General Guide to Writing Merit Selection Criteria

©Mel Phillips Enhanced Educational Solutions February 2008 [email protected] ABN 59 167 429 946 Tel 07 5530 2676 www.melphillips.com.au Fax: 07 5522 9291

General Guide to Writing Case Studies For Upward Reporting that Double For Use In Merit Selection Criteria

Mel Phillips and Professional Performance Australia provide services in the areas of:  Professional writing skills and interview skills  Critiquing applications  Submission writing  Diagnosing and developing skills in leadership, management and team building with focus on embedment in the workplace  On-site work shadowing, development reports, coaching and leadership skill embedment

Please note: In these notes I present my recommendations of what should be done, usually without the reasons for why it should be done. Understanding the reasons why the recommendations are made involves more detailed understanding of standard panel assessment processes. This is presented at workshops or provided in documentation and consultation with clients.

However, this does not detract from the validity of these recommendations.

The Heading: Note: ‘Criteria’ is plural; ‘Criterion’ is singular. ‘Selection Criteria’ refers to more than one criterion. I suggest you make sure you use the words ‘Criterion’ and ‘Criteria’ appropriately, reflecting singular and plural number, as some panel members can subconsciously be negatively influenced by errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar.

Style: Be aware that the previous format (STAR – Situation, Task, Actions, Results) is now regarded as inappropriate. However, you should note that the minimum font size accepted by panels is Arial, size 10. Basically, the style of most presentations is OK. You must ensure it is in 1st person, active voice, as 3rd person, passive voice does not inject YOU into the statement, tends to reduce impact on the reader and also uses more words.

Length: In your upward report writing, I suggest you adopt a format that will allow you to get the complete message across in 200 to 220 words. It is important to be concise and precise.

Since the maximum length for a Selection Criterion is one (1) page, this will allow you to copy and paste 3 case studies from your portfolio of reports into the one page. Bingo! One SC is written from pre-prepared material.

The margins (top, bottom, left and right are not specified. I recommend you do not make these margins too narrow as it detracts from your presentation, making the SC look “busy” and crammed onto the page.

It is recommended that you present 2 to 4 scenarios in your response to each SC. Most applicants seem to write 3

Most people start to write SCs and succeed in getting them are well over length, ranging from about 25% over to 75% and even more. Once written, this is very difficult to cut back.

This document is provided for the personal use of the person who consented to receive occasional emailed newsletters and advertisements from Professional Performance Australia (and International Education Symposiums) concerning professional development. It may be copied, but the contents as well as the header 1 and footer must remain unchanged. Permission to use it in staff development sessions is freely granted to all who pay the courtesy of asking. ©Mel Phillips Enhanced Educational Solutions February 2008 [email protected] ABN 59 167 429 946 Tel 07 5530 2676 www.melphillips.com.au Fax: 07 5522 9291

It is also possible that some sections of your scenarios (or mini-stories) are overly emphasized at the expense of others.

Panels are to assess each application holistically. The 3 sections (Resumé, Response to Selection Criteria and Supervisor’s Report) are to be considered as a whole and judged as a whole. Weightings to each section are not supposed to be applied. An issue flowing from this is that if panels follow the appropriate processes (and at Band 10 and 11 levels, conducted by very senior officers, this is highly likely), applicants may well perform highly in the one or two sections, but because of imbalance or poor presentation in different sections, they may not be providing the depth of evidence that needs to be evaluated in the process. When working with clients I use a special order in writing and constructing the SC that minimizes this problem.

Living, Eating and Breathing Leadership Matters I recommend writing a statement about leadership that shows your passion for education. You must capture the essence of what EQ’s model of leadership is about, which is inspiring others through the power of your dreams, your vision of what can be achieved, combined with the energy, tactics and strategies you use in influencing others to commit to a common set of values, show their initiative, thus achieving increased levels of leadership commitment in the organisation.

The statement needs to reflect that your beliefs, your actions, promote Education Queensland’s vision; that you model commitment to being the ultimate professional, giving of your best, etc. Download a sample from www.melphillips.com.au/Sample_Personal_Statement.doc. However, you need to include in your own words, elements of the 10 sub-role concepts from the 5 capability areas of leadership matters.

Selecting the “Best” scenarios for your SCs: The “best” scenarios to select for each SC are those where your actions and the results that you obtained for kids most clearly reflects the range of expectations for all issues raised for that particular Capability area. For example, in the Educational Leadership capabilities area, check the series of statements, expectations and dot points that are stated in “Leadership matters”. Your SC must “look like, feel like, smell like” the essence of each capability area that you distil from each SC and the related sub-capability areas in “Leadership Matters”. Make sure that the sum of the skills that you demonstrate in the page of scenarios can be seen to cover all the panel’s expectations for that SC and the capability area that it is derived from.

Select an apt, precise, description of your “story” as the title of your case study. This is important!

Set the Context in 25 – 30 words: Use a sentence or two to describe concisely the challenges and complexities faced.

It should give the panel as clear a view as possible of the range of complexities that were faced in tackling this project. This is the area where the panel is given an opportunity to see your knowledge and experience in recognising the range of areas where challenges present themselves. You face challenges from people, from previously established policies, from

This document is provided for the personal use of the person who consented to receive occasional emailed newsletters and advertisements from Professional Performance Australia (and International Education Symposiums) concerning professional development. It may be copied, but the contents as well as the header 2 and footer must remain unchanged. Permission to use it in staff development sessions is freely granted to all who pay the courtesy of asking. ©Mel Phillips Enhanced Educational Solutions February 2008 [email protected] ABN 59 167 429 946 Tel 07 5530 2676 www.melphillips.com.au Fax: 07 5522 9291 pre-existing ’empires’ that you may be challenging, challenges from a suspicious, unsupportive or ‘turned-off’ community, or a community that has negativity towards education. You have to provide deep insight into the fact that this was a project of significant complexity, NOT something that ‘just anyone’ could have done.

The description of the situation is really the only area where the panel can assess your capacity to recognise complexity in your scanning processes. You must give the panel as clear an idea as possible of the challenges you faced. When you write the statement, make sure you give objective, unemotional, factual descriptions. Avoid statements that will read negatively. For example, “ … a complete absence of accountability documents …” would be better described as “ … accountability documents and processes provided opportunities for significant re-development in partnership with key stakeholders from staff and community.”

This should be a dispassionate, objective description of the situation that you faced when you decided it was necessary to undertake corrective action. You should be describing the “symptoms”, not giving the “diagnosis”. There should not be any conclusions in this part. The conclusions and what you plan to do about them should form part of the Big Picture Statement. The panel needs to see that your scanning processes produce a comprehensive range of soft and hard data that are vital for your strategic planning.

Big Picture 20 – 25 words: This flows on from the Context and is a little shorter. The 2 elements (Context and Big Picture combined should have a 50 – 55 words MAXIMUM length). This is where the TITLE you developed comes in for use. It should provide a blueprint (or a strategic overview) of your actions. It is the area where the panel can see your ability to clearly visualise the ‘big picture’ of what the project is about and how it aligns with systemic goals.

This will show the panel that you have a good grasp of the major processes involved as an indicator of your ability to think and plan strategically.

This will also suggest an idea of the sequence of the actions you undertook that you will be able to mirror in the implementation section.

The direct link from the Big Picture to the set of clearly articulated, sequenced actions in the next section will help develop internal continuity and internal consistency.

Implementation Section: (100 to 110 words Maximum): This section should reflect the sequence of processes suggested in the Big Picture section above. The scaffold for your actions section is the set of actions that you did to achieve the changes in people or processes that had to be made. These are the “Outputs”. Without these changes, the essential OUTPUTS, things would continue to be done in the same way, ultimately achieving much the same result as previously. I describe these as “WHAT” statements. The panel is critically interested in the reasons for your actions (‘underpinning rationale’) and the tactics, strategies, devices, plans, etc, that you used to get them achieved (‘underpinning methodology’). Quite simply, I describe these as the “WHYs” and the “HOWs”. Well-written action statements will wherever possible, show a balance between “WHAT”, “WHY” and “HOW”. I usually do not see enough evidence of the People Focus in the way applicants write. The focus tends to be more on expertise in curriculum and micro management. For example, no

This document is provided for the personal use of the person who consented to receive occasional emailed newsletters and advertisements from Professional Performance Australia (and International Education Symposiums) concerning professional development. It may be copied, but the contents as well as the header 3 and footer must remain unchanged. Permission to use it in staff development sessions is freely granted to all who pay the courtesy of asking. ©Mel Phillips Enhanced Educational Solutions February 2008 [email protected] ABN 59 167 429 946 Tel 07 5530 2676 www.melphillips.com.au Fax: 07 5522 9291 key/critical people identified who can influence others (other than saying, things like, “… identified and engaged …”, frequently no recognition/reward for effort/achievement, no indication of tactics or strategies used to persuade towards changing attitudes/values, nothing about anyone beyond the in-school community. Identify the key elements in the Educational, Inter-personal and relational capability areas, then check out whether you can clearly see them in what you have written. The Actions section will be well-written when you have essential elements of balance “WHAT”, “WHY” and “HOW” in there – try to provide balance in each statement. You must ensure it presents as a study that is about developing leadership, not about the project you did. The project and its description are the SCAFFOLD, on which you have to construct a case study about LEADERSHIP. Try this: 1. Rewrite the Big Picture section to provide a blueprint. 2. List the WHAT statements in the sequence of the rewritten Big Picture statement. 3. Now, look to add the WHYs and HOWs from the Key Indicators. 4. Keep to the word length (100 words) – VITAL!

Outcomes: I believe that there are two core elements in an educational leader’s role: 1. Ensuring the delivery of Quality Teaching, and 2. Facilitating Quality Learning Outcomes.

I believe that if this section omits reference to achieving outcomes in these two core areas, then the Outcomes (Results) section has essentially missed the point.

Desirably, this section is about 50 - 55 words. For an effective format, I recommend you identify the achievements and changes achieved (OUTPUTS – about 30 words). Link these to indicate how they combined to produce the learning outcomes you want for your clients (OUTCOMES) and provide compelling evidence to increase the panel’s confidence in you in comparison with your competitors (about 20 words).

Thus, the preferred format is: OUTPUTS  OUTCOMES + EVIDENCE

In many applications that I review, statements frequently appear as OUTPUT statements – no OUTCOMES (effects of these achievements on students, measured, with evidence) are given. The tendency is to focus on what was done, rather than provide an insight into the impact that what was done had on kids and their learning.

The evidence is an important component in helping give the panel extra confidence in you compared with your competitors. Evidence quoted should be compelling and convincing, specific wherever possible (eg, improved x years in reading age over a period of 4 months, or graphic comparisons, or insightful comments from a recognised expert, …)

It is not important that the evidence provided is “hard” data (ie, graphs, tables, percentages, etc). “Soft” data (anecdotal comments, quotes from Executive Director or PMO, etc, are every bit as valid and valuable. What is important is “source integrity” - the source of the

This document is provided for the personal use of the person who consented to receive occasional emailed newsletters and advertisements from Professional Performance Australia (and International Education Symposiums) concerning professional development. It may be copied, but the contents as well as the header 4 and footer must remain unchanged. Permission to use it in staff development sessions is freely granted to all who pay the courtesy of asking. ©Mel Phillips Enhanced Educational Solutions February 2008 [email protected] ABN 59 167 429 946 Tel 07 5530 2676 www.melphillips.com.au Fax: 07 5522 9291 data, how far it is removed from any potential influence from yourself, however innocent or unintended that might be. This is important for hard data as well as soft data.

Other points: The Resumé section can be made significantly more valuable in the information that it provides for the panel. Information (and models) concerning this is provided to clients. Condensed writing is a skill that requires development. Each sentence needs to be scanned as it is written to ensure:  1st person, active voice is used in preference to 3rd person, passive voice.  Every phrase and every clause must be checked to see how a single word can be used instead. For example, an adjectival phrase comprises a preposition, article and noun. Look for the adjective itself, and position it appropriately to be used as a descriptor. See if it is possible to shorten this: “Built success and pride through establishing learning teams which coordinated reflective, challenging Professional Development, mentoring opportunities and celebrating achievements.” Try writing it as you would have written it and note the substantial increase in word count.

"The greatest barrier to learning is the false confidence that comes from being unaware of what one needs to learn".

This document is provided for the personal use of the person who consented to receive occasional emailed newsletters and advertisements from Professional Performance Australia (and International Education Symposiums) concerning professional development. It may be copied, but the contents as well as the header 5 and footer must remain unchanged. Permission to use it in staff development sessions is freely granted to all who pay the courtesy of asking.