The Action Research Guidebook A Process for Pursuing Equity and Excellence in Education

[00:01] SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to Principal Center Radio, bringing you the best in professional practice.

[00:06] Announcer:

Here's your host, Director of the Principal Center and Champion of High Performance Instructional Leadership, Justin Bader. Welcome everyone to Principal Center Radio.

[00:15] SPEAKER_01:

I'm your host, Justin Bader, and my guest today is Richard Bruford. Richard is Vice Principal of Shuzo Singapore International School and a frequent contributor to the Connected Principals blog, and you can find his website at richardbruford.com.

[00:31] Announcer:

And now, our feature presentation.

[00:51] SPEAKER_01:

And as leaders, we're constantly making decisions and managing the decision-making process around all kinds of different issues. And I wonder if you could share with us your take on consultation. What do you see happening in schools around this issue of consultation that prompted you to write that article?

[01:08] SPEAKER_02:

I think one of the most important things I see is a misunderstanding. When we see consultation and then decisions being made after school, a consultation process has been gone through. Teachers will often say, I have not been consulted. And on the other hand, the people driving the decision-making process, our educational leaders will say, well, I consulted you. So it's getting at the heart of why does that misunderstanding take place? And I think we have to first define what consultation is, because I think there's a...

[01:48]

a real disconnect there between our educational leaders and our teachers that are often carrying out many of the decisions that get made.

[01:58] SPEAKER_01:

Right. And, and it feels like that can range anywhere from, I told you after it was a done deal to, I, you know, and created a democratic process and every had, everyone had a seat at the table and everyone got to vote and speak their mind and everything. And, and because that spectrum is so big and I think you're, you're absolutely right. There can be a, a lot of disagreement or a lot of surprises for people, uh, in terms of what actually takes place because of those different expectations. So yeah, tell us more about that.

[02:27] SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. The other way I stumbled across it was a colleague of mine and, um, we'd gone through this process and then there was a lot of anxiety and frustration at the end of it. And then I said, well, perhaps we need to explain this consultation process to our teachers at the beginning. Um, so everyone understands, um, how the playing field actually looks. So the first thing I think is when we have a meeting where it's going to be a consultative process, we actually have to explain that process. And I think the key thing is who is the decision maker in the process?

[03:06]

Is this going to be a group decision? Is it going to be a decision that's made by the leader of the process following some group input? And if that input's actually happening, are we taking on everybody's viewpoint, some people's viewpoint, or none of the viewpoints at all, and the leaders already made their mind up and this is going to be the decision for whatever reason?

[03:36] SPEAKER_01:

Right, and I think that clarity is 90% of what people are looking for in a lot of situations. And I know in Seattle, we were actually required to have a decision-making matrix so that there was some sort of agreed-upon document, and it was completely up to the school what that looked like, but there was some sort of agreement, a set of agreements, around... what different types of decisions would be made in certain ways. For example, you know, teacher evaluation decisions obviously are not up to, you know, to a vote of the staff if I'm going to work with a teacher individually on their evaluation, and that's confidential.

[04:10]

Same thing with student discipline in most situations. But we ended up with a pretty long document specifying what needed to be decided in, you know, certain democratic ways versus more, you know, more leader-driven ways. I wonder what your thoughts are on how we get out of this kind of endless trap of, well, how do we decide how we decide about this kind of decision? For example, if we have a potential event that we could do coming up, and I think it would be a great idea, maybe my staff is not as crazy about it. How do we get out of this kind of catch-22 of, well, we need to decide how we're going to decide. Are we going to vote on this?

[04:49]

Are we going to do it as long as no one has a big problem with it? And are we going to make the decision about how to do it democratically? Or am I as the leader going to decide that? What do you see as some of the solutions to those catch-22s and those kind of spirals of escalating decision-making cycles?

[05:06] SPEAKER_02:

Well, I think the first thing is, as leaders, we have to understand that when we engage in a consultative process, it can take time. And they're not quick processes. So if you're looking for a consultation process that builds consensus, consensus is very difficult to achieve amongst the teaching body in a school. There are so many differences in viewpoints. So I think we have to understand that consensus is a real tough, thing to get amongst a group of educators. That's, I think, in the first step.

[05:46]

On the other end, I think it's good to have some sort of flowchart with your decision-making process where we're saying, okay, what type of decision is this? If it's this type of decision, then we need to go this route in terms of involving our teachers. If it's this type of decision, well, perhaps it's this way we have to go. So I think having some sort of planner that is almost like an if-then chart, that will help the leaders in organising that process.

[06:20] SPEAKER_01:

That's fabulous. And I think the more visual and the more clearly that's laid out, not only is it clearer to staff, but it's also clearer to us in the moment so that we don't accidentally agree to one process for certain types of decisions and then just go ahead and make the decision by ourselves next time it comes up because it doesn't occur to us. So is that something that your school has done? You actually have some sort of diagram or flow chart to help with those decisions?

[06:47] SPEAKER_02:

This is something I've now started to work on for our school. But the other thing that I've done is communicate with our staff, look, you're welcome to contribute to part of a process, but we understand that at certain times you might be too busy to become involved. There are so many decisions that have to be made in a school that there isn't adequate time to be involved in all of them. So that's also something everyone has to understand in the school and trusting our colleagues to make the right decision.

[07:26] SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. And I love your reference to trust there because to me, these issues come up the most and the most unpleasantly as symptoms of a lack of trust. And it's often very frustrating when we think, okay, well, the issue is that so-and-so wanted to be involved in this particular decision and and then got mad that they weren't, when really often looking back on my own leadership experience, often the issue was a more general lack of trust. It wasn't just that that person wanted to be involved with that decision, but that overall there wasn't the degree of trust that we needed to have in order for people to feel good about decisions that were made without them. And I'm with you on that issue of having people be involved whenever possible, but often it's not that we don't want them to be involved or that they don't want to be involved. but just a matter of time.

[08:17] SPEAKER_02:

And trust, you're absolutely right. It's the key attribute for a positive school culture and moving a school forward and making the right improvements. What I've noticed about trust is three things. The first one is if a leader's presenting something decision-making process and what they're seeking to find out. One of the dilemmas you have as a leader is sharing your current thinking about the decision that needs to be made. Do you share that with your team prior to consultation?

[08:56]

Or do you try to just hold that back and try to explain that you don't really have an idea of how this is going to go. I'm just going to listen to all views and then make a decision.

[09:10] SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, well, and I've even heard that referred to in books as kind of listening to the HIPPO, and HIPPO being kind of a semi-acronym for highest paid person's opinion. And if you do really want to know what everyone else on your team thinks, it kind of behooves you as a leader to sit back and hear people out before you do share what you're currently thinking, because there's so much... you know, so much of a natural tendency for people to tell you as the leader of what you want to hear or to, you know, to agree with you when often that doesn't give us the best decision. You know, I often find that the biggest mistakes I've made in decision-making are those, uh, where I've made that decision without enough consultation with other people and, and relying on my ideas rather than our ideas.

[10:00] SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely. But there's one, there's one danger often there as well is that, um, I feel that, uh, we have this, um, tendency to have what I call pattern inference. And what that means is when we make these decisions and if there's someone who's being consulted and their viewpoint hasn't been taken on, say, in three consultative processes, they may now infer that, oh, well, he or she's not listening to my viewpoint, therefore what's the point? And that trust then can diminish.

[10:39] SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. How do we get around that? Because I feel like in every school, there are certain people who have to be heard on everything. People who feel that they must speak up and speak their mind almost as a way of personally processing the situation. And not necessarily because they've come to these conclusions and they feel that their ideas are the most important. but I completely see what you mean, that when people have been consulted and then they don't get their way, regardless of whether they're particularly frustrated that they didn't get their way in that situation, I see what you mean about the pattern.

[11:13]

How can we be genuine in wanting people's input if over time people are going to see, well, I gave input and the opposite decision from what I wanted was made?

[11:24] SPEAKER_02:

I think there's a couple of ways we can do that. I think Sometimes you know when you're going into that consultative process that there are, particularly if you've got some idea of how you want this to go, there are going to be people that disagree. They need to be acknowledged, whether that's publicly in saying they make some good points. And I think some people do like being recognised publicly in that way for their opinion. And the other part is...

[11:56]

when that decision is made it's communicating the decision and the reasoning for it and communicating that as much as you can. So it may be going back and taking the time with someone who was particularly vocal about something but you're not going to take their view on it and going to them and taking the time to explain why you're not taking their view. I think When that happens and there's a real sincerity to it, I think people really value the process.

[12:32] SPEAKER_01:

And I think another issue that comes up in parallel with that is often when people have a particular viewpoint that doesn't get addressed in a decision, it's not always even the opposite viewpoint. It's not as if there are two sharply defined polar sides to the decision, but simply that there are overlapping interests and overlapping concerns and not every situation, not every decision can accommodate all of those. So I like what you said about incorporating the rationale and making sure that that's clear and people understand that they were listened to and their perspective was appreciated and acknowledged even if the final decision went in a different direction.

[13:11] SPEAKER_02:

Well, we're seeing also that people today are valuing transparency more than ever as the number one trust builder in a school. I think that's so important to be transparent One with the process, but then secondly, with the communication of the decision.

[13:31] SPEAKER_01:

Right. And I think especially when there are pros and cons that need to be kind of acknowledged. If we're not doing what you wanted, there probably are good reasons for that. And I think the more we can be explicit about why the pros of one decision were appealing and why the cons of that were acceptable and why that led to the same final decision. And that makes me think about something that I think is absolutely critical in any kind of decision making in schools. And that is the theory of action or the theory of change.

[14:03]

You know, what is our belief about what is supposed to happen when we do this in our school? And if we get to that level of thinking where we can actually articulate as an organization, we're going to do X differently. because we believe that Y will happen and produce Z result. And I think that's a great place to build agreement and even to recognize the contributions of other people's ideas as being not opposites of what we want, but being actually pretty closely related.

[14:35] SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and that's really important. And it's to embrace that and create an inclusive environment in an environment in schools where there are very diverse opinions. So embracing that is absolutely key to building a strong, positive learning community that will make good decisions.

[14:54] SPEAKER_01:

So if a school leader wants to consult others more effectively and increase trust, help people feel like they are contributing more, get better ideas, what would you say are some of the biggest pitfalls that we need to watch out for in making overtures in this area? Where do we tend to go wrong and kind of put our foot in our mouth or take a misstep in getting started with consultation?

[15:21] SPEAKER_02:

The first one is getting the right people in the room for the discussion. And clearly communicating why they're there. I think every teacher values their time. And the one thing you don't want to do is create that impression that a teacher walks away and says, well, that was a waste of time. So that's the biggest hurdle, I think, to overcome in this whole process.

[15:50] SPEAKER_01:

And I think that respect goes along with both respect for ideas and respect for time. So I appreciate you kind of acknowledging both of those. Yeah.

[16:00] SPEAKER_02:

And I think as well, when we go into that, I think sometimes that we don't have all the answers as leaders. And I think it's okay for us to show a little bit of vulnerability that hey, there might be people in the room that are better expert than I am on this particular topic and the way we need to go with this. Other than that, I think the other piece is you need to keep people updated all the way through the process on where things are at and when decisions are going to be made so that people do see an end in sight. I think so often there's frustration that people never see the final outcome to a process. and all of a sudden the decisions made two months later and the timeliness of the communication, there's a disconnect with the process.

[16:52]

And all of a sudden, there's this element of surprise. Where did that come from? How did that happen? Who else was spoken to in this consultation process other than what it was from their point of view?

[17:03] SPEAKER_01:

And that gets into the idea of, as you said, transparency, sharing meeting minutes, sharing meeting agendas, and kind of keeping people up to date. Because, yeah, there's nothing more frustrating than starting a process, sinking time into sharing your opinion, and then just kind of wondering... what happened.

[17:20] SPEAKER_02:

And also I think you make a really good point when the actions are not followed up. I think that is the biggest source of frustration. Okay, we spent half an hour talking about this. Where did that go? It sort of disappeared into the ether and if that happens too many times you end up with that whole cynicism and distrust scenario.

[17:42] SPEAKER_01:

Good deal. Fantastic. And on Twitter, you're at Richard underscore Bruford. Is that right?

[17:47] SPEAKER_02:

That's right. If your listeners would like to get in touch with me, they can contact me at www.richardbruford.com.

[17:55] SPEAKER_01:

Well, fabulous speaking with you today, Richard. We'll talk to you soon.

[17:59] SPEAKER_02:

Thanks for having me on the show, Justin. All the best.

[18:02] SPEAKER_00:

And now, Justin Bader on high-performance instructional leadership.

[18:06] SPEAKER_01:

So high-performance instructional leaders, what did you take away from my conversation with Richard Bruford about consultation? I think this issue is one that tends to come up over and over again as a symptom of trust and as a consequence of the culture that that operates within your school. And I have to say on a personal level, this is one of the things that I found most challenging as a principal to deal with people's widely varying expectations around being consulted, around being involved in decision making. And it's something that has so much to do with with time pressures and with efficiency and with clarity around our communication process. So two things that I want to recommend to you in this area. In the High Performance Instructional Leadership Network, we have two courses, one entitled Our Way, Building a Powerful Culture of Excellence in Your School, and another called Trust the High Performance Connection.

[19:01]

And you probably heard Richard say something about developing a flowchart or a process for making decisions. And I highly recommend doing that, especially if you're dealing with trust issues, if you're from a higher degree of trust, and especially if you're a new leader or new to your school. Letting people know, signaling through action that this is something that matters to you is a great way to build the credibility of your leadership, to strengthen the culture of your school, and to build trust.

[19:35] Announcer:

Thanks for listening to Principal Center Radio. For more great episodes, subscribe on our website at principalcenter.com slash radio.