Each school year brings change and a sense of newness. In the coming 2020-21 school year, Learning Without Limits (LWL) will experience new leadership and a fresh structure. The school as a whole has been actively planning for this transition and our Learning Lab Team, also known as the Special Education Team, had the opportunity to collaborate about what we would like the structure of the Learning Lab Team to look like next year.
We utilized this image known as “Below the Green Line” to outline our structures and culture for the next Learning Lab Team. The author of “Below the Green Line,” Steve Zueiback, emphasizes how the components of System Infrastructure and the components of Human Infrastructure are both crucial when it comes to maintaining a healthy and sustainable organization. It is important to constantly build and improve upon the components above and below the green line. The areas below the green line are the heart of the operation. Zueiback notes that an efficient organization works on all six areas simultaneously.
LWL is a very caring community – the whole team brings into account the relationships, information, and identity aspects of the school when creating structures, patterns, and processes. During our previous Learning Lab Team meetings, we realized our main attention was focusing above the green line. However, a lot of the systems we identified were rooted in the values we hold below the green line. In other words, the Below values our Learning Lab Team holds also appear in the systems that exist Above. For example, while we have a hierarchy, there is a sense of humbleness from the leadership team which allows for a soft hierarchy and an emphasis on collaboration. Additionally, LWL, like Seneca, values feedback in all directions of the leadership hierarchy. LWL’s Learning Lab Team has created a place for everyone at the table. Each team member is heard and valued. Without collaboration, we would not be able to provide the best individualized services possible to our students and their families. Each member of a student’s team sees a different aspect of the student whether it be academic, speech, behavior, OT or therapy. Collaboration allows us to put all these pieces together and allows us to see the whole student. All the components of the System and Human Infrastructures come together to create a unique organization.
With the support of Zueiback’s article, the Learning Lab Team identified what we would like the incoming team to know about our team’s culture, values, beliefs and systems. A reoccurring theme was the amount of collaboration that takes place as well as the importance of communication, feedback, adaptability and humor. Together, we created a document that will be passed on to the next Learning Lab leader depicting how our culture and structures go hand in hand.
LWL is a very caring community – the whole team brings into account the relationships, information, and identity aspects of the school when creating structures, patterns, and processes. During our previous Learning Lab Team meetings, we realized our main attention was focusing above the green line. However, a lot of the systems we identified were rooted in the values we hold below the green line. In other words, the Below values our Learning Lab Team holds also appear in the systems that exist Above. For example, while we have a hierarchy, there is a sense of humbleness from the leadership team which allows for a soft hierarchy and an emphasis on collaboration. Additionally, LWL, like Seneca, values feedback in all directions of the leadership hierarchy. LWL’s Learning Lab Team has created a place for everyone at the table. Each team member is heard and valued. Without collaboration, we would not be able to provide the best individualized services possible to our students and their families. Each member of a student’s team sees a different aspect of the student whether it be academic, speech, behavior, OT or therapy. Collaboration allows us to put all these pieces together and allows us to see the whole student. All the components of the System and Human Infrastructures come together to create a unique organization.
With the support of Zueiback’s article, the Learning Lab Team identified what we would like the incoming team to know about our team’s culture, values, beliefs and systems. A reoccurring theme was the amount of collaboration that takes place as well as the importance of communication, feedback, adaptability and humor. Together, we created a document that will be passed on to the next Learning Lab leader depicting how our culture and structures go hand in hand.
Blog Post Written By: Kaelyn Hosokawa, Student Support Assistant
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