The summertime months were chosen as "time off" for most of the teams. It was also time for each school and the Leadership Team (Laura Deisley-Lovett, Bob Ryshke-Westminster, Korynn Schooley-Fulton County Schools, and Scott Sanchez-global facilitator and d.school faculty) to reflect, iterate and plan for the new year. We found that we had schools who needed to step back for a moment (Paideia School opted out for the new year in order to better align school leadership and their team around the findings) and others who could not make this intensive work a priority given other pressing needs and leadership changes (Camp Creek Elementary). This gave us the opportunity to invite two new schools into the process: Trinity School, a K-6 independent school on Northside Parkway which was under new leadership) and Summit Hill Elementary, another strong Fulton County public school.
Other changes came with our leadership and mentoring structure. Fulton County increased its commitment by adding a district level person to the leadership team (Korynn) and joining Lovett and Westminster as a financial partner. Laura stepped back from serving as both a mentor and a leadership team member, to focusing specifically on leadership, and we restructured the mentor role to include more mentors allowing for a 2:1 team:mentor relationship down from 3:1 last year. We think all of this restructuring will give us more focus at the leadership level and more concentrated attention to develop the teams' design thinking skills and results in the coming year.
The biggest question was how to kick off the new year with new teams and with so many teams in different places. We also wanted to give the teams a great deal of attention, particularly from Scott as a global facilitator and our resident expert. We were also curious about how to do a better job this year of the public/independent cross-school collaboration. In our spring survey, that was the one area where participants felt we were "failing." After a great deal of consideration, we decided to pair up one private school team and a public school team, and launch them together with a 2 1/2 hour meeting of Scott, the other leadership team members, and their mentor.
Our meeting deck is viewable below. Note: The activities and templates are copyright to Stanford. We hope the sharing of the overall process and expectations of teams helps other schools. If you want more information, please contact us. Contact information and media inquiry info is here.
Other changes came with our leadership and mentoring structure. Fulton County increased its commitment by adding a district level person to the leadership team (Korynn) and joining Lovett and Westminster as a financial partner. Laura stepped back from serving as both a mentor and a leadership team member, to focusing specifically on leadership, and we restructured the mentor role to include more mentors allowing for a 2:1 team:mentor relationship down from 3:1 last year. We think all of this restructuring will give us more focus at the leadership level and more concentrated attention to develop the teams' design thinking skills and results in the coming year.
The biggest question was how to kick off the new year with new teams and with so many teams in different places. We also wanted to give the teams a great deal of attention, particularly from Scott as a global facilitator and our resident expert. We were also curious about how to do a better job this year of the public/independent cross-school collaboration. In our spring survey, that was the one area where participants felt we were "failing." After a great deal of consideration, we decided to pair up one private school team and a public school team, and launch them together with a 2 1/2 hour meeting of Scott, the other leadership team members, and their mentor.
Our meeting deck is viewable below. Note: The activities and templates are copyright to Stanford. We hope the sharing of the overall process and expectations of teams helps other schools. If you want more information, please contact us. Contact information and media inquiry info is here.
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