Building Culture
Overall Verdict: ★ ★ ★ ★
Why this book?
From September to December I had the privilege of working with Lekha Sharma. In the very short period that we worked together, I was able to see her passion, knowledge and experience of all things related to school leadership and when she asked me to contribute a case study to her book about school culture, I was touched.
The book aims to be a handbook of how to harness human nature to create strong school teams. Lekha has seamlessly interwoven theory, examples from her own practice, and the case studies of others, to produce a book that introduces leaders to the multiple components of building trust and a positive culture across a team in a highly readable and engaging way. Importantly, when reading this book I did not get overwhelmed or lost amongst the jargon as I often have with other books discussing leadership and so I recommend it to all!
Three key takeaways:
1. Psychological safety enables everyone within the team to feel seen and heard without the fear of repercussions. It creates conditions where nothing is ‘off the table’ and honest conversations are had about the actual state of play and how we can strengthen our professional practice. Where and when and how have I previously achieved / aimed to achieve this in my middle leader role?
2. ‘Trust is an important mediator of collaboration, and it is only through authentic and whole-hearted collaboration that we can optimise the quality of education within our schools.’ (p.46) In an age of common (read: increasingly prescribed) curriculums, how do we ensure that authentic and whole-hearted collaboration remains? How do we ensure that teams are collaborating to achieve the very best for their unique context?
3. We would benefit from more rethinking in schools and departments. ‘Rethinking allows us to learn from implementation, refine our approaches and change course when necessary’ (p.70) and yet not enough time is dedicated to the process in many schools. Rather, ‘the realities and pace of school life mean that before we’ve had a chance to catch our breath and engage in the reflective process of rethinking, we’re already considering our next implementation project. This can be problematic and lead to an endless cycle of wasted resource, futile implementation and frustrated staff.’ (p.72). How do we build in opportunities for rethinking in departments and schools? If we embedded this concept properly, what impact would that have on workload and teacher engagement?