By Gary Gruber
I served as the Interim High School Principal of The American School in London for two years, 2007-09. The head of school offered the notion in one of our regular weekly administrative team meetings that it might be beneficial for all 8 of us to gather for a couple of days off campus before school started the following year. Our group was called Senior Admin.
The main purpose of the retreat would be to have the time and opportunity to look at the year ahead and see how we all might work together to accomplish our common goals and individual goals for the year ahead as well as review how we had performed the past year. We also wanted to learn how to support each other in our respective roles as heads of administrative divisions and departments that were responsible for making the school a place that educated 1350 children, Pre-K through Grade 12 and provided them and their families with the myriad of opportunities expected from one of the top international schools made up mostly of American ex-patriates.
Having been through numerous of these administrative retreats in my forty plus years of prior experience and having even led a few of them as either a head of school or as a consultant, I must confess to a slight feeling of, “Oh no, here we go again!” kind of response. I then caught myself and a less than 100% positive attitude, so I reorganized my thoughts and said instead, “What can I do to make a contribution and help make this experience as good as it can be?”
We agreed that one of my offerings would be to administer the DISC personality profile for all of us to see how we compared one to another and what we could learn about each other that would help us to a greater level of understanding and appreciation for our different styles, preferences and behaviors. As we revealed our results and shared this information, similar to the MMPI, Meyers-Briggs and other psychological measures, the reasons for the ways we responded in our regular meetings were much easier to understand. In fact we gained new perspectives on ourselves and our colleagues. We received greater insight into why we respond the way we do and why others, whose preferences may be different, have much to contribute because they do see things differently. Collegial support can be increased dramatically with this kind of understanding.
While this exercise was but one small part of the two day retreat, the other parts were equally valuable, including the establishing of some priorities for the year, both school wide and individually, resolving the ever present issue of schedules and calendars, and setting the course for our weekly meetings and how those might be improved. Even the fun parts of playing a few games led mostly by the head of school, who is a big fan of various forms of charades, gave us the chance to both compete with each other as well as work together as teams. We shared informal times together around meals, had some time outdoors to relax and enjoy the surroundings and so on, but the real value was gaining new dimensions of knowing my colleagues in ways that proved to be more productive the following year. It was easier to communicate with one another and to do so more frequently around issues of common concern. I also felt that I received an increased level of support coming my way as well.
Upon reflection, I believe it was important that we set the agenda ahead of time, that each of us had input into building it and that the head was clearly the leader although she shared those responsibilities with each of us throughout the retreat. Other such gatherings have employed an outside facilitator for at least part of the time and the feedback from that professional added value to the overall experience as well.
