Western Region Organizational Effectiveness

Sponsors Julie Garcia and Mel Myler address West Regions OE efforts.

"To become the change agent I sometime think I am."
Brenda Pike

Most of the material (power points, word documents, and PDF files) can be found in the left hand column of this Blog under the titles -- "Important Documents" & Other Materials".

"...are you spending your time with memories or with dreams? I like to spend my time with dreamers."

--Carolyn Crowder

Please use the comments section below to add your recommended reading...

A short term goal of the WROE program is to develop your OE knowledge, skills and behaviors.

Please complete this self assessment to provide the baseline measurement of your current OE knowledge and skills.

Thank you for your participation!

Click here to take survey

WROE participants would you please journal these ideas for Thursday's session. Consider selecting one of them to place on the Blog--the others would go into your journal.

Is there anything I need to say or get from anyone in this community before the next module?

What am I the proudest about?

What am I struggling with?

What do I plan to apply in my work back home between this module an the next module?

What do I need to practice more?

Thank you,
The WROE Faculty.

1. Provide a process to bring late arrivals up-to-date on issues and content they missed.
2. Provide a context for the material to be presented and how it can be applied back home.
3. Post group norms and provide a continuous review to seat them with the community.
4. Ensure that multiple consultants have a clear role definition of who is doing what during the learning session.
5. Engage participants to build trust.
6. Use the "Ladder of Inference" to seek clarification of assumptions.
7. If conflict develops, check it in the moment and then check with group on whether or not it needs to be processed or "side barred" outside with a report later to the group of its status.
8. Honor opposing views and create models for dealing with differences.
9. Understand the use of "intent vs. impact."
10. Create an opportunity to build a "critical friend" system to receive feedback during and after the session.
11. Recognize adult learning styles.
12. Plan for how to intervene when group conflict arises.
13. Use a "Zen" type experience to emphasize the "use of self."
14. Check "parking lot" issues and deal with theme on a daily basis.
15. Ensure the meeting space is large enough for both table and circle work.
16. Establish contingency plans for travel problems and trainer illness.

"I am at my best as a leader and facilitator when I am relaxed and present to what is arising, when I am able to hear what is happening in and amongst and around us, and what I and we need to do. I fail as a leader when I am so preoccupied with what I want to make happen - to force it to happen - that I miss what is actually happening."

--Adam Kahane
"Solving Tough Problems"

“We have to slow down. Nothing will change for the better until we do.

We need time to think, to learn, to get to know each other.

We are losing these great human capacities in the speed-up of modern life, and it is killing us.”

Margaret J. Wheatley. Turning to One Another

“We have to slow down. Nothing will change for the better until we do.

We need time to think, to learn, to get to know each other.

We are losing these great human capacities in the speed-up of modern life, and it is killing us.”

Margaret J. Wheatley. Turning to One Another

A short term goal of the WROE program is to develop your OE knowledge, skills and behaviors.

click here to view results

eSchool News

February 1, 2007

Employee blogs are growing exponentially in the private sector and also are increasingly cropping up in public schools. While these blogs show great promise from a number of perspectives, it's important for school leaders to adopt sound policies governing their use. Self-initiated and often self-sustaining, employee blogs can speed information sharing, increase problem-solving, and improve productivity within an organization.
For example, teachers can post an internal blog about a challenge they're facing in the classroom and receive hundreds of potential solutions from their colleagues quickly and easily.

Combined with RSS feeds, which automatically update subscribers whenever new content is posted, blogs can be used to swap lesson plans, teaching strategies, discipline tips, and new research.

Blogging's potential for connecting and engaging employees in online conversations can help reduce classroom isolation, as teachers find a home in professional online communities.

[READ online @ eSchool News]

Starleen Orullian (Utah):

I ran across this today in my travels and thought I would forward to you in light of our discussion at OE Training in Dallas.
Thank You Starleen!!

You'll find informaton on the hotel under Module 3 in the right hand column.

Make your reservations soon~

Be well, Donna

This is a great opportunity for WROE participants. We are delighted to welcome John Izzo back to the NEA community ~ this time in our online learning space. John was the featured speaker at last year's Building Strong Affiliates conference (April, 2006) and inspired many with the concepts he described in his book Awakening Corporate Soul. His book is one of the WROE primary texts that we'll continue to explore in upcoming modules. WROE team members can explore the concepts with John and their relationship to organizational transformation and perhaps their application to the practica that you working on. This conversation will be from Oct 1-8 only.

We hope to hear from last year’s conferees on how you/they have used, reflected upon, or questioned the things learned about the Four Paths. For others, it's an initial opportunity to learn about the Paths and their application. You’ll find a video of John Izzo describing the paths in the item entitled “What Are The Four Paths?”

Go to http://nea.gjhost.org and click on the Four Paths. If you haven’t registered yet first click on New Registrations in the Login box and create an easy to remember user id and password – registering takes less than a minute. We think you’ll find the space easy to use even if you’re not a techie (-;.

Hope to see you there. And please feel free to pass this along to others that you think might be interested.

Also, if you receive this information through other channels, please forgive the duplication.

Well then, just jog over there and click it darling--->.

Revised (11/30/2007)

See right-side column; click on Module 5 for reservation details and reading assignments...