Community by Peter Block - Take Aways

When I first started reading Peter Block’s Community, I wondered what I had gotten myself into as it appeared that I would be reading countless theories and getting little practical information to prepare myself for a superintendent position.  So I put down the book for a couple of days, but when I started reading the second time around, I adjusted my attitude and found that “Community” applied to School District, applied to School, applied to committee, applied to PLC.   In other words, the concepts apply to the school district setting but the term “community” is found in the smaller groupings that make up individual districts.

With this framework in mind, I found the following points to be valuable:

1.       When the core question that underlies each conversation is “What can we create together?” the group shifts from problems to possibility.  This statement is profound in explaining the need for establishing a vision.  When a group is established, be it an entire school board, a PTO sub-committee, or a six-teacher PLC, the first conversations need to include this type of question.  By asking ourselves about possibilities, we begin to see what we can be and what we can achieve.  By asking ourselves about possibilities, we reduce the risk that the conversations will focus on problems or result only in venting.  Out of “possibility” conversations, goals that move the group on a path towards greatness can be formed and worked upon.

2.       Community is built by focusing on people’s gifts rather than their deficiencies.  When I read this section of the book, I couldn't help but think about meetings I have been in where people’s deficiencies peppered the conversation.  When these meetings end, one is left feeling negative about others and the future of the institution.  We tell our teachers to see all students as “students of promise” or “students with potential,” but then the attitude shifts when administration gathers and teacher’s become the topic.  If we as administrators can see all teachers as “teachers with potential,” focusing on their gifts, we stand a better chance of providing meaningful evaluative feedback, providing coaching that leads to improved teaching, developing useful improvement plans that lead to teacher retention rather than teacher removal.

3.       Love of leaders limits our capacity to create an alternative future.  It proposes that the only real accountability in the world is at the top.  This statement is a good reality check for anyone in a leadership role. It reminds us that the goal of leadership is not to be the person that everyone will follow anywhere.  It dispels that misconception into realizing that great leadership occurs when the leader is developing more leaders that take responsibility for achieving the goals of the organization and that great leadership occurs when the organization is able to sustain momentum towards goal achievement even when the initial leader is no longer a part of the team.