ROWE in Schools

I came across a human resource management strategy called ROWE (Result-Only Work Environment) when reading Daniel Pink's international bestseller Drive. It challenges the effectiveness of the traditional carrot-and-stick notion of performance management in our current knowledge economy and proposes one where the emphasis is based purely on results. Employees in ROWE enjoy high degrees of autonomy in deciding on how they should be contributing to reach their objectives. The concept celebrates the trust in the diversity of strengths in human resources and sees each individual to be best apt in choosing his/her own course of action in dealing with the demands of their tasks.

There are numerous success stories in the corporate world where ROWE has proven significant performance gains, while also driving up employee satisfaction, a win-win situation that the carrot and stick model has proven not to be able to deliver.

I can immediately see the advantages of implementing ROWE in schools, and saw a parallel in concepts when reading about MET (Measures of Effective Teaching). MET at the moment studies 6 areas of information:

1) Videotaped classroom lessons

2) Teachers' reflections on their videotaped lessons

3) Student Feedback

4) Supplemental Student Assessments

5) Assessment of Teachers' Ability to Recognise and Diagnose Student Misconceptions

6) Teacher Surveys

Should we borrow the main concept behind MET and localise the set of measures in the context of our schools, we can actually devise a composite index which represents teacher effectiveness, the single most important factor that governs pupils' learning experience and performance in schools.

These clearly communicated goals can be the primary focus that teachers can have autonomy in deciding their courses of action and be fully accountable for in delivering the results. Growth patterns can be easily seen and the effects on pupils directly measured.

Tools for teams management

A tool which encourages autonomy and accountability

I benefitted from the use of GTD (Getting Things Done) and had always believed that it is a tool which everyone can easily tap into and reap personal gains from (basically being more productive and having less stress) within a short amount of time. I had also shared my thoughts and practices with my teammates concerning this, not that I am ever an expert in this area (for I still constantly fall off the bandwagon), it is just that I feel that such knowledge and skills which allow us to better navigate through our lives should benefit more people.

Whenever I discuss this with people, I will always ask myself what kinds of tools are used. GTD is itself actually system independent, as long as it works for you, it does not really matter whether your recording mechanism is an iPhone or a napkin. But what if a team needs an approach to do this collectively?

I stumbled upon this software named teamly http://teamly.com/ over the weekend. It looks immediately promising as a tool for teams management. Individuals get to prioritise exactly what is most important for them in the context of a day/week/month in a very simple manner. For team managers, it provides an opportunity to see what the whole team is working on while encouraging autonomy, with the ability to track progress and performance over time.

It is not exactly GTD, but I am quite sure it will gain some traction in many organisations. I can immediately see it's usefulness for self and team management in schools.

Autonomy and Accountability. I like that.

May want to experiment with a small team with this.

Measuring what counts

There is a widely used notion in management that says you cannot manage what you cannot measure. True. How do we perceive growth, success or performance gaps without making sense of a clearly informed set of information collected over time? These measurements are instrumental to help us understand our current state of reality and devise interventions to propel growth.

This is the current paradigm, and the thing about paradigms is that we get so used to them that thinking otherwise becomes stunted. For schools to be a place where all its people (staff and pupils) are truly engaged, living with purpose, feeling fulfilled and ultimately being happy, what do we have to count? How will it be like when that reality unfolds?

The decisions to select the very indicators of success becomes critically important, we do not need a multitude of them, but it is really crucial that they are core to our people's business. For if we do not choose carefully what counts, we will be leaning the ladder on the wrong wall.

As Einstein had said, "Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted." In this imperfect world that we live and operate in, we have to be even more focused and deliberate on what we are not counting.

Knowing Yourself

Went for a really refreshing, and wet, cycling trip on Saturday with the PE teachers. Good fun!

I had not posted any entries to this blog for the last couple of months. It was not a case that I had ran out of things to say or reflect on, but rather it was more like I had too much in my mind and the thoughts required some organising for me to make more sense of them. The June holidays, as always, was a great time to spend with oneself and think through things, and for me this year, my reflections had been more fruitful both in volume and depth.

The result of this experience is probably due to a convergence of factors; my interest in NLP brought me to inquire more about my personal congruence, the increased discretionary time over the holidays gave me the opportunity to catch up on my reading, which had always provided counsel on top of making me ask more questions. And there is a new context this year, the very need for me to be a better role model for my baby girl, who is growing up and learning everything around her way so rapidly.

I am really glad that we have infused this year the need to find out from everyone (our teammates and ourselves) what our personal mission statements are. From my experience, most people don't ask themselves such questions (and many will have difficulty coming up with a reply), which meant that they will at best have a vague idea of what they think their lives should be about. And if someone do not have real clarity of how their lives should be lived, how will they ever find the alignment in what they are doing at work? Purpose, fulfilment and ultimately happiness, require such inner congruence.

This inside out approach is a crucial first step in knowing ourselves. It should be the basis in which we can better understand who we are and how best we can contribute to the world that we are living in. In our world of fast food culture, no quick-fix method will be able to substitute this journey of self discovery and reflection.

As T.S. Eliot had so elegantly observed: "We must not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time."