Mike has worked with us on a consultancy basis at CDNIS for the last two years. He has delivered training to our Lower School Learning Leader Team. In the first year this training focused mainly on leadership theory and building healthy team dynamics. In the second year it has focused more closely on change leadership and has contained an element of coaching in triad groups. The training has been very successful and has enabled our middle leaders, some of whom are fairly inexperienced, to … [Read more...]
PD Process Consulting
Between 2016 and 2018, Michael and I worked on improving the professional development offering for our support staff, by making it more strategic, fair and equitable. Michael developed a needs analysis tool that provided baseline data and allowed to strategize optimal use of our funding to best support a larger number of our support staff, in a more strategic manner. Michael involved himself deeply in the project, spending several days a month in Shanghai over the course of 9 months to … [Read more...]
Governance Retreat
The workshop went off as planned. Much of the success, I believe, was due to the large amount of planning Mr. Iannini completed, including contacting all Board Members prior to the retreat to fill in a personality inventory to use at the meeting, and meeting them all over Skype to get to know them and to find out what they specifically were looking to get out of the retreat. This personal touch was particularly helpful as we only had a limited time, and the effectiveness of this was evident in … [Read more...]
DiSC Assessment for Board Governance
We selected Michael as he was able to demonstrate that, in addition to his technical expertise, he had the personal attributes to engage our team and bring out their best. The consensus of our team was that the successful outcome derived from Michael's careful pre-analysis, including perceptive interviews of the participants before the program commenced, and an uncommon ability by anecdotal good humor to draw out everybody's opinions, encouraging interactive discussion and create a sense of … [Read more...]
Board Health Check
Michael's work with our Board has empowered us to take positive, purposeful actions in the areas that are likely to generate the greatest return on investment in terms of improving Board performance. Andrew Brandler Chinese International School (Click here to read the full recommendation letter.) … [Read more...]
Leadership Program for all Leaders
Michael initially began working with our academic middle leaders: a newly formed group of Heads of Faculty. He helped them facilitate a number of sessions based on leading their teams in the ISF context, focusing on identifying team norms, communication preferences and managing difficult conversations. In addition, Michael facilitated a session at the beginning of the 2018-19 academic year which brought together the full middle and senior leadership teams from Secondary school. In all my … [Read more...]
Board Governance
Having been in a couple of these types of workshops in the past, I personally found Michael’s workshop to be the most beneficial. Michael understood the school’s current position and guided discussions towards clear, actionable items. His workshop was not generic - it felt it was tailor-made for us. All participants walked away with new information and specific tasks needed for our school to grow. Michael was also approachable beyond his main brief. Michael was happy to share his advice weeks … [Read more...]
Strategic Planning
I can categorically say that whatever Michael promised, he delivered in terms of outcomes. He spent considerable time getting to know our school and was very giving of his time and energy when we sought his help and advice during the process. I felt that Michael genuinely wanted to see us be successful in this process and that he was very invested personally in both the process and the outcome. As a presenter, Michael is outstanding. He is highly energetic, speaks with great knowledge of the … [Read more...]
Teacher Leader Coaching
Wanna report. I used what I learned this morning, more than one time!! Feel awesome!!! Toni Dong Tsinghua International School I just wanted to touch base and say thank you for your time and expertise. I have been surprised and pleased at how well the "let's set the agenda for the next meeting" is going. That opened up quick discussion and paved the way for a future productive meeting...I have had 1:1 meetings with the team (and) got them to fill in the Team sheet you sent and I also … [Read more...]
Difficult Conversations
I wanted you to know that yesterday I had a meeting with an EAL Teacher who was having conflict collaborating with a content teacher. I used the "Quick Guide to Probing Questions" as a scaffold for that conversation, even making it clear to the teacher that I was practicing using some tools I had recently learned at a conference. As she discussed her perspective, I found asking the question "What is the best outcome in this situation?" to be a great way to focus our conversation. Thanks again … [Read more...]