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"A friend of mine, teaching child development, was trying to figure out how to teach Freudian theory. It occurred to her to ask the class what they knew about it. They knew quite a lot, some of it accurate, some of it not. But by the time they had it all down, the class had an experience base to build from,” writes Elizabeth Jones in an article from the book, Developing People (part of the Art of Leadership series).

"As an administrator you can do the same thing," Jones adds. "You can assume that the adults are competent. There is, in fact, quite a lot of competence there, and some will be self-fulfilling if you assume it's there.

When confronting a new issue or problem, for example, you may want to start with the staff. You will eventually, as a group, start asking quite specific questions. At this point you could bring in an expert to supply specific answers, if that’s what’s needed.

But I don’t think you bring in experts until you’ve got questions for them. It’s a real drag to have experts come in telling you things all the time. While you’re supposed to be listening you’re doing your shopping list in your head because the question wasn’t one you had asked. You should only bring someone in after you, as a staff, have already established yourselves as knowledgeable."

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