Siloed Teams - is Digital & Collaborative Practice the Answer?

My Digital and Collaborative Innovation (abstract from Reflection 4): My digital and collaborative innovation began with the original question: If we use Kanban boards to streamline strategic decision making how will it affect the communication, cohesion and collaboration in a Team? (particularly, in this case, a Senior Leadership Team). This question has evolved as I have been on this reflective journey. What started as a critique focused on the existence of siloed teams within a school and how they came to be, narrowed to focus on the Senior Leadership Team. I see the actions of a team as a direct reflection of leadership - siloed teams could mean siloed leadership. The focus was narrowed even further to use the Kanban Board Innovation with Team Leaders (4) and one Associate Principal. The Kanban Board was then narrowed to streamlining communication connected to school-wide events / surveys / decision-making. KEY ASPECTS from RESEARCH: At the beginning of the innovation a survey was...

POLICIES / GUIDELINES: NATIONAL ADMINISTRATION GUIDELINES | NAGs (Ministry of Education, 2017) NAG 2 Each board of trustees, with the principal and teaching staff, is required to: develop a strategic plan which documents how they are giving effect to the National Education Guidelines through their policies, plans and programmes, including those for curriculum, aromatawai and/or assessment, and staff professional development; My digital and collaborative innovation, using Kanban Boards to streamline communication to improve cohesion and collaboration can connect to NAG 2. Our strategic plan has a goal connected to Curriculum - Future Focused Teaching and Learning. As part of this we have two Ministry funded PLD initiatives: Digital Fluency and Local Curriculum. Both of these require coherence and clear communication to enable success - the Kanban Board supports this coherence. NATIONAL EDUCATION GOALS | NEGs (Ministry of Education, 2004) NEG 3 Development of the knowledge, understanding...

https://www.pexels.com/search/tree Up-Journey (2019) describes the difference between policy, law and regulation as like growing a tree. Policy is the seed. An idea planted to improve our surroundings. Out of that seed grows the trunk of the tree, a law with a firm foundation. From the law, we get branches of regulations that reach out into the community and assist with community improvements. Like all professionals, teachers and leaders in New Zealand schools are guided by key policy, law and regulations. In particular we are bound by Our Code, Our Standards - Code of Professional Responsibility and Standards for the Teaching Profession. Policy: Policy: "a course or principle of action adopted or proposed by an organization or individual' (Lexico, 2021) Teacher Registration, Practising Certificates and Limited Authority to Teach Policy (Registration Policy) The Requirements for Teacher Registration, Practising Certificates and Limited Authority to Teach Policy (Registratio...

My Innovation: The focus for my digital and collaborative innovation was on improving the communication, cohesion and collaboration of our Senior Leadership Team through the use of Kanban Boards. There were many issues around how this could be successfully implemented in practice. Culture: Firstly, the culture of the school. Stoll (2002) describes a key aspect of a school’s culture as the ways people relate to and work together; and the management of the school’s structures, systems and physical environment (p. 10). Communication and collaboration are a crucial part of this. An initial survey, undertaken at the beginning of my innovation, revealed that the majority of the Senior Leadership Team perceived communication and collaboration as a strength of the Team and school (see image below). Communication_Kanban Board_Survey_Melinda Bell However, upon further discussion and breaking down of the school systems, the perception was challenged and the need for strengthening cohesive communi...