The Eight Continuums of School Culture David J. C. McKenzie Principal, Edendale Primary School (Southland)
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• Values vs. Emotionality Values – the creative force. When decisions and interactions between people operate around a core set of known and agreed values then human beings are operating at one of the deepest and highest levels possible. When values such as humility, self-control, integrity
Emotionality – the destructive force. Emotionality is when emotions are contorted by personal insecurities, frustrations and unhealthy obsessions. Effectively there are no values moderating an emotional reaction. When decisions and interactions between people are dominated by emotionality then relationships become unpredictable, unreliable and fragile. Angry volatile flare-ups produce fear, butt covering and ducking for cover. Sullenness produces negativity, walking on egg shells and energy depletion. Emotionality is sapping and destructive. The caveat here is that emotions are not wrong. Emotions in and of themselves are neutral. When emotions are aligned around values they are incredibly powerful. It is emotionality that is a negative tension, not emotions.
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Let us proceed to look at each continuum and how they work.
and grace flow and are reciprocated between each other a positive staff culture is created. Values are sturdy, foundational and predictable.
Present and Continuous
Pastitis
The culture of the staff in a school can often seem amorphous. It exists but it feels like an enigma. It seems fluid and shapeless presiding, as if in a science fiction movie, in another dimension. The development of a staff culture can feel like chance and time are the fulcrum forces, yet this is not the case. When unravelling the DNA of staff culture it is clear that it is complex but there are distinct design features, which once understood and brought to light, can help us as we work consciously to grow and then protect a cohesive, constructive, positive, staff culture. Before I proceed I would like to lay two foundational understandings. The first is that culture exists within relationships. When you have two people, on site, at any given time, there is a professional relationship. Staff culture lives in those microscopic, every day, seemingly insignificant conversations and interactions. The second foundational understanding around staff culture 2 is that the primary transmitters of it are those in leadership. We as Principals are chief transmitters but also our Deputy and Assistant Principals and our Board of Trustees. How we as leaders act and react sets a cultural tone. That tone rings out and is heard at a deep and often unconscious level by the rest of the staff. More times than not, they begin humming along to the tune that we have been playing. I would like to propose that this cultural tune, existing between relationships, is sung across eight distinct continuums. Each continuum is like a magnet with polar opposites. At one end there is a destructive, erosive force, which pushes away and destroys. At the other end there is the constructive, genesis force, which draws in and creates. (Figure 1, right)
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• Solutions vs. Blame Solutions – the creative force. Schools are full of people. We make mistakes and things go wrong. How are these mistakes dealt with? A solutions focus acknowledges the problem, dissects it and seeks learning from it, so that the possibility of the mistake happening again is minimised. With a solutions approach the problem is the problem – crucially the person is not the problem. When a solutions focus is part of school culture people know they are valued and supported. They feel secure and accepted even when they make mistakes. Blame – the destructive force. When things go wrong and a blame strategy is used then negative cultural forces come into play. Blame focuses on the person, not the problem. This subtle shift in focus is debilitating for staff. They don’t want to be part of it. Blame, by its nature, grows thorns of shame in a staff member’s life. It erodes confidence and diminishes discretionary work input. What staff member would want to take on something new if they know that getting it wrong would end in being blamed and shamed? • Others vs. Ego Others – the creative force. When relationships are ‘others’ focused they are outward focused. Other people’s needs are considered. Other people’s desires are taken into account. Other people’s opinions are valued. Other people’s suggestions are taken on board. An ‘others’ focus is enriching for growth, positive for progress and motivating for momentum.
Ego – the destructive force. Ego is ‘I’ focused. Ego is selfish and ‘me’ orientated. A person who is ‘ego’ focused is in it for themselves. They are not team players. They are not co-operative. They don’t contribute. They don’t go the extra mile for others. Ego devalues collegiality. • Giving vs. Getting Giving – the creative force. Giving involves understanding the needs of others and actively working to meet their needs. Inherent within a giving focus is sacrifice. It may take time, money and energy to meet the needs of others. It may feel inconvenient and outside of the scope of a job description, but that’s what makes it giving – going beyond the call of duty. A giving force is thoughtful and will publicly acknowledge work well done. It will celebrate a staff member’s achievement. Getting – the destructive force. A getting relationship is one sided. Getting people always want resources, money or courses just for them. They are like black holes sucking it all in. Yet, they seldom seem satisfied or content. A getting person wants all the praise, recognition, mana and acknowledgement to be theirs and theirs alone. They struggle to share the stage. They may even steal someone else’s achievements and pass them off for their own glory. They can be very critical when they do not get what they want. They are emotionally needy, draining energy out of staff for their own perceived needs. • Community vs. Careerity Community – the creative force. The ‘community’ force is an awareness that we are not in a social vacuum. That there are ripples that occur across the staff ‘pond’ when certain actions are taken and decisions are made. It is an understanding that when we join a school we join a community of people all working for a common goal and vision. It is team. It is togetherness. It is unity. Our work means something to others. Our contributions are joint with others creating synergy. There is a Xhosa word called ubuntu which means ‘I am because we are’. Community is a oneity. Careerity – the destructive force. We should all have dreams and ambitions to grow and become better at what we do. Careerity is not that. I define ‘careerity’ as an unhealthy obsession with a personal career trajectory. Burnt on the altar of careerity are patience, people and place. Schools, and the people within them, are stepping stones, to be used to get to some predetermined destination that, within the mind of the person, is their nirvana of success. Outcomes, actions and ‘looking good’ become hugely important. Pity the staff member who gets in the way of a person obsessed with their own career.
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• Investment vs. Costicity Investment – the creative force. An investment focus is a focus upon potential. It sees the future rewards and is not out for instant gains. An investment focus is growth focused. An investment focus sees staff members as the most important assets that the school has to complete its core function of raising student achievement. An investment focus is geared towards a staff member’s professional learning. An investment focus considers all staff as highly worthwhile ventures.
Costicity – the destructive force. There is a healthy aspect to paying attention to cost. It ensures value for money and reduces wastage. However, when a cost focus goes too far it becomes what I call ‘costicity’. When people are seen as a cost to a school, then the focus is negative. It begins to be about minimising that cost, reducing that expense and extracting every last drop of effort out of a person through any means necessary. Costicity can overly distort accountability and overplay outcomes beyond what is feasibly achievable. An excessive cost focus is morale destroying and can remove the zing and effervescent fizz in a school culture.
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• Present & Continuous vs. Pastitis Present & Continuous – the creative force. It is a time thing. It is a ‘tense’ thing. What ‘tense’ does the school staff culture desire to live within. Greek literature has a beautiful tense that is called ‘present and continuous’. It is a today, tomorrow and into the future focus. It is one built on hope, expectation and the positive dynamic of embracing change. Living in this dynamic and having relationships infused with this vibrancy is empowering and energising. Schools who are cognisant of this present-continuous tense have strong communication and organisation systems for ‘the now’ and are continually forecasting forward with plans based upon reflection of what works and what did not.
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Pastitis – the destructive force. The past is there; it informs our present and provides a context for understanding our world. It is important to have a healthy perspective on the past and learn from it. An unhealthy perspective on the past I call ‘Pastitis’. When a person is infected with ‘pastitis’ they are living in the past tense. It is their groove and sadly this groove has become a rut which they want to drag others into. Progress is thwarted with killer statements like ‘We’ve done this before and it didn’t work’. Sacred cows graze the pedagogical prairies. Pastitis infects a person’s teachability and is tinged with a dose of arrogance. Work becomes a ‘going through the motions’ experience of replication year on year. Pastitis means that schools and classrooms can become museums holding onto systems, practises and resources that are out dated. • Cognitive Listening vs. Talkism Cognitive Listening – the creative force. Listening is not just hearing. Hearing is a biological process, listening is cognitive process. Cognitive listening is putting what is heard into context, extracting the learning, seeing the opportunity and then acting at the appropriate time. Cognitive listening is very powerful. Opportunities for positive growth and dynamic step-change come from cognitive listening. The big question is who to listen to? In the context of this discussion it is staff. When staff are cognitively listening to each other a powerful force is let loose – dreaming. Schools can only grow as big as the dreams of those that are in them. When leadership allows dreams to flow the sky is the limit and staff feel empowered.
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• Talkism – the destructive force. Talkism has two aspects. •
Firstly it is talking designed to impress and let everyone within hearing range know how wonderful that person is. Talkism dominates discussions, over-rides discourse and sucks opportunities away from other people to contribute. They are orally selfish. Staff meetings become stages to impress others. They are so busy talking they have no time for listening.
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The second aspect to Talkism is a lot quieter but potentially more destructive and I call them ‘wasp statements’. It is those staff members who shoot in jabbing, snarky remarks that are sharp and hurting. You don’t expect them and before you know it you are rubbing a sore spot looking for the reason why you were jabbed. These people either have over-inflated opinions of themselves or have very low self-esteems and seek to lift themselves up by pushing someone ‘above’ them down.
Talkism people are always trying to promote themselves or demote others. When talkism dominates, innovation and ideas struggle to survive. The quieter precise and peaceful personalities wilt away into the background not wanting to poke their necks out for fear of being over-ridden or receiving snarky comments. A school goes a lot further and faster without talkism personalities dominating the staff culture. Creative Forces Values Solutions Others Giving Community Investment Present and Continuous Cognitive Listening (Figure 2)
Destructive Forces Emotionality Blame Ego Gain Careerity Costitis Pastivity Talkism
Here is a summary (Figure 2) of the two forces and the eight continuum components that make them up. When you look down each force you can see very clearly how the combination contributes to a positive or negative staff culture. It is possible to quantify, (all be it rather subjectively), a staff culture through an assessment tool (figure 3). This assessment tool allows staff to rate the culture on a scale between the two forces. This tool can be used in a variety of ways. It could be a self-assessment reflection tool to help you personally and honestly assess your own impact on staff culture. ■■ It could be used sensitively and professionally amongst the leadership team to get a perspective on how staff culture is going. ■■ It could go wider and be used for all staff members at the beginning of the year to get a feel for current culture. From there the information could be analysed, a plan put into action and then, at the end of the year, the tool could be used again to see if there had been any progress. ■■ You could total each staff member’s scores out of 56. From there you could average all staff ’s score to get a school average. The higher the number the stronger the school staff culture. ■■ You could draw your own school’s octagonal star for school culture by plotting results on the tool and joining them from one continuum to the other. Remember the tighter and smaller the shape the more positive the school staff culture is. ■■
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Whatever way you use it, be sensitive, considerate and professional. It has the potential to be very deep and revealing and some personalities could struggle with the results. It will generate a lot of thought and discussion, and when that is handled well it will help move school staff culture forward. To conclude, we spend a lot of our time at work. Making the school staff culture as positive as possible contributes towards a professional workplace. It will be one of dignity, unity and integrity. It will be positive, cohesive and harmonious. It will enable a school to achieve more, progress further and faster and attract the right staff. It will be noticed by the community. Ultimately it grows a school. As leaders we are in the conductor’s seat for school staff culture. Let’s conduct a great symphony!
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