Tools for Teams

Building Collaborative Teams:

Checklist for Team Start-Up -  

Collaborative Strategies for Teams - PLC practioner Tim Brown offers specific strategies and processes for building collaboborative teams.

 

Creating Staff Buy-In:

Generating Buy-in for School Change - article by Cathy Owens, Director of Educational Partnerships for TeachFirst, Inc.

 

Decision-Making Strategies:

Quality teams make decisions using a process called Consensus Decision-Making. Consensus Decision-Making is important to maintain an effective team.

Important Note: Do not confuse Decision-Making with Problem-Solving.

  • Decision-Making strategies are used in the Problem-Solving process but are not the same as the logical stepwise progression necessary for effective Problem-Solving.
  • Decision-Making strategies involve the interpersonal skills used for a group to reach a decision. Some Decision-Making strategies involve only one or a few persons in a somewhat unilateral mode while others involve the entire team through discussion.

Decision-Making Models article by Judith Stein describes different methods for using consensus decision-making to increase team effectiveness.

Comparison Chart of Decision-Making Models compares advantages and disadvantages of methods