Identifying & Reducing Conflict Among School Staff

Ed Blog 10/27/09

Identifying & Reducing Conflict Among School Staff:

Surprises re: the Leader's Role

Hope this finds you well, & enjoying a great school year for students, staff, & you! Here is a short vignette re: leader's role in the reduction of conflict among school staff.

I recently worked for three hours with 40+ teachers and two Principals. The group had been experiencing a lot of conflict brought on by a number of factors. The goals for the session included:

1) Briefly review pre-session staff survey (summary)

2) Briefly review research re: effective schools, and causes of school conflict

3) ID desired professional behaviors & communication

4) ID desired professional behaviors to be used during conflict

5) ID desired leadership style from Principals

6) Review next steps & evaluate this session

Pre-Session Staff Survey (Summary)

Here are the results from the staff survey (32 respondents) that was sent before the session (results are not prioritized):

1) What do you feel causes conflict among the teaching staff?

Conflict of interest between Board and Union

Disrespect

Lack of and poor communication

Administration vs. staff, us vs. them

Negative attitudes & feelings

Lack of trust and honesty

Bullying

Intimidation

Deception

Favoritism of certain departments
Talking behind peoples' backs

2. What do you feel should be done to reduce conflict among staff?

Administration needs to take control

Fewer committee meetings and more staff meetings

Attitude adjustments

Set professional standards

Clear expectations

Speak directly to people involved in conflict

Not us vs. them, it’s about the kids

Cooperation not confrontation

Staff trainings

Disciplinary actions

Session Results

Below are the results from the staff session. You can see that the teachers were very clear about what they wanted from other staff & administration:

Desired Communication

1) Be honest & straightforward

2) Honesty, honesty, honesty

3) (tie) Make communication positive, No hidden agendas, Be open-minded

4) (tie) Compliment others, Be respectful, Honest & open, Constructive not critical

Desired Professional Behaviors

1) Put kids first

2) Establish trust & be able to talk without fear of repercussions

3) Be open & willing to see both sides of an issue: pros & cons

4) (tie) Cooperative attitudes, Stop whining, Do your job-stop worrying about hours &

minutes, Provide staff planning time to make curriculum changes, Make sure our

time is used affectively & appropriately

Desired Professional Conflict Behaviors

1) Accept things you can't change

2) (tie) Allow all people of voice to be listened to before decisions are made

2) (tie) Go to the person you have the conflict with

3) Get over it when it's done

4) When you approach someone, come with solutions not just problems

5) Agree to disagree

The Surprise re: Desired Leadership

The staff also identified the most-desired leadership style for the Principals, using the styles identified in The Leader's Window (Beck & Yeagher, 2001; Davies-Black Publishing). Interestingly enough, the staff overwhelmingly wanted the Principals to use Style 2 ("Problem-Solving"; the leader asks for input on a topic, but makes the decision by him/herself).

The Principals were surprised to learn that staff were more than ready to accept leadership behavior that was not "Coach/Developer" (we all decide what to do together), but instead would listen & then decide.

I think that many educational leaders err by being too cautious and listening too long before acting, especially with issues that producer anxiety & unease (conflict, difficult employee behaviors, staff bullying of other staff & admin, teachers not treating students respectfully, etc.).

The leader's lesson here? Be more proactive - act quicker (not uninformed, just quicker) when you can map out a better route on issues that cause staff conflict.

Can Veterinarians Help Teachers Handle Parents?

Well, probably not directly. (That was just to make a catchy headline.) But I suspect that some of you were already starting to brainstorm new uses for bovine restraint tools and large-animal tranquilizers.

But some recently-released research from Dr. Jane Shaw of the Argus Institute at Colorado State University (DVM Magazine, July 2009, page 10) may be of help as you try to coach staff to be more effective with parents, especially those parents that are receiving bad news (behavior/discipline issues, midterm notices, homework problems, etc.).

To summarize quickly, the Dr. Shaw discovered that…

• During wellness visits, vets & pet owners had a dialogue & the owner had an active role due to a partnership approach on the part of the Vet.

• During visits regarding problems, 26% of owners seemed anxious & 14% seemed emotionally distressed (I'll bet the % is higher with parents contacted because of problems at school!).

Dr. Shaw suggests that Vets have a "flexible toolbox" of styles, and to ask open-ended questions to encourage patients to open up.

This research is definitely designed to help Veterinarians improve customer service. There is not much written about customer service in education publications, but this research may provide a novel opener to begin a discussion on this topic with staff.

Leading Where You Sit

Hope this post finds you all well.

As I travel & work with school site-based teams, I frequently tell team members "You are a leader wherever you sit." I first heard that from Dr. Dick Johnson in a SpEd Admin class @ SCSU in 1986. He went on to explain that in small groups, everyone has a leadership role. Over the years, I have come to understand that each person in a small group can either be a positive leader (by contributing & affirming), a neutral leader, or a negative leader (unfocused, hard on people & easy on problems, over-emotional, etc.).

Here is a link on that topic that is a good, quick read:

Why the term "leader" should not be linked only to those in power:

http://hbsp.ed10.net/r/1AH6/CKSDK/WL8BJM/CIBEC/Z2KU8/PJ/t

Great material - happy reading!

"Have a Kleenex & Get Back to Work"

I had a very interesting conversation with the (female) head of a client's HR department. We were having breakfast with a group of #2s discussing the specific challenge of leading clever employees (bright, boundary-crossers, easily bored, can be great contributors; Goffee, R. and Gareth Jones, G. March 2007. "Leading Clever People". Harvard Business Review.).

This person told the group that she was practicing a new skill, reducing the time that some people spent in her office hoping that she would be an ear or their den mother.

She said that her new favorite phrase was "Have a kleenex & get back to work". This phrase was her new defense against time-wasters. She is a very compassionate person, and this phrase was a departure from past practice for her. I know her well enough to know that this is not bitterness or an inappropriate glib response, just a new tack to take when the issue at hand does not deserve as much time as the time-waster wants to spend on it.


For more information on the Big River Group or joining our breakfast series visit www.bigrivergroup.com and click on "Contact Us".