My experiences and lessons learned
from my improvement initiatives and action research plan have been great personally
and professionally. My experiences definitely took me to every corner of school
district operations. I have, now, a deeper understanding for the volume of work
that goes on behind the scenes outside of the classroom. My personal passion is
in the classroom but if anything from finance, facilities, personnel,
operations, supplies or food service is amiss the negative impact felt on
student learning can be severe. As I have reached across the district learning
and observing I have tried to better understand how all the entities work
together. I found that not all the entities know what the other is doing. As an
aspiring leader I have struggled with this lack of organizational connectedness.
I know not the answer but as I reflect I believe that, regardless of the issue
in school administration, strategic planning, communication and collaboration are
part of the solution.
Communication seems like a very logical
practice in any business setting. I have found it to be quite the issue in many
situations. When there is a lack of communication there was either a lack of
communication, an assumption made or someone was too prideful to partake in a
conversation. Miscommunication seems to occur more frequently than does
effective communication. If improvements
are going to be made in our business, public education, we are going to have to
communicate, effectively.
Strategic planning has been present
when I have witnessed successful efforts or initiatives. In order to make a
difference many things have to be just right before productive movement can be
noticed. All the right people need to be on board, funds might need to be
secured, timing might need to be targeted and, of course, data will need to be
prepared and ready to support the case, whatever it might be. These things are
a few of the things that need to be thought about and organized prior to
introducing the topic to the targeted group. Strategic planning is very
important especially for a leader new to a district or organization.
Collaboration is, in my opinion,
just as important as communication and strategic planning. All parties involved
need to be on the same page and be working towards the same goal. Without
effective communication and strategic planning collaboration is not possible.
Accomplishing the mission without collaboration is nearly impossible. All
entities involved in any effort need to be working together towards the same
goal. Group norms should be understood and adhered to in order to ensure that
the group effort is productive. All members of the group are valuable and can
influence the final outcome. Any time a group meets the objective of the
meeting should be clear and directly support the organizational goals. Collaboration
requires setting aside personal opinions and working towards accomplishing the
goal or mission.
Successful initiatives and
organizations have common traits that are evident regardless of the specific
target. Communication, strategic planning and collaboration are common to great
organizations that accomplish great things. These three traits have surfaced in
all of my internship activities. As I review all of my internship experiences I
can associate one if not all three of these traits to each of the specific
learning experiences. As I continue to learn and grow as a leader in education I
will consciously integrate these three traits into everything I do.
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