Before you reach through your screen and punch me in the face, hear me out for a second. Let’s do some simple math.

There are roughly eight months left this school year. Many of the teacher/administration leadership teams we work with meet monthly for an hour. If we take that data, here’s what you’re looking at:

8 more meetings this year.

480 total minutes of meeting time.

Assuming that 30-40 minutes of many of these meetings skew toward “sit and get” administrative tasks and agenda items, that leaves you a whopping 2 hours and 40 minutes of scheduled time between now and May for collaboration, problem solving, ideation, and community building with faculty leaders.

2 hours and 40 minutes.

What we’re finding with school leadership teams with which we’re working is that once the meetings are well run, faculty focused, and collaborative, educators opt into meeting MORE not LESS.

Please note however: the act of professional generosity of increasing meeting time hinges on the mechanics of the purpose of the team itself. When school leadership team meetings are exceptionally executed with a profound focus on teacher voice and input, there is vast enthusiasm to meet more regularly to make things better for everyone.

That’s why the last six months of our work has focused squarely on “team development boot camps” where we go deeply and quickly in moving teams from being “pretty good” to being “totally spot on” as rapidly as possible. The reduction in administrative stress, faculty confusion, and general ennui has been amazing to witness.

From a strictly clinical level, I just can’t overstate the importance of this work enough. It’s a complete lifeline and can change the experience you’re having quickly and in ways you maybe can’t even imagine. Maybe all the way to the point you enthusiastically schedule more meetings.

Want to think more about this? Email me at nathan@eklundconsulting.com and let’s put our heads together.