It was an unusual way to begin our leadership-team retreat. District leaders and principals were quickly divided into groups of five when they walked into the room. They were asked to select a team leader, pick out a large gift-wrapped box, and find a fairly large work spot in our high school library.

Each work location had various tools, but no two work stations had the same ones. The teams were told they could not talk to each other from this point forward, even though they were in the same room.

Groups were asked to unwrap their large box. Within the box, they discovered the parts of and directions for assembling a brand-new bike—without talking. The designated group leaders moved their groups forward by using hand and face gestures to communicate.

Only a few minutes into the exercise, frustration was expressed as the teams realized their group alone did not have all the tools necessary for building the bike. At that point, our district leadership team told the groups they could talk for one minute with all the others in the room, and they were allowed to reflect first on what they would want to ask within that minute.

Group leaders were allowed to meet together and ask one question each. At that moment, each group leader realized that within their directions and tools, they had a piece of the puzzle that everyone else needed.

What happens when an individual lacks the tool?

What the bicycle experience illustrates is that leaders and their schools can accomplish a lot more—and do it better—if their teams work in tandem than if they work alone.

That message became clearer when the facilitators gradually opened up communication within groups as well as between groups, enabling them to share tools and support each other in building a half-dozen brand-new bicycles. With each step, excitement built across the library as success toward the collective goal was becoming shared by all.

During debriefing of the “bicycle experience,” teams shared:

• They initially felt frustrated that they were not allowed to talk.
• They appreciated their team leader’s ability to share key information with them.
• They knew they needed certain tools but were not allowed to reach out for help with others in the room except for their team leader, who had that option.
• It felt good when they were able to communicate with each other.
• It felt even better when they were able to talk with other groups about their needs as well as what the facilitators could do to support their needs.
• Attitudes shifted during this process. They not only wanted their team to be successful in building the bicycle, they wanted other teams to be successful, too.

Later in the day, members of the district’s schools foundation, service clubs, and chamber of commerce visited and inspected the bikes. Those organizations had paid for the bicycles, which were going to be given to needy students in the local school system.

In a second debriefing, our leadership team shifted the question to how the bicycle experience could relate to the leadership work in the school system. Here are examples of what the workshop participants said:

• How does the way we work with colleagues ultimately impact students?
• School staff should not work in silos. We need each other.
• Communication is key in sharing resources in supporting the entire system for students.
• We need to build a system of schools, not a school system of silos.
• As leaders, we have a responsibility to model working with each other for our students, staff, and community to see.

What does joint work look like in schools?

According to Judith Warren Little in her article “The Persistence of Privacy: Autonomy and Initiative in Teachers’ Professional Relations,” “Leaders must intentionally foster joint work.” She states we must shift from a state of independence to one of interdependence. “To get a practical grasp of ‘interdependence,’ we might call to mind some examples of complex work that cannot be accomplished by even the most knowledgeable individuals acting alone. Without an appropriately configured team, brain surgery is inconceivable. So is a symphony performance.”

When it comes to the principal, too often, joint work puts them in a position of setting up the opportunity but rarely incorporates how principals should be a part of that opportunity. We draw upon the work of Viviane Robinson to guide us when it comes to joint work that includes the principal as an active participant. Robinson et al. has researched five dimensions of school leadership. Those five dimensions, along with their effect sizes are promoting & participating in teacher learning and development, planning, coordinating, evaluating teaching & the curriculum, establishing goals & expectations, strategic resourcing and ensuring an orderly & supportive environment.

Robinson (2017) says,

Leaders make an impact by setting goals on the basis of the curriculum, community priorities, and evidence about student learning needs (Dimension 1). They then allocate materials, money, and staffing to the pursuit of those goals (Dimension 2). As leaders ensure quality teaching by supporting and evaluating the quality of the curriculum and teaching (Dimension 3), they learn more about what they and their staff need to learn in order to achieve their priority goals. Leaders can then make a considerable impact by leading the teacher learning and development required for goal achievement (Dimension 4). The effects of Dimensions 1-4, however, are unlikely to occur without sufficient attention to Dimension 5-Creating an Orderly and Supportive Environment.

We see Robinson’s work as a way to support the work we do around collective leader efficacy, which is a school or district leadership team’s ability to develop a shared understanding and engage in joint work that includes evaluating the impact they have on the learning of adults and students in a school. Collective leader efficacy is about teachers and leaders working together.

In the End

Although our leadership retreat took place many years ago, the activity requiring each team to put together a bike, and the lessons they learned during the exercise, is still something those who participated talk about to this day. The reality is that exercise mirrors what many leaders and their teams go through. We need not look any further back than COVID to understand that leaders and teachers in schools needed to work together regardless of whether they had the necessary tools or the information to do so.

Joint work is not just about teachers, because for too long, teachers and leaders are seen as working in isolation from one another, when in reality, there is no better way forward than working together in interconnected ways.