the school have the benefit of knowing why they are engaged in the work they are doing each day. Furthermore, clarity regarding how these questions are answered provides staff members with a powerful frame of reference when they are called on to make decisions. They know decisions that are consistent with the purpose of learning for all, that move the school toward the shared vision, that honor the collective commitments, and that contribute to the achievement of the school and team goals are certain to be supported. Establishing this foundation is just one of many steps on the journey to becoming a PLC; however, it is a vital step that should not be overlooked.
See “The Professional Learning Communities at Work™ Continuum: Laying the Foundation” and “Where Do We Go From Here? Worksheet: Laying the Foundation of a PLC” for information to guide you on your PLC journey. Visit go.solution-tree.com/plcbooks to download these reproducibles.
Develop a Critical Mass to Support Implementation and Begin Taking Action
One of the most common mistakes principals make in attempting to implement the PLC process is to delay taking action until every staff member has endorsed the action. Do not confuse a widely shared vision with universal support among staff. Principals must strive for consensus as opposed to unanimity. It is unlikely that everyone on a staff will welcome the substantive changes necessary to transform a traditional school into a PLC. Principals who delay action until every staff member is willing to board the PLC train are almost certain to discover the train will never leave the station.
Those who hope to lead a professional learning community must recognize that professionals are expected to make decisions based on the evidence of the most promising strategy for meeting the needs of those they serve. In a profession, evidence trumps appeals to mindless precedent (“This is how I have always done it”) or personal preference (“This is how I like to do it”). Therefore, effective principals ensure staff members are provided with the evidence to make informed decisions. They do not allow an individual’s preference to supersede a professional’s obligation to apply what is considered the most effective practice in his or her field.
Therefore, in attempting to build consensus for implementing the PLC process, principals should work with their leadership team to:
• Build shared knowledge regarding the elements of the PLC process and the research base supporting the benefits of the process
• Engage in dialogue with staff to identify and address concerns and questions
• Encourage dissent and invite all staff to present contradictory research and evidence that suggests the PLC process is detrimental to student learning
• Seek to understand the perspective of those who are opposed to taking action by asking them to share their thought processes and assumptions
• Articulate their thought processes and assumptions, search for areas of agreement, and acknowledge areas of disagreement
• Demonstrate a willingness to compromise on some of the specifics of implementation provided those compromises do not violate the big ideas of the PLC process
Once the leadership team has met these obligations, we recommend a two-part standard for moving forward with implementation.
1. All points of view have been heard.
2. The will of the group is evident even to those who oppose it.
If that standard is met, all staff members should be expected and must be required to act according to the will of the group. Although it is certainly preferable to have staff members engaged in the PLC process out of commitment, actions based on compliance are better than the interminable inaction of waiting for resistant staff members to change their beliefs. Research advises that people are far more likely to behave their way into new beliefs than to believe their way into new behaviors (Pfeffer & Sutton, 2000; Reeves, 2002). A principal cannot stipulate that resistant staff members change their beliefs. A principal can, however, insist that resistant staff members behave in new ways, engaging in behaviors that are essential to the PLC process. If that process proves beneficial to students, provides resistant staff with a positive experience, and leads to better results, changes in their beliefs and levels of commitment are likely to follow. Personal experience remains “the great persuader” and “the mother of all cognitive map changes” (Patterson, Grenny, Maxfield, McMillan, & Switzler, 2008, p. 51).
See “The Professional Learning Communities at Work™ Continuum: Responding to Conflict” and “Where Do We Go From Here? Worksheet: Effective Communication (Chapter 9)” for more information on building consensus and dealing with resistance. Visit go.solution-tree.com/plcbooks to download these reproducibles.
Finally, you must identify the specific action steps people within the school will take in order to begin the PLC journey. Don’t confuse articulating mission, vision, collective commitments, and goals with school improvement. Addressing these issues will benefit the school only if people begin to act in new ways.
The deepest understanding about the PLC process will not occur until the staff begin to do what PLCs do. Don’t procrastinate. Work with staff members to make the structural changes that support their new way of working together, clarify the specific work that needs to be done, and begin doing that work.
Creating the Structures for Collaboration
Now that you and your guiding coalition have worked with the staff to articulate the shared foundation of a PLC at Work™, how do you bring those words to life? How do you change the traditional assumptions, habits, expectations, and beliefs that constitute the very culture of the school? An important step in transforming school culture is replacing traditional structures with those more aligned to the school you are trying to create, and then supporting the staff members as they begin to operate within those new structures. This chapter will focus on some of the structural issues principals must address to help move a staff from working in isolation or working in groups to working as members of high-performing collaborative teams. Meeting this challenge will require principals to do the following:
1. Organize people into meaningful teams focused on learning.
2. Provide teams with time to collaborate.
3. Ensure campus layout supports ongoing collaboration and shared responsibility for student learning.
When done well, these structural changes sow the seeds that allow a new culture to take root, grow, and flourish.
Organize People Into Meaningful Teams Focused on Learning
If the collaborative team is the fundamental building block of the PLC—the engine that drives the cycle of continuous improvement—then organizing staff into meaningful teams is a critical step on the PLC journey. Note that the PLC process requires teams, not merely groups. As we clarified in the introduction, a team is a group of people working interdependently to achieve a common goal for which each member is mutually accountable. As DuFour and Marzano
