Effective School Management

Review team &
individual
performance
Team’s needs
emerge
Figure 10.3
Understanding teams

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systematic approach provides a foundation for teamwork, and a basis from
which to develop ways of meeting the needs of the team when tackling
problems.
Such an approach consists of a logical series of steps that are followed in
order to achieve a given task or deal with a particular problem. We met an
example of this when considering decision-taking in Chapter 4. The main
steps in problem-solving and team-building are similar:
(1) Define what we are seeking to achieve in the specific situation to solve the
problem, including the criteria by which we shall judge success.
(2) Identify why we are seeking to achieve this.
(3) Generate alternative means of achieving this.
(4) Decide which means to adopt.
(5) Act on the decision.
(6) Review successes and failures in order to improve performance.
The acronym TOSIPAR helps to fix these stages in the memory:
Tuning in to the problem;
Objective-setting;
Success criteria;
Information and ideas;
Plan;
Action;
Review.
Time spent on the ‘TOS’ stages is time saved later on. Everyone needs to know
exactly what the team’s product is for and how it will be used.
The last stage is also very important in team-building. Teams should set
some time aside before the end of each meeting so that they can review the
way in which they work together to accomplish tasks. Such a ‘process
review’ provides an opportunity for members to make observations about
the behaviour of a group (e.g. uneven frequency of members’ contributions),
from which it can deduce reasons for successes and difficulties. When
important points emerge, they should be processed into group decisions, e.g.
on how to remedy the situation or to consolidate good practice. Then a plan is
needed to implement each decision, i.e. a specific statement of who does
what, when.
All systematic approaches lay stress on the importance of the team
defining and agreeing its objectives (what has to be achieved), for no team
can work effectively unless everyone in it knows where it is going. This may
sound trite, but the authors have repeatedly found that teachers are not good
at defining what has to be done and formulating sound objectives, either for
themselves or for groups or organizations in which they work. Others too
have observed that few heads are systematic at problem-solving (Leithwood
and Montgomery, 1986).
Soundly framed objectives are SMART: as far as possible they should be

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