Building a Strong Collaborative Team
Building a strong collaborative team is vital for fostering an effective teaching environment. Trust, clear communication, and mutual respect form the bedrock of successful collaboration among educators. In this episode, we delve into the significance of creating an atmosphere where team members feel valued and heard, thereby enhancing overall performance. Through personal anecdotes and practical strategies, I elucidate the importance of celebrating small victories and maintaining a positive teacher culture. Ultimately, our aim is to keep the focus on students, ensuring that every decision made reflects their best interests.
A profound exploration of the mechanisms that underpin effective collaborative teamwork in educational settings is presented in this episode. Nicholas Kleve articulates that the cornerstone of any thriving team lies in the establishment of trust, which must be cultivated through genuine interpersonal connections among team members. He advocates for dedicating time to celebrate personal and professional milestones during meetings, thereby fostering a sense of belonging and mutual respect. This relational approach is posited as essential for creating an environment conducive to open dialogue and constructive feedback, which are critical for resolving conflicts and enhancing team dynamics.
The discourse further delves into the imperative of clarity within communication structures. Nicholas asserts that clarity is a catalyst for competence, arguing that when teams operate with a clear understanding of their shared goals and individual roles, they are more likely to function effectively and efficiently. He emphasizes the importance of creating a collaborative agenda and utilizing shared digital tools to streamline communication, thereby mitigating confusion and ensuring that everyone is aware of their contributions to the collective effort. This clarity not only empowers team members but also fosters accountability, as individuals are more likely to engage meaningfully when their responsibilities are distinctly outlined.
Moreover, the episode examines the significance of inclusivity in collaborative leadership. Nicholas posits that the loudest voice is not always the wisest, promoting a culture where all perspectives are valued and encouraged. By rotating leadership roles, teams can ensure that every member has the opportunity to contribute their insights, thus enriching the decision-making process. The episode concludes with a call to action for teams to celebrate their achievements and practice grace in the face of challenges, underscoring that a positive team culture is fundamental for sustaining high morale and ultimately improving student outcomes.
Takeaways:
- Trust serves as the cornerstone of effective collaboration within a grade-level teaching team, fostering stronger relationships among educators.
- Clear communication is essential in collaborative teams, as it eliminates ambiguity and enhances collective efficiency and competence.
- Celebrating small victories and practicing grace are crucial for maintaining morale and fostering a positive teacher culture.
- Engaging every team member in discussions ensures that all voices are heard, promoting diverse perspectives and shared accountability within the team.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Be a Funky Teacher
Transcript
Yeah, he's Mr. Funky.
Speaker A:He's Mr. Funky Teacher.
Speaker A:Mr. Funky Teacher inspires greatness, makes you feel good.
Speaker A:Like your favorite playlist.
Speaker A:Keeping that fresh and funky.
Speaker A:Yes, he does.
Speaker A:He got some funky cool ideas to share for all you teachers.
Speaker A:He can empower others, students and teachers.
Speaker A:It's all about hard work and creativity.
Speaker A:He brings out the kindness in everyone.
Speaker A:He's got the passion to teach you hear it when he speaks.
Speaker A:He knows how to build strong relationships.
Speaker A:If you're seeking the best, funkiest, he is it.
Speaker A:He will empower you to improve.
Speaker A:You'll be helping others and loving it too.
Speaker A:He's Mr. Funky Teacher.
Speaker A:Yeah, he's Mr. Funky Teacher.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:This is Mr. Funky Teacher with Be a Funky Teacher dot com.
Speaker B:I'm coming to you with another Be a Funky Teacher podcast.
Speaker B:Welcome back everyone to today's episode is called building a strong collaborative team.
Speaker B:Creating trust, clarity and purpose at the grade level.
Speaker B:Now, there are three things I'm thankful for before we get into it.
Speaker B:First thing I'm thankful for my daughter.
Speaker B:I am so thankful for my daughter.
Speaker B:Her energy, her love for life and her faith.
Speaker B:See, she brings so much light into my days.
Speaker B:Watching her laugh, creating, compete and lead with confidence fills me with pride as a father and fills me with pride and gratitude.
Speaker B:Her love for life reminds me to bring that same spark into my classroom and collaborations.
Speaker B:And it is her birthday today.
Speaker B:Happy birthday to my daughter, Maya.
Speaker B:Second thing I'm thankful for, timely gas stations.
Speaker B:You know those moments when the fuel light's been on way too long and then finally there's a gas station right when you need it.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah, I'm thankful for those gas stations.
Speaker B:It's a simple reminder that relief and refueling often come just in time, both in travel and in chichi.
Speaker B:This third thing I'm thankful for, spirited signs on the side of the road.
Speaker B:Whether it's a funny pun, church marquee, marquee, hand painted encouragement, those little messages, they bring me a smile.
Speaker B:And it's proof that inspiration doesn't always come from a book or a meeting.
Speaker B:Sometimes it's just waiting for you at a stop light on the side of the road.
Speaker B:All right, everyone, let's get into the main topic here, which is building a strong collaborative team.
Speaker B:Creating trust, clarity and purpose at the grade level.
Speaker B:Well, y', all, when building a collaborative team, take some work first from, from everybody involved.
Speaker B:The big first, big thing is that to build trust before tasks, the trust have.
Speaker B:The trust has to be there where the foundation of every great team isn't.
Speaker B:A shared calendar.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It's shared trust.
Speaker B:And so it's so important to take time to know your teammates as people talk about life.
Speaker B:Not just lesson plans or not just data or assessments.
Speaker B:One thing we talk about at the beginning of every single meeting is celebrations.
Speaker B:We take that time.
Speaker B:We take five to 10 minutes every single meeting for celebrations because we as a team recognize that when we're sharing about.
Speaker B:About things and it could be celebrations related to teaching or celebrations related to our personal life.
Speaker B:When we take that time though, it, it.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It's building relationship and trust amongst ourselves where we can be vulnerable and share things as a team with each other that is critically important.
Speaker B:And I, I think everybody in our group would say how that is critically valuable and necessary important for us to do.
Speaker B:And so I encourage your.
Speaker B:It can't just be about.
Speaker B:It can't be the whole time, right?
Speaker B:We, I think we all can admit it can't just be the whole time, but taking some of that time to, to talk about life.
Speaker B:I think it's very important.
Speaker B:Now when you bring in trust and you build that trust.
Speaker B:Trust can accelerate collaboration.
Speaker B:It turns.
Speaker B:If you have disagreements, it can turn disagreements more into dialogue versus versus Just like a, like a heated argument almost.
Speaker B:See, you can't build a team with people who don't feel seen or heard.
Speaker B:So it's important to do also things like quick check ins even during the meeting.
Speaker B:During the meeting I'm just thinking about approaches that I've done to help with our collaborative team.
Speaker B:We have a really great collaborative team.
Speaker B:I'm so thankful we, we work really well together here this year.
Speaker B:I like to do check ins with them.
Speaker B:Sometimes it's check ins during the meeting, sometimes after the meeting, sometimes another time when we're not having a cloud.
Speaker B:Hey, how do you think our.
Speaker B:How are you feeling about our team?
Speaker B:I'm so glad you're part of our team.
Speaker B:I try to let our team know that hey, I'm glad you're part of our team.
Speaker B:So, so I'm just thinking about like quick check ins can I think help with some of that trust building, bringing laughter into our.
Speaker B:Our work that we're doing too.
Speaker B:I haven't brought snacks yet, but I wonder if I should bring snacks because everybody loves snacks, right?
Speaker B:Show up.
Speaker B:I should show up with donuts one week or some sort of maybe tasty treat to our collaborative team meeting sometime.
Speaker B:That might be something that, that I'm going to want to do.
Speaker B:But that's.
Speaker B:That feeds into even those check Ins or bringing some laughter, sharing, sharing about ourselves.
Speaker B:It's all that tying into the trust.
Speaker B:When trust grows, efficiency follows naturally in a.
Speaker B:In a way that is going to ultimately impact our performance working with students.
Speaker B:Second big thing that I'm thankful or not thankful for, second big, big idea that I want to talk about, y', all, is that clarity creates competence.
Speaker B:One thing that I see when working with collaborative teams is that ambiguity drains energy and clarity fuels it.
Speaker B:And one thing that our principal actually has asked us to do is to define our goals.
Speaker B:And I think that was a great thing for him to recommend that we not recommend.
Speaker B:He expects us to do it, which I think is wonderful.
Speaker B:He stopped into our collaborative team a few weeks ago, and we were talking about goals and wanted us to really make sure that our goal, the semester and then for the year goal was extremely clear in writing, as clear as can be.
Speaker B:And we've done that since.
Speaker B:We've really.
Speaker B:Well, we.
Speaker B:We had kind of an idea of where we were going.
Speaker B:I think that was a missing step that we had to get it in writing and making sure that there's no ambiguity.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:Now it's.
Speaker B:Our team's purpose and priorities for the.
Speaker B:For this semester and for the year are extremely clear.
Speaker B:And that's just going to make us stronger.
Speaker B:We have.
Speaker B:We have a whole.
Speaker B:We have a collaboration.
Speaker B:We have a collaboration agenda, a collaboration folder where we put documents, and that's kind of a.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It's like a shared folder in.
Speaker B:In Google.
Speaker B:We, our.
Speaker B:We.
Speaker B:We live and die by our agenda, truly.
Speaker B:That's where we kind of.
Speaker B:We link things out.
Speaker B:We put things in there that kind of helps our whole.
Speaker B:Whole organizational approach.
Speaker B:That's a huge communication piece.
Speaker B:One.
Speaker B:One thing I'm actually going to do is I still don't have everybody's cell numbers in a group.
Speaker B:I think that might be helpful too.
Speaker B:Even if we had like a text group going where we.
Speaker B:Not for negativity, but complaining, but we needed to address something as a team that might be helpful.
Speaker B:It might be helpful to, as a team where we could address things like that, especially when we had different team members from our group throughout the building, not just right here next to each other.
Speaker B:I have some of my team members right by me, but some of our team members are throughout the building too, so it might be helpful.
Speaker B:And so that's one thing I'm actually going to do at our next meeting, is see if I can put, like, a text group together.
Speaker B:I think that's going to Be another step of communicating and just be helpful.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It speaks to once again providing some clarity even in how we'll communicate.
Speaker B:If there's so storing documents, communicating, it's just kind of.
Speaker B:It just feeds into that again, iron clarity, which ups our confidence and as a team also when we have, when we come in and work together, our roles, expectations and goals, as long when they are clear, then we have no one guessing who's doing what.
Speaker B:And so we might have responsibilities where certain people are maybe bringing in assessment data or maybe the whole group is bringing certain assessment data from a certain test or maybe there's certain work that an assessment that's going to be built or maybe there's some.
Speaker B:A filing system needs to be built or maybe it's.
Speaker B:Somebody needs to be contacted with a question or a newsletter built and updated.
Speaker B:See whatever it is, making sure that ambiguity isn't there.
Speaker B:We're very clear on who's doing what.
Speaker B:I.
Speaker B:It's gonna make things.
Speaker B:The, the confidence of the group is gonna go up a lot more by doing that.
Speaker B:And they're still gonna.
Speaker B:You're still gonna.
Speaker B:I don't care how great of a group you are or how great of a performance as a team you are, you're still going to have some challenges as.
Speaker B:As a team that you're gonna find where.
Speaker B:Where you're like, oh, we're not as clear in this.
Speaker B:And then when you recognize those holes in the system, then you fix them.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:Because clarity doesn't.
Speaker B:It doesn't control.
Speaker B:It empowers clarity, empowers a group.
Speaker B:So I can't encourage you enough to as a collaborative team, if you're part of a collaborative team, really lean into making sure that there's clarity in what's being done and who.
Speaker B:Who's doing what.
Speaker B:And having systems in place just like in our classroom systems, procedures, policies in our classroom are so important in what we do.
Speaker B:Our systems, routines, procedures have those also with your collaborative teams.
Speaker B:They're so important.
Speaker B:And then the next big thing that I want to say is that the next big idea is the value of your voice.
Speaker B:The loudest voice isn't always the wisest.
Speaker B:I encourage rotating leadership roles.
Speaker B:It doesn't have to be the same person every time leading the meeting doesn't have to be the same person doing the same role every time.
Speaker B:And that's a good thing if you rotating.
Speaker B:Even in ours, we kind of naturally have certain people sometimes.
Speaker B:We, we.
Speaker B:We have had some weeks where we have defined leadership roles and then we've had Some weeks where, where some just have kind of naturally stepped up depending on what's being addressed based on strengths.
Speaker B:And, and that's okay too, as long as it doesn't get into ambiguity.
Speaker B:And so it hasn't.
Speaker B:For us, it actually, that part of it has flowed quite nicely because we've still have our roles, we still have our, our defined tasks.
Speaker B:But ultimately the loudest voice isn't always the wisest.
Speaker B:It's so easy where we can have like, if you keep the structure simple too, where maybe like if you're making a decision as a team, hey, let's hear from everybody or everybody share one idea before we decide as a team what we're going to do.
Speaker B:If you say something like that and then everybody gets a voice like you're pushing everybody into using their voice and saying, saying, hey, what's, what do they think?
Speaker B:Because I would argue that somebody just sitting at a collaborative team saying nothing the whole time is, is really not productive and not, not a good approach.
Speaker B:If I really work hard with my collaborative team that I'm part of to I, I'm, I'm pretty outspoken on it, but others are outspoken to.
Speaker B:And if, you know, in our collaborative team, I want to hear every voice.
Speaker B:And I know our team as a whole, we want to value everyone's voice because everyone is an equal partner in our collaborative team.
Speaker B:And even though there might be some who are more softer spoken by nature, their voice, their opinions, their thoughts matter just as much as someone who might be a little bit more outspoken.
Speaker B:And that, that's, that's not just okay, that is every voice matters.
Speaker B:I, I, sometimes, I literally say sometimes, Raymond, hey, what are your thoughts on this?
Speaker B:It's not me calling, calling someone out during a meeting.
Speaker B:It's me genuinely, I genuinely have an interest in what they, they, they are thinking.
Speaker B:And so I asked.
Speaker B:I've had people do the same thing to me where sometimes during, during a collaborative meeting, I'm thinking about in past years where I've been part of a collaborative team where maybe I'm a little bit, I'm, I'm thinking about something because if, if sometimes I just need time to process what's being said or what is being addressed, especially if it's some complex stuff.
Speaker B:Sometimes I just need time to process it.
Speaker B:And, and I don't always have a very clear answer that I'm working through, like a response.
Speaker B:And sometimes I'll say that sometimes I, I'm sitting there kind of quiet and I've had someone say, hey, what are your thoughts?
Speaker B:On this.
Speaker B:And sometimes my response is, I'm not sure how I feel about it, or I'm not sure how I feel about it.
Speaker B:And then I kind of will kind of stumble through my response.
Speaker B:And that's okay.
Speaker B:You don't have to have a perfect answer either.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:But the thing is, with collaborative teams, collaboration has to happen.
Speaker B:We can't just all sit in silence.
Speaker B:So I want to encourage you.
Speaker B:When you're part of a collaborative team, try to make sure everybody's voice is included and matters.
Speaker B:Even if people don't have the perfect responses, that's okay.
Speaker B:And diversity in perspective strengthens your plan, your approach, and really your culture of your team.
Speaker B:When everyone feels heard, accountability becomes shared, not forced.
Speaker B:The fourth big idea I want to talk about, y', all is to celebrate progress and practice grace.
Speaker B:Collaboration can get heavy sometimes.
Speaker B:Lighten it up by celebrating small wins.
Speaker B:You can even at meetings have like, end meetings with hey, team wins or gratitude shout outs.
Speaker B:You could bring in extend grace when things go wrong.
Speaker B:Like, hey, we're all balancing full plates here right now.
Speaker B:We got a lot going on.
Speaker B:And extend grace to maybe individuals or, or the entire team.
Speaker B:I've give grace to someone who might make a mistake.
Speaker B:My last episode I talked about the mistake I made with around assessments and the essential standards.
Speaker B:Give people grace, right?
Speaker B:If something goes wrong, also celebrate progress.
Speaker B:Hey, a quick note or, or a donut or a thank you can really help keep morale high, because collaborative teams, there's nothing worse than if you have a collaborative team with morale in the dumpster, in the ditch, where it's not high.
Speaker B:Collaborative teams are not productive, not effective, not purposeful or purpose driven.
Speaker B:I believe if they are running on low morale or they feel like their work doesn't matter or is not meaningful, and that's such a dangerous place to be in.
Speaker B:So it's about trying to keep that morale up.
Speaker B:And a quick note or a quick celebratory, hey, this is the work that we're doing and how it matters and how it's impacting our team and our students.
Speaker B:Man, that's powerful stuff there.
Speaker B:And ultimately, grace and humor hold teams together through the messy middle.
Speaker B:Write that down because it's going to be in a test.
Speaker B:Grace and humor hold teams together through the messy middle.
Speaker B:And we all know that there's a messy middle that we work through.
Speaker B:The meanings themselves, right?
Speaker B:The meetings themselves can be the messy middle.
Speaker B:And so if you bring in grace and humor and celebratory type of approach, it's going to help get you through the messy work of the meeting, but then just through the messy work in general of progress is messy.
Speaker B:Sometimes going through and changing stuff and figuring out how to impact kids in a meaningful, real way can be messy.
Speaker B:But keeping morale up and doing it with grace, humor, playfulness can really make a difference, y'.
Speaker B:All.
Speaker B:So some big reflective takeaways here is that a strong team isn't built overnight.
Speaker B:It's built meeting by meeting with trust, laughter and purpose.
Speaker B:The best teams don't avoid conflict, they communicate through it.
Speaker B:And when collaboration works well, students benefit most because teachers are united in heart and vision.
Speaker B:We teach better when we grow together.
Speaker B:Well, that brings this episode to a close.
Speaker B:If you found value in this podcast, jump on over to Apple Podcasts and hit me up with a five star review and let me know what you think or wherever you listen to your podcast episodes.
Speaker B:And I want you to go into your day remembering to inspire.
Speaker B:Remember to inspire greatness in young people.
Speaker B:And don't forget to be a funky teacher.
Speaker B:Bye now.
Speaker A:He's Mr. Funky Teacher, yeah.
Speaker A:He's Mr. Funky teacher yeah, yeah, yeah.
