The 3 R's

I recently had a situation with co-worker that put both myself and my entire team at a difficult impasse that left us all agitated and unwilling to continue communication with one another. We were discussing our upcoming Kindergarten graduation ceremony and were openly throwing out ideas and inquiries with one another to create a rough draft of what the ceremony would look like and how it would be conducted. During this discussion, seven of us, out of eight, were freely suggesting ideas and jotting down notes with the plan to simply get a draft going that we could refer back to at our next team meeting. During this conversation, one co-worker decided to take it upon herself and create an email that outlined exactly what she wanted for the ceremony in which she then preceeded to email this proposal to our principal without any of our approval or contribution. We did not realize this had happened until our principal responded back to the email, having included all of us in the carbon copy, with her input and ideas on resolving a few of the issues. We were all dumbfounded that this had happened and were upset with the entire situation and actually refused to interact with one another for the rest of the day. While the issue was eventually resolved and the ceremony went on smoothly, having a little flair in it from each team member, this week's resources would have made a profound difference in how I would have approached the conflict and which might have prevented the entire team from feeling how we felt the rest of that day.

I believe had our team utilized the resources we had this week about nonviolent communication and the 3 R's, we would have had a much better time resolving the conflict, if it would have arisen at all. If I could go back to that day in particular, I would have acknowledged the nonviolent communication methods and taken away my own feelings and emotions about the experience so that I would have addressed my coworker immediately following the returned email from our principal. Had it been addressed that day, there would not have been such a level of distrust and agitation from each of us on the team which I am sure affected our students, something none of us would ever want to happen. I believe I would have also implemented the 3 R's and understood that no matter how upset with my coworker that I was, I still respect her and acknowledge her thoughts and opinions and would suggest alternate ways for her to express them with the team. This would have also played into the response portion of the 3 R's while highlighting that we all share a relationship as the Kinder team and it should be noted that we must work cohesively in order to provide the best possible outcome for our students and their families.

While all of this situation is in the past, noting what could have been done differently based on the resources provided this week, I plan on taking this knowledge with me as I am the first grade team leader this coming school year. I am hoping to prevent any situation like the one mentioned above and to have my team know the importance of communicating openly and efficiently with one another.