From Silos To Strong School Teams

Ever feel like your team works in the same building but on different islands? We unpack how schools move from silos to strong, connected teams that share the load and multiply results. If you care about culture, teacher wellness, and student success, this conversation gives you clear next steps without the fluff.

We start by naming why collaboration feels so hard: relentless workloads, unclear roles, and a lack of psychological safety. Proximity isn’t partnership. We explore how fear shuts down creativity, why celebrating solo stars can erode trust, and how connection before correction unlocks honest feedback and shared problem solving. You’ll hear a vivid story about Belgian horses that shows what happens when people pull in sync: two trained together can move far more than the sum of their parts. That’s the promise of a diverse team built on respect—strategists, dreamers, challengers, nurturers, optimizers, motivators, and analyzers working in rhythm.

Then we get practical. We outline five steps to make collaboration real: protect time within the school day, model vulnerability so asking for help is safe, clarify roles and goals to remove friction, celebrate team wins loudly to reinforce the right behaviors, and address conflict early so it strengthens trust instead of cracking culture. Along the way, we share language you can use with your staff and simple structures that make collaboration sustainable, not another meeting. We also preview what’s ahead: building deeper trust, repairing broken teams, and managing difficult personalities with respect and accountability.

If you’re a passionate educator who’s tired and wants to see your school pull more weight together, this one’s for you. Listen, share it with a colleague, and tell us where your team gets stuck. Subscribe for Part 2 next week, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and help more educators find tools that lift the load.

www.EdwardDeShazer.org

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome & Purpose For Educators
• 0:59 Series Context & Four Culture Pillars
• 2:34 Sponsor Message
• 3:32 Why Collaboration Feels Hard
• 6:01 What Collaboration Is Not
• 7:18 Three Reasons Teams Break Down
• 10:13 Power Of Diverse Team Strengths
• 11:34 Belgian Horses: Pulling More Together
• 13:48 Five Steps To Build Collaboration
• 17:10 What’s Next: Trust, Repair, Personalities
• 18:46 Closing Reflections & Calls To Action

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:00

If you have a room full of dreamers in your school or in a team or in a department, nothing is ever going to get done because everyone is just dreaming and no one is optimizing, no one is challenging, no one is nurturing, no one is doing the actual work. These strengths only are going to matter when people respect each other.

SPEAKER_00: 0:21

If you're an educator that's passionate, but you're tired and you're burnt out and you're wondering what to do next. This is a show for you. We're gonna learn together, we're gonna recharge together, and we're gonna grow together so you can be the best you and serve your students and your community to the best of your ability.

SPEAKER_01: 0:41

What's going on, Pod? Welcome back to the Teachers Ed Podcast. I am your host, Edward DeStazer. Teachers Ed Podcast is a place where the best and brightest in education come to be inspired, to connect, to learn, and to grow. Uh, let's jump right in. And if you have been following the series, whether you're following along on uh YouTube, whether you're following along on the podcast, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, whatever you're following along, TikTok, wherever it is, uh, we have been going through uh the Building Bridges Blueprint. And before I get too far, what I am asking you to do is pause this podcast, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify or wherever you are listening. That helps us tremendously to get in front of more dynamic educators like yourself. Uh now back to the blueprint. The blueprint is built off of uh four pillars that really help create a strong culture in schools, and those pillars are leadership and communication, uh collaboration and teamwork, staff wellness and morale, and recognition and growth. Um, and the last few weeks we were digging into leadership and communication. We talked about clarity, uh, consistency, uh, emotional intelligence, and how people in your team or in your school on your team receive information differently. And today we're gonna move into the second pillar, which is collaboration and teamwork. So, this is going to be part one of collaboration and teamwork, and then there'll be a part two next week. So, let's break down first and foremost why collaboration uh matters. Why do teams struggle? We'll talk a little bit why teams struggle um and how to shift your school from isolation to unity. So, before I jump in though, I got to give a shout out to Rise Mushroom Coffee. It is packed with six functional mushrooms that support focus, energy, uh, gut health, and it helps you manage stress. I've already had my cup this morning. Tastes great, it's easy to make, and it helps keep me, it helps keep me locked in without all the jitters and the crashing that regular coffee does. But if you head over to ryzeuperfoods.com and use code Ebertasher, you will get 15% off your order in your entire order. Not just your first order, but every order. So keep going back and ordering. It is phenomenal. I start my day every day with it. But all right, let's jump into today's episode. Uh, why collaboration? I want to jump and start off with why collaboration is difficult and hard in schools. And if we're being honest, which we try to be on here, collaboration sounds amazing. Teamwork, unity, the kumbaya, the shared ideas, everyone supporting each other sounds absolutely phenomenal. And someone's listening like that is just not real. And reality, collaboration is one of the hardest things to build uh in a school, and that is because in education we end up in silos. Um, you know, you have classrooms, justice mic, you have classrooms, you have students, uh, you have your grade levels, you have your departments, uh, people have responsibilities, people have lesson plans. So, really, unless something is burning down, most people just kind of stay in their lane. And this is not because uh teachers are teachers and uh your staff are selfish, but oftentimes it is because uh people are overwhelmed when you are grading papers, answering emails, uh helping students, preparing lesson plans, hailing behaviors, uh calling parents, all the things that educators have to do, collaboration in a school begins to feel like um it begins to feel like a luxury and something that you do when you magically have time. So the mindset becomes um, I'm just trying to survive today. And the truth is that no one will thrive in a school if they are alone. The best schools that I've spent time in are the ones where people actually work together, support each other, challenge each other, uh problem solve together, and most importantly, lift each other up. Collaboration isn't just a nice idea, but it is a different difference maker, excuse me, for your uh culture. So what collaboration is not uh what collaboration is not? Collaboration is not just uh sitting in on the same meeting, collaboration is not just sharing a Google Drive. Collaboration is most definitely uh not complaining about the same issue, although that is how some folks love to collaborate. Um, or it is not about using the same curriculum. Uh those things they may help some people, but they don't actually create collaboration. Uh, real collaboration is much deeper than that. Collaboration is uh it's trust, it's respect, it is shared ownership, it is shared responsibility, and it is comfort with vulnerability. The ability to say, uh, I'm struggling. Can you help me out without feeling judged by the people that are around you? It is the ability to be able to give feedback without things becoming personal. Um, it is being able to solve problems together instead of pointing fingers. The phrase I always come back to is connection before correction. And when people feel connected to each other, collaboration becomes much more natural. When people feel isolated, collaboration becomes forced. Connection will create openness. Openness is ultimately gonna create communication, and communication will then create teamwork, and teamwork creates a dynamic culture. Uh, so why is collaboration so important and why does it break down at times? Uh one of the main one of the I'll give you three reasons why collaboration breaks down in schools. Reason number one is we confuse proximity with partnership. Just because you work in the same building does not mean you are a team. Just because you teach the same subjects does not mean that you are collaborating. Proximity creates convenience, partnership creates connection. Reason number two, there is no psychological safety in the school. And this might be one of the most important parts. If people don't feel safe, if people don't feel respected, if they don't feel like they can disagree without being judged, they will not collaborate. Fear will kill creativity, fear kills risk taking, and fear is going to kill teamwork. And then reason number three, we celebrate individuals more than teams. And this one may sting. Schools often reward the rockstar teacher, the one with the best team, the one with the best test scores, the one with the cleanest rooms, the bulletin boards, the doors that's dressed up with the you know, whatever uh holiday that you're leading into, door, you know, the door contest. But if recognition is always about one person, the team is going to break down. Competition replaces collaboration. Silence replaces sharing, and envy is going to replace unity. And I want to say this again because I do not want someone to miss it. If recognition is always about one person, the team is going to break down. Competition replaces collaboration, silence replaces sharing, and envy replaces unity. Culture is going to thrive when teams win, not just people. And if your team isn't collaborating, it's not that they don't care, it's because they don't feel connected. Working near someone isn't the same as working with someone. Working near someone isn't the same as working with someone. If people don't feel safe, they won't share ideas. If they don't feel valued, they're not going to take risks. And if the recognition only goes to individuals, the team is going to eventually fall apart. So we need to build connection first, and then teamwork will then begin to become natural. So let's from there, we're going to switch gears and talk about the power of a diverse team. You do not want a team full of people that think alike, contrary to what society and Facebook and all these things make us feel like. Most people gravitate to people that look like them, think like them, speak like them, act like them. You do not want a team full of people who think exactly alike. You need a strategist, you need an optimizer, you need a dreamer, you need someone that's a challenger, you need a nurturer, you need a motivator, you need an analyzer. Great teams thrive on different strengths. If you have a room full of dreamers in your school or in a team or in a department, nothing is ever going to get done because everyone is just dreaming and no one is optimizing, no one is challenging, no one is nurturing, no one is doing the actual work. These strengths only are going to matter when people respect each other. And this is where I always want to uh I want to share one of my favorite stories. I share this when I do presentations and we're talking about teamwork and collaboration because it truly highlights and shows uh the power of collaboration. It's the story of the Belgian Belgian horses. A single Belgian horse by itself can pull 8,000 pounds. A single Belgian horse by itself can pull 8,000 pounds. But when you put two Belgian horses together, even if they've never met, uh even if they've never trained, even if they've never worked together before, you just put them side by side, they will then pull about 22,000 pounds. So a single horse does 8,000 with another horse that it's never met, it will pull about, they will together will pull about 22,000 pounds. Not the 16 like you expect. If you take 8,000, 8,000, 16,000 from people that struggle with math in the back of the room, but it's almost triple the effort. But this is where Belgian horse Belgian Belgium horses uh get crazy. If you take two horses and you train them together as well, they will now pull almost 30,000 pounds together. So two horses working in unity carrying a load no single horse could ever touch alone. This is the power of collaboration. When you get people working together in unity, when you get people training together, when you get people who understand how to ebb and flow with the people that they work together on a day-to-day basis, this is when collaboration starts to skyrocket. Because that what starts to happen is people start to trust each other, people really start to understand each other, uh, people start to communicate much clearer, people start to work in rhythms, and then people start to they begin to respect each other's strengths. So, what I need educators to understand no matter what your title is in a school, no matter what your position is a school, you might be capable of carrying and pulling your own 8,000 pounds every single day. But when you surround yourself with the right people, you don't just double your impact, you multiply it. Collaboration isn't just about making work easier, it is about making results bigger. So, how can we build a collaborative culture? Here are five practical steps. Number one, protect time for collaboration. We can't say collaboration matters if we don't schedule it. What we what gets scheduled gets done. So, school leaders, it is your job to make sure that there is built-in time in the day where teachers can collaborate together. It can't be, well, I need you to stay after, I need you to come in early, I need it to be on a Saturday. Like, we need to begin to build these things into the day for our staff so they don't have to do it in their free time. Number two, model vulnerability as a leader, as a teacher, you must go first. Say I say I don't know if you don't know. Say I need help if you need help. Say let's figure this out together if you are ready to figure this out together. Your vulnerable vulnerability is going to make teamwork safe. Number three, clarify roles and goals. Teams fall apart when people don't know who's doing what and what are we working towards. Clear roles equals less conflict, clear goals equals more unity. Try to overexplain so people know and it is very clear what they are supposed to do. If you over-explain and you are very clear on what the expectations are, what people need to be doing, when people fall short, it is easier to hold them accountable because there are no communication gaps. Number four, we need to celebrate team wins loudly. If you want people to collaborate, show them that you see when they are collaborating. Recognition is going to fuel repeated behavior. Say this again recognition is going to fuel repeated behavior. What gets watered grows. Celebrate groups, not just the individuals. And number five, we need to address conflict early. Conflict ignored becomes culture destroyed. Healthy teams don't avoid conflict. And let me be very clear: healthy teams have conflict. Healthy relationships have conflict. People are under this impression that you, if you have a healthy relationship with someone, with your team, with your organization, with whoever, that conflict is not going to happen. That is just not true. Healthy teams do not avoid conflict, they manage it respectfully. Small problems handled early prevent big problems later. So critical. So as I'm getting ready to wrap this up, uh, next week we are gonna dive a little bit deeper into collaboration teamwork, a little more how-tos. Um, we're gonna go into the five levels of team trust. We're gonna go into how to repair a team that is broken because teams are going to break. It happens. You get new staff members, old staff members leave. People are going through things and they change and they change and they challenge, and things are people are just fluid individuals. So people change, things change, dynamics change, teams are going to break no matter how dope and no matter how much of a vibe your culture is. People and things are going to change and going to break. So we're gonna go into how to repair that. Then we will talk about how to manage difficult personalities. News flash school leaders. I want you to listen close. Newsflash flash teachers. I need you to listen close here. You are going to have difficult personalities that you work with on a day-to-day basis. Maybe it's a coworker, maybe it's a student, maybe it's a parent. You are going to have difficult personalities, and I want to help you to manage those difficult personalities because teamwork is not going to stop with planning. Teamwork is sustained uh through trust, it's sustained through accountability, and it is sustained uh through connection. So, part two, we're gonna dive a little bit deeper. Uh again, this is a 10-part series. We are on part five. So we are getting close to halfway there. Uh, so you won't want to miss part five. And as you head into the week, I want you to ask yourself are we working together or are we just working near each other? Collaboration does not just build the culture, it strengthens people, it lifts the load, and it multiplies impact. And just like those Belgian horses, your school can pull far more when people are working together. So I want us to keep building bridges with our team. I want us to keep leaning into connection. I want us to keep being clear with our communication because no one builds a thriving school alone. That's all I got. Uh, if you if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with someone else. Um, please tell a friend about it. Please hit the thumbs up if you're watching this on YouTube, on TikTok if you're ever watching. Please share it with someone else. Please uh give me a follow if you're able to. Um please do not forget to grab the free culture survey. If you're looking for it, you can drop me a note in one of the social in one of the any social media or email, and I will send it over to you. Uh, but until next time, keep believing in your students, keep believing in your coworkers, and most importantly, keep believing in yourself. Appreciate you all. I love you all. Keep doing the work. We thank you for the work that you're doing, and I will see you all next week.