BOOKS
Meeting Management
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No more unproductive meetings! The complete guide to getting the most out of every gathering of educators.
Do your meetings spiral angrily out of control? Or simply not make the most of the participants’ talents? Lemons to Lemonade by Robert J. Garmston and Diane P. Zimmerman is the playbook you need to promote civil, productive discourse, detailing:
• How to prepare yourself to facilitate the discussion and keep it on task
• Best practices for squashing conflict without wounding pride
• Methods for dealing with “frowners,” “interrupters,” “subject-changers,” “humorists,” and other time-waster types
With this book, you will never waste another opportunity for problems to get solved by the combined powers of capable minds.
Customer Review
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A must-have for getting your team back on track
I inherited a staff that was in survival mode and exhibiting cutthroat behavior against each other. They were in fear of losing their jobs, as they saw so many colleagues forced to leave in the recent past. This valuable little book helped me organize meetings that put elephants on the table and use strategies to begin chipping away one piece at a time. We still have some work to do, but in only 3 months we have a cohesive team willing to collaborate – SR
Customer Review
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Easy Read and very helpful for facilitating meetings
I absolutely love this book. First, it’s not unnecessarily long. You can read cover to cover or reference the specific issue you’re hoping to resolve. I bought a copy for each of my Instructional Leadership Team members. We used it to facilitate our own meeting as well as discuss issues arising in department meetings – SCF
Story from the Book
A principal once told how in a fit of frustration at the end of a meeting, he chided his staff, “I need to remind you of our working agreement, ‘One conversation at a time.’” We had too many side conversations today, and we need to work on this. After the meeting, one of his most faithful teachers approached him and apologized for not following the agreement. No one else said a thing. Several years later, as he looked back, this principal realized that the one teacher whom he had never considered a problem had carried the guilt for the group. By not asking the staff to evaluate their behavior in relation to their agreements, he had failed to follow through, which caused a gradual reversion to old habits. In hindsight the principal commented, “Without realizing it, by ignoring agreements, I sanctioned a new agreement—that it was okay to show up with less commitment to pay attention.” P. 53-54
Discover how psychological safety, constructive conflict, and actionable learning create a powerful triple helix to transform teams!
In this ground-breaking resource, three experts in the field of education and teamwork each present one of three strands that, when woven together, support teamwork and forge collaborative interactions into a transformative way of working.
Drawing on research and practical experience the authors identify strategies and tools that show how to:
• Build psychological safety, where teams work towards resilient interpersonal relationships
• Use constructive conflict as a powerful catalyst for team learning and transformation
• Inquire into problems of practice to transform capabilities and produce actionable learning
Customer Review
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Discover how psychological safety, constructive conflict, and actionable learning create a powerful triple helix to transform teams!
In this ground-breaking resource, three experts in the field of education and teamwork each present one of three strands that, when woven together, support teamwork and forge collaborative interactions into a transformative way of working.
Drawing on research and practical experience the authors identify strategies and tools that show how to:
• Build psychological safety, where teams work towards resilient interpersonal relationships
• Use constructive conflict as a powerful catalyst for team learning and transformation
• Inquire into problems of practice to transform capabilities and produce actionable learning – MA
Customer Review
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ GAME CHANGER! Rethinking teamwork & leaning into discomfort
Our educational coaching team has found great value in Transforming Teamwork! Through our book study, we learned that effective teamwork that is abundant in innovation, deeper problem solving, and better decision making begins to show up when we, as coaches, embrace our differences. We experienced a paradigm shift FROM valuing our commonalities in philosophy, experience, and perspective TO placing even more value on our differences in these areas and beyond. As we’ve learned to create psychological safety, our meetings have become less of an environment where everyone is agreeable so we can move on, to more of an environment that is conducive to diverse perspectives and healthy conflict. As we’ve welcomed cognitive conflict to take place, we have made exponential strides in our work together and developed even stronger collective efficacy! I would highly recommend this book to any team that is wanting to equip each member to bring forth their fullest potential and collectively reach levels of performance far beyond what they thought possible!
Story from the Book
“Compassionate curiosity” is a process all educators should engage in from time to time. Kyled Redford (2018), a fifth-grade teacher from Marin Country Day School describes compassion in action:
Thich Nhat Hanh, a world -renowned mindfulness expert and spiritual leader, sees compassion as a verb—something we can do. It is a form of being mindful. Compassion asks teachers to pause before assuming we know what is behind a student’s rude or hurtful remark, disruptive behavior, or poorly executed or missing work. It shifts us out of role of judge and into the role of investigator—a caring one. It invites our students to tell us more. Disappointing behavior is no longer evidence that a student is insensitive, doesn’t care, or is not trying. More often than not there is a complicating factor that can be revealed (and sometimes removed) through non-judgmental investigation. Pp. 174-175
Consider another example. A kindergarten teacher stopped by the principal’s office after school to say that she was frightened by a father’s behavior over the phone. Up until that time she had enjoyed a positive relationship with this parent, but this seemed to have changed. The principal said, “Build on what you had, wait until tomorrow, and then call the parent and start with something positive, and then show compassionate curiosity by asking “How can I work with you?” The teacher came in beaming the next day, we had a great conversation, It turns out that he had been in an auto accident earlier that day!” He apologized for his rude behavior on the phone call,.