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Implementing a PLC at Work: Closing the Knowing–Doing Gap in a PLC

(Slides)

Dennis King

Implementing a PLC at Work: Closing the Knowing–Doing Gap in a PLC

Dennis King, EdD

Today’s Topics  Six characteristics of a PLC: Moving from

nouns to verbs

•  What do they look like in a traditional and PLC school?

•  What do they feel like in a traditional and PLC school?

 Assessing our belief and our doing

 Building a journey map for implementation: Closing our gap

Staff members understand the linkage between learning with students in the classroom and learning with colleagues.

© King 2012. Solution-tree.comDo not duplicate. 1

Community has come to mean any gathering of people in a social setting.

But real communities ask more of us.

They assume a focus on shared purpose, mutual regard, and caring, and an insistence on integrity and truthfulness.

Changing the teaching and learning process from instructor-centered to learner-centered (whether for children or adults) constitutes a fundamental change.

Staff members, with their school leaders, are using data to make decisions about what to learn, how to learn it, how to transfer and apply it in their classrooms, and how to assess its effectiveness.

© King 2012. Solution-tree.comDo not duplicate.2

The staff collectively takes responsibility to learn new content, strategies, or approaches to increase its effectiveness in teaching.

The purpose of schools is student learning.

Types of Schools A – Learning is based on a student’s ability.

B – Learning takes place only if the student takes advantage of the opportunities to learn within the school.

C – All students can learn something, and we will create a warm, pleasant environment for them to learn.

D – All students can learn, and we will do whatever it takes to help students learn and achieve the agreed upon curriculum or standards.


Questions to Consider 1.  Which school did you attend?

2.  In which school do you currently work?

3.  In which school do you want to work?

4.  Which school do you want your kids to attend?

As a Leader …  How can we create a compelling case

for type-D schools?

 What stands in the way of schools working as type-D schools?

 How will we know if our school is functioning as a type-D school?

 How would we close the gap?

John Kotter’s Eight Steps to Leading Change

1.  Create a sense of urgency. 2.  Create a guiding coalition. 3.  Develop a change vision. 4.  Communicate a vision for buy-in. 5.  Empower people and remove barriers. 6.  Generate short-term wins. 7.  Don’t let up. 8.  Make change stick.

(www.kotterinternational.com/KotterPrinciples/Change Steps.aspx)


PLC—Noun

Noun—A word (other than a pronoun) used to identify any of a class of people, places, or things (common noun), or to name a particular one of these (proper noun).

—New Oxford American Dictionary

Characteristic Knowing It Mission The purpose of schools is student

learning.

Collective inquiry The staff collectively takes responsibility to learn new content, strategies, or approaches to increase its effectiveness in teaching.

Results Staff members, with their schools leaders, are using data to make decisions about what to learn, how to learn it, how to transfer and apply it in their classrooms, and how to assess its effectiveness.

Characteristic Knowing It Collaboration Community has almost come to mean any

gathering of people in a social setting. But real communities ask more of us. They assume a focus on shared purpose, mutual regard and caring, and an insistence on integrity and truthfulness.

Action orientation Staff members understand the linkage between learning with students in the classroom and learning with colleagues.

Continuous improvement

Changing the teaching and learning process from instructor-centered to learner-centered (whether for children or adults) constitutes a fundamental change.


Noun Characteristic Verb

Mission

Collective inquiry

Results

Collaboration

Action orientation

Continuous improvement

PLC – Verb Verb—A word used to describe an action, state, or occurrence, and forming the main part of the predicate of a sentence, such as hear, become, happen.

—New Oxford American Dictionary

“[It] is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are

moving.”

—Oliver Wendell Holmes


Current Strategies Future

Journey Map—Closing the Gap

“A goal without a method is wishful thinking.”

— W. Edwards Deming

Common Mistakes in the Change Process

1.  Allowing too much complacency

2.  Failing to create a sufficiently powerful guiding coalition

3.  Underestimating the power of vision

4.  Under-communicating the vision by a power of 10

(Adapted from DuFour, DuFour, & Eaker, Revisiting Professional Learning Communities at Work,

2008, pp. 99–101)


Common Mistakes in the Change Process

5. Permitting structural and cultural obstacles to block the change process

6.  Failing to create short term wins

7.  Declaring victory too soon

8.  Neglecting to anchor changes firmly in the culture.

(Adapted from DuFour, DuFour, & Eaker, Revisiting Professional Learning Communities at Work,

2008, pp. 99–101)

What Can We Do?

Strategies to Close the Gap Why before how

Philosophy is important.

•  Focus on leadership training.

•  Leaders teach philosophy, background, and what they want to achieve.

—Pfeffer & Sutton, The Knowing–Doing Gap: How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge Into Action (2000), pp. 243–262


Strategies to Close the Gap Knowing comes from doing and teaching others how.

• Do versus think • Leadership capacity

building • Teaching is a way of

knowing.


Strategies to Close the Gap Action counts more than elegant plans and concepts.

•  Ready, Aim, Fire: Creates opportunities for doing

•  Do, Then Aim: Creates the culture of doing


Strategies to Close the Gap There is no doing without mistakes. What is the company’s response?

• Learning involves failure.

• Failure should never be received with anger.

• Support and forgive.



Strategies to Close the Gap Fear fosters knowing– doing gaps, so drive out fear.

•  Fear creates inconsistency and erratic behavior.

•  Encourage and empower leaders.

•  Leaders inspire respect, affection, or admiration within the organization.


Strategies to Close the Gap Beware of false analogies: Fight competition, not each other.

•  Shared goals versus individual goals

•  Group rewards versus individual rewards

•  Drive fear and competition out of the culture.


Strategies to Close the Gap Measure what matters and what can help turn knowledge into action.

•  Why versus What

•  Process versus Outcomes



Strategies to Close the Gap What leaders do, how they spend their time, and how they allocate resources matter.

•  Create systems to allow for transformation of knowledge into action.

•  Create an environment where lots of people know what to do.

•  Leaders set expectations by what they do, through actions versus words.


Current Strategies Future

Journey Map—Closing the Gap

As leaders, how do we navigate the change?

Thank you.

To schedule professional development, contact Solution Tree

at 800.733.6786.

Solution Tree


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