Meetings can be useful.
I know, I know – sometimes they are the bane of people’s lives. Not only in schools, but in many jobs.
They can feel like:
- wasted time
- repeated thinking
- done to keep up appearances (..of ‘listening to staff’ etc.
BUT there is one behaviour that can make an immediate difference as an attendee.
It’s simple: giving my attention to the speaker.
Whilst it’s simple, it’s not easy.
It might be easier to say what NOT to do.
Giving my attention to the speaker is not: checking emails, planning my shopping in my head, talking to the teacher next to me, checking my phone, or any of the million and one things a teacher could do in a meeting.
Why is it so simple, yet so challenging? We expect this behaviour from the students in class, but find it hard ourselves.
I have delivered a whole-school INSET where one teacher was marking.
Actively not paying attention.
I could have called out the staff member – I didn’t have the confidence.
Now I would.
Back then what struck me after the INSET was that the Principal didn’t say anything.
But also – would the teacher marking expect that active non-attention from pupils in their maths class?
I have a choice about my behaviour.
Yes meetings can be:
- planned badly
- have no objective
- set up with unrealistic timings
- convened with not enough people have done the prep work…
When I wrote this list, I thought it sounded familiar…
…is it teachers in a meeting or pupils in a class?
The big difference is that as an adult and a teacher, I have a choice where to put my attention.
Giving it to a fellow professional as they explain an idea is more than just courtesy. It’s an action that empowers the person speaking.
It’s a simple way to create value in the meeting and make it effective.
I invite you to ask yourself:
How do you empower the senior leaders in your school?
James D'Souza 