Developing Community – Virtually

By Jen Benkovitz

Over the summer I was offered the opportunity to serve as a Professional Learning Community (PLC) Coach for 29 Department of Defense schools located in various parts of the world. When I learned that the work was all virtual, I became skeptical, mostly concerned about how I would manage to build relationships with my assigned principals and their leadership teams without ever meeting anyone in person. As it turns out, it was a very positive and fulfilling experience, and I attribute much of my success to my affiliation with SRI.

 The concept of SRI critical friendship was introduced to me at my first Winter meeting. I still remember the unexpected sense of comfort and support that I felt while engaging in deep, significant and somewhat personal dialogue with other professionals whom I had never met. Using protocols to guide our interactions with one another provided me with a sense of safety, confidence and assurance; these strangers almost immediately became my community, and the use of protocols became natural. This experience was invaluable and not only informed my work as a principal, but also influenced and supported my most recent work as a (virtual) PLC Coach.

Before making my first online calls, I found myself reflecting upon Winter Meetings and my experience implementing intentional learning community practices with staff, students and families while serving as principal. Knowing the importance of relationships, and challenged by the virtual nature of my work, I introduced protocols to my principals, beginning with Connections, as a way to feel, as much as possible, as if we were together in the same space. Using this protocol not only offered us the opportunity to “connect” our thoughts and experiences, but also helped diminish the sense of distance between us.

Most recently, I introduced teams of principals to The Final Word protocol to engage them in conversation using a text about shared leadership. I wish I could have recorded our conversations as principals expressed comfort in relating to one another, safety in recognizing they were not alone or isolated in their respective schools and optimism and invigoration in hearing new perspectives or ideas. The meaningful dialogue (and follow up) that resulted from these meetings would not have been possible without the support and structure offered by a protocol.

The challenges I faced using protocols virtually were actually no different than the ones I have faced when introducing them in person. From my experience, participants are often a bit reluctant at first, wondering if the protocols will limit or result in contrived conversation. I found that by always sharing the purpose of each protocol before delving into our work, by making the process visual through shared document tools and by modeling expectations (sometimes serving as an active member of the group), their reluctance was reduced if not alleviated.

Over time, I introduced a number of other protocols to my principals and their leadership teams as we continued our work together. On many occasions, while debriefing and reflecting upon our experience, principals would ask for copies of the protocols to share and use with their staff and students and sometimes asked me to model the process for teams of teachers. I was thrilled when I learned this and also pleasantly surprised by the power of the protocols, as they provided us with a newly shared language and manner for addressing issues that would arise. Whether using a protocol to discuss text, analyze data/student work or better understand a dilemma, our conversations were positive, productive and satisfying.

While I would still love to travel to Italy, Germany, Bavaria or other far off places to meet in person with my principals and leadership teams, I am thankful for my affiliation with SRI, as the lessons I learned and resources I gained allowed me the unexpected and invaluable experience of building virtual connections.

Want to learn more about the work that Jen facilitated? Want to connect with Jen? Email her: jen.benkovitz@gmail.com

You Might Also Like