Meetings add energy to the school community or they deplete it. They seldom have a neutral effect.
Meetings that energize:
• Have clearly stated purposes that community members care about, with agenda items and outcomes matched to those purposes,
• Produce learning that is likely to alter participants’ beliefs, understandings, and behavior for the benefit of those purposes,
• Engage all participants in intellectually-stimulating conversations that spiral deeper into important issues,
• Conclude with clear “next actions” — everyone knows exactly what will be done, by whom, and by when, and
• Have high levels of interpersonal accountability to ensure that tasks are completed on time in the agreed upon way.
Meetings that deplete energy:
• Lack one or more of the above,
• Focus on administrivia, and/or
• Consist of serial speechmaking, often dominated by meeting leaders, during which predictable views are expressed and remain firmly held. As a result, nothing of consequence changes during or after the meetings.
You need to be a member of School Leadership 2.0 to add comments!
Join School Leadership 2.0