Communication with your staff

Communication with your staff – Is there such a thing as too much?

How do I communicate with thee? Let me count the ways?  (okay, bad joke there…) Seriously though, how do you communicate with your staff? And is it really possible to communicate too much. Before I answer that, I’m almost positive that most schools are NOT hotbeds of communication. One of the most constant complaints I heard from teachers in schools where I’ve worked is that they never know what’s going on. When they do find out what’s happening, then it’s usually at the last minute.     Where is that “sweet spot” regarding the information flow in your building?

Let’s go through the different possibilities without passing judgement at this time (All of these have been used in schools where I’ve worked at one time or other):

• Newsletters  in mailboxes once a week – Some of these newsletters have been at the end of the week and have reviewed the highlights of things that happened that week. Other newsletters came out on Fridays for the following week (not bad), others were in our mailboxes Monday morning (not quite as helpful).
• Messages posted on whiteboards in teacher mailroom.  – Great for daily reminders or if things were changed for that day only!
• Faculty meetings – some schools had them weekly, some had them twice a month and others once a month
• E-mail – One principal I had lived with her IPad in her hands all the time. She never stopped checking it and she was typing all the time. She expected everyone to check their e-mail consistently throughout the day. You shouldn’t expect your staff to check their e-mail during their classtime. Teachers need to be focused on their students and their instruction.
• Announcements over the loudspeaker
• Phone calls to rooms
• Sending student aides or other staff members to a classroom with a message for the teacher or paraprofessional
• Using the intercom
• The infamous “phone tree”
• Dept. meetings
• Grade level meetings
• Leadership Team meetings (or some equivalent name)
• Text messaging
• Calendars – I’ve seen printed ones once a month. I’ve seen weekly calendars printed and/or e-mailed once a week. Also shared calendars on an intranet. Lastly, I’ll mention Google shared calendar.
• Committee meetings.
• subject level meetings

You need to be like Goldilocks – Not too much and not too little information. Just right.  I’ll post more about the meeting portion of the schedule in a coming post. It’s no good having meetings just to have them. There has to be a purpose that ALL understand for having the meetings.

Here’s a sample communication schedule. I will post about a very effective meeting schedule in the near future. Stay tuned for that one. It can say you a lot of headaches!  I would suggest before implementing anything that you run it by a few of your most discerning staff members to give you their feedback.

1. Set up a Google Calendar that is shared with ALL school faculty and staff.
2. ALL events should be on this calendar. If it takes several people sharing responsibility for this, then you’ve got to do it. Having ONE place to go for the answer is what needs to happen. When parents call the front office, or anyone else at the school, they should get the same answer about when and where an event is taking place.
3. Weekly, I printed out the coming week’s schedule and have it in everyone’s box on Thursday before they go home so they can plan accordingly. A lot of schools have lesson plans due on Fridays for the following week.
4. E-mail is great for “breaking action” news or changes to the weekly schedule. It shouldn’t be sent out more than twice a day, if at all possible. Teachers should check their e-mail BEFORE class begins and AFTER school ends before they go home. If you have to scroll down, then usually that means the e-mail is too long.
5. Lastly, I liked to reinforce the e-mails (or late breaking news) with written messages in a central place where all staff members check-in at least twice daily (the mailbox room usually serves that purpose)

It is hard to emphasize how important information flow is to your school. Constantly search for and solicit input as to how you’re doing in this area. If you don’t ask, you won’t know… until it comes back and bites you in the rear… So people, let’s get out there and communicate!

What are your thoughts on this communication plan?  Too much, too little?  What should YOU do?