Communicate Positively and Openly and Emphasize the Organization's Mission, Vision and Philosophy
"In order to create a positive work
environment each employee needs to feel valued. This is best accomplished
through your listening to each person and honoring each one for what s/he has
to say. By doing this you will show that you value and respect every
individual.
One important aspect of communicating openly is to meet with your staff
and discuss your organization's philosophy, values, mission and goals. Ask for
their ideas and thoughts on how they individually and as a team can help your
team to exemplify these. Then lead a discussion on the ways they all see these
being fulfilled within your group. After your staff has shared their
ideas, take time to share your own vision of how you see everyone working
together. Share how you see everyone working together as a circle in which
each team member is equal and on the same level, rather than a pyramid where
some staff are at the top, and others are at the bottom.
Everyone is equal because every job is equally important in fulfilling the
mission of the organization.
Ask your team to visualize where they want the team to be 6 months from now. Use a chart and colored pens to record ideas. Transform the ideas into a goal or goals for where they want to be 6 months from now. Write the goals on the chart. Next, ask each individual to clarify how s/he will use the school's Mission, Vision Statements and Core Values to contribute to moving the team toward their goals. Record the ideas on the chart. Bring the chart to every team meeting. So doing will focus the team on a positive goal and will keep the school's philosophy at the forefront of your team's conversations. "
In the response area, please elaborate on strategies from the excerpt that you could or will implement with your team in an effort to communicate positively, openly and in a way that focuses people on the school's Mission, Vision and Core Values. Additional strategies and thoughts for open, positive communication are welcome.
I am so intrigued by the thought of a visual that shows all of our staff in a circle and emphasizing that everyone is equally important to carrying out our school's Mission and helping meet the school improvement goals. I'd love to see teams create their own circular visuals because we are so large now that it would be really hard to create something computer-generated that would be large enough to fit all of our staff members' names. I will explore this idea....
ReplyDeleteReading this I'm thinking about the team that I work with on our professional development days. It reminds me of what Judy said on Friday- that each one of us has to work as hard as we can to help our kids. I have two specials teachers on my team. I need to think of some ways to include them in what we are doing- so they can see that what they do is so much more than give the classroom teacher a planning time- they contribute to the mission just as much as everyone else. This is something that I need think about- any ideas?
ReplyDeleteOne day when I was observing I found that Mr. Nichols and Mr. laylin were working together on a great cross discipline activity. Maybe you could ask them to help the kids practice researching to find a fact about the topics you study?
DeleteI was going to try something in this arena with the unit plans. I heard some feedback about wanting to be more involved having more input. I thought we could meet during our work time next week and do a sounding about how they feel about the plants constructive criticism and find ways to have them more involved in giving ideas to put into the plans. Hopefully this would give them more ownership to the plans and let everyone feel more involved. I have some people that speak up and others that don't. I'm hoping this will create a positive environment where everyone's opinions feel valued and its done in a safe, constructive environment.
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