Creating a high-performance culture
In Trusting Teachers with School Success: What Happens When Teachers Call the Shots, Kim Farris-Berg, Edward J. Dirkswager, and Amy Junge found that when teachers have collective autonomy to design and run schools, they make decisions that emulate the nine cultural characteristics of high-performing organizations. Wise teams should carefully consider how their design decisions will cultivate these characteristics in both their team and school.
The nine characteristics of high-performing organizations are:
- Expecting workers to accept accountability for the outcomes of their own decisions.
- Seeking clarity and buy-in to a shared purpose, which is made up of a mission, vision, values, goals, and standards of practice.
- Establishing a collaborative culture of interdependence characterized by an open flow of ideas, listening to and understanding others, and valuing differences.
- Expecting leadership from all and perceiving leadership as a service to all.
- Encouraging people to innovate, including trying creative new things, challenging old processes, and continuously adapting.
- Establishing a learning culture characterized by a sense of common challenge and discovery rather than a culture where experts impart information.
- Learning from and being sensitive to the external environment.
- Being engaged, motivated, and motivating.
- Setting and measuring progress toward goals and acting upon results to improve performance.
