"No wonder it feels personal that this team rejects your efforts. It is personal; it's happening to you. But it's not about you. This team might have so much internal tension that they can't stand to be in a meeting together. Maybe they had a bad experience with your predecessor. They might think they know it all already and attending meetings is just wasting their time. Or it could really be as straightforward as what they've told you: Their working hours and training times are already used up."
"You could tell this team that you're available whenever they do have time, and focus on the other five teams instead. If they've been feeling pressured to attend your meetings, letting them choose whether or when to meet might give them a sense of agency."
A literacy coordinator with 15 years of experience faces a disengaged team that refuses meetings and remains silent, while other teams respond well. The team cites contract hours and planning time constraints, but the coordinator suspects personal rejection. The advice clarifies that the team's resistance reflects their own internal tensions, prior negative experiences, or genuine scheduling conflicts—not a reflection on the coordinator's competence or worth. The recommended approach involves offering flexibility by making meetings optional and focusing energy on the five responsive teams, which may paradoxically restore the resistant team's engagement by reducing pressure and restoring their sense of control.
Read at Slate Magazine
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]