Why Teal School?
Teal School was funded in 2018 with the aim of contributing to a school system based on Teal principles like self management, wholeness, and evolutionary purpose.
A Teal organisation is a self managed organisation, i.e. there are leaders, but no bosses, there are decision processes and accountability on team-level, and structures to uphold these processes.
A Teal organisation is thought of and built like an organism or eco-system, not like a machine. Consider the metaphore of the human body and you’ll see that people are cells, in organs (teams), in functional networks and finally as a part of the whole body (organisation). For that to function people are not working in an organisation as much as people are a part of the organisation. That’s where wholeness comes in. People in a Teal organisation are not asked to leave aspects of themselves at home.
For a Teal organisation to function, the “cells and the organs” continuously sense what is happening in their surroundings and respond to it. But, for the signals to lead to the right decisions there need to be a purpose, a direction. In a Teal organisation the purpose is however also evolutionary.
In the 8 years since Teal School was started a lot has happened; the pandemic, AI, more polarisation, more conspiracy theories etc. The trajectory we thought we were on, which gave us our purpose and goals in 2018-2019, has diverged into something else. With that our purpose need to change too, it evolves.
The basic principles from Teal will however always be at our core.
So, what is Teal?
Teal is the name of an emerging new paradigm, or model for sense-making.
An organisation is in essence a group of people that together can perform tasks and achieve results that individuals can’t manage by themselves. In our history as humans we have gone through six paradigms of sense-making, highly connected with the development of self or ego in individuals. The first two (described below in the picture as Infrared and Magenta) are reactive and cannot be considered as task organisations. In the Infrared stage scientists don’t even think we had developed a real sense of self.
So, what we usually discuss in the organisational context are the levels from Red to Teal – Teal being the emerging 7th paradigm. Although these stages of development have evolved throughout history, we can still see all levels from Red to Teal in action today. Red is for example typical for Mafia-like organisations, Amber is common in the military and churches, as well as in large institutions and companies (that can have aspects of all levels Amber to Green). Orange is the level that emerged with the Industrial revolution, like e.g. with Taylor’s Scientific Management.
As society changed and went in to the s.c. Information society the organisations started to change as well, entering the Green stage. As more people were educated and were given access to more information, companies started realising the need and value of involving employees in decisions. Valuing motivated and loyal employees led to empowerment programs, as well as programs to address company values and culture. But the basis at the Green stage is still in many ways the Tayloristic model, although with the egalitarian thinking added. Many companies that are agile in structures and work processes are at this stage.
Teal is something else, structurally. No bosses, radical transparency, teams that make all decisions, even set their own salaries. Instead of leadership calling the shots, the structural basis makes sure the right decisions are made. Advise processes, structured meeting agendas, and aligning with the purpose, are examples of what make these organisations successful, and healthy.
How can a school be Teal?
What can a Teal school look like? There are many ways to be a Teal School, but these are some most important organisational factors and pedagogical principles:
Students own their learning experience. They are co-creators of their own learning paths and learning experience. This means most kids develop self-leadership, self-efficacy and their internal motivation is preserved. If some, however, struggle with this they are never treated according to a standardised blueprint, since their needs are in focus.
Teachers are learning guides, facilitators and coaches. The point above leads to this. Teachers can’t be mainly lecturers in that kind of system.
Social Emotional Learning is not an add-on, it is the basis.
A Teal school is organised in teams, with no boss-subordinate relationships. It has a framework of practices that help teams in decision making, dealing with conflicts and developing as a team and as individuals.
To that we can add some things that are more optional:
“Classes” are often mixed in ages. Changing from one group to another is based on individual needs and development, not birth year.
The learning environment is often activity-based, so that there are choices between e.g. calm spaces and creative or active spaces.
A Teal school can have division into subjects and scheduling, but most often not like in a traditional school, but rather larger blocks of subject-based – but still to a large degree self-directed – learning, of collaborative project work and blocks of time cut out for democratic processes. How far the school goes in adjusting for self-learning or project based learning may depend on national rules and curricula.