Design

Describe your action plan and how each of your four chosen competencies will influence its design and implementation.

I planned to coordinate a Google Group led by the Board of Directors (BOD) that would allow building reps to submit questions. These questions could be viewed by everybody in the group, and the BOD could efficiently respond to these questions, plus post any other information as necessary. Google Groups function like an online discussion forum, but users can utilize them through email instead, so I hoped that its versatility would be appealing to building reps. I chose these four competencies because they work concurrently with this project, which utilizes technology to bolster communication, which is a shared vision of our union, and it may provide a new avenue of communication for all building reps, including new and veteran reps and reps from all buildings and grade levels.

How will your leadership leverage the strengths and address the needs of diverse stakeholders to support the action plan, develop capacity, broaden decision-making, and learn collaboratively?

I used my role as High School Director of the BEA to rely on the support of my fellow board members through much of this process. They provided positive feedback and encouragement throughout this entire process. My leadership role also allowed for invaluable feedback from building reps through a survey that I conducted, which supported my original vision for my action plan. (See Artifacts #1-3 under Learn.)

How will you use collaboration, questioning, data, and reflection during the implementation of your action plan?

The data from the needs assessment showed that there was interest in this project. According to my needs assessment survey, 86% of respondents stated that they would be interested in utilizing technology like this. Beyond that, the process was trial and error. The Google Group that I created was smaller than I originally planned so that I could learn the system first. The BEA Board of Directors acted as my test group, and their feedback guided my actions. 

How will you address obstacles that you may encounter in implementing your plan?

I needed to reassess my original action plan. I had originally planned to present this more as a discussion forum, but Google Groups does not work well in mobile. Because of this, I modified my plan to emphasize the email functionality of a Google Group over the discussion board, although the discussion board option still works as expected in desktop mode.

How will you know if your action plan is successful?  What evidence would support your claim? 

The Google Group itself was evidence of success. We successfully addressed a union question using this method. One group member posted a question, and the union president answered the question and provided additional information. All members of the group then received the exact same information. This is not only more efficient than the same question being asked by multiple members, but also the messaging is consistent since it isn't being answered numerous times by different building reps. (See Artifact 5 under Do.)