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Module 2: Building a High Performing Team

Due: 14th March

 
He waka eke noa
A canoe which we are all in with no exception
 
 

Strength Building

 

How is a team greater than the sum total of each individual part? This is the magic ingredient that defines good teams from the great ones. It is this key ingredient which is the pre-requisite to building and leading a high performing team.

 

Although high-performing teams have many things in common, there is one clear question that can determine whether you are building and leading a high-performing or low-performing team:

 

At work, do your people have the opportunity to use their strengths every day?

 

If people feel that they are using their strengths more often – contributing their unique talent out into the world – they will be more respected, more productive, more willing to sacrifice, more likely to stay at your school, less likely to have accidents at work, and have many, many more positive outcomes.

If you are a leader, the difference between a low-performing team and a high-performing team comes from you (the leader) having the emotional intelligence: knowing oneself and knowing the strengths of your colleagues, and asking them to contribute those strengths every day. This is the single most important driver of team performance.

 

Collaborating

 

It is vital that we collaborate in schools to meet the needs of learners. Schools have many complex problems that need to be solved on a day-to-day basis, from a classroom level to a school-wide leadership and governance level. No one mind can solve all these complex problems, so we need to harness the power of collaboration –

“The smartest person in the room, is the room” – David Weinberger.

 

We also know that teachers working together to improve outcomes for students has an enormous impact on student achievement. John Hattie’s research indicates that “Collective Teacher Efficacy” has a huge effect size; 1.57 and defines this as “the collective belief of the staff…. in their ability to positively affect students.” (www.visiblelearningplus.com)

 

Ensuring Quality Teaching

 

Remembering your team’s core business is important – teaching and learning. Your role as a leader is to ensure your team keeps this at the heart and remains focused on ensuring the teaching and learning in the team is ‘top notch’ and continues to be developed. Even the highest performing teams and teachers can become even more effective!

 

It’s an old saying but remains true – your team is only as good as its weakest link. Any expertise and knowledge must be shared as the learners in your team are your collective responsibility. It is no good having one ‘shining star.’

It is likely an important part of your role to lead inquiry into practice, which involves encouragement and building excitement and engagement, as well as rigorous inquiry into effectiveness of initiatives and learning from the team’s successes and failures.

 

Your role, therefore, is to prioritise your time to ensure you have oversight of the teaching and learning in your team. You will also need to ensure that you have a thorough and evidence based understanding of teaching and learning. You will use this understanding to help grow others’ knowledge and practice, and to help you measure the impact of the teaching practices employed by the team on individual learners. This may feed into target setting, teaching inquiries, problem solving, diagnosing and resolving issues in teacher practice and goal setting. You will also use your knowledge of teaching and learning, coupled with observations (formal and informal) to initiate conversations about teaching practices that, ultimately, improve outcomes for learners.

 

The resources below explore two aspects of collaborative practice and building effective teams:

  • The process of creating teams.

  • The characteristics of effective teams.

 

Note: You will need to explore the resources below prior to completing the provocation.

 
 

Provocation:

  1. Where in the process of team creation is your team at the moment? What do you see as key next steps to move the team to a more highly performing state? (See resource 2)

  2. Which of the Ten Tenets of Collaboration do you see as strengths and weaknesses of your team? What might you do to capitalise on the strengths and work on the weaknesses? (See resource 1)

Please post your reflections on the forum in 150 words or less.

 

Resources:

 

  1. “Collaborative Professionalism: When Teaching Together Means Learning for All” Andy Hargraves and Michael T. O’Connor – Chapter 4 LINK.

  2. Tuckman’s model of “Norming, Storming and Performing.” Summarised here – https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_86.htm

41 Responses

  1. Our team is currently in storming and norming. We are a relatively new team and are still learning each other’s strengths. Our DP started this year and we are all learning about his vision in regard to our kura ethos. Each of us interpret this with our own lenses. For example one of my colleagues is fantastic at creating a team culture within the staff and students. My role has been more around protecting and maintaining the literacy standards for our taiohi and whanau to succeed in school and in the future. We seem to have a mutual understanding here. For our next steps we need to become further experienced and experts at our roles. Communication and conflict resolution could certainly be an area where we need strengthening across the wider SLT and middle management. We are learning to speak to those directly involved rather than engaging in side chats which are non productive. One of the Ten Tenets of Collaboration I see as our strengths as Collective Responsibility and Joint Work. We work together as a full kura when it comes to morning training, daily full school karakia and cleaning the wharekai. Weaknesses that can be worked on are Big Picture thinking. To get to that point we must promote a safe and trustworthy in school environment. I think we can do this by active listening and providing outside of work opportunities to connect with whanau and wider community.

  2. 1. My team is a new team with three new members out of the four joining the school this year. We were all experienced team members and it didn’t take us long to bond as we had similar values and expectations. During term 2 we had one of the team members leave and a new member join. The new team member lasted for three weeks before leaving and one of our Deputy Principals joined our team for two weeks while we were looking for a new teacher. The new teacher has been with us for about three weeks. In the man time the team have been in the forming and performing stage, where we have really settled and had some great experiences with planning, moderating etc. At the moment we are at the forming/norming stage while the new member is taking everything in.
    2. Our teams strengths would be collective responsibility – we are able to take on various roles and responsibilities to ensure the team continues to function effectively, mutual dialogue is important in our team as it opens lines of communication and builds trust allowing us to exchange ideas to foster a collaborative environment. Diverse ideas and perspectives can be understood and integrated.
    What our team needs to work on – I believe our team needs to continue to work on collaborating with students so they are more activiely engaged in the learning process. I can integrate this with my team by providing opportunities for students to provide their honest ideas and insights eg brainstorming session, feedback forums and peer review and feedback.

  3. 1. Currently, at our school, we are looking for a new Principal. At the moment, our SLT team consists of 6 of us – Acting Principal, Acting Deputy Principal, Assistant Principal, DRS, and 2x Senior Leaders (of which I am one of them).
    Our team look for ways to use and build each others strengths within our roles – we overlook different aspects of the school, based on our strengths and what we are most passion about. For e.g. one of the areas I look after is Pasifika side of things at school. This is where all my time, efforts, and keenness I feel is most appropriate for me to look after. As a school with a very large population of Pasifika peoples, I find that it is important that I overlook this aspect of the school. Not only this, I attend most of the Pasifika events with parents, associations, and with our students – this helps me to build connections with aiga, and bring back anything useful for our SLT meetings to support our team and communities – as well as trying to bridge the gap between home and school.
    2. A strength for our SLT team is having the same common meaning and purpose behind what we do – it is always for the best of our school, students, staff, and communities. We align what we do with our school values which drives what we do in our respective roles. I would like for us to collaborate more with our students – as our planning and everything that goes on in the school is for them, it would be useful if we could get more student input on how we run things in the school, to not only benefit our students but also our staff – it helps build the sense of community and connectedness.

    1. It really sounds as if you are playing to your strengths Erica. I hope the new Principal has the skills to slot in where needed. It is a big workload when you are taking responsibility for a cultural dimension. The girls and parents must love seeing you there.

  4. Our schools current focus, Big Picture Learning an educational approach centered on personalised learning, we’re prioritising goal clarification, and skill-based development. I can see how insights from “Collaborative Professionalism” by Andy Hargraves and Michael T. O’Connor, Chapter 4, and Tuckman’s stages of “Norming, Storming, and Performing,” could guide our progress. I have also considered the significance of Collective Teacher Efficacy, understanding its impact on our collective success. By leveraging strengths like shared vision and mutual respect, and addressing weaknesses such as communication barriers and limited perspectives, BPL nurtures an inclusive environment where everyone feels valued and heard. BPL easily adapts to include open dialogue and incorporates diverse viewpoints that are key to fostering a culture where ideas flow freely, leading the school towards a shared goal.

  5. In my role as the Director of Student Services, the role at the school is greater than ever. I also feel that my team is in a very good space right now. We have had a very busy term and recruited a new Counsellor who has made a big difference.
    Our weekly meetings are productive and there is a positive vibe amongst the team. Colleagues are getting along most of the time and forming a bond in the workplace. I would suggest that we are at the lower Performing stage of the Tuckman model.
    A Tenet which I feel is a strength in the team is Collective efficacy. I feel that the team have a genuine desire to support students. We work out the best fit for each student who is referred our way or self-refers. If that student is not responding to a team member then we discuss the case and try a different approach which may require a new colleague to address the need. There have been a number of challenging cases.
    A Tenet which is a weakness is Collaborating with students. We need to get some feedback from the students in order to get a more realistic idea of our performance. This can be done with a google form.

  6. In my role as an ASL in our Kāhui Ako:
    1. I think our team is currently in the ‘norming’ stage. We appreciate each other’s strengths and feel comfortable to share our thoughts and ideas with each other. My role is helping to establish and foster relationships, sharing the workload and giving positive feedback to team members.
    2. Our strength is Joint Work (1.7) because we collaborate on almost everything we do to the benefit of our whole Kāhui Ako. We are good at discussing our thoughts and ideas with each other and then working together to complete the task.
    I think our weakness is Collective Initiative (1.5), not waiting to be asked to do something but rather to see what needs doing and make the changes needed.

    1. It is great to have such a collaborative culture in your team, Kelly-Anne. I really like this quote from David Weinberger – “The smartest person in the room, is the room.” I think a collaborative team culture is just like that – harnessing the collective expertise of a team to enhance student outcomes.

  7. I believe my team is in the ‘norming to performing’ phase. We have 3 teachers each with 10-plus years of experience and very similar goals in mind. We also have a beginning teacher in our team, she is eager to learn and a mature beginning teacher which makes it easy for everybody to relate to. Three of us have worked in our intermediate for a number of years so the beginning of the year build-up was already well established along with positive relationships. I believe some of our strengths are that we all respect and value each other and feel safe to ask each other for support when required. We will need to manage ourselves and find a balance as the workload increases to continue navigating through the ‘Performing phase’.
    Ten Tenets of Collaboration strengths and weaknesses of your team?
    Strengths: Joint work – collaboration of ideas and planning, feedback
    Work-ons: Big Picture Thinking and at times, Collective Efficacy – knowing that together we could do better and have a greater impact on ALL students (not just the students in front of you in your classroom.)

    1. What an extremely positive environment to work in Wiki especially for your beginning teachers. It sounds like a great learning environment all round. You comment on the mutual respect you have for each other which is also so affirming. I’ll be interested to see how the year plays out.

  8. At the moment, my team is in the forming stage. We’re new, with most members having less than three years of experience, eager to please and getting along well. However, I anticipate challenges as the workload increases, particularly around report times. To move the team towards higher performance, I’ll focus on clarifying our purpose and processes, ensuring everyone understands the reasons behind our approach.

    Strengths: Collaborative Inquiry and mutual dialog – We excel at working together to address issues and explore alternatives and we all get along and make an effort to talk to one another.

    Weaknesses: Initiative – With a young team, identifying areas of need is a challenge.

    To capitalize on our strengths, I’ll continue fostering an environment where open dialogue and reflection are encouraged. To address weaknesses, I’ll provide guidance and opportunities for team members to develop their initiative and problem-solving skills.

    1. I love how you are being intentional about how to ensure your team is functioning well, knowing that there are pressure points coming up – so sensible. I wonder how you might scaffold your team to identify areas of need, just like you would with learners in your class?

  9. 1) I believe our hub is between the storming and norming stages. At the start of the year, there was a lot to discuss and organise which was very overwhelming. On top of that, it was important for each of us to understand how each other worked best and set goals together, this all takes time. As a team, we are still working on effective collaborative planning. Time becomes an issue for us as it is important to allow discussions and bounce of each other’s ideas. Also encouraging others to be creative with lessons and to be open to adapting and trying new things is important. Now our hub is well and truly in the swing of things which sits us in the norming stage. Open discussions around behaviour and learning are happening not just at meeting times, and collaborative plans are in place for individual students.

    2. I would say our strengths are mutual dialogue, collective efficiency and common, meaning and purpose. We are effective in planning when setting goals and working towards these. Discussions are always respectful, and the purpose of the meetings is always met. Having an agenda is always helpful to stay on track! An area to develop would be big-picture thinking for all and collective responsibility. Working together to understand the content before planning and identifying the key learning before designing our programme is the next step for us. Also building on each other’s strengths and delegating different roles that complement them is an area to work on.

    1

  10. 1. In my role as Head of Faculty (PE and Health) I have three new part time staff in our department teaching 1 class each and 1 full time PE staff member who has been in my department for about 5 years. Therefore even though our department is in a good position we have some members who we don’t know quite as well, and are new to teaching PE too, so we float between storming and norming. We have set up a system where we are completing ‘walk throughs’ of each other’s lessons to share ideas, and create greater connection between department members. It is challenging to get all department members together at one time so we try to plan to meet outside of other allocated faculty time eg. a shared non-contact if we can.
    2. Of the 10 tenats our strength lies in our Common Meaning and Purpose (1.8). As teachers of PE and also with two of our deparment as Pastoral Deans and one in SLT, we view the the importance of preparing the whole child, so holistically looking at how we can support and educate our students to be the best they can be.

    1. Having people who only teach one class can be a real challenge especially if they are very committed to their other teaching responsibilities. When it comes to handing out the tasks either in curriculum or even preparing for events like Open Day it’s hard not to overburden yourself and the other full timer. Having a staff member in the SLT can be equally challenging. It’s a useful exercise to think it through as you are doing.

  11. 1. Our Year 1-3 team consists of three staff which for a few years consisted of only myself. Due to roll growth another staff member was moved from Year 7 to work in the Year 1-3 area two years ago and this year we have a new staff member I am mentoring who is also a PCT. I would say we are at the forming stage although I see elements of storming appearing as some roles and responsibilities aren’t yet clear. To enable a transition to norming these roles would need to be clarified. There is differences in the way people like to work therefore confirming a move to the storming phase also.
    2. I would say our strengths would be collective efficiacy and collective responsibility
    There is an need to improve our collaborative enquiry where teachers explore differences in practise in order to improve what they are doing.

  12. (1) I am personally at the mourning stage (read below) and am now moving into the forming stage, building trust and have hit a few moments of storming as I find it difficult when I know the huge benefits that can be reached with a tight knit team. I look forward to slowly getting to a point where the team are trusting one another and can work with each others strengths and help with the weaknesses.

    (2) I have moved syndicates this year, so am now teaching with a brand new team. The team I moved from worked collaboratively and everything seemed seamless. We planned together, taught together – all of our students had the benefit of all of our strengths through our planning and we as educators were open to the ideas and plans that were shared – which was so great when it was an area of learning that may not have been a strength. There was a sense of accountability, to give our students the best of us through the work and ideas of others. We were a strong team that felt very comfortable having conversations about what worked and what didn’t and discussing the best outcomes for our learners.
    Upon moving, I can clearly see what is needed to make things work for the team and how we can achieve the best for our students but it is going to take time to build trust and implement this.

    1

    1. Thank you for your honesty Femke. As you will be aware it takes time to build a tight team. Having experienced such a positive, collaborative and highly functional team you are well placed to build your new team from good to great.

  13. 1. I am part of a large school and work alongside a team of 3 to develop learning programmes linking ICT and digital programmes for our learners. As a team, we have been working together for the last couple of years and have moved through the forming and storming stages. Although we can move back through the storming phases when working on new initiatives. Currently, we are comfortable in our roles and are in need of a shake-up to stimulate more growth and change in our kura. I know I am ready to re-ignite my own passions through a new project and work alongside this with the team to enhance the teaching and learning for our students and teachers.
    2. Looking at the Ten Tenets, our strengths are collective efficacy, where we are able to make a difference while focusing on our own goals, this often drives our own desire for new learning. Our approach to collaborative inquiry, where we explore problems and differences of practices through inquiry, discussion and working alongside others in our kura. I think as a team we could work more collaboratively on projects, each contributing thoughts, ideas and workload more evenly in order to reach our goals and targets. Instead of working on our projects for the overall outcome.

    1

    1. I love your idea of reigniting your passion through new projects Jackie. You are quite right that you can move back to the storming when new challenges arrive. This does give opportunity for team members to be open and solution focussed.

  14. I’m looking at this in the context of my ASL role of Kāhui Ako – and our leadership team of 5 (2 co-leads and 3 ASLs).
    1. I think our Kāhui Ako leadership team is currently in the ‘norming’ stage, or at least starting to get there. We do oscillate between ‘storming’ and ‘norming’ and I think as the new year has started and we are trying to figure out where our priorities lie and who is working on what, we have reverted back a little bit. I think sitting down and clarifying portfolios will help. We have a clear sense of each other’s strengths, but as the only person on the team who is proficient with technology, I know I need to identify what I need from others in the team as well as more actively seeing others’ strengths.
    2. I’d like to see us more focused on big picture thinking (1.10). I think it’s easy to get weighed down in the little details and I know for me I get too involved in event management and comms, rather than thinking strategically about the community. I’d like to see us spend some time in our meetings focused on these broader issues, and I’m also hoping that having hubs (e.g. wellbeing, culturally sustaining teaching and learning) will focus our work with WSLs to focus on broader areas where change can be made. I do think one of our strengths is collective autonomy (1.1), as we aren’t hierarchical and have a lot of opportunity to work autonomously and to honestly feedback, critique and support each other. I think if we can bring this into our big picture thinking, this will help lift that.

    1. The stresses on the sector over recent years has meant that we’ve all been focussing on scheduling and problem solving rather than the big picture thinking that you more associate with leadership. Let’s hope this year is your opportunity to do things the way you aspire to do them!

  15. My team consists of 2 full time teachers and 3 part time teachers. We are all specialists teachers in a Technology setting. Each of us is responsible for providing a knowledge and skills based programme based on the NZC Document for Technology. We also have our local curriculum, which culturally based and inclusive within our daily Technology programmes. As a team we collaborate to plan for students learning needs and abilities. We have eight contributing schools attending our centre. At the moment we are at the 1:4 in Tenets-Collective Responsibility. Our teachers are at varying stages in their professional journey, and require from myself as their team leader, positive support and encouragement with modelling and also giving suggestions for their consideration. As a functioning team we share our ideas and reflect on what goes well and how we can make improvements if necessary. Most of our contributing schools are locally based and we have a unified vision.

  16. 1. Currently with the new distributed leadership team this year, we are in the Forming stage as we have 2 new team leaders. Roles and responsibilities are still being worked through. However, within our other Rākau teams structure, 6 teams in total made up of Year 0 to 8, some teams are operating at the Storming stage, where we are having push backs. This is evident through our new iDeal Spelling and Reading programme PLD. Key next steps are establishing clear SMART goals and believing we all can make a difference as a “collective crowd.”
    2. In terms of the Ten Tenets, a strength within our Leadership team is 1.2 knowing together we can achieve more. Operating in our rākau teams, 1.4 we are all responsible for the child who has turned 5. We continue to improve in our understanding of how we can make a difference. Through working together with evidence, having honest conversations, sharing successes, observations and feedback, this should have more of an impact on teachers.

    1. It sounds like there is much change afoot at your kura, Linda. I think you are right, especially in a time of such big (by the sounds of it) change, having clear roles and responsibilities is really important so you can get to ‘performing.’

  17. I am from a small school so my team consists of myself and one other teacher. This is our third year teaching together and I was also his mentor teacher. Last year I would have said we were at the norming stage, however as he adjusts to being off a mentoring programme and not having the PCT release, I feel we may have slipped back to storming. I need to maintain expectations and roles/responsibilities to keep him from being overwhelmed by the workload. Prioritising time to reflect on our class and team performance is also important to promote asking for help and putting forward ideas.
    Our strengths are collective efficacy and responsibility. We strongly believe that all our learners can succeed – they are ‘our’ tamariki and we support each other with discussion and ideas to improve behaviour and learning. I think this is building our collective autonomy as we are accountable to each other and our learners first and foremost.
    One of our weaknesses is collaborative inquiry. I have a lot of experience with this and actively seek it, however my team member is just beginning this journey and can find it threatening at times. Also, joint work. We do some collaborative planning in some areas, but more joint planning and team teaching would ease workload and pave the way for more open review and feedback with our tamariki at the heart of it.

  18. 1. My team consists of 4 Heads of Houses, who are the whanau teachers for the Year 13’s. I would say we are somewhere between ‘Forming’ and ‘Storming’. I haven’t worked as a leader with this group of teachers before and they are all at various levels of experience and motivation. My role as a leader is to ensure they are reaching set goals with the students, fulfilling their job description tasks and being there to help work through any student conflict and pastoral issues that may arise. 3/4 teachers are on board and at the moment are going through the motions while the continue to learn the requirements of the job, however 1 does push back and the motivation levels are quite low, I’m trying to awhi this teacher as much as I can but there is underlying tension.
    2. Our strengths are having a common purpose and meaning, and collaborating with students. A weakness would be collaborative initiative. The vibe isn’t that there is a lot of wiggle room within their roles, however going ahead and creating initiatives and changes is how we move forward. I think working on this would boost the confidence of some of the team.

    1

  19. At our small school our whole staff team consists of our principal who has been with us for 2 years, our Year 0-2 teacher who has been at Ahuroa School for about 15 years, our Year 5-8 teacher who is a first year BT who did a practicum with us last year, and myself (Year 3-4 teacher and “Emerging Leader”). I just started the “Emerging Leader” role this year and the Year 3-4 class is the first class of my own that I’ve had at Ahuroa School, although I’ve been a part of this school on and off for a decade in various other roles.

    Overall, I’d say we’re at the “Forming” stage as a team, but in terms of our individual journeys at Ahuroa School we’re all at quite different stages, which I feel is a possible source of tension within our small team. For me, there’s a feeling of “this is how we’ve done it in the past” vs. “this is how we’re doing it now/from now on”. Key next steps would potentially be to have a bit of “Storming” – some really open dialogue about “where to from here?” Then we could settle down to “Norming”.

    I believe our strengths include a sense of shared responsibility for the all the students in our school. We all take the initiative to help out colleagues in need, there aren’t many of us and we need to be able to rely on each other. This was put to the test in the terrible weather at the beginning of 2023, which greatly affected our community and environment. We sometimes collaborate with our students, as well as for them.

    We have several weaknesses, I believe. I’m not convinced that we all believe all our students can succeed, or at least we have different ideas about what that looks like (which is not necessarily a bad thing in itself.) We don’t really get into deep dialogue (let alone heated debate) about ideas, plans, politics etc. – refer to my comment above about “Storming” being a potential next step. I think we lack a big picture understanding and that we tend to operate in isolation rather than truly collaborating.

    1

    1. Claire the strengths that you describe in your team are positive and coupled with improving collaboration will assist in the storming phase. I agree that different ideas can be good thing. There is unity in diversity of thinking!

  20. 1: Our senior team is at the formation stage. We have just formed our team this year with new members to the group including me as the team leader and 2 beginning teachers. We are establishing how we best work together, looking at each other strengths and how we can work the most effectively as a team. My biggest role is helping to establish and foster the relationships, look at our collective responsibilities and sharing the work load. We have had a positive start by focusing on the different roles we all have and supporting each other. Giving positive feedback has been well received by the team.
    2: Team strengths: our planning is being shared amongst the team so we can see each others models, We collectively plan our inquiry as a team and organise our launch together. We are working hard at sharing the workload and using our strengths amongst the team.
    One of our weaknesses is making significant professional judgements together. We are now looking at data gathered and analysing it as a team as opposed individual teachers. This is helping to track our priority learners more closely, discuss ways to support them and put programmes in place. Working as a collective is one of our goals.

    2

  21. 1. Our team is currently in the initial phase of formation, where members are still acquainting themselves with one another and clarifying their roles within the team. Emotions range from excitement to anxiety as we have new staff in our school. As the team leader, I play a crucial role in providing clear direction and support while allowing space for interpersonal connections to develop organically. Building trust and rapport among team members takes time, necessitating patience and understanding. Encouraging open communication and facilitating team-building activities can expedite the process of bonding and collaboration. It’s essential to foster an environment where every team member feels valued and heard. As we navigate this early stage, establishing a foundation of mutual respect and shared purpose will be instrumental in moving our team towards the next stage.
    2. Our team’s strengths would be collective responsibility and collaborating effectively with students, reflecting our shared goals and commitment to student involvement. Because of this, our team has built good relationships within our team of four classrooms early on. I think at the moment our weakness is in collaborative inquiry and joint work among team members. This calls for improvement in conducting joint planning and sharing the load. Strengthening these aspects will boost our team’s effectiveness and promote a more cohesive working environment.

    2

    1. I liked this comment, Sorayah: “As the team leader, I play a crucial role in providing clear direction and support while allowing space for interpersonal connections to develop organically.” A principal I used to work for talked about being ‘strategically organic’ which I think is a really helpful phrase but can be tricky – when is it best to be strategic and when is it best to be organic?

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