Let's be clear: healthy teams don't just magically create themselves.
Like any healthy relationship, a PLC team dynamic needs to be created, nurtured, and supported. We need time to get to know our fellow colleagues, and we need time for them to get to know us, too. We need patience as we learn what makes someone else tick, and we need honest reflection in ourselves as we figure out why certain behaviors drive us bonkers.
It's really important that the human-side of teams is considered and planned for as principals and coaches consider their techniques for supporting their teams. As a teacher and work colleague, I can really like you during lunch; I can throw you a baby shower when you're expecting; I can bend-over-backwards to help take care of your room if you are ever in an emergency. But that doesn't mean I'm going to easily manage my own emotions when we're collaborating and planning together. One of the reasons that I created the Enneagram for PLCs series was to help us explore the ways our personal needs are showing up in our teams. It's just not super easy to collaborate from the start.
When it comes to team development: normalize road bumps and celebrate perceived barriers.
There are many, many behaviors that happen during a team meeting that can frustrate or stall the progress. I wouldn't say that every bump is bad; in fact, we can learn a lot about our own needs by recognizing what gets triggered through our teammates. Still, no one wants to sit in a frustrating meeting week after week, so it's important that we plan for some of these behaviors and work to collectively address them.
Before we can name solutions, we first need to identify some of those frustrating behaviors.
Review the following list and circle all of the "annoyances" that you have ever experienced in a team meeting:
People who are continually late to the meetings
Someone who is unprepared or without needed materials
People who repeatedly show up without data
Inability to find the agenda or documents
Side conversations
Little to no response to questions posed to the team
Someone who dominates the conversations
Someone who always has to be right
Frequent interruptions to the meeting
Lack of clear agenda or conversation topic
Ineffective use of time in the meeting
Off-topic conversations that derail the focus
Confusing goals that are disconnected from our classrooms
Someone who takes credit for someone else's work
People who act like they never have time, but waste the time they have complaining
People who say they want support from coaches or admin, but then refuse to ask for it when those folks are present
Someone who points out all the issues, but never offers any solutions
A person who agrees with everyone at the table but then does what they want in their room
People who shoot down all ideas
Someone who never smiles
Immediate blaming of students
Immediate blaming of parents
Immediate blaming of society at large
This list can go on...and on...and on...
It's not that we don't like each other, and it's not even that we don't necessarily believe in the idea of working together. It's simply that we are humans who can really exhibit some annoying and frustrating behaviors at times that make us difficult to work with.
Here's the good news: we are all, each of us, doing the very best we can with what we have in each and every moment.
That teammate who showed up without all of her data entered? Guess what? She's doing her best. The new teacher who never offers up ideas and just nods along but we have no idea what he thinks or if he's even following our curriculum map? Guess what? He's doing the best he can. The PLC leader who doesn't really set a clear topic of discussion or follow the format on our agenda, or really guide our work at all...guess what? They're doing the best that they can.
Principals and coaches and curriculum directors--doing their best. Special education and title and MLL teachers---doing their best.
People are 99.9% of the time actually doing their best in any given situation. I say this, not because we should lower our expectations or standards, but rather, so that we can demonstrate humanity and grace to one another as we learn where each person is and what they need.
You aren't in a team to be perfect; you are in a team to work together and create a reflective, problem-solving process. If we take the approach that we need to "fix" our teammates, we will fail every time.
The alternative to judgment and resentment is grace and love. It really is. We can actually choose to care about each other enough to have honest conversations about how to live better. We can care about each other enough to dream together about what we want our classrooms, and schools, and neighborhoods, and communities to be.
Groups share plans, but teams share dreams.