Making Agreements: A Strategy for Room/Team Leaders

Recently I visited a service to support a room leader. This room leader was knowledgeable, passionate, committed to their role. Super organised and with great vision. Their challenge was that they felt like they were always having to ask their team to do things - the same things, again and again. And then, if they were away from work - the wheels well and truly fell off. The program wouldn't be completed, or the environment wasn't reset. The general consensus was that if the room leader wasn't there to "keep everyone and everything on track", it just didn't happen. 

Was this a case of these educators being lazy? I don't think so. But there was a lack of responsibility and accountability. And this is a scenario not unique to this service - we see this frequently. 

So, what's the solution? While there is no silver bullet which will magically work for every team, I'll share a strategy that can make a difference, and it's pretty simple. 

Making an Agreement

If you are a fan of Teacher Tom's work, you will be familiar with his concept of making agreements with children, rather than making rules for children.  Tom suggests that rather than imposing a list of do's and dont's with children, we sit with them and share ideas about what they think will make our environments safe, or keep each other safe and happy in our space. When children are a part of the process, they are far more likely to "comply" than when we impose our own rules on them (and, as an added bonus, they usually come up with some entertaining ideas for agreements!) 

What does this have to do with a room full of educators I hear you ask? What if we implemented a similar strategy with our teams? What if instead of always commanding or demanding, or feeling like we have to remind educators, and then hearing "I thought someone else was responsible for that" or "I didn't know I needed to do that", we work with our teams to create an agreement that will work for our room and ensure that when the room leader is not there, the wheels don't fall off?! 

How do we make a room/team agreement - and how is this different to position descriptions or employment agreements? 

Your educators should have a position description and employment agreement in place. This is typically a fairly broad document about what is expected of them. What I am talking about here, is the things that are more detailed or specific to your room such as how certain aspects of the routine, program and environment will work. 

So, how do we do this?

1. Let your team know that you are planning a team meeting and want to work together to create a clear agreement about how the room will function. Encourage them to think about this before the meeting (this ensures that different personality types have time to process their thoughts without being put on the spot) 
2. During the meeting, use a large piece of paper or a whiteboard to record any and all ideas.
3. If you need to prompt your team, consider questions like: "what makes our room feel safe? what makes our room feel organised? what makes our room feel calm? what makes you feel part of the team? what gets in the way of getting the program done?" 
4. Work through the suggestions and together and fine tune them
5. Ensure that all members of the team have the chance to contribute (there will often be one person who contributes more - it's our job to ensure everyone gets the opportunity) 
6. If needed, type up or write out an agreement based on what has been brainstormed (some people also just use the large sheet of paper as their agreement and don't feel the need to rewrite - this is up to you!) 
7. Have everyone sign the agreement and keep it in a place that is available to all of you
   

What next? 

Once the agreement is in place, this becomes a go-to. Educators should feel confident about their role in the room and what is expected. Then, if/when an issue arises, we can use the agreement to support a difficult conversation with an educator. For example, if the team has agreed to share the responsibility of setting up the beds for rest time and there is one educator who continually refuses to set up the beds, we can come back to what we all agreed to and signed off on. It's a way of supporting responsibility and accountability. No more saying "I didn't know I was supposed to do that." 

If you try this strategy and it works for you, or you are already doing something similar - we would love to hear about it. Let us know in the comments! 

Training and Resources to Support You Further

If you are a room leader, we have some resources and training to recommend: 

Free Downloable Resource - 5 Tips for Room Leaders - Get it Here

Room to Lead - The in's and outs of being a room leader Mini Course (self paced, online) - Get it Here

One of our most recommended leadership books - Leading on the Edge - Get it Here