Recommit to Your Personal Vision

The most effective principals possess a clear personal vision. They know themselves and their personal ethic. They also recognize the importance of vision to guide their work with teachers and other school personnel.

The frantic life of a school principal rarely provides time to step back and reflect on those beliefs that shape and guide your personal and professional life. The summer break can be a great time to stop, reflect, and identify those things that contribute to your personal vision for your school.

Preparing a written statement of personal vision provides an opportunity to think about the words you use, to consider their nuances, and to grapple with balancing multiple values and priorities. One principal I worked with described writing a vision statement as “the most challenging thing I ever wrote. But also the most valuable.”

A four-step process can be used to reflect on your own personal and professional life, and to identify those things of greatest value. These insights can be used to develop your personal vision.

Process for Developing a Personal Vision Statement Step 1:Think about your personal and professional life. Make a list of what you would like to achieve and the contributions you would like to make. Describe what it looks like and feels like. For example, hovering in a hot air balloon over your life, imagine it as successful as it might be---what would you see, what would you feel, what would you hear? Step 2:Consider the following things about what you have written---relationships, personal interests, and community. Examine each item in your list to ensure that it still fits. Step 3:Develop a list of values. Identify the most important values in your life. Once this is done, review the list and rank them from most to least important. Remove the least important. Re-rank if appropriate. Check for relevance with your earlier list. Eliminate any item that is not relevant. Step 4:Use the items from the first three steps to develop a statement of personal vision. Review and edit the statement as often as needed until you believe it accurately reflects who you are and what you want to be.

Clarity about one’s personal vision, or ethic, has been described as one of the most important things a leader can do. I hope you find this process helpful and would enjoy hearing from you about your personal vision.

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying has emerged as one of the fastest growing issues faced by school leaders. It involves the use of technology to bully another person and can occur through e-mail, instant messaging, blogs, websites or social networking sites.

Often cyberbullying occurs out-of-school and off campus but the effects may carry over to the school day. The legal guidance about how schools may respond is unclear, particularly about when schools may discipline students for off-campus speech.

The US Department of Education suggests that the response may not always be discipline. Schools can talk with students, teach students about appropriate online behavior, and counsel students about appropriate behavior. For incidents where there is substantial disruption discipline might be the appropriate remedy.

There are many resources available to school leaders to help you deal with cyberbullying. They include an issue of Digital Directions, advice from the Center for Disease Control (www.cdc.gov), and strategies for stopping the harassment (www.safeteens.com), and information from the Federal Trade Commission about online safety (www.onguardonline.gov).

I'd enjoy hearing from you about strategies you use to deal with cyberbullying.

Force Field Analysis: A Tool for Decision-Making

I'm always looking for tools that can help groups may decisions or select a strategy. One I've used regularly is the Force Field Analysis. It can help to identify a clear course of action and is anchored in the belief that every idea has both advantages and disadvantages.

When you use a Force Field Analysis you consider both the driving forces and the restraining forces, the things that facilitate and inhibit change. Driving forces are the things that affect an issue and push it in a particular way; they tend to be things that initiate a change and keep it going. Restraining forces are those things that act to restrain or decrease the driving forces.

Start by stating the problem or desired outcome in clear, concrete terms. Then discuss and identify those factors working for and against the desired state. Then review and clarify each factor assigning a score from 1 (weak) to 5 (strong), or high, medium or low. Finally, discuss the factors and their scores. The discussion often helps you identify appropriate next steps and become the focus for a plan of action.

There are many tools to help with decision-making. I like the Force Field Analysis because it tends to depersonalize the discussion. I'd enjoy hearing from you about other ways you use to help with decision-making.

Merit Pay

Race to the Top legislation rekindled the discussed about the benefits of merit pay for both teachers and principals. Over the past few decades many districts and several states have launched merit pay systems with inconsistent results on student achievement. Several independent studies have looked at the impact of merit pay and provide disparate results. The Denver Public Schools have had positive results from their system while a study of a program in Nashville found no differences in achievement. Other studies in Florida and Texas provided mixed results.

The National Center on Performance Incentives at Vanderbilt University is one of the most comprehensive sources of up-to-date information about merit pay plans and the research on their success (www.performanceincentives.org).

During the past year I have authored two Research Briefs on the subject. They include one on Merit Pay for Teachers, and one on Merit Pay for Principals. These briefs are available on the website of The Principals Partnership, sponsored by the Union Pacific Foundation, and on my website (www.ronwilliamson.com).

As always I would welcome hearing from you about your experience with merit pay or about questions or comments you may have about the topic.

Expanding Leadership Capacity

One of a principal's most important roles is to nurture leadership skills among school staff. It involves creating a school with a variety of leadership roles, opportunity for inquiry and reflection, and the change to learn and develop new skills.

There are many ways to help others develop their leadership capacity. They include:

• Inviting them to work on a project outside their area of expertise;
• Asking them to help screen and interview new hires;
• Encouraging them to attend district meetings with you;
• Asking them to work with you to deal with a challenging parent or instruction issue;
• Inviting them to lead a book study group;
• Asking them to serve on the school leadership team;
• Asking them to serve as a mentor for a new teacher;
• Encouraging them to become a member of a professional organization;
• Asking them to present information to the staff after attending a conference or other professional development activity;
• Inviting them to maintain a journal and reflect on the "good," "bad," or "flawed" leaders they know and observe.

These ideas and others are discussed in Practical Suggestions for Developing Leadership Capacity (NASSP, 2009).

I'd enjoy hearing from you about how you work to expand the leadership capacity in your school. I'm always interested in practical ideas I can share with my students and other leaders with whom I work.