How to change the little things

I've just finished reading a fascinating new book about change, "sw!tch: when change is hard."  Rather than focusing on the difficulties of change, the book outlines strategies for small changes that can make a big difference.  The authors, Chip and Dan Heath, outline three main concepts to consider when working on change: The rider (the rational side of people); the elephant (the emotional side) and the path (the environment in which the change will take place).  The Heaths ask us to consider that the change has less to do with plans and more to do with people.  Like Bridges, "Transitions," "sw!tch" focuses on the behavior of the individuals who need to implement the change.  In "Transitions," Bridges talks about how you need to give people space to make sense of the change before they can embrace it.  The Heath brothers drill down a bit further, outlining strategies to use when considering big changes.

Several education examples are included and I will summarize them over the next few posts.  The first involves a third grade teacher whose first classroom is made up struggling first graders.  This teacher, Crystal Jones, wanted her students to see themselves as successes, so she announced that by the end of the year they would be third graders, not in the literal sense, but in the sense that their reading ability would improve such that they would possess third grade reading skills.  She started calling her students "scholars."  By the end of the school year, 90 percent of the students were reading at a third grade level.  Jones had used one of the strategies that addresses the rider:  she made the goal clear and humongous.  She created a giant destination postcard:  reading at a third grade level by the end of the year, a goal that was irresistible to her students.  By engaging their riders, Crystal was able to change the future of the students in her classroom.

Coaching Beyond the Conference

Last Thursday, the Governance and Leadership Development (GoLD) team held a follow-up webinar for board members who had attended the Presidents/Leadership conference in July.  At that conference, communication tools that could help boards' meeting practices were introduced.  The webinar provided an opportunity to provide a quick review of the tools.   Participants shared their experiences.  The GoLD consultants, Deb Gurke and A.B. Orlik, facilitated the conversation, answered questions, and introduced a new tool that builds on the conference learning.

Resources shared on the webinar can be found on the GoLD website, under Better Meeting Practices.

The GoLD team hopes that board members will use this space to share their experiences using the tools. Use the following questions to continue the conversation.  Post your responses here.  Return to this page to see how others are using the tools.

• What about the Ladder of Inference is useful to your board?  
• Has you board created a group agreement?  
• How do you keep the agreements front and center?  
• How do you honor your group agreements?  
• Have you tried using the Focused Conversation questions?  
• How has this process helped you board have richer dialogue that leads to better decision making?  
• How has using these tools shifted the relationships among your board?

Finally, let us know how we can support you as you work to lead your board and district in meaningful conversations about your district's opportunities.

It's the people!!!!

Leaders can get excited about the prospect of introducing a new program into their organizations.  And, often are sorely disappointed when implementation fails to go as planned.  How many times are new initiatives abandoned, leaders and staff frustrated by the amount of energy and effort expended for very little result? And then, things go back to old way of doing things.

Well, part of the reason is that we tend to focus almost exclusively on the plan and very little on the people.  In his book, "Managing Transitions," William Bridges talks about this phenomenon, describing how we fail to recognize that people need to deal with the loss of the established system before they can take on the new system.  Bridges says that transition starts with an ending and finishes with a beginning.

How often have you recognized the emotional upheaval created by your decisions to implement new ideas in your school district?

Accentuate the positive

You've got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between
(Lyrics from a song made popular by Bing Crosby in the 1940s)

Positive? In today's competitive, supercharge environment, where there is no room for mistakes; no
time for do overs?

Well, it turns out that people are more productive when they focus on their strengths.  
Twenty-two percent of respondents indicated that they were likely to be disengaged when their 
manager primarily focused on their weaknesses. When their manager focused on their 
strengths, just one percent were like to be disengaged. (From Strengths Finders 2.0 by Tom
Rath).

If we expect our stakeholders to engage with us to solve the complex challenges we face, we need
to find ways to support, rather than criticize their efforts.

If you plan it, they will come!!

One of my passions is community engagement.  I believe that if we create a genuine space, people will come and share their ideas and passions--and commitment to public education.  When I talk about this, I often get pushback from the people who work and lead our school districts.  No one comes.  People don't have time.  We don't have time, or money, to plan it.  Only the cranky people come.

I understand that perspective as it is based on experience.  One that often comes out of what we encounter in public hearings.

Here is an example of what a community can do when visionary leadership calls for  genuine community engagement.  In Bibb County, Georgia, 4,000 people are participating in the district's strategic planning process.  Read more about The Macon Miracle here.

65 percent

That is the percent of children who are entering school today who will end up doing work that hasn't been invented yet.  How can we open up public education to innovation and creativity so that we can prepare our children for this future?  Most of our classrooms still resemble the 19th century model that was created to address the needs of that time.  We need to adapt so that we can prepare our children for the 65 percent.  Education needs a digital age update provides some food for thought on this subject.

People who make predictions must have tons of confidence

I don't think I understand what is going to happen next week, let alone in the next ten years.

Still, it is fun and important to think about how the world is changing.  One thing IS certain:  the pace of change continues accelerate.   Are you ready for what may come your way?

Here is a list of changes that could affect public education:
10 Things That Will Be Obsolete In Education by 2020