PLCs: Just Say "NO"!

0:03 Hey there and welcome to another change paddles conversation where we talk about anything and everything that has to do with building. A cohesive Vision, driven teams that make sustainable change happen. Even when change seems impossible, I'm Casey W impact coach and consultant and the host of this show. What I know from experience is that making change happen can be Overwhelming, if you don't have cohesive Vision driven teams, no one has a collective understanding of why change should happen or what changed to begin first. You notice all starts because a solid action plan, hasn't, been formed or crafted where you're met with resistance because you don't know how to motivate such complex people and that leaves two schools remaining in a cycle of stagnancy.

1:00 Experiencing the same problems and ineffectively repeating the same initiatives or programs again. And again, and that leads to low morale burnout, High turnover, and who suffers most, it's our students but there is a better more effective way to bring about change in your school that does not deplete the energy of your people. You need a catalyst to help you get a solid start. My goal is to make cohesive Vision driven school teams a possibility. I helped School leaders, zoom out to cast vision and then Zoom back into script.

1:48 The critical moves that help teams collectively go farther faster and better even when change seems impossible. Here's what I To know from you. What is the change that, you know, needs to happen in your school? What are you hesitant to get rolled out two teams. What exists only in your mind that you are absolutely certain? Would benefit your school but you're just not sure how to get started right now. I want you to take a sticky note or put a note on your A phone or maybe in the comments, make a note that says change Catalyst. This is your reminder to email or message me about your future endeavors and your current reality because I would love to encourage you as a change Catalyst in your school, okay? Now that you are primed for thinking about cohesive Vision, driven cheat teams that make make change happen. Let's jump into this week's change Catalyst conversation. Well hey, hey everybody hey I'm seeing some people here that I know are ready to talk about

3:20 tonight's topic which is all about PLC. So if you're here tonight with me, what I want you to do first is pop in the comments, your current reality with plc's. Let's hear about The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. So today's topic is Kind of a hot one first, everyone has their opinions, their thoughts, and their concerns about plc's, my right second, my title insinuates because the title of tonight's Catalyst, conversation or change kettles, conversation is plc's, just say no. So, my title insinuates that I'm telling you to say, no to plc's, and In a sense, I am, which I know is crazy coming from me of all people because I am all about collaboration. If you know me and you know, me well you know that my focus is collaboration.

4:28 In fact, my entire why is rooted in collaboration? So let me share with you my why I Envision collaborative, Collaborative, Learning, communities learning, In communities in which the vast majority of educators are eager and Inspire to come to work every day, feel valued and empowered while at work and end each day with a great sense of purpose and fulfillment. So my entire, why is rooted in collaboration? Why in the world am I starting off? Tonight's change Catalyst conversation by encouraging you to say no to plc's.

5:09 So what I want to do is paint Picture that has outlined this trajectory of thinking for me, so before I do that, if you're here with me, remember, I want to see you in the comments. I want to know, what is your current reality with plc's? Let's put in the comments, the good, the bad, the ugly, and what brought you here tonight, and what is your role with PLC? So, I want to see that in the comments. So let me paint this picture. That's outlined this this trajectory A of thinking for me and I would love if you're hearing something that resonates with you just type in the comments. Yes.

5:50 Even if you want to put it in all capital letters type. Yes. If it's something that sounds familiar. Okay. So a few years ago, I was hired on as a consultant with a school that had in the 6 years prior. They had doubled in size and Time when I started working with them, I was really working with the instructional leader to develop like her instructional focus and then mapping out what her goals were for the year. And because this was a new school to me, the principal offered to take me on a tour. And I mean, who doesn't want to go on a tour of the school? I love touring schools because each one has its own unique differences, right?

6:39 And so on our tour, we were having like Like just this great conversation. One of the conversations that I love to have which is futuristic conversations. We're talking about her future with the school and she was telling me about her ideas for improving morale and her ideas, for supporting a culture of learning and all of the wonderful things that a campus leader aspires to implement. And so, when we got back to the front of the school, she had kind of moved the conversation into what her hopes were for each grade level team. And so I thought to myself, this is a great part of the conversation to ask about plc's.

7:24 So I did, I said, how do plc's function here? And here here's the response and this is one that I have heard before in Consulting with several schools. But also in schools that I've worked in, as both a teacher and an instructional Specialist or coach. She said, we used to do plc's, but we don't anymore. I'm going to say that again. And I want you to be thinking what sounds a little off there. She said we used to do plc's, but we don't anymore. Wait, what you used to do to do plc's, but you don't. Now, of course, those were the thoughts in my head and I didn't, I didn't share those out loud, but I did probe a little bit further.

8:22 Does it tell me? Me more about that and her response was well our team's got too big and teachers. Don't all share the same planning time Ergo we just can't have plc's. Okay so if you're noticing something that's a little awry in that conversation or that response definitely put it in the comments and I'm seeing Michelle rui your here and she said Ed. Yeah do plc's and I'm seeing some people tell a little bit about their plc's currently mostly data plc's.

9:04 As we get ready for standardized testing plc's that meet every other week. I don't feel like we're getting anywhere which is a lot different from the elementary PLC. So I'm assuming that you Alana have been working with middle and high school people. Okay? So, I want to someone else said, so no, professional learning communities. Yeah, so here's here's what that one statement tells me. It tells me everything I need to know about someone's understanding about plc's or professional learning communities. So what this, principal told me tells me everything I need to know about her understanding and her philosophy around, professional learning communities, and it also tells Me why the phrase PLC is coming up. Empty for so many Educators and organizations right? And please put yes in the comments if you feel like it is coming up empty is it coming up?

10:11 Empty in your organization or have you been in an organization where it's coming up? Empty? PLC is becoming simply a buzzword. We are making this term and professional learning communities, everything that they were never meant to be. And I'm going to go as far as to say that the only people who really enjoy plc's are those who understand their purpose and have high functioning plc's. Now I know that I'm dropping some pretty blunt truths. I'm dropping some pretty blunt truths and I'm going to keep dropping some pretty blunt truce because it's something I feel so strongly about.

11:05 With that said it is okay for you to come with different experiences and I want to see those in the comments. So if you actually are experiencing high, functioning plc's man, let's chat. And talk about why it's working so well for you. But I'm about to share some statements that other people might actually find really familiar and these statements, you may have heard being stated by either teachers or leaders. Maybe you have even said these things yourself and if you are familiar with any of these, put a big fat, yes in the comments. So I know that I'm I'm not alone in this that you also have heard these things.

11:52 So here's what you may have heard in the past, a teacher. Leader says, we do plc's every other Wednesday, or every other Tuesday, or every two weeks or whatever. Okay. Another could be, we used to do plc's, but we don't anymore, like, is the comment that I heard from the principal or someone anyone who says, I have PLC next week. Hmm I'm seeing Oh my gosh yes in the comments. Okay what about this one? Hey, during our PLC tomorrow, we can talk about the field.

12:33 Trip our to-do list and lesson plans. Thinking that something, that probably some of you have heard before. I have even heard plc's. Don't work for our school. Try that one on for size. Plc's don't work for our school. I have also heard, we don't have common planning times so we can't do or have plc's. Okay. And then and then what about this one? Who's going to present at our next PLC? Listen?

13:14 Again, I say now, there are more comments. If there are other comments that you have heard that, I have not listed. Let's put them in the comment section in the comment bar. But again I say we've made the term PLC another, buzzword that is coming up empty and wine production. Primarily because, and you set it in the comments, already PLC is not something you do. Let me say that again. But hashtag amen. If you agree with me PLC is not something that we do, okay, a professional Learning Community is something that we are.

14:02 It is more Global than what we give it credit for. It cannot and should not be confined to each. It team in your organization as a weekly thing that we do for the sake of tradition. Okay, so now that we've come around like this hard truth, that PLC is not something that we do. It is something that we are, what is it that? I'm telling you to say no, to because this is my challenge to you, I am truly, not telling you to say no, What's a PLC is, I am not hear me out.

14:47 I'm not telling you to say, or telling you to steer clear of professional learning communities. Obviously, we know the impact that a highly effective professional Learning Community, can have not just on students, but on the culture of your school, it can become the thing that allows us to Envision Collaborative, Learning communities, where people are eager and inspired to come to work each day. Day. But I do want to challenge you to say no to some things, okay? And we're going to go through the things that I want to challenge. You to say no to if those things that I stated earlier are things that you're familiar with, right? Like if you're a right there with me and thinking, oh my gosh, yes I'm hearing.

15:34 People say we have PLC or we do plc's every other week, then I have some challenges for you, some things that you definitely could say. To. So, I'm going to tell you three things that you can say no to the first thing that I'm encouraging you to say, no to when it comes to professional learning communities, is this say no to jumping in to plc's without laying the foundation. Okay, let me say that one more time and I'm going to add it to the screen. Say, no.

16:14 To jumping in to plc's. Without first, laying the foundation deciding that you're going to implement professional learning communities, which I highly recommend. It requires the whole organization to do a very clear self-audit to gauge. What is your current reality? Okay? So if we're doing the self odd, self-audit, to gauge our current reality, Ality. I mean that sounds great. When you say it out loud but I think sometimes it takes it's hard to decide. Well. What exactly do we do or what? Exactly do we ask to gauge our current reality because you may have one perspective of the current reality but we really need to know the perspective of everyone in your organization, if you were going to start laying a foundation for strong PLC. So here's what you might ask.

17:13 You and your people might ask, what is the current culture? Right, when and how do our people, our colleagues currently collaborate? How do they currently right now, collaborate? What does that look like and sound like? And what does it feel like you might ask? What is everyone's understanding about collaboration? Now let me say this so far, you've probably noticed these questions have very little to do with the term, professional Learning Community, very little to do what they do. Have a lot to do with is collaboration because what kind of foundation do you need to have? Or at least start building before? People can have highly effective professional learning communities.

18:06 They have to have a foundation to be able to collaborate, but we have To understand what that looks like. Feels like an sounds like to everyone in the organization. I have a whole separate podcast about folk collaboration that I will put in the comments. After this, tonight's episode, it tells all about how we can't make the assumption that we're two or more people are gathered. That collaboration is happening. It goes so much deeper than that. Okay, so what is their understanding about collaboration? Currently are Are there common philosophies or pedagogies that exist?

18:49 What has happened in the past? In this organization think about how often teams or schools will want to jump into plc's specifically. If they have new leadership, the want to jump into the work of plc's and say, hey, we should start plc's on this campus, but they haven't thought about what's happened in the past in that organization, and that is so important. You might ask how do people feel about learning as professionals? Because let me tell you, there are varied feelings about professional learning within even the education profession, especially among adults.

19:30 What does learning mean to them? Or what is professional learning mean to them? And this is a, this is one that does have to do with plc's, what are people's responses when you ask about plc's, okay? So the questions really could go on but the idea is, That you are gauging the current reality taking a self audit and deciding. Are we ready to do the work of a professional learning community? So often teams are asked to jump into working within plc's sometimes with training and more often without adequate training and and I'm left thinking where is the foundation that needs to exist before trying to To create a highly effective life-giving PLC that benefits students. Okay?

20:27 So one thing that I'm telling you to say no to is jumping into plc's without laying a foundation, okay? Put a hashtag? Yes, in the comments to let me know that you're with me that you see this happening that people jump into the work without building a foundation. Ian for the work. Okay, so here's the next thing that I'm going to say. We need to be saying no, to okay, are you ready? And each one of these gets a little bit tougher to chew on Stop or say no to calling these collaborative times plc's without having a common definition or understanding of their purpose.

21:21 Let me say that one more time. Say no, in 02 calling any of those collaborative times plc's without having a collective definition or understanding of their purpose. Okay. I'm betting. If you were to server survey your people about the term. PLC your surveys would show a wide variety of Ting about this term and I would encourage you to send out that survey including things, like, what is PLC stand for.

22:02 And I'm telling you what, unless you are School, regularly uses that terminology, your people may still think that it stands for a professional literacy committee or they might even think maybe it stands for a pointless Lane committee, right? Or any other thing other than professional Learning Community, you may even survey and ask them. What is the purpose of plc's? Do your people know the purpose? Have you spent time digging into a true purpose for plc's?

22:43 And then I would even ask them. What do you believe is the working definition for PLC and see what comes to the surface? Or what might we notice about a highly effective PLC because one team may have one idea of a highly effective PLC, while another team has a totally different idea. And even the people within, those teams can have different ideas, I'll give you an example and I'm sure that this will be sound familiar to you. You but in surveying a grade level team this year about plc's one PLC team said that they were highly effective because they got along so well, they got along so well and they completed their plans every planning meeting. There's a couple of things wrong with that. There's a couple of things wrong with those statements, especially in regards to professional learning communities.

23:43 Number one, you're calling it a planning meeting. What are you learning about? What are you learning about? Is professionals within this community? What is the problem of practice that you are discussing and coming around together to solve? The second thing is they said, we all get along that wonderful, I love that you come together and you don't have a lot of issues or backlash or, you know, there's not a whole lot of trepidation when you're coming to these meetings, but in a professional Learning Community, we should be able to have crucial conversations.

24:27 And that in turn, leave us feeling invigorated and allow us to do what is best for students, okay? So let me just say too often. We jump into calling these Collective work times plc's. This is part of laying the foundation. If your people do not have a collective definition and understanding of the language that you're using, then of course, The term PLC is going to come up empty, right? So I just wonder why do we hold on to labeling these meetings and these groups as plc's if you know. That's not truly what they are.

25:19 Why do we hold on to it? Okay. This leads me to my third thing that I'm going to encourage you to say no to. This is going to be a hard one. It's gonna be a hard one to, to chew on. Like I said earlier, it's gonna be hard. The third thing that I am going to encourage you to say no to Is. Saying no to the status quo, okay? Say no to stagnancy and say no to PLC interactions. That leave a bad taste in people's mouths. Now that might not sound like a lot. That's something hard to chew on, but this is where I'm really telling you it.

26:09 You might need to say no to plc's specifically, you might need to say no. Calling them plc's now is it 100% okay for plc's to look and function differently from one group of professionals to another absolutely they should because guess what? Every time you come together with a professional Learning Community you were talking about possibly a different problem of practice your needs and wants ships, your students shift. So of course, Course, each of them may function differently. It is 100% not okay, to continue one lackluster PLC after another all that is happening.

27:07 When we choose to just plow forward and hope that things get better is that we are allowing one. One negative experience after another for the people that are joining instead of creating Mastery experiences, we are creating negative experiences. No wonder PLC is coming up, empty, can I get a hashtag? Amen. In the comments? What are we doing differently? That's allowing our people to see that PLC has a different connotation that than what we've been bringing to the table.

27:51 Okay, now here's what else I'm going to add to that if we want to say no to the status quo and we want to say no to stagnancy and these lackluster plc's again and again then sometimes it could mean that we have to say no. No to putting programs protocols and procedures in place. Expecting that. These will finally make the difference in plc's. That's a hard pill to swallow because there is so much great stuff out there. That is meant to support plc's things that I highly recommend to anyone. I mean, I'm talking about solution tree, Owls, Corwin's, PLC plus books.

28:42 So I'm people like Sherry st. Clair who talks about the groundwork before getting into plc's, and all of the books on Collective efficacy. All of those really are meant to help you have, high-functioning plc's, or professional learning communities. But they are not tools of magic. They don't just magically you don't just magically see a PLC come to life when you put programs protocols and procedures in place. So what I'm asking you to do is to say no to that even if that means that you have to start from ground zero and say, you know what, instead of calling this This at PLC, what if we called it what it is right now and for some of you that might be a planning meeting for some of you. It could be you know we have some collaborative work times but we're not quite to the level that we need to be to start calling it a PLC because our people don't have a common understanding around this term.

30:01 So here are the three things. Things that I told you, you might need to say no, to, if you're noticing that, that term PLC is coming up. Empty say, no to jumping into plc's without first, laying a foundation. That's number one. Number two, say no, to calling them plc's without a common definition, or common understanding of their purpose. Number 3, Say no to the status quo and stagnancy say no to having luck. Last repeal lackluster. Plc's again and again, just hoping for something to be different, okay?

30:49 So I want to know in the comments, number one, number two, number three, which of those truths, or which of those things that I'm telling you, you might want to say no to really resonates with you, put that in the Now here's my call to action for you. If you are finding yourself here in this place where you've got the lackluster plc's or maybe they're not lackluster but you know, people don't have a common understanding or definition or, you know, like hey, we could be practicing our collaborative times in a different way to build the groundwork. For plc's. If you're finding yourself there, you may need to reset plc's. He's or you might need to start from scratch and that is okay. It is completely okay to be in that place. But it's also important that you recognize that you're in. That place you recognize with your people that you were in that place and you make decisions about what to do next so that you don't continue those painful plc's, okay? But listen, now, right now in this season that we're in, Is the time to get started.

32:07 Okay? It is the time to start thinking about how to reset, or how are you going to start from scratch so that you can get your feet to the ground between now and next year? And for some of you, you may be thinking, well we don't have plc's at all. So we're really starting from scratch. That's great. You need to begin thinking about what can be done. Done between now and like next to the beginning of next year. But also what are the what are the critical moves that are going to need to Plate? Take place so that your teams are ready to have awesome. Plc's you need to be thinking, what needs to be in place.

32:51 Now that's going to allow your people Mastery experiences instead of negative experiences because we want them wanting more of Still learning communities, right? Like we want them wanting more experiences with professional learning communities. So I'm going to tell you that, I refuse to use the term plc's with teams and groups who have not done the foundational work that keeps us from the misunderstanding, or misuse of the term PLC. And I believe others. Should too.

33:34 Like, I believe other people should refuse to use certain terms unless people have a common understanding of it, and a common vision and goals in mind. So, I have created a completely free. Share Cast to help us, start thinking about how to reset plc's, or simply start from scratch. So what I'm going to do and we're about to wrap up tonight. So I want to know in the comments. What was most useful for you here tonight? But what I'm going to do is share my screen with you. So you know exactly how to get to this free Share Cast where we talked about resetting PLC. So while I'm doing that, be sure you put in the comments, what has been most useful for you tonight. All right, so you should be seeing my screen. I hope you are but this screen takes you directly to my website.

34:29 You can go to catching up with kc.com PLC reset. And this tells you what this Marco Polo Share Cast is all about. It's for tips for resetting, plc's or starting from scratch. And I'm telling you, you can't push pause to set your, repeat your plc's. You can start plc's from scratch and make them meaningful. It gives you all of the information where you can register for this PLC reset Share Cast. It includes a brief little workbook just for you to take notes and What I'm asking you to do is say no to these three things that talk to you about tonight.

35:09 You're going to learn about casting Vision, scripting critical Moves In This Marco Polo Share Cast, you're going to learn about listening tours and feedback. Meetings to start building the groundwork. You are going to learn about crafting Collective definitions and a purpose for plc's. And you're also going to learn about rehearsal strategies for collaboration all of the things that need to be in place. Place in order for your people to have life-giving plc's. Instead of saying, look, I have to go to a PLC or I have to do plc's and I use the do in quotation marks. So you when you register for this you're going to have access to for go at your pace, professional learning video sessions relevant, resources, tools and strategies. And like I said that brief workbooks. So I'm going to stop sharing that. Hopefully, you guys can see me now. And let's see what you're saying in the comments. So I'm seeing Michelle saying remembering it's totally okay for teams to be all in different places because they are but we have to ensure the foundation is there. Someone else said it is okay to reset plc's. Someone else said we have a new principal beginning, April 17th. Wow, so that will be an automatic reset and That can be a beautiful, beautiful thing, right? It can be a beautiful thing.

36:39 So I have shown you where you can find this PLC reset Share Cast. I'm going to put it up on the screen and I know tonight's episode was a little bit, maybe I don't have it. If someone could go ahead and put in the comments bit.ly slash PLC reset and that oh, there I found it. I found it. On my screen, okay? Bit.ly slash PLC reset, it'll take you to that website page and you can register and start learning about some ways to build the foundation to have effective, plc's? Okay, tonight was a little bit of a shorter episode, but I shared some things that I have been heavy on my heart that I feel like you should say no to when it comes to plc's so that you can have awesome.

37:33 Plc's, okay, until next time I will see you guys later. Bye. I want to give a big thank you to you guys for tuning in and I would love for you to do me two solid favors number one. If you've enjoyed this or any other shows, please hit subscribe. I've got a lot of great, gas and content coming up. And I don't want you to miss any of it too, if you know, of someone who may be interested in building, He severe Vision driven teams that collaborate well, share this show with them. And until next time, I want you to go off and have the great collaborative conversations that help you and the people you work with to completely Unleash Your impact.

38:22 See you later.