My Why, How, and What
As I watched John Kotter’s video, Leading Change: Establish a Sense of Urgency, I thought about how I have changed the way I teach and how my students have more aspirations of their own when it comes to their learning growth. I gave them a sense of urgency without stressing them out and got them out of their comfort zones by telling them why. They have become amazing problem solvers who work well with others as they work through things. They understand, for the most part, WHY they are in charge of their learning, not me. I am just here to ask them questions that get them thinking and to guide them as learners. The ADL program has given me a sense of urgency to be a more efficient teacher and leader at my school. I want my school to be the 10% that meets their aspirations and knows that sense of urgency for change when it comes to teaching in their classroom. I want to inspire administrators to lead more engaging and efficient meetings, and for staff development to be more effective, the learners (teachers) need to know the sense of urgency for whatever they are being asked to do. It makes sense to get urgency up you have to get complacency down along with any negative feelings. Leaders of change must be ready to hear how people are truly feeling and be ready to help get them to get rid of the anger and anxiety they are feeling about the change being presented so they can have a sense of urgency, too. Educational leaders who have been out of the classroom for years, rolling out the next idea and getting little to no buy-in from teachers because they don’t get the urgency up and complacency down. I think it is also hard for some leaders to hear the negative about the new change being introduced, but in order to get the urgency up, they have to get the negative feelings down, and they won’t go away unless they are truly listened to, and those with the negative feelings feel heard and understood.
My “Why” video Learning Manifesto
Influencing Change
How can I influence change within my school? I want to help create change at Armstrong by increasing small-group instruction. My Innovation Plan focuses on providing a Blended Learning environment that uses station rotations with less whole-group teaching and more small-group, focused instruction. One of the things I hear a lot from teachers is, “I feel like my class just doesn’t listen during my lesson, and it takes forever to get through it because I have to correct so many behaviors.” I remember wondering a few years ago how I was going to compete with YouTube stars for the attention of my 4th graders. I believe whole group instruction is not an efficient way to teach or learn. Successful teaching is not one size fits all. Teaching isn’t regurgitating knowledge to learners; it is standing beside them, guiding them to become self-motivated learners. I believe small group instruction during station rotations will give more focused instruction to students, and they will take ownership of their learning when given choice and voice through authentic learning experiences when working at other stations. Our teachers will be using blended learning with their students in classrooms during instruction at least three times a week. In order for buy-in from teachers on my plan, I need to appeal to my audiences. read more on influencing change
4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX)
Crucial Conversations
As with any new initiative in education, there will always be pushback. There will be many crucial conversations throughout the implementation process. The biggest challenge seems to be when tasked with proposing a necessary and meaningful change to others in people’s comfort zone. Some people will find the need for change unnecessary, and some will believe just as strongly as me that change is needed. With that doubt and resistance comes the need for self-differentiated leaders (Camp, 2010) to step up, using specific tools and strategies to motivate their teams. This is where Crucial Conversation’s methodologies will help me in developing and leading the strategies I feel will make the biggest difference in communication with Armstrong. The key to real change lies not in implementing a new process but in getting people to hold one another accountable to the process. And that requires Crucial Conversations skills (Patterson, 2012, p. 13). Working on me first by knowing when high-risk discussions will take place and coming to the conversation with the correct motives and how to stay focused. Working on me first will also keep the emotional triangle out of our conversations. If I can model good dialogue in crucial conversations, others will feel safe to share. Leaders must make sure their motives are pure before they try to influence their team. Getting unstuck by learning how to identify the crucial conversations that are key to success and starting with the heart by staying focused on what I really want are important when implementing change in an organization. In order to move to our best, we have to find a way to explain what is in each of our pools of meaning—especially our high-stakes, sensitive, and controversial opinions, feelings, and ideas—and to get others to share their pools (Patterson, 2012, p. 27). When you fear that people aren’t buying into your ideas, you start pushing too hard. When you fear that you may be harmed in some way, you start withdrawing and hiding. If you don’t fear that you’re being attacked or humiliated, you yourself can hear almost anything and not become defensive (Patterson, 2012, p. 55). It is important to read the room and notice when the conversation turns. Remember that the only person you can directly control is yourself (Patterson, 2012, p.48). As my Innovation Plan takes shape and becomes more of a reality, I am becoming more aware of the need for Self-Differentiated Leadership and Crucial Conversations. Staying connected to others and the goal while keeping close tabs on yourself is what being a self-differentiated leader is about. Understanding and acknowledging team differences are also acknowledging different levels of emotions and feelings that may be present within a team. Following the clearly laid out steps in Crucial Conversations, nearly anyone can feel comfortable having conversations that are safe and productive. A good leader starts with pure motives before trying to lead or influence their team. Starting with your heart is the first step in this process.
Having crucial conversations will require taking a lot of tools into consideration and remembering in order to be prepared when the conversations are taking place. Being open-minded and receptive to not only myself but also others is most important. Remember, all of the strategies at the moment will be challenging at first, but I know after practicing and failing forward through the process, my communication skills will improve. For me, “learning to look” and “mastering my stories” seems to be good places to start when conversations become crucial. Looking at myself and recognizing when I don’t feel safe and how to change the dialogue is going to help me tremendously. I’m a passionate person who has always worn her heart on her sleeve. Staying under the radar and not making waves has been my thing for as long as I can remember. This program, especially this class, has given me the confidence I never knew I had and the tools to have productive conversations. I feel more confident in sharing and collaborating with the implementation of my innovation plan. Speaking up is hard. Being confident in what I am speaking about is even harder, but with the tools and strategies found in all of the resources in this course, I will continue to have more confidence when speaking up.
References
Camp, J (2010, November 10). Friedman’s theory of differentiated leadership made simple. [YouTubeVideo] Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgdcljNV-EwPatterson, K., Grenny, J., & Swizler, A. (2012). Crucial conversations: Tools for talking when stakes are high. (2nd ed.).