Meaningful Staff Meetings

13 Replies

I read this great post by Kristen Swanson yesterday on collaborative meetings. She shared some great insights from a meeting she attended on what should be done at a faculty meeting.  Here were some of her suggestions:

  1. Give people an agenda with specific times and goals relative to each component of the meeting. Setting these expectations helps people to understand how and when they can best contribute. It helps people understand why they are there and values their time.
  2. Put the school/department/classroom mission on the top of the paper. Use it as a tool to steer conversation in positive directions when it gets off track.
  3. Have people self select specific roles to make the meeting run more smoothly. For example, have people volunteer to be timekeepers, note takers, or prodders. (Prodder is my favorite role. That person should ask provocative questions or keep conversation moving forward when it’s stuck.)
  4. Design the space and the size of the meeting to allow for extended dialogue.  Groups shouldn’t be too large and the furniture should allow for people to have eye contact with comfort.
  5. Use language that honors and values people throughout the meeting. Shut down dialogue that is disrespectful to students or colleagues.

I have always hated staff meetings and as principal, I tried to keep them short and sweet.  My philosophy was that if I could email you the information, I would email you the information.  From reading Kristen’s post though, I tweeted out the following statement.

Seriously, the worst words that I personally can hear at a staff meeting are “Ok everybody, I want you to get up!”

It gives me instant anxiety when I think I am going to have to do something embarrassing in front of my colleagues.  I don’t think that meetings have to be all business all the time and I encourage a light hearted nature as you can get into some pretty heavy topics.  But the focus should not being on making them “fun”, but as I said, “meaningful” to participants.  I know the intention between many ice-breaker activities is extremely important and focused on building teams, but I also think that you can build those connections in meetings in other ways.

I want to respect the shortness of time that many educators have and then focus on making the content engaging enough that they want to be there.  That is a tough task, but do you think that if you show how much you respect your staff to have meetings that are short and engaging, do you think that will help build connections?  What about meaningful conversations?  Won’t that help build connections?  I know that many people think that these ice breaker activities are great ways to break up the meeting but is that sometimes because the meeting is so boring?  The focus should be on making that meeting relevant.

Many might comment here and say, “Well I like…”, but remember, it is not about the person putting on the meeting, but the people attending the meeting and what they feel comfortable with.

Am I crazy or is anyone with me on this?

  • colleenkr

    Thank goodness someone has the guts to say they don't like ice breakers at staff meetings! I *HATE* them, and they really do make people feel uncomfortable. Meaningful meetings are so much more important than awkward moments.

  • http://www.kristenswanson.org Kristen Swanson

    Thanks for the reference, George. I also agree that we need to design our meetings from meaningful goals. Otherwise they end up being a listless sequence of activities that might make us "feel good" but rarely move school change forward. To me, icebreakers are like donuts: sugary sweet yet empty.

  • shelleywright

    Well, you are crazy, but I'm with you on this :) I hate icebreakers. Always have, likely always will — could be an introvert thing. But the truth is, when I was in the classroom, I never attended a meaningful staff meeting. Mostly it was housekeeping stuff that could have been taken care of in an email or on a wiki.

    I think even with adults if you treat them like children, they'll act like it. That could be the reason for some of the attitude around staff meetings. But if meetings were planned to be short, engaging and meaninful, it would be a game changer; it might even filter into classrooms.

  • Vicki Steer

    I'm thinking about how to make my leadership teams more meaningful, more visionary ands strategic. It's a hard task when we are so time poor and have but one time each week to be together. Great food for thought in the post

  • alansaltuk

    Couldn't agree more- continually amazed at how leaders (guilty as charged) we can disrespect our staff by not planning meetings to make them worthwhile.

    Personal preferences- no meeting more than 90mins, no more than 20% admin, invite people to talk about their practice/ strategic issues they are dealing with, but give them a framework to do so. Don't be afraid to expand discussions, but be happy to indicate the conversation could continue outside the room if time is running on…

    This is an example of what I think it looks like in my school when it goes well…
    https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1gQ3Z6m1K…

    Love to hear any comments!

  • robcfisher

    I’m always thinking about this and the meetings I initiate at our school. End of week memo’s take a lot of the administrivia off the plate and keep people informed on an ongoing basis. I agree short and meaningful should be the goal. for example we had a ‘staff meeting’ last night. 1 agenda item. our 50th anniversary that is next week. purpose to make sure everyone knew what was happening and to field any questions for clarification. length of meeting-15 minutes.

  • http://jordanjai.com Jai_Jordan

    Tip #3 is smart work. I agree with the original writer, I really, really resent task assignment driven meetings, the effect is quite diminishing. Additionally, the concept of self-selection of roles is also remarkable for the classroom learning culture (w/slight adaptions for the audience). My work is in a high school and during learning walks often when I ask a student about their learning the student is able to regurgitate rote teacher talk. Tip #3 stretched my thinking to this effect. Perhaps at the beginning of an academic school year, a teacher might introduce students to roles with descriptions and actions such as problem solver, critical thinker, clarifier, questioner, the prodder, and so on. Upon any given planned curriculum, the teacher would introduce the learning targets and move through the logical sequence of instruction and just as the instruction is transitioning into the processing sequence allow students to grapple with their learning within their self-selected roles for the day and the teacher talks less and gives push back to deepen student learning, increase meaning, and prune content for transfer or production/performance… just my thoughts. I need to prune my thoughts a bit more. Just a spin with student centered slant. Thanks for sharing the post. Thanks for the stretch opportunity.

  • Jennifer

    I had to say thank you. I can't stand the "Get up and find someone…" situations that I am put into as a staff member. They happen all the time at meetings and workshops in my district. Meaningful discussion is more valuable to me than to find out what colour you feel like! I often hear leaders say "never make your students do something that you are not willing to do yourself", I don't make my students do these types of things. Like you said I don't want to do something awkward in front of other staff members. Our time is already stretched to the limit, so I appreciate the meetings and workshops that give me the information that I need, allow for meaningful discussion and then let me go in a timely manner.

  • http://0ab0.com دردشة تعب قلبي

    thanks for the info, i would like to check it,

  • http://Mattypearce.com Matt Pearce

    In staff meetings I sometimes feel like a new year 8 coming into a big school on their first day. It's all about having permission to say what I truly think without being judged or being seen as "someone who hasn't taught for 40 years, so what would I know"!! Some of my best professional conversations have happened in the staff room at lunchtime!!

  • fortna

    I love how you started with the agenda ("No agenda no attenda"). I would add that you need to send it out ahead of time. If everyone is seeing the agenda for the first time as they sit down, the conversation (and decisions made) are going to be half-baked.

    • georgecouros

      I LOVE YOUR QUOTE –> “No agenda, no attenda”

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