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Responsive schooling

Rob Clarke

Rob is the kaihanga/co-founder Learning Architects. He supports leaders and organisations to thrive in the future through coaching, development, technology, and learning design. He is a Ministry of Education accredited PLD facilitator. He is also a Dad of two beautiful girls.

For more information please visit: learningarchitects.com/about or get in touch via +64 21 590 572

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We know that when we are experiencing times of disruption, communicating the right information to the right people at the right time is critical. For organisations (including schools and businesses) to truly adapt, they need to be responsive. So how does an organisation become more responsive? Here are four ideas:

“Leadership is an invitation to collective action.”
Dr. Ashley Bloomfield

And as New Zealanders work together towards eliminating the COVID-19 virus, I am confident that our communities stand a really good chance of eliminating this disease from our shores.

Working with leaders across the country, we have seen many great examples where communication has enabled communities to quickly grasp what is happening, recognise their role in the situation and perhaps most importantly, to relax (somewhat) and become supporters of the approach the leaders are taking in managing this very fluid situation.

“As the COVID-19 pandemic disrupts business, …the need for communications processes to be agile with the ability to send real-time communications to people at the right time and in the most effective channel as conditions evolve,”
Jeromy Wells, CEO at Whispir.

How to create a rapid communications strategy

If you want to create a rapid communications strategy, the design thinking process can be a great starting point, because, by its very nature, it helps you to empathise with the needs of your audience. It can be a very quick way to identify stakeholder needs and helps to guide your thinking towards creating suitable processes and solutions.

Here is a suggested process to create a rapid communications strategy:

  1. Define your stakeholders
  2. Identify their key needs
  3. Define your communication channels
  4. Delegate and monitor
  5. Respond? Revisit?

Define your stakeholders

Global research company Gallup has identified four universal needs that followers have of leaders: trust, compassion, stability, and hope. These needs, (explored in this Gallup blog post Remember the Needs of Followers during Covid-19) are primarily emotional, and they become especially urgent during crises.

The quality of leaders’ communication forms the foundation that supports these four universal needs to flourish. Effective communication helps people to feel in control, to feel cared for and to give them hope that there is a way forward. It has the result of increasing resilience and creating a culture of care.

Consider your external and internal stakeholders as the audience(s) you serve. If you are leading a school, your internal stakeholders include staff, students, your Board of Trustees and PTA. Your external stakeholders include the parent community, local iwi and other organisations such as the Ministry of Education.

If you are a business or non-profit organisation, this might include staff as internal stakeholders, and clients, suppliers and funders as external stakeholders.

Identify their key needs

Once you have identified each stakeholder group, it is time to consider their needs. Consider these questions as prompts to help:

  • What are the top three needs this group has right now?
  • What is the *best way to communicate with them?
  • Who is the best person(s) to communicate with this group?
  • How frequently do they need information?

Some of your stakeholders will need closer communications than others. *This might involve phone calls to some, regular emails to others, some information will go onto your social media channel(s) and other information is best on a website. There are quite a mixture of channels and options to consider!

It is important to note that peoples’ needs will change over time too, so this is a fluid exercise that you’ll need to revisit regularly. As an example, our team has two opportunities each week for face to face interaction:

  • A weekly ‘check-in’ with no agenda – this is to check on how everyone is doing, socialise, and build relationships. Oftentimes we will discuss professional matters, but not always.
  • A weekly ‘focus meeting’ with an agenda – this is to help us move our plans forward.

Another example that many teachers are implementing around the world at the moment, as they deliver distance teaching and learning, is a daily check-in process that provides students (and sometimes parents) a means to let them know how they are doing.

Define your communication channels

Many organisations already have clear communication channels. If yours could do with improvement though, then this is a great chance to clarify what each one is for. Here is an example;

  • Social media – Facebook – connection and community building, commentary and opinion, sharing resources,
  • Social media – Twitter – engaging with like-minded people, amplifying messages, causes, and ideas, and keeping up to date with current affairs/relevant interests
  • Social media – LinkedIn – commentary and opinion, sharing resources and ideas
  • Public website – services, organised and searchable resources, newsletter updates
  • Internal portal site/intranet – procedures, explanations, FAQs, resources/etc for staff
  • Phone/video conference – checking in on staff/students

Being able to access a ‘single source of truth’ is vital in a crisis situation. This could be held in your intranet/staff portal for internal communications, and on your website for any external communications.

If you work in education, our free student portal template will get you started with a channel to communicate with your students. We also have a range of resources to support you with working remotely, whatever type of business you work in.

Delegate and monitor

To help share the load, it’s helpful to identify who the best person(s) is to communicate with which group. It’s also critical to establish patterns and routines that maintain a connection in a fast-moving crisis situation.

For example, you may have team leaders whose job is to check in on the wellbeing/hauora of staff twice a week. In a school situation, if you are responsible for managing learning assistants, you will need to re-think how these staff have had their routines disrupted and what new routines could support them. It is good practice to put on your leadership meeting agenda who is to report back each week so that you can keep a finger on the pulse.

Implementation and maintenance

Once you have identified your stakeholder groups, and specified their needs and the ways in which communication will flow, you will then, of course, need to implement and maintain your plan.

Setting aside time each week for working on ongoing communications by making it a part of your senior leadership workflow every week, and sometimes every day is the most effective way to do this.

By so doing, you’ll be better placed to meet the emotional needs of your people, building trust, compassion, stability, and hope among all your stakeholders, which all work towards helping you to create an ecosystem of care within your organisation.

If you would like a template for this, please sign up below…

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