5 Ways To Influence Change
by George Couros • • 0 Comments
“At the end of the day, what qualifies people to be called ‘leaders’ is their capacity to influence others to change their behavior in order to achieve important results.” Joseph Grenny
In a time where the only constant in education is change, people involved with education need to become “change agents” more now than ever. You can understand pedagogy inside out, but if you are unable to define “why” someone should do something different in their practice, all of that knowledge can be ultimately wasted. People will take a “known good” over an “unknown better” in most cases; your role is to help make the unknown visible and show why it is better for kids.
Look at the debate over “new math” right now. Many people, including educators, are pushing back over the new curriculum based on the idea that math was taught in a much better way when we were kids. Simply explaining the process and the way we teach and learn math is not enough. It has to go deeper. Ultimately, you want people to feel that this is so much better than they were kids, and that their children are better off. Innately, people want what is better for kids. Tap into that, and people are more likely to move forward.
“To sell well is to convince someone else to part with resources—not to deprive that person, but to leave him better off in the end.” Daniel Pink
So how does this happen? Below are some things that I have seen effective leaders to have not people only accept change, but embrace it as an opportunity to do something better for kids.
- Model the change that they want to see. Although this might seem extremely “cliche”, it is the most imperative step for any leader in leading the “change effort”. Many organizations talk about the idea that people need to be “risk-takers”, yet they are not willing to model it themselves. Until that happens, people will not feel comfortable doing something different. It is also the difference between talking from a “theoretical” to “practical” viewpoint. Have you ever seen a PowerPoint on “21st Century Change” from an administrator who does not exhibit any of the learning that is being discussed in the presentation? Me too. People will feel more comfortable taking a journey to an unknown place if they know that the first steps have been taken by someone else. Although I believe in the idea of distributed leadership, the idea of “leaders” is that they are also ahead; they have done things that have not been done before. Chris Kennedy has shared the idea that leaders need to be “elbow deep in learning” with others, not only to show they are willing to embrace the change that they speak about, but to also be able to talk from a place of experience.
- Show that you understand the value that already exists. The word “change” is terrifying to some because it makes them feel that everything that they are doing is totally irrelevant. Rarely is that the case. I have seen speakers talk to an audience for an hour and people walk out feeling like they were just scolded for 90 minutes on how everything that they are doing is wrong. It is great to share new ideas, but you have to tap into what exists5 Ways To Influence Change | Connected Principals: