- When a school or district has leadership in teams, the
institution can evolve toward becoming a learning
organization as defined by the following characteristics:
-
- People feel they're doing something that matters - to
them personally and to the larger world.
- Every individual in the organization is somehow
stretching, growing, or enhancing his/her capacity to
create.
- People are more intelligent together than they are apart.
If you want something really creative done, you ask a
team to do it - instead of sending one person off to do
it on his/her own.
- The organization continually becomes more aware of its
underlying knowledge base in the hearts and minds of
employees.
- Visions of the direction of the enterprise emerge at all
levels. The responsibility of the administration is to
manage the process whereby new emerging visions become
shared visions.
- Employees are invited to learn what is going on at every
level of the organization, so they can understand how
their actions influence others.
- People feel free to inquire about each others'
assumptions and biases. There are few, if any, sacred
cows or undiscussable subjects.
- People treat each other as colleagues. There's a mutual
respect and trust in the way they talk to each other and
work together, no matter what their position may be.
- People feel free to try experiments, take risks, and
openly assess the results. No one is killed for making a
mistake.
(The above description is excerpted from "Learning by
All", written by Suzanne M. Wilson and co. and published in
Phi Delta Kappan, March 1996.)
The following topics will provide you further assistance
for being a leader and working as a team member on your School
Board.
In this
Module:
In the
Toolkit: