What makes a team work? I believe that the most important thing for a team to be successful is communication. As I have stated before, I am a media specialist in a high school. Recently, a report from our web filter came through. Apparently, this report was supposed to be a regular occurance. It showed that in one week over 240 students in a 725 student school were shown to be visiting websites that they were not supposed to be on. So while the person in charge of discipline sorted through all these, every student on the list had their internet shut off for a week. However, teachers were not warned. Teachers did not find out what was going on and why until we were two or three days into the week long suspension of privileges. That had a huge impact on instruction. Projects that had already suffered setbacks from weather delays and cancellations were further crippled by no internet access for parts of the class. Once the situation was explained, most teachers understood and thought the punishment was appropriate. However, they often asked why they could not have been told what was going on sooner. A lack of communication made a difficult situation worse. It left the teachers feeling out of the loop. It is hard or even impossible to feel like a valued member of a team if one is not consulted or informed of important decisions that affect the entire team. Now, I am not saying that every little decision needs to be decided by a committee, but the whole team needs to be kept informed or it stops being a team.
On the bright side, several teachers improvised by having their students use books from the media center! The lack of team work from others allowed me the chance to show I was a team player by helping teachers and students do research on the fly. (Flexiblity is also a trait of successful teamwork, but that is a topic for another posting.)
4 comments:
Oh, yes, that C-word again...Communication. It's the key ingredient in any good relationship, whether it be personal, professional, or whatever. If important info doesn't get to the folks who need it, things start to break down.
The funny thing about this is, we all know how much we don't like to be left out of the loop. What's difficult is being the one who should be the "Communicator", and in the busy-ness that is life, trying to make sure everyone-who-needs-to-know really does get all the info they need. In the situation you describe, Jenny, it seems obvious that the teachers would have been informed of such a wide-ranging event, but somehow that got lost in the shuffle. Was there any explanation regarding why the news didn't reach the teachers?
When policies change or issues arise to cause a change it can be very frustrating to get left out of the loop. I know we run into the same issues at my library system. I work at a branch and sometimes you'll feel like the only ones in the know are at the Main branch while everyone else has to catch up later.
Or worse is when an idea is brought up to all the heads and it isn't decided on until later by only a couple of people. Next thing you know random people know what's getting changed, others are saying, "I thought we were just tossing around the idea," and still others are left saying, "What?!"
Very frustrating.
Rousing post, Jenny. Your continued readership of the adventures of gil and vic is appreciated. That situation sounds like a nightmare. I look forward to further posts, a series perhaps, on the important topic of teamwork.
Somedays it seems as if communication is only rhetoric that people espouse but don't practice. How frustrating for the teachers to not be told. Good for you for taking advantage of the opportunity to help out. All too often is seems as if hanging out in the staff lounge is the most effective way to keep informed about an organization. Sad...
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