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COLLECTIVE EFFICACY
I N A P L C AT W O R K ®
The nuances of purpose would need to be properly understood if leaders were to gain clarity for the organization. Leaders needed adequate time to reflect, interpret, and analyze their own professional purpose before ever beginning to consider their ability to access the collective purpose of teams. Awakening the organization’s higher calling requires leaders to sort through the buried contradictions of leadership to uncover the truths of schools. The specific leadership paradoxes Sanger’s leadership encountered when building purpose to enhance collective efficacy were: • Feeling good vs. doing badly • Questions vs. answers • Significance vs. contribution • Limbic system vs. the neocortex
Feeling Good vs. Doing Badly The “feeling good, doing badly” paradox was a prevalent theme throughout the district. Prevalent because teachers and leaders were highly motivated, were hardworking, and understood the district mission to raise achievement scores, but to no avail. Ongoing district and school site formative assessment data simply did not reflect the anticipated uptick in student learning as anticipated. The “feeling good, doing badly” paradox was real; however, all teachers and leaders may not have been fully aware of the difference. Leaders acknowledged the obvious discrepancy between having positive feelings and achieving negative results within their schools but realized it was difficult to articulate in words. In addition, leaders noticed that the cultural dynamic of some schools was to simply accept the “feeling good, doing badly” paradox, and they wanted to find out if staff were even aware of the paradox. Additionally, the origins of “feeling good, doing badly” would need to be vetted out by leadership and staff while navigating the process with both delicacy and respect. The “feeling good, doing badly” context would require a sort of gentle relentlessness, a balanced leadership approach when attempting to rationalize changes that needed to be made to the organization for the sake of purpose.
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them, or that leaders were somehow acting as saviors for school sites. Rather, leadership understood that capturing purpose unquestionably would be a collective endeavor. The truth was that the new leaders possessed such a pure, powerful devotion to “doing what was best for kids” that it was critical to ensure the same undeniable passion and belief were expressed by all throughout the organization. The mission for leaders and teams was to tap into the invisible spirit, that humanistic side of people, the place where inspiration lives—where the message speaks directly to the heart. Leaders would need both authenticity and the wherewithal to connect with teams and unearth a deeper meaning of purpose.
