Communication and Balancing Work Scope Priorities

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Communication and Balancing Work Scope Priorities

• Lawrence J. OShea, Ph.D.
• Jacqueline M. Walsh, MA

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Whats it all About?

• Organization
• Communication
• Leadership

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Organization and Management

• Time managementget organized off-load your
  mind!
• We all have the same amount of time!
• Schedule personal time or risk losing focus on
  whats important in rush to take care of urgent
• Created free time from wasted time
• Dont waste time looking back to shouldas,
  couldas, or who did you wrong
• Use time and emotional energy instead to look
  forward, be a leader, turn the situation around

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Organization and Management

• Time managementget organized off-load your
  mind! (Cont.)
• Graphic organizers/technology
• Calendars to/of staff, notes by bed/car, lists of
  to dos, tickler files
• Cell phonesget reimbursed for work calls on
  personal phones
• Voice E-mail develop contact lists/Bcc
  messages to yourself/ organize folders of SENT
  messages
• PDAs task lists, record messages to yourself

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Setting Priorities

• Framework for making it all work smoothly
• Five magic words Ill take care of that
• Never let them see you sweat, Rusty Coyne,
  Waitress, 1965
• But sweat the small stuff
• Astronaut/Cheerleader Syndrome Under promise and
  over deliver- set goals, not limits- believe all
  end results are possible!
• Jackies golden rule for long life If you
  always tell the truth, you never have to remember
  anything

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Setting Priorities

• Framework for working smoothly (cont.)
• Get to know organization Mission Statement /or
  develop Filters for decision making
• Filter 1 Whats best for kids/customers?
• Filter 2 Loyalty is a two-way street
• Filter 3 Whats the Gods Honest Truth

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Setting Priorities

• Framework for working smoothly (cont.)
• Anything important, needs to be scheduled!
• What are 3-4 most important things you do?
• Where have you scheduled them on your calendar?

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Setting Priorities

• Make time to dreamif you cant afford to dream,
  you wont develop a Vision
• In the morning/ in the shower
• Driving to and from work
• Walk outside at lunch for five minutes
• Schedule on calendar one hour/week to read a
  journal or check out a RX web page
• At night w/lights out

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Setting Priorities

• Develop your VISION with dreams
• Knowing your organization what is the culture?
  Is there one?
• Getting to know the goals of your organizationdo
  YOU have goals? Do both sets of goals match?
• Doables vs. Desireables
• Cant predict the future, but you can create it!
  - Paul Dolan, CEO Fetzer Wine, True to Our Roots

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Setting Priorities

• Then.If newish to the job, develop an Entry
  Plan
• Interview everybodywhats worked, not worked?
• Annually, prepare a plan detailing program
  objectives, staff responsible and costs. Present
  to the all interested stakeholders, e.g. staff,
  admin, board, advisory council
• In the long run, we only hit what we aim
  atThoreau
• Make it your business to learn whats important
  to others
• Develop self evaluation systemlearn to get kudos
  from yourself ask staff for anonymous feedback

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Communication.

• WHAT you communicate
• Convince em You have the 3 Cs
• Competent
• Knowledgeable about programs and procedures
• Know when and where to get information from
  others
• Effective communicator
• Interpersonal communication skills
• Intrapersonal communication skills
• Effective problem solver

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Communication.

• WHAT you communicate.
• Confident
• Calm in the face of controversy
• Dont force a response by not working through the
  problem

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Communication.

• WHAT you communicate.
• Contribute
• Local Capacity Building v. Doing the Work
• Your working for the customer (e.g., school
  district)
• Advise, give options, let the customer decide,
  assist customer to implement plan
• Moral dilemma- what is best for customer vs.
  student

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Communication.

• HOW you communicate
• ensure that you and your programs are
  visible!
• Program descriptions
• Distribute flyers re services, trainings
• Lists of contact staff phone extension s
• Learn Power Point presentationsget a laptop
• Send periodic program updates via e-mail to
  targeted groups

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Communication.

• HOW you communicate
• Ask the question
• Can you communicate and exchange information w/o
  face to face meeting
• Return phone calls in 24 hrsavailable 24 / 7
• Leave voice messages after 5
• Return emails in 72 hours
• Conference calling

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Communication.

• HOW you communicate
• Monthly meetings with staff, admin
• Search PennLink, PDE webpage (www.pde.state.pa.us)
  , Special Education Listserv (send an email to
  specialed_at_lists.cas.psu.edu with the subject of
  subscribe)
• The official communication tool is the grapevine!

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Listen to the Chatter
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Communication.

• With WHOM do you communicate?
• Subordinate Staff
• Supervisory Staff
• Administration
• Board
• PDE
• Community - your stakeholders

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Management Structures
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Management Structures

• Hierarchies
• Chain of command
• Lines of communication
• Delegation of responsibility

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Leadership
Managementneed both

• Doing things right vs. doing the right things
• Be God-like Omniscient, Omnipotent Omnipresent
• Seeing the Forest for the Trees
• Taking Risks
• Keeping Current
• Persistent Patient
• Expanding spheres of influencechange happens
  incrementally-wait for your horse to break through

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Leadership
Managementneed both

• If you lose, dont lose the lesson
• To determine where you are and where you need to
  be, periodically conduct
• Personal audit
• Program audit
• Environmental Scans- Zoomerang.com
• Spheres of influence auditplant seeds

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Leadership
Managementneed both

• Develop a culture of leadership in your
  organizationnot dependent on one leader
• Make everyone responsible for their own jobs so
  your job is as easy as it can be
• Be fair and objective to all staff

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Be Fair and Objective to a Fault
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Problem Solving

• State the problem
• What do you know?
• You come to know from experience
• What do you need to know?
• What options are available?
• Apply your filters
• Whats best for the customers/students?
• Loyalty is a two-way street
• Whats the Gods Honest Truth?
• Make your decision
• Develop plan of action

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Problem Solving

• If you decide it cant be done, figure out how to
  do it anyway
• Model good problem solving skills to staffteach
  them to own the problem
• Encourage decision making from the ground-up vs.
  top-down
• Back em up if they mess up

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Teach Staff to Problem Solve

• Empower staff with
• Tools/ skills to do their jobs
• Power to make decisions about their work
  assignments
• Productive feedback about their performance

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Build Collegial Relationship with Those Who Work
With You

• Effective Leader Acid Test
• If all those who work for you feel that
  nothing would make you happier than to see them
  succeed

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Build Collegial Relationship with those who work
with you

• Listen to themreally
• Interdependent - we all can make a difference
• Practice Role Release concept of
  boundary-spanning roles
• People learn to the degree they are motivated,
  Daniel Goleman, Working with Emotional
  Intelligence
• People are happiest when you use their highest
  talents

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Build Collegial Relationship with those who work
with you

• Compliment them - administrator 20x effective as
  a peercompliment in public criticize one-on-one
• Catch em doing things right tend to repeat
  what we call attention to
• You chose when I observe, not if
• Put yourself on my calendar 2x per month
• Ask TWO QUESTIONS

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Dealing with Crisis (Problem solving under
pressure)

• Are you aware?
• Did you investigate?
• Did you draw conclusion/make a decision?
• Did you take an appropriate action?

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Using Policies to Avoid Problems and Crises The
Policy Test

• Is it in writing?
• Does it have specificity?
• Is it authorized? by whom?
• Is it published?
• Is it distributed?
• Is staff in-serviced?

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Concepts to Avoid

• Arbitrary
• Capricious
• Deliberately Indifferent

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Prioritizing Your Work Scope

• Not doable
• Cant Save time
• Doing the wrong thing harder
• Looking for 2-3 hours per day

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Prioritizing Your Work Scope

• Do less
• Work Faster

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Prioritizing Your Work Scope

• Shorten tasks
• Eliminate steps
• Combine steps

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Prioritizing Your Work Scope

• Prioritizing/managing tasks/activities
• Pareto Principle 80 of results derived from 20
  of activities
• Set aside planning time daily
• Touch paper only once
• Act on it
• Trash it
• Put in reading pile

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Prioritizing Your Work Scope

• Interruptions
• Cant eliminate can shorten
• Physical environment
• Dont face flow of traffic
• Stand up when interrupted
• Dont let them sit down
• Walk them out
• Schedule one-on-one sessions
• Ask staff what it is that you do that wastes
  their time.

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Prioritizing Your Work Scope

• Meetings
• Make meetings productive and short
• Be organized
• Start and end on time
• Cover the most important items first
• Meet only when necessary

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Prioritizing Your Work Scope

• Start every day early
• Start every day with a clean desk and end with a
  clean desk
• First hour of the day is best
• Highest energy and less errors
• 75 of energy is gone by noon

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Prioritizing Your Work Scope

• Never make a trip you can handle with the phone
  beware 1,000 calls for 10 problems
• Make a short list of what you need to do that
  day focus on finishing one important thing
  from beginning to end
• Break down a huge task into hour chunks and do
  it!
• Update list on desk/PDA during the day/week

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Prioritizing Your Work Scope

• How Tos of TO DO Today List
• Break list into hours from 7 a.m. till 6 p.m.
• Sort tasks by time limits (has to be done today)
  or priorities (is important to me/my boss), or
  combo
• ABC Priority System Do the As before the
  Cs!
• A Highest value Dont go home till its done
• B Medium value Do if possible
• C Low value Can wait till next week-maybe
  delegate some of the Cs

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Prioritize Your Work Scope

• How Tos of TO DO Today List (cont.)
• Schedule Time to Read
• 45 minute commute- can read 60 books a year
• Throw out professional magazines after two weeks
• Schedule Time to be Healthy
• Prickliness is not a virtue - symptomatic of
  stress
• Value commitments to yourself to exercise/relax
• Avoid natural causes!
• Schedule Time for your Family!

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Prioritizing Your Work Scope

• How Tos of TO DO Today List (cont.)
• Delegate something important from your To Do
  Today list to all subordinates
• Ask yourself- must I do this? Can someone else?
• Can it wait? If yes, put on tomorrows list
• In 3 Days,3 Ds Do it, Delegate it, or Dump it!

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Prioritizing Secretarys Work Scope

• Re-think secretarys work scope
• Meet with secretary daily via phone/email, or in
  person-whats due today?
• Keep track of delegated tasks for you develop
  timelines draft emails contact lists share
  staff calendars research
• Tag team- you and me are it!

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Prioritizing Staff Work Scope

• Delegate fully - give whole job to one person if
  too large, give to two
• Delegation increases creative time management,
  accountability and overall productivity
• Explain why the work is important- staff have a
  better chance of getting it right!
• Delegate with style and grace!

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Prioritizing Staff Work Scope

• Design staff tasks in outcome terms
• Ask rather than tell how to do it
• People dont admit they dont understand repeat
  directions and test for understanding
• Reach consensus and enter in your Tickler File

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Prioritizing Staff Work Scope

• Develop a Tickler File
• Set a planning day (Wednesday-from 3-4 p.m.?)
• Start folders with Thursday, Friday and then next
  week (7 folders altogether)
• Another set of folders, one for each of next 3
  months plus current month. One folder for all
  beyond 3 months

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Prioritizing Staff Work Scope

• Develop a Tickler File (cont.)
• For each assignment, first put it in the month it
  has to be done write date on the paper when you
  plan to do it
• On planning day, pull out the months folder for
  the next 7 days

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Prioritizing Staff Work Scope

• Periodically ask if staff need your help- are
  they making steady progress?
• Dont remind staff of deadlines no late work
• Stress independence
• Require organized reports-learn Excel
• Check tickler file daily- whats due?

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Prioritizing Staff Work Scope

• Learn how to create a smooth flow of work
• If you plan well, you will have time to praise
  and celebrate
• If work stops when you leave, ask which staff
  havent been involved in the planning
• Im accountable to do the work right and youre
  responsible to catch me doing it!

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Questions and Issues?
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Contact Information

• Lawrence J.OShea, Ph.D.
• Executive Director - Intermediate Unit 1
• osheal_at_iu1.k12.pa.us
• Jacqueline M. Walsh, MA
• Curriculum Director - Colonial IU 20
• jwalsh _at_ciu20.org