What makes me feel safe or not in this group?
For most groups, there is a tension between investing time in capacity building and completing the immediate task; many complete the immediate task at the expense of capacity building. Yet when groups only focus on their work, their skill and resource levels remain static. High-performing groups recognize that meeting the complex challenges and commitment to ongoing improvement of student learning requires equal commitment to their own growth.
Data Story: Committing to Group Growth
It is midyear at Prairie View Elementary School. The fourth-grade team has a weekly forty-five-minute work session and has been working together for two years. This year, two new teachers have joined the six-member group. The group members have targeted math as an area for improvement. While all agree that their work has been productive, they want to continue to develop as a high-performing group. Using the Scaled Group Inventory (page 21) as a basis for dialogue, the team members have established goals for their own growth as they explore math data.
Based on their conversation, they have selected two qualities: (1) maintaining a clear focus and (2) developing relational trust, as their goal arenas for the year. At this point in their development, they have agreed to focus on effectively using time (digression management) and ensuring a sense of emotional safety for all members as key growth areas.
To assess time use, they have agreed to create a rotating role of process observer. This group member, while engaging in the task at hand, will keep a record of both on- and off-task or topic time use. They will use these data comparatively from meeting to meeting to determine their increasing efficiency.
Keeping data at the center, they will also use an exit survey format at the end of each meeting. Each team member will respond to two stems to assess growth in relational trust.
1. Something that made me feel safe during this meeting is __________.
2. Something I did to make others feel safe is __________.
The team members preserve twenty minutes of processing time every other meeting to discuss their own growth.
“Look at the graph for our on- or off-task time use. On-task time is increasing, but not very rapidly.”
“Yes, I expected by this time of year we would have at least 90 percent of our time on task, but it’s only 65 percent.”
“Maybe 90 percent isn’t realistic, given that we do need some decompression conversation and to connect about stuff that happens between meetings.”
“Well, let’s say we aim for 80 percent, what can we do to meet that target?”
“How about using a visible timer, a signal when we meander off topic, or both?”
“And let’s reserve five minutes at the beginning of each meeting for some social interaction, catching up and touching base—then get down to business.”
“So, for our next meeting, let’s have a little bell in the middle of the table that anyone can access if the conversation strays away from the topic and see how that works.”
“Yes, and let’s have a coffee and conversation space at the beginning of our session—but let’s be sure to keep it to five minutes.”
“Maybe that’s where the public timer could come in, as well!”
Once the group has agreed to some action related to its time-use goal, the members explore their data on relational trust. They put the exit slips from the last two meetings on the table and sort them into categories.
“It seems that there are some consistent examples of things that increase our emotional safety, like not being interrupted or feeling like we have a space to speak, which come up in more than half of the responses; not interrupting others appears frequently as well.”
“That’s great—but what are we not seeing that would be important to be there?”
“Well, it would be important to feel like it’s OK to not understand the data or even some of the math content and to be able to say so.”
“Let’s talk about how we might ensure that degree of safety.”
This dialogue goes on for another few minutes, allowing all members to air their concerns and express their satisfactions.
Exercise Your Learning
Complete the Scaled Group Inventory (page 21) to assess how the seven qualities of high-performing groups apply to a group with whom you are presently working. Use the results to structure a data-driven dialogue and to set goals for continued learning. To focus the interaction, make a public display on which to record responses.
Consider the following options for application.
• Ask individual group members to complete the inventory and compare responses as a group.
• Subdivide the group into pairs or trios to complete the inventory.
• Complete the inventory as a full group with public recording.
Note: In each case, be sure to generate specific examples to support the scaled responses.
Complete the Self-Assessment Inventory (page 22) as a reflection of your contributions to the seven qualities of high-performing groups. Use the results to structure a dialogue and to set personal goals for continued learning. Consider the following options for application.
• Ask individual group members to complete the inventory and compare responses as a group.
• Subdivide the group into pairs or trios for interaction about their results.
• Organize a group dialogue about relationships between individual reflections and the group’s performance.
Visit go.solution-tree.com/teams to download the reproducibles and access the links in this book.
Extend Your Learning
Meredith
