Your School Team Isn’t Broken, It’s Just On Airplane Mode

We redefine collaboration as a choice built on trust, healthy conflict, and accountability, not simple proximity. We map five levels of team trust and share concrete steps to repair culture so schools can pull together with purpose.

• collaboration as unity, trust, connection and accountability 
• why trust is the oxygen of teamwork 
• five levels of team trust from surface to purpose 
• healthy conflict versus gossip and avoidance 
• four moves to rebuild a broken team 
• accountability reframed as support and commitment 
• signals your culture is healing and aligning 
• urgency for educator wellness and sustainable culture

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Transcript

Redefining Collaboration

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Collaboration isn't just working side by side. Do not think because you work near someone, you are working with someone. Collaboration chooses trust, collaboration chooses connection, collaboration chooses accountability, and collaboration chooses purpose over preference. And your culture will only be as strong as your team is connected to each other.

Show Welcome And Audience Ask

SPEAKER_00 0:24

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.

Series Context And Belgian Horses

Trust As The Oxygen Of Teams

The Five Levels Of Team Trust

Healthy Versus Unhealthy Conflict

Rebuilding A Broken Team

Accountability Reframed As Support

Culture Stakes And Urgency In Education

Core Takeaways And Next Topic Preview

Closing CTAs And Resources

SPEAKER_01 0:45

What is going on, Pod? Welcome back to another episode of the Teachers Ed Podcast. I'm your host, Ebert DeShazer. Uh Teachers Ed Podcast is the place where the best and brightest in education come to be inspired, to connect, to learn, and to grow. Uh, if you are tapping in on Spotify or on Apple Podcasts, please do me a huge favor. Leave a star review. If you're listening in on YouTube or if you are tapped in live on TikTok with us, please uh head over to Apple Podcast Spotify. Leave the podcast review. It helps us get in front of uh helps us keep to get in front of uh dynamic educators like yourself. If you're tapped in on TikTok, do me a huge favor, drop a comment, hit one of those little hearts, uh just to give it some likes to get in front of more people. Definitely appreciate the love and support. As we are going into uh a series that I've been going uh doing for the last six weeks now, um, talking about school and organizational culture. Um, those things are so important. So if and if you missed last week's episode, right now we're currently on part two. Uh we're currently on the second of the pillars collaboration teamwork. So we are going to be going deeper into um collaboration teamwork today, which is the second pillar of the Building Bridges blueprint. So if you missed last week's episode, please head back, check it out. Uh, we talk about why collaboration matters, um, why teams struggle and why are and we broke down the Belgian horses story about how uh Belgian horses uh individually can pull 8,000 pounds uh as a team, they can pull 20,000. When those teams train together, they can pull up to 30,000. So uh we're gonna get started. Uh today's episode, we're gonna talk a little bit about trust, about healthy conflict, accountability, how to repair a broken team, um, and how to lead your team forward. So uh let's make sure we tap in before I get too far. Uh, for those who uh like coffee, I always gotta shout out our podcast partner, Rise Mushroom Coffee. Um, it is packed with six functional mushrooms that support focus, steady energy, gut health, um, and uh help with stress. I love it. Uh tastes great, easy to make, and it lasts without the jitters. And if you live in the Midwest where it gets dark fast, you go to work and it's dark, you're leaving it's dark. Uh, it's important that you are not crashing come to PM. Head over to Rise R Y-Z-E-Superfoods.com and you can use my code Edward DeShazer, and you will get 15% off your order. All right, jumping right in. We have to understand that uh trust is the foundation of collaboration and teamwork. Uh, trust is the oxygen of teamwork. Um, without it, every meeting uh can feel super heavy. Um, every conversation in a school and organization can feel personal. Um, every decision is going to feel extra stressful. Uh, and here is the truth most teams that are broken aren't suffering from a lack of talent, they are suffering from a lack of trust. Uh, trust is built on honesty, it is built on vulnerability, it is built on reliability, and trust is built on respect. And trust gets broken when people begin to shut down, it gets broken when people stop uh sharing, trust gets broken when people start uh assuming, uh, and trust can get broken when people begin to avoid each other or when people get hurt and never talk about it. Uh, that passive aggressiveness that you often see uh that can happen in schools, and there are five levels of team trust. So I want to go through each one because every team that you lead, uh every group that you are part of, uh, every organization sits somewhere on this ladder. So I want to walk through them. Uh, the first one is surface level trust. This is just the I know who you are. This is what we would call um a polite trust. So people know each other's names, people know what classroom you're in, people know your roles, uh, people smile in the hallway, people are cool, everyone's vibing, uh, but they do not really collaborate, they are really just coexisting. That's the first level. The second level is functional trust. That is more of I know what you can do. And this is when people start to understand each other's strengths. Uh, you know, you know someone that is good with behavior strategies, you know, someone that's super good with art, you know that tech person that is really good, um, you know, the person that's super organized, the detail person. Teams at this level respect each other's skills, but communication still stays fairly safe and fairly uh shallow. The third level is relational trust. This is the I know you and I value you level. So this is the third level. Uh, this is where collaboration starts to grow. This is where people start asking each other for help. This is where people feel comfortable being honest. This is where people share ideas, this is where people check uh in on each other, but conflict still oftentimes can be avoided. What's going on, Trav? Uh, level four, the vulnerability trust. This is the I Can Be Honest Wrest. This is the level where phenomenal teams, this is the level of great teams, not listen, it's not you're talking about organizational teams. This is sports teams, this is any group where people have to work together. The I can be honest with you is where the great teams start to uh really show their face. This is the level where people can say I messed up. This is the level where people can say I am overwhelmed. This is the level where people can say uh I need help. This is the level where people can say, I disagree with you, but I respect you. Teams at this level do not avoid the tough stuff, they talk through it. This level can be very rare in organizations, very rare in teams, very rare in schools. Um, but when you achieve it, collaboration becomes natural and collaboration becomes super powerful. And then the fifth level, the boss level, the top level, uh, this is the the purpose trust. Excuse me, this is when we are in it together. This is the championship level of all the trusts, and teams at this level don't just work together, they fight together, they solve together, uh, and they win together. When teams get here, this is when we're pulling that 30,000 pounds, like those two Belgian horses. And here's the thing most schools and most organizations never get past level two. But the teams that do, those are the schools, those are the organizations, the teams, they have the strongest cultures. Every team you lead exists on one of the five levels of trust: the surface level trust, where we know the names, the functional trust, where we know the strengths, the relational trust where we know each other, the vulnerability trust, where we where we can be honest with each other, and the purpose trust where we are pulling together. Great schools don't operate on politeness, they operate on purpose. And when your team can reach that level five of trust, this is when the 8,000 pounds becomes a 30,000 pound pulling. And from there, I want to talk about conflict. Um, a lot of teams, a lot of people, a lot of organizations avoid conflict because they think conflict is bad. That is not true. There are two types there are unhealthy conflicts like gossip, uh, negativity, uh, personal attacks, complaining, silent resentment, passive aggressive comments, which the passive aggressiveness is what drives me nuts uh more than anything as a leader. Those destroy trust. But then you have healthy conflicts like you know, saying to someone, I see things a little differently, or going together and saying, Let's find the best solution. Uh, or you know, you have a coworker and they come up and they say, You know, help me understand your perspective. I I don't agree with you, but I'm with you. Healthy conflict is not toxic, but it is necessary. No great team exists without conflict. Say this again no great team exists without conflict. The difference is how they handle it. When a team can disagree respectfully, that is a team that can grow. And maybe you're listening to this and you're like, you know, Edward, my team is is past being broken. We don't trust each other, we barely talk, people are avoiding each other. And let me be very clear that a broken team can be rebuilt. A broken team can be repaired, but it's only if the leader of that school, leader of that organization, leader of that team, um is moving intentionally to repair it. So I'm gonna give you four steps to rebuilding trust. Uh, number one, trust call to rebuild trust, you gotta call out the truth with compassion. We have to say what everyone feels but won't say. People respect honesty, but we have to make sure that our honesty comes from the a good place and we share it the right way. Number two, uh, make space for people to speak. Everyone needs a chance in your organization to share their experience. That is so important to rebuilding trust. Step number four, establish new norms. If you want new behaviors, you have to have new agreements. If you want new agreements, you have to establish new norms. You know, little things like we don't talk about people, we talk to people. This is so big. People love to talk about people, but never talk to people. Don't don't don't tell me about the person, tell them and talk to them about your challenges. Uh, another perfect agreement is we give feedback with respect. Respect is critical when we're talking about collaboration and teamwork. It's the foundation of every single relationship, is respect. And then the last part of that of that is we assume positive intent. We have to assume that everyone on our team is doing things with a positive mindset. If we assume that people are moving negatively, we are going to see everything they do with that intent. So it's critical that we assume positive intent with everything we see people doing. And last but certainly not least, we have to celebrate progress and not perfection. Teams heal and it may be slow. Healing is not something that happens overnight. Healing is something that takes time and it could be slow. And sometimes healing is slower than we are hoping it to be. But every positive moment in our school as we are rebuilding matters. If you have a broken team today, it is not going to be solved by tomorrow. It is going to take time to uh heal. It's going to take time and intentionality for things to get better. Great teams aren't the ones that never break. Great teams are the ones that repair and move forward stronger. I'll say this again because that's so important. Great teams are not the ones that never break. I've been a part of great teams that have broken, whether it was a football team, an organizational team, great teams will break. You see it in the NFL all the time. Teams, when things get tough, teams struggle. But the ones that make it to the Super Bowl, the ones that get ahead, the ones that are are build a dynasty year after year, like your organization can be a dynasty. But those are the ones that when there are conflict, news flash, there's going to be conflict. The great ones are the ones that don't break, but they repair and they move forward stronger. A broken team can be rebuilt, but it's going to start with honesty and it's going to continue with courage and it's going to grow through consistency. Teams don't just fall apart all at once, they fall apart through silence, they fall apart through assumption, and they fall apart through avoidance. But teams can come back to life through communication, they can come back to life through vulnerability, and they can come back to life through shared purpose. Great teams are not perfect, but great teams do repair. Alright, next part. I want to make sure we get through each one of these because we're trying to go a little deeper in collaboration and teamwork. Eric, what's going on? I see you tapped in. Appreciate you, bro. Number five, we're gonna talk about accountability. Accountability oftentimes gets a bad reputation because people hear, and man, someone's gonna get offended to this aspect, and that's okay. Normally it wouldn't be okay, but today it's gonna be okay. People hear the word accountability and they think punishment, they think blame, they think pressure. But real accountability is love. Real accountability is support, and real accountability is commitment. Accountability says I care about our team too much to let this nonsense slide. Uh, accountability says I believe in you too much to let you struggle alone. Accountability can look like we agreed on this, so I'm not gonna let you fall short. We are going to stick to the plan so we can execute at the level that we expect to execute to. In high performing teams, accountability is normal. In weak teams, accountability is feared. Accountability doesn't work without trust. Uh, but once trust exists, accountability becomes a gift to your team. And I have seen people account of accountability can feel like punishment and pressure when people are used to doing just enough to get by. In 2025, as we wrap up and get ready for 2026, just enough to get by is not going to work in education. Maybe it's gonna work in other sectors. Education cannot afford to be moving with the spirit of just enough to get by. So we must be accountable. So, how do you know uh when your team is growing? When you start to see you know that there's collaboration and teamwork, when you start to hear more we're than's, when you start to see more collaboration than complaining, when you start to see people a little more active than silence, um, you know, more honesty than avoidance, and when you see more forward moving uh people versus finger pointing, you're gonna know this. And when you notice that people start showing up just a little bit more uh for each other, that is when it is absolutely huge. When your team starts pulling together just like those horses, your culture is going to become unstoppable. We are living in desperate times in education. Like I need you to hear this for those that are still listening, and I need you to understand, look around what's going on politically, look around what's going on with teachers burning out, looking, look around what's going on. We have had the dynamic teachers that are just retiring because it's not for them anymore. It is so critical that schools across this world develop a culture that is unstoppable because we cannot afford to lose any more educators than we've already lost. You know, and as we get ready to wrap up this conversation, this is the second part of collaboration and teamwork. I want to leave you with this. Collaboration isn't just working side by side. Do not think because you work near someone, you are working with someone. Collaboration chooses unity, collaboration chooses trust, collaboration chooses connection, collaboration chooses accountability, and collaboration chooses purpose over preference. And your culture will only be as strong as your team is connected to each other. A school full of 8,000 pound pullers can never outperform a team that's pulling 30,000 pounds together consistently. So next week we're gonna get into the staff wellness and morale because if your people aren't well, principals hear me, tenants hear me, team leads hear me, instructional coaches hear me. If your people aren't well, your culture is not going to matter, and it won't be well either. So, next the next two weeks we dive into staff wellness and morale. That is one of my favorite ones to talk about. Um, and it's one of the videos that I've had that usually gets the most amount of views when I really dive deep into teaching, just being temporary. And when we take care of ourselves, we become more dynamic teachers, we become better teachers, um, and we just begin to thrive as educators. So I'm excited to dive into that next week. That's it for today's episode. If you have not, make sure you go back on Spotify, go on Apple Podcasts, please, please, please, it would be a huge do me a huge favor, leave me a star review. If you are watching on live on TikTok, we'll be back live next week. If you're watching on YouTube, mash that thumbs up button. Um, if you have not grabbed the free Building Bridges Culture survey, please message me on Instagram or send me an email at ed at ebberdesher.org and I will get that out. If you have gotten the survey and you haven't done anything with it, it's time to get to work, it's time to put some action down. Um, but until next time, I want y'all to keep building bridges, keep leading with your heart, keep trusting and believing in those students, keep trusting and believing in your coworkers, and most importantly, keep trusting and believing in yourself. Appreciate y'all for tapping in. I love y'all, and I will see you all next week.