Professional development, learning opportunities, training—whatever the name is, it is designed to keep your school and your school community moving forward. For your administrators, your faculty, and your staff, attending workshops and seminars provides professional and personal growth, the opportunity to network with their private-independent school peers, and hopefully fresh ideas and perspectives that will enrich your students’ experience. And, of course, professional development should help strengthen your school’s viability overall.
Imagine the impact of new learning when you have a team, rather than an individual, attend a workshop, seminar, academy, or other opportunity.
“I wish my (Head, Division Head, Business Manager, etc.) could hear this’ is what I frequently hear from individual attendees at my workshops,” said Chip Snowden, ISM Senior Consultant and Director of Management Institutes. Chip, who has led ISM workshops for 20 years, noted that those who attend with others from their school, benefit from expanded learning when the team members compare notes and discuss what they learned.
Former NBA player Walter Bond told a group at the 2011 Iowa Farm Bureau annual meeting that it takes more than superstars to make a successful team. They need other players, coaches, support staff, and others to be able to fully use their talents. Indeed, it takes a team, and all of the team members in the organization need to excel at what they do to provide the best experience for their customers. For schools, the customers are the students and their families. That means, that everyone needs to be on the same page. (The Bond story appeared in See You There from Iowa State University.)
Unless a training class is grounded in very specific skills, such as bookkeeping, “a single individual returning to her or his school will be placed unavoidably in the position of attempting to be the Great Salesperson, even if the person is the Head of School,” says ISM Executive Consultant M. Walker Buckalew. “An individual returning from a workshop will always face difficulties trying to recreate the context, and thus the meaning, of the training experience.”
On the other hand, a group of people returning to a school carries inherent credibility. A group presentation on the training outcomes will be taken with a seriousness that an individual presentation cannot match, says Walker.
Steve Helmich, President of Cathedral High School (IN), had two new members of a three-person advancement team. He saw that sending all three, as well as himself, to the ISM Advancement Academy together “might be the perfect opportunity for this newly formed team to spend time together, learn best practices, and develop a new strategy to advance the school and its mission that would be much more collaborative in nature.”
He said that it has proven to be an excellent decision. “We were able to spend quality time together that would not have happened if we were on campus, doing our ‘everyday jobs,’” said Helmich. “The opportunity to align our individual work plans into an overarching strategy has greatly accelerated our efforts to build a strong team and strategy for the school.”
There is power in numbers. As you make professional development plans for your administrators, staff, and yourself, consider the nature of the opportunity and what the attendees will gain. Ask yourself if it would make sense for a group to attend together, or is the content so specific that one individual would not have to “sell it” when he or she returned? The bottom line is what will ultimately be the best return on your investment.
Additional ISM resources of interest
ISM Monthly Update for Human Resources Vol. 9 No. 7 Remembering Your Own Renewal and Development
ISM Podcast 3 Dimensions of Meaningful Professional Development
Additional resources for ISM Consortium Gold Members
To The Point Vol. 13 No. 5 Professional Development: The Best Place to Invest
Ideas & Perspectives Vol. 34 No. 10 Professional Development During Hard Economic Times
Ideas & Perspectives Vol. 27 No. 15 Professional Development During Hard Economic Times Maximizes Your Return on Investment: “Market” Your Commitment to Professional Development
