“How do you make it safe to talk about the stuff you’re not supposed to talk about?” asks Bruce Wellman, a founding partner of the publishing, training, and consulting firm, MiraVia LLC.

Group skills are critical to building strong teams and leading effectively. Depending on how leaders frame things and respond to educators will directly impact how open teachers are and how likely to ask for help and depersonalize experiences they are having in the group. Imagine the positive impact it would have if leaders are willing to learn the dance of being strong yet vulnerable. Wouldn’t that effort make for a more effective and trusting team?

Taking joint responsibility for how well the team is doing with kids is an important step in helping educators depersonalize feedback and grow in their capacity to ensure student success.

For this to happen, psychological safety is a must. How a leader frames things and responds truly matters. What’s the norm at your school? What strategies are working? “Culture trumps strategy every day.” (Peter Drucker)

These are some of the questions founder of Research for Better Teaching, John Saphier, and Bruce Wellman, a founding partner of the publishing, training, and consulting firm, MiraVia LLC discuss in this video.