A Team is… A group of people with different backgrounds, skills, personalities and styles with a common purpose, who are working together to achieve clearly identified goals. Working As an Effective Governance Team To effectively focus all district efforts on learning and achievement for all students, a governance team needs to have a unity of purpose, a mutual understanding of roles and responsibilities, positive working relationships and supportive structures and processes. One of the chief ways a governance team can strengthen or maintain its effectiveness is to periodically assess its own performance in these areas. Unity of Purpose Unity of Purpose is a common focus, super-ordinate goals, the values and beliefs governing body members share in common about children, the school district and public education that help them transcend their individual differences to fulfill a greater purpose. Roles and Responsibilities Effective teams value and respect their essential roles, come to common understanding on the roles of the board and superintendent, and strive to operate within them. Positive Governing Body Culture (norms) Culture is the positive or negative atmosphere created by the way people in an organization treat each other. Teams have unwritten, (implicit), or written, (explicit), agreements about how they will behave with each other and others. These behavioral ground rules, often called norms, enable teams to build and maintain a positive culture or shift a negative one. Supportive Structure and Process (protocols) Effective teams discuss and agree on the formal structures and processes used by the board and superintendent in their functioning as a team (e.g., agenda structure, visiting schools, handling complaints or concerns from the community, bringing up a new idea, how to handle complex community issues). Protocols are the processes followed by the board and superintendent as they work together to govern the district. Protocols explain how they do business. Developing a Governance Framework
A Team is… A group of people with different backgrounds, skills, personalities and styles with a common purpose, who are working together to achieve clearly identified goals. Working As an Effective Governance Team To effectively focus all district efforts on learning and achievement for all students, a governance team needs to have a unity of purpose, a mutual understanding of roles and responsibilities, positive working relationships and supportive structures and processes. One of the chief ways a governance team can strengthen or maintain its effectiveness is to periodically assess its own performance in these areas. Unity of Purpose Unity of Purpose is a common focus, super-ordinate goals, the values and beliefs governing body members share in common about children, the school district and public education that help them transcend their individual differences to fulfill a greater purpose. Roles and Responsibilities Effective teams value and respect their essential roles, come to common understanding on the roles of the board and superintendent, and strive to operate within them. Positive Governing Body Culture (norms) Culture is the positive or negative atmosphere created by the way people in an organization treat each other. Teams have unwritten, (implicit), or written, (explicit), agreements about how they will behave with each other and others. These behavioral ground rules, often called norms, enable teams to build and maintain a positive culture or shift a negative one. Supportive Structure and Process (protocols) Effective teams discuss and agree on the formal structures and processes used by the board and superintendent in their functioning as a team (e.g., agenda structure, visiting schools, handling complaints or concerns from the community, bringing up a new idea, how to handle complex community issues). Protocols are the processes followed by the board and superintendent as they work together to govern the district. Protocols explain how they do business. Developing a Governance Framework
GB_EG_WrkbkMarch%202015%20_%20S%20SF%20USD.docx