TASA recently talked with Keara Mascareñaz, a Thought Leaders and co-author of the book The New Team Habits, about how to produce lasting change in school bureaucracies. Keara is also a managing partner at Education Elements, where she's helped more than 1,000 school and district teams improve their culture and capacity, including dozens of teams across Texas.
Keara is speaking on Tuesday January 28 from 9-10 AM in Ballroom F
Here's an excerpt of the interaction:
TASA: You will be speaking at the TASA MidWinter conference, can you give us a preview of your session, who should come, and why?
Mascareñaz: I’m thrilled to be speaking at TASA Midwinter. My session will focus on how to improve the way your teams’ work in order to achieve your goals. The lessons I’ll share for improving your teams’ meetings, projects, and learning are based in my research and work with some of the most effective and innovative organizations across the U.S. If you’re a leader looking to lead more effective teams and change your habits for work this will be a valuable session for you.
TASA: In your work across TX, what patterns are you seeing across districts?
Mascareñaz: We are so lucky to partner with more than a dozen districts in Texas, from small rural districts like Atlanta ISD to large urban districts like Dallas ISD. Through our shared projects I’ve observed how incredibly hard district and school leaders in Texas work to do what’s right for their students. In all of this work, we’ve noticed that changing the way work is done -- they way leaders lead and the way teams work together -- is essential to making lasting change. And so, every project we work on includes practices on how to plan for change, not perfection; how to build trust and belonging on teams; how to rethink roles to focus on people not titles; how to build better systems for decision making; how to communicate effectively.
TASA: How are some district leaders building on these strengths and addressing challenges?
Mascareñaz: Many of the districts we work with are making organizational change starting at the individual and team level. Individuals in positions of influence are investing in the change and modeling the behaviors they want to see spread. At the same time, one or two teams are serving as the testing ground for culture change and as proof points that making a shift is worth the effort and investment. For example, one district in central Texas wanted to change the culture in their schools and create an innovative, shared leadership model. Instead of asking all schools to change we started with a team of district leaders and worked with them to make shifts in the admin council. That way, when principals went to their schools and said - “I’d like to rethink the way we run our staff meetings” or “I’d like to reimagine how we structure roles at our school,” they could speak from the positive experiences they had making these changes to their own admin team. Changing a habit or culture requires an investment of time, there is no getting around it. But we try to ensure that this investment pays off as soon as possible. If we take three hours to help leaders learn about new practices for creating more belonging and inclusion in meetings, we want to ensure that they leave that session with a concrete plan to apply these practices right away. And we want to create space for them to check in and share with each other what’s working and what’s not. If leaders don’t experience the benefit of investing in a new practice, we know that practice will not last amidst the hundreds of other priorities on their plates.
TASA: What books and articles are you reading right now?
Mascareñaz: I’m really loving Amy Edmondson’s book The Fearless Organization - a lot of the work I do is based on her research around psychological safety and its impact on team performance. I’m also really enjoying Simon Sinek’s new book The Infinite Game and the work culture blog The Liberationist by Gustavo Razzetti. Anthony Kim and Alexis Gonzales-Black’s book The New School Rules offers a great mix of inspiration and practical application for leaders wanting to rethink the way work happens in their organization. Aaron Dignan’s new book Brave New Work zooms out and shares some really compelling reasons for why our ways of working need to change across all sectors. And Charles Duhiggs’ book The Power of Habit offers a great framework for thinking about how to change your individual habits, personally and professionally.
Join Education Elements at one of their sessions highlighting the innovative work with leading Texas districts.
After a full day of learning, join Education Elements at 5:30-7:30 PM to unwind and debrief with colleagues over drinks and light appetizers.
Start your morning off right with a walk or jog on the scenic Lady Bird Trail along the river. The Education Elements team will meet at 6:30 AM at the trailhead at Congress Ave and Cesar Chavez (28 Congress Ave). All levels are welcome!
If you would like to connect outside of these times, feel free to email keara@edelements.com to set up a time to meet, or to fill out the form on the right.
Education Elements works with districts to build and support dynamic school systems that meet the needs of every learner, today and tomorrow. We take the time to understand the unique challenges school leaders face, and then customize the Education Elements approach for each district. We have worked with more than 950 schools and 200 districts across the country. We bring deep expertise, design thinking, expert facilitation and the spirit of collaboration, along with our extensive toolkit of resources and technology, to deliver sustainable results.
Join the diverse and vibrant community of innovative district and school leaders, student-centered learning practitioners, design thinkers, researchers, philanthropists, and change-makers, all dedicated to transforming education, for 2+ days of professional development and networking, at the Hilton, Austin, May 13-15, 2020
If you would like to connect outside of these times, feel free to email keara@edelements.com to set up a time to meet, or to fill out the form on the right.
