Making Your Group More Effective Through Dissent.

I found this article interesting and potentially helpful for anyone working within a group.

Start-Up. After the Siege.

The last week of August and the first two weeks of September are very intense times for high school counsellors.  We are bombarded with current students' requests for timetable changes and changes of plans due to summer school and online courses that were (unexpectedly) completed.  There are usually 30 or 40 new students to fit into appropriate timetables (in an already full school).  Many of the new students do not speak English fluently and have just arrived in Canada.   In a multi-cultural school like ours, all this intense activity requires highly developed diplomacy and first rate communication skills to make things flow smoothly.  Of course, everything is emotionally heightened by the fact we are dealing with adolescents who are on edge and under a great deal of pressure themselves.  Parents, naturally, become emotionally involved whenever their child is not able to get the courses he or she needs (or wishes for).  The front office is a beehive of activity and teamwork as new students are processed and current students' phone calls and requests are dealt with.  All in all, it is a very intense, exciting and physically/mentally demanding three weeks.   The important themes during this time include: teamwork, compassion, firmness, fairness, speed, efficiency and perseverance.

 After three weeks of intense effort by the counselling department, administration, the office staff and the ELL staff, 1500 students are happily attending their classes.  Teachers can now begin handing out textbooks instead of watching the constant flow in and out of their classes as schedules are changed and changed again.  Parents can begin to relax.  Today is Friday.  It is the end of three intense weeks of effort by counsellors..  It is 3:20 p.m.  Most of the students have left the school.  The sun is shining outside my window.  The sky is bright blue.  We can look forward to a relaxing and well deserved rest over the weekend.  On Monday, counsellors will begin to focus on all the other tasks we are involved with over the course of a school year.   For counsellors, the siege is over !

Gratitude

We had an incident in the Counselling Department the other day.  A older gentleman was seen walking through the area without first going through the usual check in procedure at the front office.  In our security conscious school system, this is a cause for concern.  Our Department Head quickly made contact with the gentleman and as far as I knew the person had left the school.  Wrong.  On my way through the office later on, he appeared before me, seemingly anxious to talk to me.  I was a little concerned as his English was not fluent and I was not sure why  he would want to speak to me.   It turns out that his son and daughter had both been students of mine in years gone by.  His son had some difficulties with his credits as he had come to our school from the U.S.A.  I had worked with him to clear things up, gather all his credits and put him on a path toward earning a British Columbia Dogwood  high school diploma.  This had led to the son being eventually accepted into a prestigious university in Ontario.  He had also earned several scholarships.  The gentleman's daughter had done equally well.  The purpose of the impromptu visit to our Counselling office by the older gentleman was to express his gratitude to those of us on the counselling staff who had put in the time and effort to help his son and daughter at a time when their academic credentials were in need of clarification.  To us, it was all in a day's work.  To him and his family it meant everything and he simply had to come to see us personally to express his gratitude.  We ended our conversation by shaking hands.  He offered a deep bow to show his  respect as is the custom in Asia.  I offered my own somewhat awkward bow in return and with that we went our separate ways, both feeling a sense of accomplishment and gratitude.

Butterflies ...

No doubt most of our 1500 students are feeling a little nervous as thoughts turn away from summer activities and back to academic requirements and demands.  Counsellors are not immune to this nervous anticipation and are also feeling that familiar feeling in the pit of the stomach as we re-focus on the needs and wishes of our students.  Sometimes the biggest challenge right off the bat is remembering the bewildering array of passwords and computer commands that were so familiar just two months ago.  One more week before returning to work; another year is set to begin   After 29 years it still holds the same mixture of excitement and anticipation.

Last Day

It is always bitter-sweet to finally arrive at the last staff day of the school year ... a time to say goodbye... a time to celebrate another successful year ... tearful goodbyes .... expressions of undying friendship ... the last glimpses of those who are leaving the profession ....and of course, the mostly funny, sometimes awkward, shenanigans that go on at the year end staff meeting ..... are all proof  that many of us in the education profession enjoy an extended adolesence ....  this annual event is reassurance that "community" still exists and is valued .... it brings back memories of life as it was decades ago .... when communities were smaller ... aunts and uncles lived just down the street ... everyone knew everyone else ... and looked out for them.

End of Year Bottle Neck

The end of June is a dance of increasing complexity as the Counselling Department tries to meet the needs and wishes (rational and emotional) of many diverse groups including first and foremost students who are trying to coordinate their courses with highschool grad requirements, university entrance requirements, parents hopes, student hopes  and so forth.  Also included is the ELL department, the LST department, the math department, the English department and administrative needs and wishes.  All these needs and requests need to be coodinated with the "failure" lists, recommendation lists, summer school registration lists, online school registration lists. When dealing with 1500 students (and 3.0 FTE counsellors) this task of timetabling for the upcoming school year becomes in intense process requiring careful coordination and open communication well ahead of the end of June.

On Counsellors and Being Human

Why is it that counsellors sometimes forget to apply the skills and knowledge they encourage in others' lives - into their own?  A counselling department is similar to a family.  Other departments within the school are similar to families in the neighbourhood that we interact with and, with whom, to varying degrees, we are locked in mutual interdependence. Norms around decision making, communication and power sharing need to be clearly established (but often are not) in order for harmony to exist.   One to the most common difficulties that can arise is failing to apply basic concepts from group dynamics research.  We are all familiar with the stages groups go through: forming, norming, storming, performing and adjourning.  What is often overlooked is that whenever  a member leaves or a new member joins the department (especially an influential member), or outside forces impose change .... the group is forced to go through the initial stages of development again ... back to forming and norming and potentially quite dramatic -- storming.  The trick is to recognize that this is normal for all groups - counselling departments are not immune.  Indeed, counsellors more than anyone need to recognize what is happening and facilitate their own group process and take responsibility for a healthy new group to emerge complete with new (or at least tweaked) norms, new decision making methods, new leadership styles, well established communication protocols and so on.  The group's newcomers can assist by recognizing established group norms, while not being imprisoned by them, and working gently toward change, if needed.  Well educated and skillful counsellors can utilize their group dynamics training to facilitate a peaceful transition leading to order, productivity and harmony while allowing  individuals the maximum possible professional autonomy.   Otherwise, counsellors will experience the same intense disruption that a blended family may experience upon the arrival of a new parent.  Counsellors are human too.