The survey results: a summary

AGQTP Appreciative Enquiry – Decision Making.

Results

KLA Areas Covered: (number indicates numbers of returns per faculty)

Arts	RE	H & PE	Lang	SOSE	Maths	Sci	D & T	Eng	ESO
3	7	8	0	10	2	3	3	5	4

Q1 What impact do you have on decision making at the whole school level?

	None	Very Little	Don’t Know	Some	Significant	Total returns
All	0	14	1	7	5	28
POR	0	2	1	6	5	14
Not POR	0	12	0	1	0	14

Notes: Although clearly the proportion of “very little” impact (50%) and “some” or “significant” impact (43%) is about the same overall, when you break it down to POR/Not POR, most PORs (79%) feel they have at least some impact, most Non-POR staff (86%) feel they have very little impact. I guess to change this they should apply to become PORs.

Q 2 Words to describe perspective on decision making at whole school level:

Manufactured	3	Easy	1	Efficient	5	Frustrating	7	Affirming	4
Pre-disposed	1	Consultative	15	Fair	11	Well-informed	6	Explicit	1
Logical	10	Contrived	1	Collective	4	Impulsive	3	Agonising	2
Rational	4	Intuitive	2	Constructive	8	Procedural	11	Shared	13
Ad hoc	3	Autocratic	1	Delayed	3

Top 5 (School Overall):

Description	Number	Percentage overall of returns (Tot = 28)
Consultative	15	54
Shared	13	46
Fair	11	39
Procedural	11	39
Logical	10	36

Notes: All very positive.

Q 3 Impact on Decision making in KLA

KLA	None	Very Little	Don’t Know	Some	Significant	Total
All	0	8	2	20	7	37
Percent	0	22	5	54	19	100

Notes: this means that most staff (73%) felt that had at least some impact in some faculties although a significant proportion (22%) felt they did not have much impact on some faculties.

Q4 Words describing decision making in KLA Area

Manufactured	2	Easy	2	Efficient	8	Frustrating	5	Affirming	4
Pre-disposed	0	Consultative	9	Fair	9	Well-informed	7	Explicit	1
Logical	8	Contrived	1	Collective	9	Impulsive	4	Agonising	2
Rational	3	Intuitive	2	Constructive	9	Procedural	5	Shared	16
Ad hoc	1	Autocratic	1	Delayed	5

Top 5 (KLA):

Description	Number	Percentage overall of returns (Tot = 28)
Shared	16	57
Consultative	9	22
Fair	9	22
Constructive	9	22
Collective	9	22

Notes: Again, all very positive.

Q 5 Impact on decision making at Class Level (some ESOs did not comment)

	None	Very Little	Don’t Know	Some	Significant
Number	0	1	1	4	19
Percentage	0	4	4	14	68

Notes: As you would expect, most teachers (82%) have some or significant impact on decision making in their class rooms.

Q6 Words describing decision making in the Classroom

Manufactured	0	Easy	8	Efficient	7	Frustrating	1	Affirming	7
Pre-disposed	0	Consultative	9	Fair	8	Well-informed	7	Explicit	2
Logical	8	Contrived	0	Collective	7	Impulsive	1	Agonising	1
Rational	5	Intuitive	1	Constructive	9	Procedural	8	Shared	8
Ad hoc	1	Autocratic	3	Delayed	0

Top 6 (Classroom):

Description	Number	Percentage overall of returns (Tot = 28)
Consultative	9	32
Constructive	9	32
Fair	8	29
Logical	8	29
Procedural	8	29
Shared	8	29

Notes: An interestingly even spread of very positive comments. I wonder what students would say?

Q 6 Student Impact on decision making at Class Level

	None	Very Little	Don’t Know	Some	Significant
Numbers	0	5	0	16	2
Percentage	0	18	0	57	7

Notes: Again, most teachers (64%) feel that students have at least some impact.

Q 7/8 Decision Making Groups (Number that are effective in brackets)

CAR	2	PPAR	2	Liturgy	1	Sports Com	2	Uniform
Café	1	Music Ministry	1	PE	5	YLC	3	Leadership Team	2
Learning team	4	SRC	1	English	2	GCFFL	2	SOSE	1
Consultative Committee	1	RE	1	Staff Association	1	Celebrations committee	1	None	4

Q 10 Preferred Decision Making Style

	Auto I	Auto II	Consult I	Consult II	Group II
Points	30	44	72	90	119
Percentage	8	12	20	26	34

Notes: a reasonably clear preference for at least consultation (80%), with at least one third of staff wishing that it would go further in that the group should make the decisions rather than leadership.

N.B: Points were allocated as: 5 was worth one point, 4 – two points, 3 – three points, 2 – four points, and 1 – five points.

Overall comment: Much more positive than I expected. Some individuals had some significant gripes about how decisions were made and how little say they had. Most staff (68%) came up with some sort of decision making process that they thought was effective.

Collection of Responses to Survey

So far, so good. We have collected about 20 surveys from a range of staff and faculties. The responses are mixed in most areas but clearly most people think that they have little say in the decision making process of the school as a whole.
I have been intrigued by the feedback by both the KLA coordinators and people in their factulty. I will use RE as an example. The coordinator feels like everybody gets a go and decision making is shared. However, the (albeit few) two responses from the faculty suggest otherwise.
What has been excellent is that most people have given examples of worthwhile decision making processes.
On reflection the best process I have been involved in has been with the Fantasy Football association that I am involved in. We are about to have an AGM and the process for changing the constitution is as fair and clear cut as I have seen. This usually involves sending out a proposal sheet, getting proposals in by a due date, printing them off in a very well set out booklet with all the options available, getting this out before the day and encouraging discussion before the meeting. Finally, all people come to the meeting with an idea of how they are going to vote. Some people reasons for/against and then we vote.
We will do a final appeal for surveys tomorrow and then collate them on the weekend - if I can fit in all the reports I have to write!
A friend of mine suggested that the school's PC might help developing the processes involved in developing worthwhile decision making structures. Will contact him with the results to see what he thinks.

The surveys start coming in...oh, and another meeting

Yes, the first decision making surveys have come in and even the ESOs are getting involved. Should make for interesting reading.

I attended another typical meeting today, this time for a particular KLA that I am closely associated with.
The meeting started late with the usual excuses. The chair also said at the start: "I don't want to do a lot of talking at this meeting" and then proceeded to talk for about 80% of the meeting. She stuck to the agenda for the most part except near the end when we had an open discussion on what skills we would like our Year 12s to have by the time they reach Year 12. We can then use that to map what skills we develop in Year 11, 10 etc. down to Year 8. She really needs to be shown a technique on how to do this.
Prior to this, the only decision making part of the meeting was to decide on whether the new Engineering Course we are a part of (!) should be run across Year 10 or should be aimed at a particular group. It consisted of a small amount of discussion, then around the room for a vote! Hmmm. Very interesting way of doing things. She does not have much of an idea about getting opinions of others as she appeared to be very uncertain when asking for this.
Verdict: not a meeting more of a lecture/information session.

A meeting of the second kind

This is a review of a second meeting of a group that I have reviewed previously.
I usually take minutes for this meeting but it was suggested that this not be necessary - I don't know why. The agenda seemed to be an informational one but the discussion that ensued was quite vigorous (if unruly) . Intriguingly the chair did not take notes as the meeting progressed - a recipe for time wasting if ever there was one.
Here is a sample of the progress of discussion about student recommendations for senior subjects.
Objections to the process because it seemed pointless as students can still choose a subject even if they are not recommended -> student progress in general, some students should not be doing certain subjects because they were never going to be suited to it and are now dropping out -> should we introduce a minimum "B" standard for all assessment tasks? Should start in Year 8 not Year 12, and no progress until it is achieved -> teachers spend too much time re-teaching work in Year 12 -> can't get through the course -> some students doing outdoor ed and/or child studies miss many weeks of lessons and don't make them up -> could we have subject panels to recommend students? -> could we get students doing work prior to the commencement of Year 12 - say in the holidays or final weeks of Year 11 -> why are some Year 12 students doing Year 12? -> we need to focus on what is required for Year 12 and scope this back to Year 8 students -> back to subject recommendation panels -> back to teacher recommendations and so on and so on....
It was agonising. Don't get me wrong the topic(s) were worthy of conversation but given that no notes were taken and nobody will remember what was said I just don't see the point.

Ok how could it have gone?
Firstly, if it is simply to present information, then present it,
If you want to discuss it, present it, ask for clarifying questions and then discuss it in small groups. Under no circumstances should an individual take hold of the agenda and fly kites.
Time limit the discussion and move people back to the agenda if they start to stray. This meeting went no-where because there was no purpose to it.
If you want to decided something, then people must be given time to digest the suggestion - it SHOULD NOT be raised at the meeting for a decision there and then. Grrrr. That makes me mad!

The Project: Current Status

Met with Susan to talk about where we are at with the AGQTP project.
After giving her the run down of where we are at:

Aim is to survey the decision making process at the school and offer suggestions for decision making protocols.
We are doing this by making observations at meetings, evaluating them as we go, searching for decision making models and surveying staff on decision making.

Susan made a few suggestions:

• Aim to create a decision making policy
• Do a survey of what decisions are made at the school
• Rating the decision beforehand ie Level A Decisions are critical and need to be discussed and decided upon broadly; Level C decisions probably just need some feedback and then an individual can make the decision. This would be determined by examining the impact of the decision.
• How are we involving students and parents in the decision making process?
• There is an urgent need for a shared vision
• Critical - giving feedback about why a certain decision was made.

She seemed to have a few good ideas and her business is aimed at training leaders so we could use her as a sounding board for ideas. She seemed very supportive.
We hope to complete the survey and analyse it when we next meet. We asked about any accreditation we might be getting but she is none the wiser.
Our presentation needs to be 10 minutes long.

The Decision Making Process

This is from a reading from Amanda and the GenGroup about decision making.
It suggests that there are three main factors which influence a decision:

• The decision maker - chair of the meeting, coordinator, principal.
  Such leaders can be extroverted (thinks aloud, facilitates group decisions) or introverted (processes information in a controlled fashion, must include much preparation and planning beforehand).
  

• The decision process - fitting in with the decision maker's style, planning and preparation, sharing information, decision making process.
  Involves two processes - information (search, amount, supply and use of data required in the decision) and procedure (steps that a group uses to make a decision).
  Information should be of high quality and have predictive value when making decisions in a short time frame.
  The process of decision making can further be broken down into three stages: Preparation (sourcing, collecting and analysis of data), Facilitation (drawing out persepectives, opinions and options based on their analysis), and a Decision (decision maker considers the options in relation to vision and mission and choses a course of action).
  
• The situation - what are we deciding on, where and when. This needs a group that can trust each other (must consider time pressure, acceptability and group/team factors)

This is a good way to analyse what happens in our school. Maybe the next step is to review the meetings based on this analysis and see what the data shows us.

This prompted me to come up with an analysis grid to help with the process:

Analysing decisions at our school:

Questions to ask:

What was the decision made?
Who was (were) the decision maker(s)?
Was their style extraverted? Some planning done prior to the meeting as information and expectations shared? Thinking out loud? Guides group decisions? Or Introverted? Much planning and preparation done prior to the meeting
What was the process involved in the Search for data Supply of data to meeting participants Use of data during the meeting Analysis of data during the meeting What data was valuable in making the decision?
What was the process involved in the drawing out the Perspectives opinions, and options from group or team members based on their analysis of the data
What was the process involved in making the final decision? Were a range of options considered? What strategic goals were addressed? How was the final course of action decided upon?
What were the time constraints, acceptability?, and group/team factors, which make the decision task more difficult

Might try it at the next meeting!