The Trust Factor
Last week I had the privilege of co-presenting at the Oregon IntegratED conference in Portland, Oregon, sharing with districts around the state how we have been thinking differently about professional development for teachers and administrators; we spent a good portion of the presentation having the audience experience what it feels like to build trust in the context of a collective "WHY". Many of the principles we talked about come from a great short video which I have posted below. Additionally, I've added a few key points as to why this work is so important to effecting great outcomes for students at scale.
- Without trust the work cannot be done effectively together; in fact, without trusting relationships people hunker down and do the work alone because it's safe! This is a survival strategy not an effective strategy. Our job as educators is much too big for any one of us to do it effectively alone! If we want to ensure great outcomes for kids - at scale - we must come together in powerful ways as we will need everyone's best efforts and supporting relationships to get the work done. "People follow leaders by choice. Without trust, at best you get compliance." Lyn
- Trust, contrary to some belief systems, can be built, and effective leaders are constantly looking for ways to build trust in and between people in their organization. To no one's surprise, trust is built through relationships, which is why it is so important to be purposeful about how we spend our time. In that vein, professional development is one key resource to purposefully work on building relationships and trust in our schools and districts.
- We are working to design professional development so that our educators can get to know one another within the meaningful context of our work. In essence, we are designing opportunities for educators to come together to build trust by literally overcoming obstacles and barriers together. If we think of our work in this way it opens the doors for us to be more effective, together.
The following conditions allow everyone to do their most courageous thinking together.
- Every member has value
- Equity of voice, no one member dominates
- Honesty/candor is safe and welcome
- Each member works to bring out the best in others
- Members show a high degree of empathy for each other
- Members are good at giving and getting help
- Members are motivated by the bonds, trust, and openness they develop between each other
