Developing a Shared Vision

Developing a Shared Vision at Grand Park Alternative School
Research has shown that a critical factor among successful leaders is a clear and focused sense of values (Peters, 1987). I believe that becoming an effective leader is an inside-out process. Therefore the first step in implementing a change in my work environment is ensuring that my values are appropriate for student success at my school (Sarason, 1982). Without firm core beliefs, any leader is perceived as inconsistent and untrustworthy and unlikely to be willingly followed. So answering the internal question “Who am I?” is a crucial to developing a shared vision at my school.
Who am I?
During the course of my personal “value” inventory I determined that I am an educational leader who promotes the success of all students by facilitating the development, articulation, implementation, and stewardship of learning that is shared and supported by the school community. I strive to reach a balance of head, heart and hands that will allow me to engage and to inspire students and teachers to accomplish phenomenal things without hurting their chances for success. With my personal values identified, I can better initiate a process of determining who we are as a school and how things will be done here (Hord, Rutherford, Huling-Austin, & Hall, 1987). The Shared Vision
The next step is to create a shared vision with others. The purpose of creating a shared vision is to involve all the school stakeholders to have a voice in what the future of school should look like and be like. It is a process that puts into words the desired and preferred future for the school building. The process draws upon the beliefs of the stakeholders and breaks the line of thinking to examine what an ideal school would be like. Stakeholders develop a shared understanding and common values (Fullan, 1991). The process allows for establishing goals and indicators of success. In developing more effective schools is describing the school you seek to become. Identifying where you want to go in relation to where you are is the key to identifying those areas where you need to improve (Fullan, 1990).
The school community should create a shared vision for my school based on a set of core beliefs to which your school community can commit. The vision will need to reflect the school district vision and goals as well as the state standards. My school improvement priorities need to be aligned with my school vision.
Though creating a shared vision is a slow process, it is not as difficult as some people think. It requires staff and other stakeholders to identify and share their core beliefs and describe how their ideal school would look. After staff has identified and shared their own beliefs and ideas, the process of consensus building begins. A school that can identify its core beliefs and values has created an empowering framework for monitoring how well the school is doing and whether individual strategies and activities are aligned with the core values (Fullan & Stiegelbauer, 1991). Preparing for a Shared Vision Meeting
I would ensure that I explain to participants that a shared vision should not be confused with creating a vision statement or a mission statement. A shared vision process is long range planning for how we get to the desired state by also defining our current state and the gap between the two (Shanker, 1990). A vision statement is a short statement that defines where we should be headed. A mission statement defines why we exist (Glickman, 1991).
I would first select a facilitator who has the expertise to work with a large group of people and can remain neutral during the process. The facilitator should be able to listen intently and synthesize information. The importance of leadership, especially when times are difficult, has been emphasized. Throughout the change process, implementers also benefit from the support of external facilitators and an internal facilitator. External facilitators contribute to the implementation stage by providing pressure and support as well as technical assistance. They support local efforts, but do not assume a leadership role. Often times, outside facilitators will be required to provide training or technical assistance on specific implementation processes or identified needs to support effective change (Shanker, 1990). Other times, outside facilitators are used informally to assess progress and provide feedback to lend a sympathetic ear when necessary. Implementers often feel less threatened by outside facilitators because their role is to support and provide honest assessment of implementation activities. They bring the issues out in the open for an objective review by everyone involved. School improvement facilitators encourage schools to measure their growth from where they began, not in relation to or in competition with other schools. External facilitators also bring a perspective that incorporates experience with many other schools and projects; they contribute new ideas that focus on the vision of the group (McLaughlin, 1990).
I would also select a recorder to record conversations and are able to capture the exact wording. Finally I would invite a diverse group of school stakeholders (teachers, support staff, students, parents and key community members, family supports systems from public and non-profit institutions).
Creating a Shared Vision
Shared responsibility and ownership by those involved is absolutely necessary for the success of any implementation plan. Ownership has to take precedence in the process of creating a shared vision. If the process is perceived to be owned by one or a few, resistance is likely from other affected individuals. For a smooth transition to effective implementation, all key partners are vital to the process. It is imperative that everyone involved has a shared understanding and commitment to the change process, knowledge of the strategies necessary to effect change, and the commitment to implement changes. Following are the steps to creating a shared vision:
Step I (1-2 hrs.)
A. Welcome stakeholders and communicate purpose of meeting and benefit of the shared vision process. Use an icebreaker for participants to introduce themselves.
B. Divide the large group into smaller groups of 6-8 people. Have a recorder for each of the small groups to record the conversation.
C. The facilitator should have developed conceptual questions that address the future needs of the school building. Examples might be: * What would the ideal school look like? What would it be like for students? * What does having a quality school mean to you? * What are the characteristics of an ideal school? * How do you envision the school district/building in five years?
Participants in small groups respond to questions asked in a round robin process giving each member of the group an opportunity to express their ideas. The recorder will record ideas on chart paper. The facilitator will ask participants group ideas and to identify any common theme within ideas recorded. Common ideas will be captured. This process will be repeated with all questions in the process (Little, 1987).
Step II
A small group should compile all the themes presented and again clarify any statements. Regroup all the themes into common themes.
Step III
A. Small group presents common themes to larger group. Large group does multi-voting process on statements about the future that are most important to them. Three statements will be selected with the most votes (Little, 1987).
B. The participants will be divided into different smaller groups of 6-8 people. Begin to have the smaller groups identify the current state. The questions might sound something like this: * What is Grand Park Alternative School currently doing to achieve the prioritized vision statements? * What are the actions we must do to reach these prioritized vision statements? * What things are going really well? What things aren’t going so well?
C. After defining the current state, discuss and record the positive forces that are leading the organization toward the desired state.
D. Next discuss that negative forces could impact reaching the desired state.
E. Use the negative and positive forces to create an action plan (Little, 1987). Conclusion
Creating a shared vision involves risk taking. It often appears messy in the early stages as teachers, principals, and others depart from what they know well to try new practices and strategies. Initiators have no guarantees that the changes they are introducing will succeed (Hord, Rutherford, Huling-Austin, & Hall, 1987). It is normal for people to feel overwhelmed and even threatened in the early stages of developing a shared vision. The laws of physics apply in human change: Things (and people) like to stay the way they are; things (and people) like to keep on doing what they are already doing (Sarason, 1982).

References
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Fullan, M. (1991). Productive educational change. East Sussex, United Kingdom: Falmer Press
Fullan, M., & Stiegelbauer, S. (1991). The new meaning of educational change (2nd ed.). New York: Teachers College Press.

Glickman, C. (1991, March). The League of Professional Schools. Presentation at the annual meeting of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, San Francisco.

Hord, S.M., Rutherford, W., Huling-Austin, L., & Hall, G.E. (1987). Taking charge of change. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Huberman, M., & Miles, M. (1984). Innovation up close. New York: Plenum.

Little, J.W. (1987). Teachers as colleagues. In V. Richardson-Koehler (Ed.), Educators handbook (pp. 491-518). White Plains, NY: Longman.

McLaughlin, M.W. (1990). The Rand Change Agent Study revisited: Micro realities. Educational Researcher, 19(9), 11-16.

Miles, M.B. (1983, December). Unraveling the mystery of institutionalization. Educational Leadership.

Peters, T. (1987). Thriving on chaos: Handbook for a management revolution. New York: Knopf.

Sarason, S. (1982). The culture of the school and the problem of change (rev. ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Sarason, S. (1990). The predictable failure of educational reform. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Shanker, A. (1990). Staff development and the restructured school. In B. Joyce (Ed.), Changing school culture through staff development (pp.91-103). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.