My Organizational Change Strategy

Finding my “why”

Meaningful change does not just happen. For change to be effective and lasting, leaders within schools and other organizations must first determine their “why”. As Simon Sinek tells us, people buy in to why we do something. The “what” is much less important.

What is my personal “why”? Why do I want to establish an in-class blended learning environment within my classroom?

Students need the freedom to explore language and culture in a personalized manner in order to develop respect for other peoples and places and a true understanding of how they learn.

To read more about my “why” and how it drives what I do, please visit What Is My “Why”?

Influencing others

Once a leader has a clear understanding of his or her personal”why”, it is important to bring the rest of the team on board. In education, the team could be department members, grade or team teachers, or even all staff for a whole school or district initiative. Obtaining buy-in from other teachers is not always easy. Many teachers are used to a certain level of autonomy in their classrooms. Consequently, mandating change is rarely effective. This is where the Influencer Model with its Six Sources of Influence can be helpful. There are six ways in which leaders can influence others to join them in their initiatives:

  • Personal motivation
  • Personal ability
  • Social motivation
  • Social ability
  • Structural motivation
  • Structural ability

Unfortunately, many leaders seeking to create meaningful change only make use of one or two sources of influence when trying to bring their teams on board. As a result, their initiatives are frequently less effective. Joseph Grenny and his co-authors explain that leaders should be making use of at least four, if not all six, sources of influence to increase the likelihood of success. To see how I am using the Six Sources of Influence to inspire the adoption of an in-class blended learning environment within my department please consult my Influencer Model.

Implementing change

Once a leader has been successful in influencing team members to participate in his or her change initiative, it is time to begin to implement that change. The Four Disciplines of Execution (4DX) reveal a common mistake made by many when implementing new initiatives: People try to do too much too fast. Regardless of the nature of the organization’s work, all teams become caught up in the whirlwind of the daily job. Therefore, if a leader tries to initiate too many changes at the same time, the likelihood of success diminishes. As Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, and Jim Huling explain in The 4 disciplines of execution: Achieving your wildly important goals, there are four steps to making meaningful and lasting change:

  1. Focus on the wildly important goal (WIG).
  2. Act on the lead measures.
  3. Keep a compelling scoreboard.
  4. Create a cadence of accountability.

As I work to inspire my colleagues to implement their own in-class blended learning environment, I am making use of 4DX to ensure that our new initiative is in line with larger School District and High School goals, to make it achievable despite the whirlwind of busy teaching schedules, and to hold everyone – including myself – accountable for the weekly commitments we make toward establishing a new learning experience for our students. Please visit my 4DX plan to read about how we are using this process to improve our likelihood of success and to see an example of our score chart.

Used together, the Influencer Model and 4DX provide a clear guide for making meaningful change and improve the probability of the success of new initiatives. To learn more about how these two practices complement each other, please read my post Influencing Change.

Communicating effectively

A leader may have the best idea in the world to improve the organization, but if he or she is unable to communicate about it and discuss it effectively, the idea may never find enough traction to be realized. Thus learning how to communicate effectively in crucial conversations is imperative. In the book Crucial conversations: Tools for talking when stakes are high, the authors stress the importance of maintaining a safety when conversations are high stakes, there are differing opinions, and emotions run strong. It is important to maintain Mutual Respect and Mutual Purpose when communicating with another person. To read about how I am using the suggestions of Crucial Conversation as I work to implement my innovation plan, please read my post Communicating Successfully.

References

Grenny, J., Patterson, K., Maxfield, D., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2013). Influencer: The new science of leading change (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Education.

McChesney, C., Covey, S., & Huling, J. (2016). The 4 disciplines of execution: Achieving your wildly important goals. New York: Free Press.

Patterson, K., Grenny, J., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2012). Crucial conversations: Tools for talking when stakes are high (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.