Reflection over Oct 24, 2008 session
What can a newly appointed principal do to change a toxic culture where teachers and staff discourage one another to achieve their best?
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- Anita Lie
- Prof. Dr. Anita Lie mendapatkan gelar Doktor Pendidikan dalam bidang kurikulum dan pengajaran dari Baylor University, Amerika Serikat pada 1994. Pada 1996 dia menjadi dosen tamu di SEAMEO RELC, Singapore. Dia juga pernah menjadi dosen tamu di beberapa universitas di antaranya Kwansei Gakuin, Fu Jen University, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Ateneo University dan De La Salle University, University of Brunei Darussalam, Universiti Putra Malaysia dan Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Dia mendapatkan penghargaan The Rotary International Ambassador of Good Will dan 2000 SEAMEO Jasper Fellowship Award dari pemerintah Kanada untuk kategori penelitian terbaik. Saat ini, Anita Lie berkarya sebagai Direktur EduBusiness Consulting (www.edubusiness.info), dosen di Universitas Katolik Widya Mandala, Surabaya. Anita Lie menulis artikel-artikel untuk media massa serta buku-buku pendidikan di antaranya 101 Cara Menumbuhkan Rasa Percaya Diri Anak, 101 Cara Mengembangkan Kecerdasan Anak, 101 Cara Menumbuhkan Kemandirian dan Tanggung Jawab Anak, Cooperative Learning, English via Environmental Education, Building Bridges, dan Beyond the Classroom.
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As a new pointed principal, he/she cannot suddently change the culture that already exist in that school. The first thing that he/she has to do is observe and learn about the environment of the school, get to know the teachers and staff well, listen to them and try to find the basic problem that happen to that school, such as: what things that make the teachers and staff discourage one another to achieve their best. After a new pointed principal has resources about the problem and knows the situation, then he/she can start to plan to change the culture. I think he/she needs to change the norm in that school. First, the new principal can make a good relationship among the teachers and staff by having some activities that can make them get close to each other, such as: retreat, BBQ party, etc. The second step, the new principal has to close the culture gaps. It can be done by giving or sharing school’s vision briefly everyday. A new principal can tell them how they are very important and the school really appreciate them. The school needs them as partner to build good image of the school. To do this, a new principal should have a good relationship with his/her teachers and staff. A new principal also has to demonstrate the changes that he/she expects from his/her teachers and staff.
Here may be some activities that can be applied by a newly appointed principal in changing a toxic culture where teachers and staffs discourage on another:
Firstly, ask information to previous principal about who are in charged trouble makers in the school. Secondly, Be near to the troublemakers to know their needs and problems emphathetically. It will deepen communication and understand. Thirdly, hold games, cellebrations, ritual ceremonies regualrly which involve in working together not only for all teachers,staffs, but also their families. It will build a strong of collective adentity and encourage community spirit among of them. And finally, as a principal, he should be persistant in deeds and sppech, so their followers are going to be appreciate his effort in changing a toxic culture.
When a leader confronted with a problem, he will generally get excited. Yet, when followers are confronted with a problem, they will get discouraged. Leaders usually see the problems as opportunities. Crisis is an opportunity to gain ground. Besides, there are many leaders have to face problems such as having toxic around them which can weaken other staff to reach the goals or the purpose the leaders have set before. Therefore, to cope the toxic problem, they have to be good listeners and have agenda setting.
Being a good listener does not mean the leaders do not have any courage to face the problems. They firstly have to recognize that people are different because listening is an active effort to understand the world from another’s perspective. Besides, listening requires the ability to act as if the speaker’s topic is central even when the listener is worried with other matters. For example: there was someone in my English course always trying to influence others to criticize my coordinator’s action. My coordinator actually knew his action to provoke others not to follow the plan. He always became the sniper who like criticizing all plans the coordinator made. Finally, instead of reprimanding him, my coordinator consulted to others and asked their opinions about what she needed to do. Besides, she also invited the sniper and talk privately by asking and listening why he always complained and criticized. After hearing his grumble, my coordinator finally knew why he did that. Thus, she learnt a new way to solve the problems related to her staff, she has to listen to all the objection, protest or complaint so that she can build a good working environment for everyone.
Moreover, leaders need to have agenda setting before they can anticipate the toxic such as the discouragement between teachers and staff. The leaders must set the agenda with two major elements, they are a vision balancing the long-term interests of key parties and a strategy for achieving the vision, recognizing competing internal and external forces (Fullan 2007:118). For instance, as I wrote before, when my friend started being a new coordinator, there were some critics and complaints to discourage others not to follow all of her plan. She finally introspected and considered all of her plans. She started thinking over her main goal by uniting all of her staff so that her plan could be successful. After thinking, she finally called some teachers to have some meetings except the sniper and asked about her plans. She wanted to know the members supporting to her and others against to her. After knowing her situation, she then started to call the sniper to discuss what made him be against to her plan. She issued some strict rules to limit the sniper action so that he could not influence other staff.
In conclusion, there are some ways which the leaders can control the bad situation related to her staff. They can be good listeners to know what problems their staff facing as well as setting the agenda by balancing the long-term interests and having the strategy for achieving the vision, recognizing the internal and external forces.
A school with a toxic culture does not promote motivation, productivity and job satisfaction of teachers and staff. It makes the teachers and staff unhappy, resentful and work in isolation. As a newly appointed principal, it is critical that I recognize this condition and change the culture into one that exhibits collegiality where teachers and staff are happy, supportive and work well together. I can do it by holding a special meeting with these individuals and share examples of success stories with them. I will also emphasize that success can be reached when there are good collaboration and relationship among staff and teachers and the success will benefit everyone in school. I will ask the staff to change their attitude from a discouraging one into an encouraging one and to show more tolerance towards one another. I will advise everyone to demonstrate care for other people and respect for the competence and contributions of each person, then I will let everyone feel the different atmosphere after changing their attitude. It really takes patience and continuous encouragement for those who discourage others to change their attitude. After all, changes can not take place on one day.
As we know that the culture of a school consists primarily of the underlying norm values and beliefs that teachers and administrators hold about teaching and learning, or may be also composed of traditions and ceremonies schools hold to build community and reinforce their values to achieve their best. Firstly she/ he, as a newly pointed principal, must assess the underlying norms and values of the culture and then as a group activity, work to change them to have a more positive, supportive culture. Here the principal needs to read the school. Because of a newly principal, she or he must talk to the previous principal, all teachers and staff to discern what kind of history the school has. Secondly discussing together about what aspects of the culture are positive and should be reinforced, and of the culture are toxic and harmful should be changed. The last, the principal asks and supports over the teachers and the staff to change the toxic to be positive culture to achieve their best together. The principal, the teachers and staff of the school can care for the school culture's positive aspects, for instance: celebrating successes in staff meetings and ceremonies, telling stories of accomplishment and collaboration whenever there's an opportunity, and using clear, shared language created during professional development to foster a commitment to staff and student learning.
A toxic culture can make the staffs and teachers unmotivated, and also unhappy. In my opinion, a new pointed principal cannot change the culture and climate easily in the new school. First of all, he must listen and appreciate all the staffs and teachers. It might be difficult for the principal at the first time but as time goes by, I am sure the new principal can pass the difficult situation. Next, the principal can learn a lot from teachers and staffs by having a chat, discussion and exchanging knowledge or experiences. The most important thing is that the principal must get the trust from all the staffs and teachers. After getting to know and adjusting the new environment, the principal can start planning some interesting activities to encourage one another so that they can achieve their best. For example, staffs training, having dinner together, workshop, hanging out together, and outbound. My principal is a new person. This year is the second year for her. I still remembered at the first time, she wanted to change everything starting from schedules, rules, even the vision of the school. Of course, there were pro and cons at that time. Since my principal is a good listener, everyone loves her so much. We always support on her in doing a new program as long as it is good for the school. All in all, changes can be done if the new principal has patience and courage to make a decision for the school.
A newly appointed principal should analyze and set the best solution that can satisfy most teachers and staff.To analyze the situation happens in a school, a leader should be a good listener and a good observer. From the information collected, a leader can set the solution properly.
A leader should be a good listener. The higher the position of a leader, the bigger the effort she/he should put to listen to others. Without listening, a leader will be like a blind person who knows nothing. A new principal should spend most of his/her time to know each teacher well. Try not to be like a principal who observes, but more like a friend or college. Because when a leader can build trust, he/she will get more information needed to find the solution. In this situation, the leader should find the reason(s) that lie(s) behind their discouragement.
Being a good listener should be supplemented with a good ability to observe. The meaning of being a good observer is not as easy as it said. A leader should be able to:
1. think critically (what lies behind all the problems, why do they do it? What do they expect?)
2. see things objectively (not based on his/her assumption or judgment)
3. how to analyze all the information gathered from different aspects and perspectives
At last, the leader should make a list of all possible-solutions. Think about the benefits and weaknesses of applying each solution. Be open to change your decision when it’s not appropriate, before you set it as the solution. Find the best solution that can satisfy most teachers and staff, since you will never be able to satisfy everyone.
First, she should listen whatever the teachers say about their colleagues, especially their negative sides. Second, she should give the positive comments towards the sentences they say. Third, she should also call the teachers to find the right reason why she had done such bad things which are mentioned by their colleagues. By knowing the reason, the principal is able to straighten out the problem in the teachers’ meeting. Hopefully, all the teachers will realize that the principal is a person who does not like to listen to the bad things of her teachers with the purpose to discourage to each other.
Sometime, I just went into the principal’s office when one of my colleagues just told something bad about a teacher and my principal scolded that teacher directly in front of the others. From this experience I learned that my principal is not a wise one because she did not ask to both side, she just listened to one’s side.
yes, of course the new principal can change the toxic culture into the better one. however it is not a piece of cake, it requires the big and hard effort from the principal.
Since the principal is newcomer to the environment, she/ he has to know the all the teachers there. he/she has to build a good relationship and communication with all of them, mostly as a good listener first before becoming the speaker, by listening to them he/ she can get more information about the school and can find ways to fix everything in it.
after the principal has made acquaintances with all of them, she/he can pick some influencing teachers to do this change together and of course supporting by other teachers. and before doing this, make sure they love and trust the principal first, so that it will be easier to change the toxic culture.
The culture of the school is varied. It can be a positive or negative culture. As a new appointed principal, he or she cannot directly change the culture of the school. Changing a toxic culture is the hardest thing to do. It needs a process and cooperation from each other to build a good relationship. As a new appointed teacher, the important step to do is to find the main problem that makes the teachers and staff discourage to one another to achieve their best. After analyzing the problem, the principal should take an action how to solve the problem together with the teacher and staff. The principal should be able to listen to the teachers as well as staff and give a helpful support and encouragement to change a toxic culture into positive one .The principal may ask the teachers and staff to have a meeting or having activities which can build their relationship.
A newly appointed principal cannot suddenly change the culture of the school right then and there. Change is a process not an event, therefore before attempting to start change, it’s best to gain knowledge of the organization first. Observe what goes on in the organization and how things are done within the organization. After that the principal can then develop a set of operational priorities to improve the situation. Kilmann (1984) recommends a five step procedure which is identify actual norms, where norms that guide the teachers’ actions and behaviors are identified. Then new directions are articulated where teachers discuss where the school is headed in order to progress. What needs to be made sure is that the teachers are discussing this together as a team with the principal. The third thing is to establish new norms that they believe will lead to improvement and organizational success. Next is identifying culture gaps where teachers examine the discrepancy between the actual norm and the desired norm. The larger this gap is the more dysfunctional the organization is. Lastly is closing the culture gap, where teachers list new norms that will replace the old norms and that these changes will be reinforced and monitored. When I interviewed a principal about how she led a school and how she changed the culture there, this was exactly what she did. She observed the school culture and built a good relationship with the people for about a year and then got the teachers together to discuss how to make progress for the school. She actually did what Kilmann recommended and succeeded.
A school principal will always have to deal with problems, and this is one of the problems that a newly appointed principal might face. As a new principal, he/she cannot just decide to change everything just as easy as clicking his/her fingers. A new principal should know the school and culture first before planning to make changes. He/she should do some observations, and know the teachers and other staff. In addition, he/she must also be able to gain trust from the teachers by willing to listen to them.
Having this kind of problem, a newly appointed principal should have a good solution. It is impossible to satisfy everyone, but at least the solution will benefit everyone. For example, the principal can arrange a meeting with the teachers with a special agenda, which is to know each other better. In this meeting the principal can have an interesting reflection activity. With this activity, teachers can learn that instead of weaknesses, they also have strengths and they also have to learn to respect each other’s strengths. Another meeting can be arranged afterwards for teaching the teachers about the importance of working collaboratively. It is a kind of changing the school culture, but in the very simple ways.
Becoming a newly appointed principal is actually a challeging task to do. It becomes much more challeging when the principal has to face a school having the toxic culture. The principal needs to have several strategies in order to cope this kind of situation. First, she/he should get to know the school. She/he has to observe and talk to school members so that she/he will find out the reasons behind the toxic culture in that school. Second, she/he should make some programmes or plans in order to handle the school problems. Third, she/he should communicate the programs with the school members through some meeting. it is needed because the plans should be shared with all of members.Finally, she/he can actualize the programmes in order to make effective changes in the school. However all of these strategies will be successfully applied when the principal show the real action of changes. Becoming a good real model for the school will influence the school members to have willingness to change.
A newly appointed principal need to have a legitimate power first, then he or she can investigate the situation to have a briefly picture. Through this action the newly appointed principal can analyze and start to configure several actions that possible. And he or she can consider which alternative is suitable with her sub ordinate situation.
In my organization, the toxic culture are
Negaholics
Giving up on improvements
In my organization, most of the employee are women, that is way, gossiping is a habitual. In result, the members always underestimate with each other. I think it is not a good atmosphere to work. For example, when I was a new employee, my senior her name is Poppy. She is queen of gossip. She said negative statements for my supervisor, that is way, when my supervisor helped me, I did not want say thank for him, since I had negative opinion of him. In fact, since I have been working with him, I conclude that he is not as bad as poppy told, he is nice, even he is introvert person.
In my organization, every semester, there are many activities to improve the employee ‘s creativity, such as web design competition, logo design competition But most of my friends said that it is wasting time, or it is difficult. Moreover, they said even they join many competition, it does not mean get higher salary. That is way; the participants who joint the competition are the same. Meanwhile, competition is very important for them.
According to the facts in above, If I were the coordinator of Jawa –Bali, I would ask the person who likes gossip to involve in many occasions, so that she does not have time to gossip.
Besides that, my coordinator should give appropriate reward for the winner of competition not only medals, so that they will be motivated in competition. Also, he should give opportunities for member to know each other, such as encourage the whole employees in deliberating on organization goals, belief, and vision at the beginning of the year. Also, between employee there should maintain collaborative, and professional attitude.
When there is a toxic culture in a school where teachers and staff discourage one another to achieve their best, if I were a newly appointed principal, I would do the clinical strategy as developed by Alan Brown ( 1965) and then combine with the Changing norms strategy as developed by Ralph Kilmann ( 1984).
The first step is gaining knowledge of the organization. It is the first step in clinical strategy. In this case, I would gather all the teachers and staffs in a meeting, in which I would listen and open to their problems and suggestions. I would observe them carefully, understand the salient aspects of organizational life including the basic norms and values of the schools and analyze them.
The second step is making a diagnosis. It should be made from a variety of perspectives, such as distorted communication, unilateral decision making, weak motivation and so on.
The third step is surface new norms, by identifying the norms that guide their negative attitudes and behaviors.
The fourth step is to establish new norms that they can identify a set of new norms that they believe will lead to improvement and organizational success.
The last step is to close the culture gaps between the present norms and the new ones. For example by motivating them to enhance their togetherness and collaboration. I would try to convince them that the desired norms will replace the old norms and that the changes will be monitored and enforced.
PRINCIPALSHIP
Reflection over Oct 24, 2008 session
What can a newly appointed principal do to change a toxic culture where teachers and staff discourage one another to achieve their best?
“Every school has a set of expectations about what can be discussed at staff meetings, what constitutes good teaching techniques, how willing the staff is to change, and the importance of staff development”(Deal & Peterson, 1999). Schools also have rituals and ceremonies--communal events to celebrate success, to provide closure during collective transitions, and to recognize people's contributions to the school. School cultures also include symbols and stories that communicate core values, reinforce the mission, and build a shared sense of commitment.
On my own perspective that our Principal already done with her visions to coordinate their subordinates. She learned all of things when she came at the “first” time in our school. She did not do anything yet. She invited some teachers or Head of Program to discuss the school progress. As a new teacher, I also got involve with her visions. Meanwhile, it didn’t follow by other teachers. Some of them felt that as a new “Principal” comer, she didn’t know anything about the school culture. But it was totally wrong (actually). In the following year she knows everything about all of the school’s components. She has a commitment to develop our school. So that she “pushed” not only the teachers but also all of school individuals to improve their ability to deal with school’s mission. In the third year of her authority, she started to dismiss some of teacher who didn’t follow with school’s mission and vision. Punctuality, discipline and commitment as a teacher are the most important value of her. She believed that teacher who didn’t have a good performance also didn’t have good commitment to teach their students. She shared her vision that teaching not only “teaches” them but she gave some points of view that the way teacher guided them become a good students more important than anything else. She pointed out that students are our gold customer, treat them as well as we can and educate them as good as possible. How can a teacher teach well if they don’t understand about what are “punctuality” and “discipline” of him or herself?
Otherwise, I also note from some good articles that in positive cultures these features reinforce learning, commitment, and motivation, and they are consistent with the school's vision. In schools with professional learning communities, the culture possesses:
• A widely shared sense of purpose and values;
• Norms of continuous learning and improvement;
• A commitment to and sense of responsibility for the learning of all students;
• Collaborative, collegial relationships; and
• Opportunities for staff reflection, collective inquiry, and sharing personal practice.
(Stein, 1998; Lambert, 1998; Fullan, 2001; DuFour & Eaker, 1998; Hord, 1998).
Some schools have the opposite--negative subcultures with "toxic" norms and values that hinder growth and learning. Schools with toxic cultures lack a clear sense of purpose, have norms that reinforce inertia, blame students for lack of progress, discourage collaboration, and often have actively hostile relations among staff. These schools are not healthy for staff or students.
By actively addressing the negativity and working to shape more positive cultures, staff and principals can turn around many of these schools. Principals are keys in addressing negativity and hostile relations.
In my opinion, as a new principal, it is not easy to change the school culture but it is possible to happen. The first thing that can be done by the new principal is to get some data or information before he gets into the school from people who work for quite some time in that place. After that, the second thing that can be done is observation. The observation can be done within 1 until 2 months. The mean of this observation is to see in closer look the real culture that happen in that school. Values that can long last and the values that needed to be changed. Observing can be done also at the same time with getting closer to the school member so, if the changes are about to be done, it will not give a meaningful barrier. Then, an open climate in the school should be build. A relationship where principal and the staff feel free to come out about opinion and critiques. When this is done, the rest can be done easily. Then, a fun time among teachers can be done to strengthen the relationship among teachers.
THIRD REFLECTIVE OF CURRICULUM DESIGN
WHAT CAN A NEWLY APPOINTED PRINCIPAL DO TO CHANGE A TOXIC CULTURE WHERE TEACHERS AND STAFF DISCOURAGE ONE ANOTHER TO ACHIEVE THEIR BEST?
I think how to change a bad culture in school that has a toxic in it is not easy it takes time to change for the overall. Why? Because this Kind of activity has already rooted among of the teachers and staff behavior and attitude. Of course that kind of schhool needs a pincipal who has a charismatic authority and informal authority. As we know this kind of authority is very needed by a principal who is working in a new school or a principal who can lead all the teachers and staff to be integerated in all of the school culture or many things if that kind of school want to be a perestigious and favourite school. That is why it needs a principal who is very respected him or her much. It is almost the same with what is charismatic and informal authority
charismatic authority means that devotion to an extraordinary individualnwho is leader by virtue of personal trust or examplary qualities and the authority of the charismatic leader results primarily entation emerges within the group to produce an intense normattive commitment to and identification with the person. While informal authority is still another sourse of legitimate control stemming from personal behavior and attributes of individuals.
DEWAYANTI/BATCH XI
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