New rules for school leadership teams during a crisis

Education has been through massive upheaval and while students and staff are making a return to schools, the ripple effect caused over recent months will go away any time soon.  This is a time when things might be getting done a little differently and instead of the Principal suddenly going off-road we recommend  getting agreement from the team around how this should look for your school. Anything that promotes team alignment and effectiveness during a stressful time is worth doing in our book.  

Our team at Culture Shock have pulled together some suggestions as to how teams might operate a little differently in a crisis;  

Culture First –your first priority is your people, their wellbeing and upholding core values first. Say thank you. A lot. Ask about the person first and the work second.  

Focused Collaboration – Promote collaboration across relevant areas of the school, connect the appropriate expertise to discuss problems. Don’t pull everyone into every meeting.  

Cut the crap – clear everyone’s diary of absolutely everything. Then start again with just critical emergency items added back into calendars.  

Gather input – Create a mechanism to gather input. You need a finger on the pulse if you want to move fast! 

Be zen – The Leadership team must show the broader staff how to respond. Calm and positive is the vibe 

Outcome focused – Be crystal clear on the outcome but give autonomy over how to achieve it 

Power to the people – Empower those closest to the issues to make decisions 

Over communicate – Devote time to providing regular and transparent updates even if there isn’t much to say, provide and seek feedback, don’t leave people to fill in information gaps themselves.  

Forgive Mistakes – When things are moving quickly mistakes will be made – as a group you must agree to learn as you go along 

Fast Decision making – a crisis requires speedy action which means there is less time to gain consensus and more autocratic decision making.  Ensure everyone is onboard and establish non negotiables?  

Teachers and school staff are relying more than ever on their leaders to create a supportive environment and remove obstacles. Make sure you gain alignnment on the changes you must make in order to operate effectively in a crisis.  Take a moment to develop your own list, but we hope the ideas above are a helpful starting point.