Building Distributed Leadership in the Archdiocese of PhiladelphiaModule: Developing Evidence-Based and Shared Decision Making

With the assistance of James P. Spillane, Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Professor in Learning and Organizational Change, and the Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy.

Building Distributed Leadership in the Philadelphia School DistrictModule: Developing Evidence-Based and Shared Decision Making

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Module: Developing Evidence-Based and Shared Decision Making

The ideas, graphics and material presented have been prepared with the guidance of Jonathan Supovitz, Associate Professor, Penn GSE and John DeFlaminis, Executive Director, Penn Center for Educational Leadership, University of Pennsylvania. Duplication and distribution of this presentation is prohibited without express consent.

John DeFlaminis

Jonathan Supovitz

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Objectives

We will work together as a team to:

• Explore the skills necessary to understand and influence the mental models that impact our thinking about decisions.

• Determine what contributes to decisions and the role of data in that process.

• Use data to improve the quality and acceptance of your teams decisions.

• Understand the dimensions of effective decisions and the key elements of quality and acceptance.

• Explore models that can help the distributed leadership team to understand when and how to involve others in shared decision making.

• Practice application of objectives 1 to 5 with successful and unsuccessful decisions made by the distributed leadership teams themselves.

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Agenda

Lesson 1: Assumptions Underlying Decisions

• Understanding how people make sense of the world • Understanding and influencing mental models • Application to real decision issues

Lesson 2: The Dimensions of Shared and Effective Decisions• Shared and effective decision making• The context of effective decisions• Application to real decision issues

-Break-

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Agenda (Continued)

Lesson 3: When and How to Involve Others in Decisions• Key factors in making effective decisions• Effective decisions and decision styles• Models of decision making and participation• Decision attributes and degrees of participation• The decision time line• Application to real decision issues

Lesson 4: Evidence-based Decision Making• The rational model of decision making and why the world

doesn’t work that way• The appropriate role of evidence in decision making• Application to real decision issues

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Session Protocol

In order to make today’s session beneficial to all participants, please:

• Respect your colleagues and your team.• Shut down your laptop computers.• Turn off your cell phones, pagers, Blackberries, and

any other means of external communication.• Contribute to your team and the class as a whole.• Ask questions when you need to.

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Lesson 1: Assumptions Underlying Decisions

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Sense Making and Mental Models:How People Understand Problems

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Sense Making

Sense making is:

1. A theory of how people understand the world around them.

2. Grounded in identity construction.

3. Retrospective.

4. A social process.

5. Ongoing.

6. Pragmatic.

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What are Mental Models?

Mental Models:

• Are deeply held internal images of how the world works that limit us to familiar ways of thinking and acting.

• Shape what we see and how we act.

• Two people with different mental models can observe the same event and describe it differently because they’ve noticed different details.

~ Senge, 1992

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What are Mental Models? (Continued)

• People are generally unaware of their mental models.

• Individual mental models are different than group mental models.

• The discipline of managing mental models – surfacing, testing, improving our internal pictures – promises to be a major breakthrough for building learning organizations.

~ Senge, 1992

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Skills to Understand and Influence Mental ModelsSkills of reflection

• Slowing down our thinking processes so that we can become more aware of how we form our mental models and the ways that they influence our actions.

Skills of inquiry• How we operate in face-to-face interactions with others,

especially in dealing with complex issues that could lead to conflict.

• Recognizing leaps of generalization without testing them.• Balancing inquiry and advocacy—changes goal from

winning to finding the best argument.• Recognizing the gaps between espoused theories and

theories in use.

Group Discussion

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Application

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Lesson 2: The Dimensions of Shared and Effective Decisions

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What is Shared Decision Making?

Shared Decision Making is a process in which a variety of members of the school community collaborate, where appropriate, in identifying problems, defining goals, formulating policy, shaping direction, and ensuring implementation of decisions. People who are responsible for in the implementation of a decision at the building or unit level are actively and legitimately involved in making the decision.

Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development

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The Essential Characteristics of Shared Decision Making

Shared Decision Making, adapted from ASCD

Collaboration

Shared decision making requires the presence of a high degree of collaboration.

Trust People will trust each other and will feel as if all the information is available to them.

Responsibility/Ownership

With shared decision making, people accept responsibility and ownership for their actions, rather than blaming or finding fault.

Change People accept change as a natural part of the growth process and continuously seek ways of improving both themselves and the organization.

Evolutionary Those engaged in shared decision making recognize that the process is evolutionary rather than revolutionary.

Input from All

Shared decision making requires input from all affected stakeholders.

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Why Shared Decision-Making

1. Utilize expertise of those included in the process2. Increases input into decisions3. Improve morale of those involved4. Focuses accountability for decisions5. Develops new leaders6. Increase quality and quantity of comments7. Changes roles and responsibilities8. Builds trust9. Others?

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Shared Decision Making

Shared leadership and decision making that involves the active support of formal and informal school leaders is known to be a key facilitating factor in school improvement initiatives.

~ Bryk, Canburn & Louis, 1999; Lambert, 1998; Marks & Louis, 1999

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Shared Decision Making (Continued)

Assuming that increased involvement from teachers improves schools (Murphy, 1991), “practices such as collaboration, distributed leadership, and participatory decision making can dramatically alter the way educators view leadership.”

~ Doyle, 2004

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Shared Decision Making (Continued)

Robertson, Wohlstetter, and Mohrman (1995) found that shared decision making with broad teacher buy-in, a crucial ingredient for reform, occurs more readily in schools with strong relational trust. The more administrators share decision making, the more instructional innovation increases.

~ Bryk & Schneider, 2003

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Shared Decision-Making Requires Some Shifts

FromPrincipal ControlRole CenteredMore authoritativeCentered ResponsibilityControl centered

ToTeam Control Relationship CenteredMore CollaborativeSchool ResponsibilityTeamwork

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Making Effective Decisions

To make effective decisions, you must:• Understand the context of the

decision• Determine who should be involved• Decide how to decide

~ Scholtes, Joiner & Streibel, 2003

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What’s the Context?

• Clarify the decision: Does everyone have the same understanding of what’s being decided?

• Understand deadlines

• Learn how the decision affects the path for the team’s work

• Gather relevant information about other decisions related to this one

~ Scholtes, Joiner & Streibel, 2003

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Sense Making

Organizational psychologist Karl Weick coined the term to mean “making sense of the world around us”. That is an act of analysis and creativity made more meaningful by involving others and their different perspectives. It also functions to build teams and relationships.

(Ancone, Malone, Orlikowski and Senge, 2007)

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Who should be involved?

• Who has the authority to make the decision?

• Who is ultimately responsible for the results?

• Who is critically affected—now and in the future?

• Who has vital information?

Don’t confuse involvement with responsibility for making

the decision!

Group Discussion

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How should we decide?

Consider:

• Time: Is there a time crunch?

• Trust: Do the people affected by the decision trust one another?

• Teamwork: Do you want to develop a higher level of teamwork with this decision?

• Importance: Is the decision critical to the team and/or organization?

• Acceptance: Is it important to generate high acceptance of the decision?

~ Jones & Bearley

Brainstorming Activity

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Effective Decisions Application

Think about some successful and unsuccessful decisions that you sent us from your school.

Can you talk about some of the considerations that you gave when you were making the decisions?

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Lesson 3: When and How to Involve Others in Decisions

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Key Factors in Making Effective Decisions

The two most important factors in building trust and determining the decision style that produce the most effective decisions are:

• Quality • Acceptance

Vroom and Yetton’s model (Handout p. 10) adds the additional dimensions of:

• Shared goals • Conflict possibility

~ Maier, 1962; Bridges, 1967; Vroom & Yetton, 1973

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Norman R.F. Maier

Low Concern

High Concern

Acceptance dimension

Quality dimension

High Concern

Appropriate for group decisions

Require a skilled discussion leader

Solved by flipping a coin or by laissez faire methods

Decided by experts or leaders

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Key Factors in Making Effective Decisions

(consistent with definitions of Maier; Vroom and Yetton)

Quality (Q) The importance of quality, i.e., one solution is likely to be more rational than another.

The extent to which the leaders possess sufficient information/expertise to make high-quality decisions by him/herself.

Acceptance (A) The extent to which acceptance or commitment on the part of subordinates is crucial to the effective implementation of the decision.

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Effective Decisions and Decision Styles

Problem Type Decision Style

A/QAcceptance of the decision is more important than its quality.

ConsensusThe decision is a group decision evolving from shared information and ideas.

Q/AQuality of the decision is more important than its acceptance.

CommandThe decision is made by the superior, utilizing available information, independently of others.

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Effective Decisions and Decision Styles

Problem Type Decision Style

QAThe quality and acceptance of the decision are both unimportant.

ConvenienceThe decision results from the easiest method at hand.

QAThe quality and acceptance of the decision are equally important.

Group Consultation /DecisionThe decision is made by the superior, utilizing subordinate opinion, either in a group context or individually.

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Styles of Managing Participation in Decision Making

Group Consultation/Decision with Leader: Talking with individuals and/or the entire work group and then making the decision yourself.

Benefits: • The ability to gather information to make a

high-quality decision• Maintaining efficiency in the decision

making process• Only people with relevant information

participate• They give information, not advice• You make the decision yourself

It is vital to make the rules clear. They give information, not advice, and you make the decision.

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Styles of Managing Participation in Decision Making

Command: Making the decision yourself without prior discussions with subordinates.

Benefits: • Is quick• Capitalizes on the manager’s being

informed• The responsibility for the decision is clear• Often generates respect for you as leader

It often generates respect for you as a leader.

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Styles of Managing Participation in Decision Making

Consensus/Group Alone: Getting the group together and working toward substantial agreement.

Benefits: • Generates high acceptance of the decision• Can produce synergistic problem solutions

and plans• Has the effect of increasing teamwork

Unanimity often is not achieved, so the rule is to reach a level of agreement without serious disagreement.

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Styles of Managing Participation in Decision Making

Convenience: Making the decision in whatever manner seems to be the easiest. That may be through delegation, asking for volunteers, or appointing someone to make the decision. You ensure that no one makes a “federal case” over how the decision is made.

Benefits: • Avoids time-consuming participation• Can often be seen as a reward by persons

selected to make decisions

Typically good for relatively unimportant decisions, such as where to place the water cooler

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Overview of Decision Attributes

• Common decision attributes: • Quality• Acceptance (Maier and Vroom and Yetton).

• Vroom and Yetton’s model includes additional attributes:

• Shared goals• Conflict possibility

• These emerged from the literature as relevant and decision-impacting factors. See page 35 of Participant Guide for Overview of Decision Attributes.

Written Exercise

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Degree of Participation Offered by Two Approaches

Maier, and Vroom and Yetton offer two approaches with different degrees of participation (see Participant Guide).

Maier offers leader alone and group decisions while Vroom and Yetton also include consulting options.

Why do you believe that there are differences?

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Normative Leadership ModelDifferent Degrees of Participation Possible

• (AI) Manager makes the decision alone.

• (AII) Manager asks for information from subordinates but makes the decision alone. Subordinates may or may not be informed about what the problem is.

• (CI) Manager shares the problem with subordinates and asks for information and evaluations from them. Meetings take place as dyads, not as a group, and the manager then goes off and makes the decision.

• (GI) Manager and subordinates meet as a group to discuss the problem, but the manager makes the decision.

• (GII) Manager and subordinates meet as a group to discuss the problem, and the group as a whole makes the decision.

Alone

Consulting

Group

Low

High

~ Vroom and Yetton

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Participative Management Model

1. Time—Is there a time crunch—that is, must a decision be made right away?

2. Trust—Do the people affected by the decision trust each other, in general?

3. Teamwork—Do you want to develop your work group toward a higher level of teamwork with this decision?

4. Importance—Is the decision critical to the organization—that is, one that may result in clear benefits or harm?

5. Acceptance—Is it important to generate high acceptance of the decision—that is, are your people likely to have strong feelings about it and/or how it is made?

~ Jones and Bearley

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Participative Management Model

1. Time Must a decision be made right away?

2. TrustDo the people affected by the decision trust each other?

3. TeamworkDo you want to develop a higher level of teamwork?

4. ImportanceIs the decision critical to the organization?

5. AcceptanceIs it important to generate high acceptance of the decision?

~ Jones and Bearley

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The Decision Time Line

Time

Making the decisionDeveloping commitment to the decisionImplementing the decision

Leader-directed

Group withleadership

Group without

leadership

~ Sashkin and Morris

Group Discussion

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Successful and Unsuccessful Decisions from DL Schools

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Lesson 4: Evidence-based Decision Making

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The Rational Decision-making Model

1. Define the problem2. Gather data3. Generate possible solutions4. Generate objective

assessment criteria5. Choose the best solution6. Implement7. Evaluate8. Modify

Robbins, Stephen P., and Timothy A. Judge. Organization Behavior. 12th ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007. 156-158

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Problems with the Rational Model

• Requires time• Assumes perfect information about alternatives• Assumes agreed upon preferences, goals, consequences• Assumes measurable criteria are available and agreed upon• Assumes a rational, non-political world

Robbins, Stephen P., and Timothy A. Judge. Organization Behavior. 12th ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007. 156-158

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What contributes to decisions?

DECISIONInformation/data considered

Players chosen to be at the table

AnalysisAbilityGroup

Dynamics

ProblemDefinition

Decisions about what

data to consider

Prior knowledge/

beliefs

Political considerations

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The Role of Data in the Decision-making ProcessKennedy (1984) discusses two models of

data use:

1) Instrumental Model—Evidence are considered the key component of the decision; once the data are available, the decision is relatively straightforward.

2) The Conceptual Model—Evidence is not specifically instructive, but is relevant.

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Attributional Studies Provide More Guidance

Nature of the Study

Nature of Group Response Intended to

Describe

Intended to Attribute

Cause

Disagreement over study’s meaning 3 0

Shared Interpretation of study’s meaning, no shared decision

2 2

Shared interpretation of meaning and shared decision

5 9

~ Kennedy, 1984

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How to use Data in Decision Making

1) Take a broad view of data – sources of evidence can come from many places.

2) Data are an important component, but just one part, of the decision-making process.

3) Go through the decision-making process collaboratively, not individually, to develop shared mental models.

4) Use data precisely, not conveniently.

Group Discussion

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Application

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Bibliography

Several resources have been considered in the development of this module.

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Evaluation

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