Undercover Boss

I recently enjoyed watching Undercover Boss. If you've never seen it, the idea is that the boss of a large organisation adopts a new identity for a week or two and goes to work with staff within the company in order to find out how it works.

It's a brilliant idea and it fascinates me how many bosses appear to have lost touch with the general day to day running of an outlet or a department.

It has given me ideas for when I am a headteacher. Of course it would be hard to go undercover in my own school, but I definitely want to make sure that I am always in touch with day to day running of all parts of the school. I would make sure that I spend time working with teachers in the classroom and find out about how a TA works with a teacher and wth the pupils. I would shadow the caretaker for the day to find out about how their role could be made more efficient. I would want to spend time with office staff and experience the demands of their role. It would be interesting to spend time with the midday assistants to explore how they could be more effective.

Unless you know how everybody works, how can you manage the school efficiently? It would help to maintain relations with staff and ensure you fully understand the demands on every member of staff.