Launching an innovative project in any organization is no easy task. There are many vicissitudes that one has to face; therefore, one has to use different tools to lead change in an organization efficiently. One need to know the Why, How, and What of the project, spot vital behaviors to be accomplished, and make use of proven methods such as the Influencer Model and the 4 Disciplines of Execution to implement these changes. Furthermore, one has to have the sensitivity to handle crucial conversations among peers efficiently.
Why, How, and What
The Why, How, and What of the Blended Bilingual Program represents the beliefs of a group of educators committed to the well-being and the development of the academic excellence of our students..
Why? At Natha Howell Elementary School, we believe in bilingualism at an early age as a mean for learners to embrace academic and career challenges in a multicultural society.
How? We can achieve this by facilitating a learning environment that promotes diversity, creativity, and academic excellence.
What? The Bilingual Blended Program prepares students to become lifelong bilingual learners.
Vital Behaviors
Individual and organizational development is directly associated with our ability to change. It is our individual and collective capacity to adapt to what we have and what we want. However, this change is not an end in itself, but only a necessary means to adjust to new conditions and maintain or increase competitiveness, performance, and productivity. The most challenging area surrounding change is focusing our purposes in the right areas, for the right reasons, and at the right times. We believe that our Bilingual Blended Program can make a profound impact in our DLE students; therefore, we embrace change as a mean to accomplish our goal. We have identified two vital behaviors that will be the cornerstone of this project.
Vital Behaviors
- Use data daily to differentiate instruction and guide student learning. During a typical lesson, due to time limitations, it is practically impossible for a teacher to ask every single student if they understood the conveyed lesson. Therefore, teachers should use simple technologies such as Plickers to collect instant and reliable data from every formative assessment and Gradecam for summative assessments. Upon the data collected, teachers would decide if the students accomplished the desired goal. If not, they will know which students require differentiate instruction either individually or in a small group. In the worst scenario, they will reteach the whole lesson again.
- Use a range of technologies that effectively encourage student learning and communication. Teachers will use technologies such as Its Learning to facilitate instructional delivery better and engage today’s digitally wired students. Technology will allow teachers to supports teaching and learning anytime and anywhere.
The goal
In order to deliver quality digital content to their students, all DLE teachers in the Bilingual Blended program will utilize Its Learning Management System in the classroom by August 31, 2017.
Accountability
We will set monthly goals to be achieved. We will measure progress by holding weekly meetings. Team affiliates will hold each other accountable for producing results.
The Influencers
Our Principal is the paramount influencer in my institution. As a former reading coach, she is a great enthusiast of everything related to literacy. Our librarian is another important influencer in my institution. She is very savvy and enthusiastic about technology. Regarding our project, our Bilingual/ESL Coordinator is a key link between us and the Fort Worth ISD Bilingual Department.
The Influencer Model
I think that the best way to reach a destiny, is by following the steps of someone that already had walked it. The Influencer Model has been proven to create fast, profound, and sustainable behavior change. According to Patterson & Grenny (2013), “Virtually all forces that have an impact on human behavior work on only two basic drivers of behavior,” and “They either motivate or enable a vital behavior. Some do both” (p. 47). These two domains are motivation and ability, and they are further subdivide into personal, social, and structural sources. Combining these domains, they create six subdomains. Grenny, Maxfield, & Shimberg (2013), states that “If you want to confront persistent problem behavior, you need to combine multiple influences into an overwhelming strategy. Influencers succeed where others fail because they ‘overdetermine’ success” (p. 2). Therefore, instead of concentrating on a single cause, they approach all the root causes by combining a critical mass of influence strategies.
The 4 Disciplines of Execution
I think that The 4 Disciplines of Execution is an excellent tool that will help set different goals for my colleagues and me.
Discipline 1: Focus on the Wildly Important (WIG)
All DLE teachers in the Bilingual Blended program will utilize Its Learning Management System in the classroom by August 31, 2017.
The Fort Worth ISD’s Tech Department provides Its Learning training during the Summer
Discipline 2: Act on the Lead Measures
The WIGs will be set by the team. We will have to create lead measures as a group to reach our WIG. There will be short, medium, and long term goals. Lead measures will be influenceable and predictive. Even though the lead measures the teacher’s goals, they must help our students to excel academically.
Discipline 3: Keep a Compelling Scoreboard
The Chinese proverb states, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” I say a scoreboard too. According to Covey, McChesney, and Huling (2012), “The highest level of performance always comes from people who are emotionally engaged and the highest level of engagement comes from knowing the score—that is, if people know whether they are winning or losing” (p. 31). It is not about winning or losing; it is about are we reaching or goals or not? A simple scoreboard will do the trick. The scoreboard will be simple, visible, and it will show lead and lag. The participants will be able to tell if we are reaching our goals or not.
Discipline 4: Create a Cadence of Accountability
The DLE Team will hold a weekly WIG meeting and it will last no longer than 20-30 minutes. We will set an agenda and establish a weekly rhythm of accountability for driving progress toward the WIG. We will never allow the whirlwind blast into the WIG session. No matter what!
Crucial Conversations
In each organization, there are people with different personality types that can lead to communication problems. Our institution is not the exception to the rule; for that reason, I will share with my colleagues the book “Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking when Stakes Are High.” The authors have developed several tools that can help lessen resistance among members of a team, a couple, or an organization. While I was reading this book, I had to stop reading and make a severe self-criticism. I realized that, according to the book, I had lacked suitable skills at handling crucial conversations.
A conversation is considered crucial if the stakes are high, the opinions are varied, and emotions are strong. According to Patterson, Grenny, McMillan & Switzler (2002), casual conversations transform into crucial ones when “the more crucial the conversation, the less likely we are to handle it well” (p. 28). I have to admit that I was a champion in this respect. I have some inappropriate habits that had damaged many relationships, but I already started working on improving these skills.
At the heart of every successful conversation lies dialogue (the free flow of relevant information). The good news is that dialogue skills are learnable, and the dialogue principle are:
- Start with Heart. That means start with your own heart. If you cannot get yourself right, you will have a hard time getting the dialogue right.
- Work on Me First, Us Second. Remember that the only person you can directly control is yourself.
- Focus on What You Really Want. When you find yourself moving toward silence or violence, stop and pay attention to your motives. Then, clarify what you really want. (Patterson, Grenny, McMillan & Switzler, 2002).
Also, authors warn us to “Learn to Look,” and how to notice when safety is at risk:
- Watch the content of the conversation, the topic under discussion.
- Watch for three different conditions: the moment a conversation turns crucial, signs that people don’t feel safe (look to see if others are moving toward silence or violence), and your own Style Under Stress.
My favorite part of this book is Commit to Seek Mutual Purpose. The authors convey the message that if you want to get back to dialogue, you have to Start with Heart. In this case, you have to agree to agree. To be successful, we have to stop using silence or violence to force others to our view. We Start with Heart by committing to stay in the conversation until we invent a solution that serves a purpose we both share.
In the section STATE my Path, the book provides five distinct skills that can help one talk about even the most sensitive topics.
- Share your facts
- Tell your story
- Ask for others’ paths
- Talk tentatively
- Encourage testing
Even though the book provides many tools to enhance our conversational skills, the key to genuine change lies not in implementing a new process, but in persuading people to hold one another accountable to the process. And that requires Crucial Conversations skills.
References
Grenny, J., Patterson, K., Maxfield, D., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2013). Influencer: The new science of leading change (2nd ed.). New York, NY. McGraw-Hill.
McChesney, C., Covey, S., & Huling, J. (2012). The 4 disciplines of execution: Achieving your wildly important goals. New York, NY. 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.
