Finding the Collaboration Balance

1/9/2022

by Nick Truxal

The move to teaching online, even if it may be over for you, dear reader, does seem to have pushed some new practices into place that prove dangerous for teachers and students in the long-term. In particular, I’d like to focus on the new modes of communication and collaboration that have been implemented in the wake of Zooming to class.

Being more accessible to our colleagues, students, and parents certainly has its advantages. We can instantly help a student with a question, quickly let a parent know the status of the classroom, or have a great professional learning community with colleagues across the district, city, state, or nation. Of course, that student may want an answer at 11:00 pm, that parent may be trying to send an instant message during class and wonder why they don’t hear back, and “just one quick ten-minute meeting with administration over Zoom” may happen twice an hour.

Rob Cross, Adam Grant, and Reb Rebele wrote a fascinating piece on “Collaboration Overload” in 2016 (which Rob Cross continued into the book Beyond Collaboration Overload). In the article, they cite some interesting (pre-pandemic) trends. Trends such as:

the number of meetings employees are expected to attend have ballooned dramatically over the last ten years
“3% to 5% of employees” make up “20%-35% of the value-add” of meetings
the more “in-demand” an individual employee was as a collaborator, the more damaging the situation became for that employee, and in-turn for those they were trying to help

Of course, in a school, the most in-demand employees are teachers, administrators, counselors, psychologists…all of whom are finding that the world of instant communication has opened up certain flood-gates.

Interestingly, Adam Grant offered a solution to this issue three years before he helped to identify it. He spoke of a certain Fortune 500 company that implemented “Quiet time.” Three mornings a week, employees would not be exposed to superfluous e-mails (or any e-mails), “Just one quick thing” situations, “stand-up meetings,” nor anything else. The interesting part of this: when the company successfully implemented these quiet times, productivity increased an enormous 65%. However, even having employees self-impose (to the extent they were able) a similar policy, resulted in a 47% increase in productivity.

To me, this led to an interesting tension.

In my own practice, and in my own data, I can tell you that communication is important (I am sure you’re shocked). I have long been in the habit of sending FERPA safe emails to every parent with updates every Friday via a mail-merge setup. When communication was personalized and consistent, I found a 20% positive change in the grades and skill attainment that my students had in my classes. Just from communicating with their parents. I did a similar experiment in sending e-mails to my students, and found similar results.

So, communication is vital—and detrimental—to the surprise of no-one.

The Break Down of Implications...

FOR EDUCATORS

Hold some time as sacred.

This can be the time you are teaching, so you don’t have to constantly be worried about missing a communication that just popped in
This can be during your preparation time
As an administrator, this can be something that is purposefully managed for the benefit of all

Communicate with parents and students at a rate they are also comfortable with.

Asking parents or students what that rate of communication might be is always a great place to start
Finding out what you can safely communicate, and making sure that parents and students want that communication, is also a great idea
Personalization of communication is one way that we can make sure that our parents and students feel that they are being seen and heard as a human and by a human

FOR CLASSROOMS

Giving students uninterrupted time to work: increase productivity.

Uninterrupted doesn’t mean that you can’t rotate around, offer rapid feedback, or spur imagination
Uninterrupted also doesn’t mean a quiet, claustrophobic room
Uninterrupted means that no new demands for time or attention are placed upon the student during that time, which may be a luxury not afforded at home

I am sure there are many implications to these studies that I haven’t had time to parse, yet. If you have further insights, please feel free to share them with us.

Nick Truxal is currently a student in NYU's HCAT program and the bass player for a number of Minnesota-based bands.

Finding the Collaboration Balance

The Break Down of Implications...

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