Remembering Janet Stork

Former TBS HoS Janet Stork with Howard Gardner at HGSE's Project Zero Summer Institute in 2009 (photo by Julianne Hughes)

On April 5th, 2010, former TBS Head of School Janet Stork passed away after a seven month fight with cancer. In her 3+ years here, Janet transformed the school in so many ways, from our understanding of child development, to what it means to be a professional learning community, to how the Board should function. Janet was a champion of professional development, a voracious consumer of research, and a fearless advocate for children. Under her leadership, the school began the process of re-invention and transformation that lead to our current mission and school name. Janet and I didn't always agree on what to do about certain issues, but she was always willing to listen deeply and push me on the rigor of my own thinking. As a student of leadership, she truly modelled how to be a visionary leader who worked in service of others. Thank you, Janet, for our time together.

From left, Frida, Paula, Javanne, Tanya, Janet and Sheila at a staff party in the fall of 2009 (photo by Tanya Madrid-Campbell)

Leadership as service

While I'm extremely leery of the politics and evangelism of the organization for which he works, I strongly believe in the ideas that Mark Miller offers in a recent post on SmartBlog on Leadership - that to truly lead, we must approach our work as service to others. Earlier this fall I wrote a Statement of Educational Leadership and Philosophy, and this concept is the note I chose to ring out in my final sentence (click here if you want the whole document):

I believe that people work hard and are motivated when they feel they are doing important, good work. For me, there is no greater or more important work than fostering the self-transformation of the next generation of citizens. I approach my work as a position of service to others, and as an expression of my own commitment to improving our society.

Results of my Division Head assessment

A pair of articles on the Harvard Business Review's blog network have hit home recently. The first was Heidi Grant Halvorson's post  calling for rethinking the common use of reflection alone as a means of gaining insight into the hidden areas of ourselves, based on the thinking of Timothy Wilson as laid out in Strangers to Ourselves - ideas I incorporated into my dissertation research on faculty supervision. The second is Anthony Tjan's post offering a simple recipe for successfully self-aware leaders: know thyself, improve thyself, and complement thyself. The goal of knowing myself was explicitly incorporated into the emotional intelligence work that I did this year, and I am a big fan of self-improvement as well, which is why back in May I asked the elementary faculty to complete a significant assessment about my work, (follow that link to see the entire device). 10 responses were returned (one of which was anonymous), which is a large enough sample to carry validity for the purposes of this project, and I spent some time this summer digesting the results and considering the implications.

I was excited by the areas that faculty identified as strengths in my practice:

Utilizes feedback to enhance effectiveness of the division

Maintains high professional standards and models behavior expected of others

Acts with integrity - Though not directly tied to a specific personalized PD goal, this was the most exciting result of this assessment for me.

Behaves in a manner that is consistent and fair

Listens carefully and with an open mind -  this was gratifying to see because it relates directly to Objective #1 of my personalized PD plan last year (to improve my communication) and Objective #3 (improve my emotional intelligence).

Effectively plans, organizes, and leads faculty division meetings -  this was gratifying to see because it relates directly to Objective #4 of my personalized PD plan last year (to improve my leadership of meetings).

Promotes positive, effective relationships with parents -  this was gratifying to see because it relates directly to Objective #1 of my personalized PD plan last year (to improve my communication).

And I was also excited by the areas that faculty feedback helped me identify as opportunities for growth this year:

Treats others with respect - While this is a decent response, I would like to hold myself to a higher standard and shoot for all respondents to see me as at least effective in this regard. 

Fosters an administrative structure that is responsive to teacher needs.
Teachers identified that while much of our admin structure and many of our institutional issues aren't necessarily my responsibility or authority, they would still like to have more regular meetings and check-ins with me on a 1:1 basis.

Encourages collaboration between and amongst faculty and administration.
Comments in this area ranged from "be more comfortable with executive decision-making" to "too directional to be fully collaborative", and from "I  like the approach of creating faculty task forces" to "delegate more transparently". What I take from these mixed messages is that I have work to do being clearer about when I am deciding, delegating, or being non-directional.

The last two growth areas get bundled together:

Offers appropriate feedback concerning curriculum and instructional issues.

Is able to offer useful feedback in lesson observations.
 While I was called "a master of objective observation", faculty were very clear that they would like me to be more present in their classrooms, do more observations, provide more feedback on instruction, and have more curriculum-design conversations - not to mention which, this would improve my understanding of both our program, and the developmental arc of our students.

Yesterday's Admin Retreat

Yesterday the TBS admin team held an off-site retreat at evolve! studio in Berkeley, a small space located above the Freshly Cut Florist on 1301 #d California St (across from Monterey Market) that is so hip and locally-driven that it doesn't have a website (it does, however, host regular Soul Collage meetings, a book I gave my wife on her 38 birthday).


The first activity of the day was a presentation and discussion led by Mitch about the differing values, traits, and gifts and challenges of different generations. While our student's grandparents are largely Traditionalists (1922-43), our parents are mostly Boomers (1943-60) or Gen Xers (1961-1980), with a scattering of Millenials (1981-2000) thrown in on the younger end. Each generation has been shaped by very different forces in very different contexts, and understanding how each generation sees, and is seen by, the other generations, is important as we think about both promoting community within our parent body, and clearly communicating about our educational program in our marketing efforts. And, because we are who we are, we also enjoyed applying critical race theory, post-feminist, and other forms of critiques to the concepts we discussed.


The second discussion was a review of the marketing and re-branding efforts undertaken by the advancement office over the last several months. In addition to our incredible new website rolling out next week, we're revising a number of aspects of our communication, from the timing and template of the weekly NewsNotes newsletter to the signature block in our emails. On September 6th we'll be hosting an evening event from 7-8:30 pm with a "brand reveal", a summary of information from last spring's parent survey, and a financial status update.

After lunch (at Lilly's Restaurant down on Hopkins St), we returned for a walk through the Leadership Compass, a tool for self-reflection and leadership development loosely based on the Native American concept of the "Four-Fold Way". We began by gathering into groups based on which working styles we "default" to, whether when stressed or simply as our usual starting point -- the in-charge activist, the visionary, the nurturer, or the analyst. After reviewing some descriptions and materials about these archetypes, we worked in groups to identify and share a) what others should know about us when working with us, b) the gifts and challenges of being in this archetype, and c) our theme song.

The day concluded with a preview of the schedule for Work Week, including finalizing details for the New Faculty Orientation, the schedule of all-faculty and division meetings and the topics that we wanted to discuss at them, and reviewing assignments and roles for next Friday's New Parent Orientation.

Year-end elementary division mtg

Yesterday we held our year-end elementary division meeting. My goal was to both honor the year that was past, and to start thinking ahead towards next year in real and pragmatic ways. We began, as always, by reviewing our established groundrules.



The first activity was an appreciation circle. I asked each teacher to write at least three appreciations: one for the person sitting directly to his/her right, and two more for other people around the table. My original idea was to have each person receive the assigned appreciation, and then anyone else could add in as s/he felt, but a quick check revealed that the teachers felt uncomfortable with this plan. One of the faculty then suggested we simply do the first part of the circle (the assigned part), and that any additional appreciations be made directly to each other during the break. This was eagerly adopted as a better approach for the group, and a terrific experience followed. While hearing the great appreciations faculty had for each other was very moving, the event was also a powerful leadership experience for me; hearing opposition to my plan, being able to express my intent, and then being open and receptive to an alternative suggestion of how to proceed left me with a good feeling about the work I've done to develop a strong culture, and also my willingness to model appropriate behaviors.

After a quick break, we had a group brainstorming on topics to include in a Program Handbook that can be given to current and prospective faculty. We have handbooks for families (the Parent Handbook) and employees (the Employee Handbook) that lay out lots of important information about school policies, but we don't have a unified source for "the ropes" that lay out our approach to topics such as curriculum design, pedagogic tools, discipline, homework, the SST process, classroom and consumable budgets, field trip forms, a calendar of traditional events, school-wide assemblies, and many other topics. Teachers suggested lots of ideas, and one of my summer projects will be to draft this handbook.

The third part of the meeting was a conversation about Room Parents. While we are of course(!) deeply grateful to all parents who volunteer and help out in the classroom, the role of Room Parent is one that has special importance, and also one that needs more intention and cultivation. We spent about 20 minutes identifying positive and negative qualities of Room Parents, the important duties that teachers rely on Room Parents to fulfill, and how the selection process can be handled as apolitically and effectively as possible.

The last section of the meeting was spent in reflection on our teaching practices. We began by thinking about our work with the TBS Learning Outcomes. Teachers were given two starting questions to consider, in writing: Which learning outcomes were you most successful in teaching, and why/how? And, which learning outcomes were you least successful in teaching, and why/how? After sharing their thoughts and responses, teachers were given 20 minutes to return to the curriculum mapping project we have worked on this year, and asked to revise the maps they had made in February in order to accurately reflect the content of their curriculum for the second half of the year.

And then, bittersweet though it was, we said goodbye. I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to guide, grow with, and learn from this collection of creative, insightful, dedicated, compassionate and collaborative faculty, and I'm excited to build on this year's successes next fall.

Today's Admin Team Meeting

Here's a window into today's admin team meeting, which covered three topics.

First, we looked at draft schedules for the faculty work weeks that happen June 18-22 and August 27-31. The June work week includes all-faculty and division wide meetings, an information session with the faculty on our ongoing marketing and branding efforts, time to finish up progress reports, and of course a good-bye/closure party. The following week we'll have a senior admin meeting, and rearrange the office locations of administrators to better support our work. The August work week will include various full staff and division-wide meetings, CPR and First Aid training, Disaster preparedness training, New Faculty Orientation, New Family Orientation, and of course a TGIF!

Second, we had a brief budget review to see where we are against the projections for the year, and to think about ways we can successfully manage the budget through the remainder of the year to provide all of the materials, resources, and items necessary for our program while also hitting our financial targets for improving our cash reserves, as is necessary under the terms of our bond agreement.

Third, we collectively dug into the aforementioned office reassignments, which is necessary because of the shifting positions and roles outlined in the letter Mitch sent to families last week. Mitch used the design thinking method to drive our process, beginning by posing the design challenge: How can we configure the admin and staff offices to best allow the organization to function in ways that demonstrate knowledge, preparation, and responsiveness to the need of children, families, and faculty? From here, he articulated a few constraints, including not making physical changes (i.e. knocking out or putting up walls) to the existing spaces, maximizing the ease of communication and collaboration among various administrative teams, and creating work environments that facilitate and match jobs and responsibilities as much as possible. We left with a map of the office, a list of the people and positions, and the assignment to generate our best idea of who goes where by this Friday.

Thinking and Linking about Leadership #2

Back in January I put up a post on some articles about leadership that I had recently read. As I wrote then, reading about leadership is one of the ways that I push myself to remain reflective about my leadership practice. So, here's another entry of leadership-related articles I've read in the last two months. Some of these are specifically related to educational administration, some are presented as lists of things to do or keep in mind as leaders, some are interviews with leaders in various fields, and some are about leadership theory. Enjoy your grazing!

An interview with Jim Whitehurst

Understand your lenses, transform your leadership

11 things faculty want from their administrators

6 ways to share credit and improve culture

The difference between innovation and ideas

How can a teacher evaluation be efficient, valid, and effective?

An interview with Harry West

What is leadership success?

What are leadership "trump cards"?

Yes, principal quality influences student educational achievement

An interview with John Petrucci

An interview with Tim Bucher

A Harvard professor (finally) realizes lectures aren't great learning experiences

Thinking and Linking about Leadership

I love reading about leadership -- sometimes more than practicing it! -- and there's a good neurological basis for me doing so; long-term memory is best created through regularly structured and timed repetitions of information. Each time I read about an aspect of leadership, it helps reset that idea for me as I go through my day tackling difficult topics in classroom practice, curriculum design, teacher collaboration, administrative practices and policy, parenting, and many other elements of my work that take courage, stamina, and insight to address. Moving back-and-forth between practice and theory keeps me focused on both addressing the issue at hand, and the lens with which I'm viewing that issue. With that in mind, here are a few links about leadership I've found useful in the last month; the links-as-descriptions are my summaries of what I've taken from each article and used in my own work.

Creating change requires overcoming your fears.

Failure precedes success.

Fear of being wrong is the biggest mistake of all.

Design a strategy that eliminates resistance.

It's all about the team. (I wrote about this article earlier this month)

Know when to lead and when to manage.

Leading is living a balanced life.

It's All About the Team

Though leadership theory has evolved since the 1978 publication of James MacGregor Burns' seminal text Leadership, the idea of transformational leadership -- leadership that works to allow self-actualization of both individuals and society to their highest manifestations -- remains central in for-profit, non-profit, and democratic institutions. As the Gen X generation replaces the Baby Boom generation as leaders and executives, and begins to think about how to lead the Millennial generation -- which has its own very strong ideas about life, the universe and everything -- the idea that work is an avenue for self-transformation, and not simply a way to make a living, emerges as a powerful force.

In this light, though John Baldoni's article on CBSnews.com purports to be thinking about leadership for 20 years in the future, much of what it says is immediately relevant today:

"The post-heroic leader will need to balance the role of boss, mediator and coach, allowing teams more freedom and autonomy while at the same time keeping them focused on objectives," the Hay report says. In other words, it ain't about you the leader -- it's all about the team. Note the use of the word "post-heroic." 

In school settings, it is truly "all about the team." As a leader, my goal is to support and ensure the success of every teacher (who does the same for each student under his or her tutelage), and one of the most powerful tools I have to do that (along with curriculum development support, resource support, and professional development) is to ensure that each faculty member feels that s/he is a member of a successful team. To this end, we use a variety of teams within the division itself; teaching teams within each classroom, grade-level teams across the classrooms, and a division-wide team for issues that concern all classrooms. We also use teams across all three divisions of the school (ECC, Elementary, Middle School) to discuss (and resolve) certain issues, such as curriculum alignment.

Creating good teams is difficult work that requires constant attention to subtle dynamics and interactions, and there is no shortage of literature about creating teams. It's a topic in the first meeting of the year I had with each teaching team, and one we return to throughout the year at each type of team. For example, at last month's Elementary Division meeting, the group brainstormed ways to make our meetings more effective (by level, division, and whole school). Similarly, during the break I came across this article from the Harvard Education Publishing Group on rating (and thereby having a basis for thinking about improving) a teaching team, which I'll be sharing with the teachers during our February division meeting.

Two years ago, Paula, Mitch and I went to hear Pat Bassett, head of NAIS, speak in San Francisco. At that event, Pat outlined three types of school leaders - the General, who will achieve any objective, even at a terrible human cost; the Ambassador, who will build relationships and culture, though not necessarily achieve any objectives; and the Priest, who has a vision of the future that enraptures a core of believers but alienates many others. Pat's theory was that most school leaders are naturally drawn to one of the archetypes, and at most can learn to be effective at two of the roles (which lead him to some conclusions about how to be a successful leader); however, I would propose that to be a leader who is  effective at creating strong teams, one one has to shift between these roles depending on each context and situation.

Nice Guys Finish Last

I shared this article from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern about leadership with Mark and Judy of Triangle Associates, the co-facilitators of the NAIS Fellowship for Aspiring Heads week in Atlanta that was so inspiring and transformative for me this summer. It has an interesting take on the idea of personal dominance and projection that is incorporated into the SymLOG tool, which I wrote about last month. This idea came up for me again this week when I was writing a column for next week's NewsNotes, and I was told to "toot my own horn" more in terms of my work with faculty and my role in the school. I am simultaneously very reluctant to do so - a reluctance heightened by my awareness that I can sound arrogant and condescending - with an understanding that there are times when I need to assert my vision and understanding of a situation within my role as a school leader. It's a workout for me to be able to be assertive without being aggressive, and to be directive when I prefer to be democratic!