Week 5: Improving Leadership at Boston Outdoor Preschool Network Through Communication and Collaboration

During my time at the Boston Outdoor Preschool Network (BOPN) it has become clear that the teachers are unsatisfied with the leadership at BOPN. While many teachers enjoy their day-to-day work, they constantly face difficulties with the leadership to the point that many quit. From what I heard from the teachers I work with daily I have identified two important ways BOPN could improve its leadership. 

Firstly, BOPN leaders seem to struggle greatly with communication. BOPN was founded by three women, one of whom is the organization’s executive director. My understanding is that the executive director does most of the communication with teachers and parents. The teachers find her incredibly frustrating to communicate with. Teachers working in one of BOPN’s locations now refuse to communicate with the executive director and exclusively communicate with one of the other two founders. Additionally, the teachers seem frustrated with how the executive director communicates with parents. The messages she passes along are difficult to keep track of and seem to continually send parents back to teachers with more questions that should have already been answered. Recently, the executive director went on vacation and people actually felt relieved that the week went more smoothly, in part probably because there was not a constant back and forth where nothing was accomplished and concerns were not addressed.

What is most troubling to me about the communication issues at BOPN is that when I asked who made certain decisions, my teachers could not give me an answer. It is unclear to the teachers who is making big decisions that impact the entire organization. I think the leadership team would be much more effective if they explained why they made a decision, what informed that decision, who was involved in the conversation, etc. to the teachers. 

Secondly, I think the leadership team needs to work on collaborating with the teachers more, which goes hand-in-hand with improving communication. The teachers don’t feel heard by the leadership team and are often underappreciated. While the teachers occasionally fill out surveys for the leadership team, they often are not anonymous and don’t seem to be actually taken into account by the leadership team. A start-up will have plenty of growing pains but these could be minimized if the leadership team collaborated more with the teachers. The teachers are doing the work daily, but don’t seem to be involved with the big organizational policy decisions. Additionally, when teachers voice concerns about something they experience in the “classroom” or a decision the leadership team makes the teachers are not listened to. I think BOPN would run more smoothly and the leadership team would be more effective if there was increased communication and collaboration.