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.