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Session 2. Norms, Protocols and Meetings That Work
Objective. Write a few observable team norms, use a simple protocol with set turns and times, and plan a 40-minute meeting that ends with a decision and an action for each member.
Teachers rarely lack goodwill; they lack a shared way of working that makes good meetings the normal case. Norms and protocols are that way of working. They look small, a line on a poster and a timer on the table, but they decide who is heard, whether talk stays on pupils, and whether people leave with something to do. In this lesson you go beyond writing norms: you learn what to do when one is broken and how to choose a focus question that fills 22 useful minutes.
Key ideas
Norms: a few promises you can see
- Norms are the team's own promises about how to behave in meetings. Keep them to four to six, written with 'we', and observable: 'We start and end on time' can be seen; 'We respect each other' cannot, until you say what it looks like.
- Build them together: each member writes two norms on slips, the group clusters them, chooses five and asks of each, 'What would we see and hear?' Norms given by the head teacher are rules, and rules are followed less willingly than promises.
- Review the norms after three meetings: keep, change or drop. A norm that nobody remembers is not a norm.
A protocol is the chair of the meeting
- A protocol is a short written routine with set turns and times. Without it, the loudest voice or the oldest colleague fills the time; with it, everyone speaks and the talk stays on the question.
- An ASCD article by Daniel Venables describes how set speaking turns and time limits help teacher teams avoid tangents and give honest feedback without personal attacks. A simple three-step protocol: the presenter speaks 3 minutes, colleagues ask clarifying questions 2 minutes, then give feedback 5 minutes while the presenter listens and takes notes.
- The facilitator's job is to serve the protocol, not to be the boss: 'We said 2 minutes; let us move to feedback.' The role rotates, so everyone learns to do it.
A 40-minute shape that ends in action
- One possible shape: check-in 3 minutes, review the last action 5, the focus question 22, decide the next step 7, close 3. The focus question is chosen and sent the day before, so that members come with their evidence.
- Check-in is one sentence each ('one thing from my lessons this week'). It warms the room, makes sure everyone speaks once, and takes three minutes only if the facilitator keeps it to one sentence.
- The close is the most skipped and most important part: each member says one action and a date, and the note-taker reads them back.
Keep meetings short and useful
- Count the cost: five teachers in a 45-minute meeting spend 225 minutes, almost four hours of teachers' time. Ask of each agenda item: is it for a decision, for learning, or for information? Information goes into a short written note.
- Habits that save time: start on time even if two are missing, keep a 'parking lot' sheet for good ideas that are off topic, stop early when the work is done, and write notes in five lines: what we looked at, what we decided, who does what by when.
- Protect pupils' learning as the topic: if the meeting drifts to timetables or the canteen, the facilitator says, 'That is for the parking lot; our question is...'.
A 40-minute meeting
When a norm is broken
Every team breaks its norms in the second month. A phone rings, someone arrives 10 minutes late, two people talk at once. If the facilitator reacts as a boss, the norm becomes a rule and trust drops. Treat the norm as a third party that belongs to everyone: 'Our norm was one voice at a time; shall we go back to that?' The reminder is about the promise, not about the person.
End each meeting with a one-minute check of two columns: what helped us, what should we change. Over a term, these small adjustments do more for the culture than a long discussion of values. If the same norm is broken again and again, ask whether it is the right norm.
Choosing the focus question
The 22 minutes of the meeting are only as good as the question. A useful focus question is about pupils, can be explored with evidence members bring, and leads to an action. 'How can we improve reading?' is too wide; 'What do our Grade 3 pupils do when they meet a word they cannot read?' is something five notebooks and some observation can answer. Before the meeting ask: what output do we want, a decision, a list of ideas or a shared understanding?
Name the output on the agenda. If it is a decision, say who decides and by when. Sending the question and the output the day before lets quieter members prepare and makes the first minutes shorter.
Examples from the classroom
Norm as third party
Scene. In a Namangan Grade 4 team, phones kept buzzing during meetings. Instead of complaining, the leader, Sevara, put a small basket on the table and asked the team to decide. They wrote the norm 'Phones in the basket from 14:10 to 14:50'. When a phone buzzed in the second week, a colleague smiled and said, 'Basket.' Nobody was blamed, and nobody was offended.
Insight. A norm that the team wrote and that names a visible behaviour can be enforced with a word, not a lecture.
The one-minute check
Scene. A Fergana Grade 3 team ended every meeting with 'helped / change'. After the third meeting the notes said: helped, 'we started on time'; change, 'we ran over in the middle'. They shortened the focus step from 25 to 22 minutes and moved check-in to three sentences. In the fourth meeting nobody mentioned running over, because the problem had been fixed quietly.
Insight. Small regular adjustments keep the shape of the meeting alive and make improvement part of the routine.
The note that saved two and a half hours
Scene. In a Bukhara school, five maths teachers used to spend 30 minutes of every meeting on announcements. Dilshod suggested a one-page note sent on Wednesday afternoon. The team calculated that five teachers times 30 minutes was 150 minutes, two and a half hours of teaching colleagues' time each fortnight. The head agreed to try it for a term, and the 30 minutes went to a question about pupils' word problems.
Insight. Counting the cost of a meeting in teachers' hours makes the case for writing and gives time back to learning.
Common pitfalls
- Writing norms and never looking at them again, so that they become decoration.
- Using the facilitator role to push the leader's own opinion instead of keeping time and turns.
- Choosing a focus question that is too wide for 22 minutes or that no one has evidence for.
- Ending when the time is up without saying who does what by when.
Norms and a 40-Minute Rehearsal
- Open the Activity Kit: vague and observable norms, the 40-minute shape, a SAMPLE overloaded agenda and the observer checklist. (5 min)
- Alone (7 min): rewrite the three vague norms in the table so that a visitor could see or hear them.
- Groups of four (13 min): use the slip method to draft five norms for your own PLC. Agree each norm only when you can say what it looks like.
- Same groups (20 min): rehearse a 15-minute version of the meeting shape on the sample focus question. Roles: facilitator, timekeeper, note-taker, one observer with the checklist. Rotate and repeat once if time allows.
- Second short activity, Cut the agenda (10 min): in pairs, label each item on the overloaded agenda as decision, learning or information and cut it to four items.
- Alone (10 min): write your school-based task from the Kit.
Your facilitator will guide you through this activity in the session.
Questions to discuss
- Which norm was hardest to make observable, and what did you finally write?
- What did the observer see that the facilitator could not?
- Which items in your own school's meetings could become a written note this month?
Reflect
- Which unwritten rule in your group helps you, and which one silences someone?
- What happens in your meetings in the last five minutes?
- Who could be the first rotating facilitator, and what support do they need?
Try it tomorrow
- At your next meeting, put the norms on the table and, at the end, run the one-minute 'helped / change' check.
- Write the focus question and the wanted output (decision, list or shared understanding) on the agenda and send it the day before.
- Ask the timekeeper to tell you at minute 33 so that the close is never skipped.
Further reading and links
Agree a few norms you can see, let a protocol keep the time, and end every meeting with one action and a date for each member.