Education is possibly the most “people” business there is. We work with children, their guardians, colleagues, and more. We work with students of different abilities, backgrounds and walks of life, all the while aiding in their personal growth and development. Because education is so human focused, why then does it sometimes feel that the systems that we work in seem to lose sight of the humanity of educators?

Public schools generally exist within larger systems. While these larger systems typically are invisible to many, they are still present and are responsible for many of the policies and procedures that schools follow. 

A lack of meaningful relationships tends to create an over-reliance on the constructed relationships inherent to the system. Schools have hierarchical organizational structures by design. Teachers, department heads, assistant principals, principals, directors/superintendents, etc with each level responsible for some sort of oversight of another level. Typically, this also comes with it a chain of communication where each level reports to the levels adjacent to it and the messaging follows up and down the chain. 

Unfortunately, this can also lead to communication becoming a little like the children’s game of telephone, where the message gets passed from person to person and over time, it changes. This is not necessarily intentional or nefarious. We also have to remember that those in these roles are going to have their own interpretation of the message and may emphasize different parts of the message. The interpretation that I may have can be different from someone else’s, this is due to a combination of the things I think are important, as well as my own understanding of it. 

Let’s take an example that seems to be fairly straightforward. A directive comes out that says, "Feedback needs to be timely.” It seems simple at first glance until you consider questions like:

What does timely mean - one week, two weeks, something else?

What constitutes feedback - written, verbal, a number grade or comments?

Feedback on what - Major assignments, class work, everything?

Depending on who reads this, they may give different directives. A principal in one school may say that it means a week turnaround on having tests with corrections back to students, while another may expect it to mean regular student conferencing. Neither interpretation is wrong, but it becomes easy to see that interpretations can shift the meaning or intention. 

With authentic relationships and two-way communication these meanings and understandings become negotiated and fleshed out through dialogue with all parties involved. These authentic relationships help to keep the individual people in mind since information flows both up and down the organization. It also allows for the identification of the strengths of individuals to help ensure that they are able to leverage those talents to the benefit of all. 

In the absence of authentic relationships we fall back on this hierarchical model because even a constructed relationship is better than no relationship where everyone operates independently and in their own silo. These models are both good and bad since systems need to be able to function when people are added or leave the organization. Building a system that only functions due to a particular personality or skill set is doomed to failure in the long run because eventually, one of the successors will not be up to the task. It becomes a bad thing when we lose sight of the people within the system and they feel dehumanized. 

As the size of your organization or school increases, these authentic relationships become harder and harder to maintain simply because of the size. However, this cannot be the reason why we forgo them to rely on bureaucracy. Education is perhaps the most people-based business there is, and it is critical that we do not lose sight of that. Finding ways to reduce a reliance on purely systemic relationships and moving towards authentic ones is how we best move forward as a school or organization. This shift allows for people to feel they are working together rather than functioning as a cog in a machine. 

Taking time to critically listen at all levels can be an extremely powerful way towards shifting the culture,.. Making that person-to-person connection to collaboratively explore viewpoints can help to increase the understanding of the differing viewpoints. Having mechanisms for feedback that operate both up and down a hierarchy in a psychologically safe environment can show that improvement can flow both ways. Finally, establishing collaborative actions and accountability can be a game-changer in your school or larger organization.