Successful difficult conversations

A simple strategy for developing staff performance

You might be familiar with the ‘I do, we do, you do’ strategy. I’ve heard class teachers use it and you might know it by a different name. If you don’t I think it’s a really neat way to support someone develop. It works like this:

I do – I demonstrate doing whatever the person is developing, ideally in a context that they would do it in. This might mean taking part or all of a lesson, planning a few lessons or making a handful of books. This is to show them what it looks like. If you’re not the best person to demonstrate then get someone who is and let them take ownership of developing the skills in the individual if you think they can.

We do – this is where we work on it together. We might plan together, with them taking the lead but with us on hand to support, to ask questions and offer suggestions.

You do – hopefully now they can have a good go at the skill on their own. You need to be able to provide feedback afterwards and help them think through what went well and what would help them improve further.

It’s simple and neat. Do you have other methods you use? I’d love to hear about them at [email protected]

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