I’m sure, like me, you’ve been to or in schools where there is a marked atmosphere of division.
I’ve been in staffrooms in which no attempt is made to hide the open warfare. I’ve been in staffrooms where the atmosphere is so cold I feel like I am physically freezing. I’ve been in staffrooms where there is no atmosphere at all – this is usually a sign that everyone is pulling in different directions. Or they have given up and they’re not pulling at all!
What do you do as a leader when you feel like the staffroom is a minefield?
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen a leader turn this type of situation around by telling a well-crafted, relevant and powerful story. Many times,, it’s more than one story, each one bringing the staff ever so slightly closer together. These stories might come from personal experience, from the staff themselves or from students or parents. (If you’ve watched the show, you will know that Ted Lasso is a master storyteller, mostly because his stories are so mundane yet illustrate a point so clearly.)
I believe with all my heart that the vast majority of teachers entered the profession to make a difference in students’ lives. In this sense, they are all ‘reading the same story’. But they all remember different parts of it, and each one thinks others are reading a different story, whereas, in fact, others are just remembering different parts of the same story.
The task of a wise leader in this situation is to create a story or stories that show how the different parts fit together. In this way they can turn a staff the is fighting AGAINST each other into one where everyone is fighting WITH each other.