Pipeline Leadership

Ben talked to us this week about Pipeline leadership which I found fascinating. Ben quoted someone as saying “if an organisation is well led, it will be effective”. We are a very well led team (just like the ABs) and so our school should be a highly effective one.

Traditionally teachers are in Pipeline 1 – they just have to be concerned about themselves and their role.

Traditionally team leaders are in Pipeline 1 and 2 – where pipeline 2 is all about the team and growing others with a bigger picture lense.

Pipeline 3 is where the APs sit and they are focused on building capacity with the team of adults and Pipeline 4 is the Principal who has to be thinking and planning strategically.

In our environment Pipeline 1 and 2 overlap. As a team member I have to be in Pipeline 2 sometimes, as we all have to hold each other accountable for our actions, we have to grow each other, we work collaboratively so have to have an eye on the bigger picture, and we have to ensure that our teaming BPP is being valued. This isn’t just Muireann’s job, we all need to step up and do this.

I have to say that this is one of the reasons SPS is such a great place to work – the expectations are high and so when we meet those expectations, so is our performance.

Ben also introduced 2 new terms - FAE (Fundamental Attribution Error) and  Naive Realism.

FAE is something that everyone does - we attribute a consequence of an action to that person's personality - we blame them, rather than look at the context of the error and find out why. We need to do more questioning and less "jumping the gun".

Naive Realism is the belief that your view is right and that if only everyone else was as rational as you are then they would understand it too. This struck a chord for me! Thinking about the Herrmann HBDI model where I am predominately blue, this logical and analytical side of me can cloud my judgement when I reach conclusions faster than others or my logic leads me down a path where no-one else is willing to follow.
The great thing about this is that I am aware of this side of me and one goal I have is to slow down . If i'm trying to convince someone of something the burden is on me to explain it better rather than them to "get it".
Naive Realism will stop teams growing, so it is essential that I keep this awareness and question the why.

Linking with the "Slow down" theme here are some quotes Muireann found;

Week 1 at SPS

Week 1 - Amazing is the one word summary. Was scared at the thought of not having a real "purpose" in the Innovative Learning Environment as all the other mentors are carrying on as normal, but my fear did not eventuate.
Day 1, Blue pebble Maths group
Day 2, Starlings and Waxeyes Reading groups
Day 4, Sparrows Reading group
Week 2 will be planning for Ben 10 writing group and teaching Ben 10 and Thunderbirds groups.

SPS really do walk-the-talk of collaboration. We're each planning different writing groups but not teaching all the lessons, PE we've decided on a theme and will follow the same lesson plan, reading groups are taken from each mentor group, as are maths groups. Concept time is a time to dig deeper and cover multiple curriculum areas, and there is still space in the week for a "joy"session - doing what you love as a learner / mentor. What more can you ask for?! 

It's the little things that help too.... SPS use hangouts to communicate with each other so there aren't 15 new emails every time you look at your computer. Discussing students is easy as all mentors are accessible, open and right there when you need them. Feedback is immediate, if you make a mistake and another mentor is there it is easily fixed (such as phonics - it's mmmmmm, not m m m!).

Then there is also the bonus of being surrounded by amazing mentors, absorbing what, why and how they do things to add to your repertoire. It is easy to feel somewhat daunted by this too, as they are incredible, but with a growth mindset I know my beliefs, principles and practices will just get refined and improved which can only be a good thing for the learners.