Reflect with a Team: 6 Ways to Surface Stories that Matter and Catalyze Change
Stories help people learn, connect, and heal. More importantly, stories are critical to achieving equity because they build empathy and bring to light the lived experiences of those who are most often overlooked. With a sprinkle of creativity and a dash of intentionality, you can tap into the power of stories to build momentum as you work to disrupt inequity in educational systems.
There are many ways to engage school teams, students, and community members in meaningful reflection in order to surface inspiring stories. When looking to go deep and bring forth what matters most to your community, embrace a receptive, collaborative mindset.
Storytelling is not a solo journey. To best inspire your team to further their commitment to building lively, loving schools, you’ll have to actively engage them.
Here are six ways to surface stories that matter and catalyze change that call everyone in to reflect as a team.
Photo of a hand holding two Sharpie permanent markets, one blue and one orange. In the background are three Post-It notes out of focus. | Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash.
“Liked, Learned, Lacked, Longed For” exercise
Ask the team to reflect on their experiences for the school transformation initiative(s) in question and focus on what they
Liked
Learned
Lacked
Longed for
If you’re doing this exercise in person, team members can jot down their reflections on sticky notes and place them on a large piece of poster paper. Team members could also share verbally or type their responses into a shared document.
Then discuss. Leave plenty of time for everyone to share and provide feedback, allowing organic conversations and stories to flow from this reflection. Capture moments to use in external storytelling too if appropriate.
Photo of two colorfully designed pens on top of an open blank notepad. | Photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash.
“Story Frame” reflection
This reflection will allow your team to discuss your biggest successes from the school year. You can build your story using the Partners in School Innovation story frame outline, which prompts you to begin this reflection by asking:
What has had the greatest impact on adult practice this year? What conditions, structures, leadership, or learning contributed to that success?
What did you learn?
In what ways did your success counter inequities or white supremacy culture?
What practices, mindsets, strategies, or skills will you continue to practice or integrate into your systems as a result of your work this year?
Then, your team will describe each element of the story:
Victory: What is your biggest success story from this year in relation to [the initiative]?
Backstory: What’s the background or context surrounding your success?
Hero(s): Who contributed to this success? What were their contributions?
Stakes: How did your goals and aspirations align with student or adult practice goals?
Disruption: What are the obstacles and antagonists – both external and internal that your team overcame? Were there any inequitable patterns that your success disrupted?
Mentor(s): Who or what supported you along the way?
Journey: What are the successes and failures you experienced along the way?
Moral: What is the moral of your story? What wisdom or insights did you gain?
Rituals: What habits or rituals will you continue to engage in that contributed to your success as a site, leadership team, or individual?
Feel free to add more story elements or only use the ones that pertain to your journey. Prepare to share your stories with each other or with another team.
“Stop, Start, Continue” protocol
With this protocol, team members identify something they would like to stop doing (usually a practice that has not led to desired results or has been overly burdensome), something new that they would like to start doing (an exciting idea to try), and something that they would like to continue (a practice that has been working for them).
This protocol can be adapted to focus on instructional practices, collaboration practices, or other areas that are important to your team. Remember to keep students at the center!
Photo of three Black women sitting at a conference table laughing while one is looking at a screen. The table has notebooks and open laptops. | Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash.
Team development self-assessment
Support your team as members identify their collective strengths and areas for growth by reviewing the stages of team development and then completing the Forming-Storming Norming-Performing Self Assessment.
You’ll likely discover that your team may be in one of four stages (or some overlapping combination of several depending on the initiative(s) in play), based on the traits of the team as a whole:
Forming (testing stage)
Polite
Impersonal
Watchful
Guarded
Storming (infighting stage)
Controlling conflicts
Confrontation
Opting out
Feeling stuck
Norming (organizing stage)
Developing skills
Establishing processes
Giving feedback
Confronting issues
Performing (supporting stage)
Resourceful
Flexible
Close and supportive
Effective
Engage in a collective conversation about how to continue growing and developing as a team. Be sure to highlight key accomplishments and team successes in your discussion.
Photo of various multicolored square pieces of paper tacked to a wall with pushpins. The one with writing in focus says “Impact Full” on it. | Photo by Patrick Perkins on Unsplash.
Heat mapping exercise
Heat mapping refers to the process of color-coding a set of goals or activities in order to create a visual reflection of areas for celebration, areas of progress, and areas for growth. You can use any set of colors as long as the meaning of each color is clear to the group.
For example, you might use Red for “not developed,” Yellow for “partially developed,” and Green for “fully developed” when reviewing structures and processes enacted in the school year.
Color-code the various goals and activities from your school transformation process individually and then discuss your reflections together or assign colors as a group. Check out our template designed specifically for Reflecting on Teacher Collaboration.
Artifact share-out
Ask each team member to select an artifact that represents something important to them about the past school year. Alternatively, you can create the prompt more specific to fit with your context (e.g. an object that represents a key challenge, a moment of inspiration, or a meaningful connection with a student).
Give each person time to briefly share what artifact they chose and why.
Graphic with title "Key ingredients to help you go deeper with your reflection and surface stories that matter most to your community" at top and a storybook graphic in the center that has rainbow, star, and circle icons. Arrows point out from the storybook to the tips, as noted in post, and the Partners in School Innovation logo sits at bottom.
Key ingredients to go deeper with reflection and storytelling
Now you have multiple exercises in your toolbox to reflect with your team in meaningful ways. As you begin surfacing stories that matter most to your community, remember to
Carve out a dedicated time for reflection and discourse
Get clear on your purpose
Honor diverse perspectives
Practice deep listening
Involve those most impacted by inequity
Embrace failure as a path to learning
Make joy central!
Continue learning with these educator resources
Get the full “Stories that Catalyze Change” resource here. Find additional tools like it in our free-to-join Community where 575+ equity-focused leaders in education are sharing resources weekly.
Ready to dive even deeper? Enroll in our complimentary course “Using Stories to Drive Change”to learn how to craft stories that become powerful tools to showcase progress, spark change, and inspire action towards education reform.
