16.Creating a pro active Staff

This remains one of the major challenges in schools. Teachers are by definition concerned primarily with teaching children. While there has always been an accountability dimension to schools in that there has always been a need to communicate what they are doing and the quality of the process, this has been given increased importance by two factors:

*         The establishment of framework to judge school performance in terms of the national curriculum and standardized assessment; and

*         The operation of pupil number-led formula funding linked to open enrolment.

As was mentioned before, to a certain extent educationalists have let others dictate the educational agenda because of their own reticence. How can leaders and managers in schools develop characteristics in staff to make them more pro-active in articulating the school's vision, values and achievements? Crego and Schifrin in their book, Customer Centred Reengineering (1995, p78) list what they call the 'Seven Cs' as a way of effecting the reengineering type of change that would be necessary in schools to create a more pro-active staff. These are:

* Closeness - to all customers, external, internal and stakeholders.

* Clarity - of vision and strategy.

* Courage - to make the difficult decision and act.

* Creativity- to think outside the box.

* Competencies - which are distinctive, differentiating, and continually  

   developing.     

* Commitment - the will to persevere.

* Consistency - in worlds and deeds.

How then do we ensure that staff develops these characteristics, so that they can focus on the clarity of vision and purpose and also develop the commitment to express the vision at appropriate opportunities? One central role is to use staff development time not only to develop curriculum expertise but also to develop corporate vision and the interpersonal skills necessary to communicate the visio