When we start at a new school, we’re an unknown entity, people don’t know why we are making decisions the way we are or why we respond in the way that we do. By creating a user guide, you can let people know your values and a little bit about you ahead of time so there are less surprises.
If you’re starting a new school and want to learn about people, these are a couple of examples of how you can do that.
Clear is kind. Unclear is unkind.
Brené Brown
Personal User Guide
How might a personal user guide help?
Reflecting on my own experience, I found that writing a personal user guide was a valuable tool for self-reflection. It encouraged me to really think about and drill down on my values, preferences, and communication style. Adding this as a task to an onboarding program is a great idea as it has the potential to assist new hires in understanding their own and their new colleagues’ communication styles, preferences, and expectations. This, in turn, could lead to a smoother integration into the school community.
Having a structured yet informal means to communicate my preferences allowed me to have some agency and control in how I am perceived by others. It was useful in helping people know a little bit more about me, what matters and is important to me, and therefore assisted me in beginning to build trusting relationships. Transparency is of high value to me, so this kind of transparent communication was in line with my values.
It also gave staff permission to be direct with me. I’m not the type that needs a 10 minute introduction with lots of the buzzwords that people get taught to use before dropping a doozy. I can handle it, just spit it out. It’s really important to me that staff feel safe saying what they really think.
Who has mine?
My user guide is on the school drive; anyone can access it. I have it hyperlinked into the top of the meeting agenda for each person who I directly line manage, and I gave a copy to my line manager and those I work closely with.
You choose what to include.
What is it important for people to know about you? Where might your thoughts be misconstrued and be worth explicitly communicating? Do you have any pet peeves? How do you deliver feedback? What puts you in a good mood (me = food!)? What bothers you or brings out your worst?
Those who know me well will know that I can be highly strung and stubborn about some things and be more relaxed about other things. At work people might make erroneous assumptions that I’m relaxed about things that I’m not; don’t ever tell me you haven’t planned your lesson! I’m a planner! When it comes to work attire, I shouldn’t be able to see up it, down it, or through it. I have really high standards, but I really do try not to hold people to the same account that I hold myself to. Did I need to add this? I felt not as it seemed like something that I could and should communicate on a more whole school basis.
I included my values and used a few leadership test results so when I am making decisions there is a little clarity on where I might be coming from. The ones I used:
I saw another which I quite liked for education in the book Principled by Gill Kelly and Matt Hall, it’s based on decision making style; I know there are lots of different versions of this, but I like this one best. Mine came out as People/Process (the other two are Product and Ideas). I asked a few people I’ve worked closely with to guess mine and they all guessed it correctly, which means that I probably don’t need it on my guide.
Mine is far from one of the great user guides and I have colleagues with much better ones. There is so much more that I could add, but I wanted to make sure I kept it to one page. I’m sure you can be much more creative – I’d love to see it if you do make one!
User guides aren’t static, they evolve and change as you do.
‘Me’search: Autoethnography
This was something introduced to me by Alan Dunston as another way to get to know a little more about each other and build connection during those introductory sessions. The creation of a ‘Me’ Search storyboard/video. It is very similar to the slide I use when introducing myself to new classes.
I much prefer this than the classic icebreaker: “tell me something interesting about yourself?”. Of course with this you have more thinking time, and you share as much or as little as you feel comfortable with.
There are many ways of doing this, and much of how you do it will depend on what might work best for your team or where it fits into the induction. Do you want to do it pre-arrival? Have the videos stored for people to watch? Have people present to their immediate team only? Alan has activities after viewing these which allow for self-reflection and for shared connection; both are highly valuable.
I created mine based around some of the guiding questions (in the slide notes) by Alan, but I’m also keen to make one based on a theme. I liked his suggestion of: Hero/heroine, Highlight, Hardship.
I didn’t record a video, I just talked through the images and tried to address the guiding questions.
*I’ve removed the family picture from this upload of my mesearch but use it when presenting.
Below is an editable version:
Alan is also the host of a podcast which I highly recommend.
What would work in your context?
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