If you wanted the chef of a five-star restaurant to change their menu overnight, do you think they would do it with a smile? At least they would ask WHY and at most they might rebel, get angry, or even QUIT.
Similarly, we don’t want our best and brightest teachers to give up teaching when changes must be made!
Organizational change is not a simple feat and it definitely requires more than a one-step solution. The true implementation of ANYTHING new or different takes careful analysis and consideration before, during, and after the change is being made. A variety of support systems should also be in place for the guidance of creating clarity, ensuring happiness, and achieving ultimate-goal success.
(GIPHY, 2021)
Within his book Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change, Joseph Grenny (2013) and his colleagues explain how leaders are people “who understand how to create rapid, profound, and sustainable behavior change” (p. 7). They also explain a formula anyone can follow to allow for almost guaranteed success!
Let’s follow these ideas, next… but first, we must identify our desired results by answering a few basic questions.
a) What are the results hoping to be achieved and how will progress be measured?
b) Which vital behaviors should be changed?
c) Who are organizational influencers involved in the efforts?
The following responses to the questions listed above will support and connect directly to my technology innovation plan and proposal surrounding the benefits of incorporating "blended learning" purposefully into classroom learning.
Results are specific GOALS which must be made and measured.
a) Within the next year, our school organization will achieve monthly application of “blended learning” within every classroom by 100% of staff members. Progress will be measured by a quick two-minute survey each month during professional development meetings.
Vital behaviors are ACTIONS which lead to success.
b) Several vital behaviors for success include: Explicit training given for “blended learning” explanation to ensure understanding, group brainstorming, individual goal-setting, team leaders ask classroom teachers “How can I help?,” praise given to early adopters and successful staff stories shared, whole-school progress presented regularly and updates given.
Every organization has a handful of ALLIES who can help lead the pack.
c) Our school’s two technology coordinators and three curriculum coaches can be the driving force behind introducing this shift in pedagogy. Subject team leaders can support by checking-in with fellow staff members to help with moderating feedback and support with implementation. We can also ask for a small group of volunteers to form a committee which assists with answering questions, analyzing survey results, communicating progress, and celebrating success stories.
What's the next step?
Well, Grenny (2013) also suggests that organizations can have TEN TIMES more success when looking at a variety of ways to support leaders with the implementation of change. A stronger bridge is built with six pillars as opposed to only one, correct? Let’s take a closer look at each support system and then apply our own innovation plan proposal ideas as an example!
Within his report, Grenny (2013) explains each influential source as follows:
Personal Motivation - The key to personal motivation is to help people see the true implications of their actions and choices by connecting the new behaviors to deeply held values.
Personal Ability - The key to personal ability is to over-invest in skill building—to build in extensive practice in the toughest, most realistic settings. Results show that a robust training initiative is at the heart of almost all successful influence strategies.
Social Motivation - The key to effective social motivation is to get peer pressure working for you instead of against you.
Social Ability - The key to building the social capital that will extend your influence into every corner of your organization is to spend time building trust with formal and informal opinion leaders.
Structural Motivation - The key to rewarding change in behavior is to make the external rewards both real and valuable—they need to send a supportive message.
Structural Ability - The key to changing an organization’s mental agenda is to change the data that routinely crosses people’s desks. (Grenny et al., 2013)
Now let’s put these sources into action! How can they be directly applied to our technology innovation proposal with the specific incorporation of “blended learning?”
What a plan!
With this solid foundation of specific goals, progress measurements, vital behaviors, leadership influencers, and that addition of six sources of support... there's going to be amazing changes and nonstop smiles among the staff members at my school while changes are being made.
How exciting is that??!!
It will be so rewarding to see how students thrive because of our incorporation and focus upon "blended learning" in the classroom.
Additional Information
Would you like to create your own influencer plan? Use this PDF template.
Interested in reading more about vital behaviors? Check out this article.
Want to read a book about influence within organizations? Here's a good read.
References
Biech, E. (2012). Developing talent for organizational results: training tools from the best in
the field. Pfeiffer. https://books.google.com/books?
id=mpLQZZbPsxMC&lpg=PR1&pg=PR1#v=onepage&q&f=false
GIPHY. (2021, January 22). Winner Success GIF by GIPHY Studios Originals - Find & Share
on GIPHY. Giphy.com. https://giphy.com/gifs/studiosoriginals-Tfy1QEkNqQSVYeJcm
Grenny, J., Patterson, K., Maxfield, D., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2013). Influencer: The
new science of leading change (2nd ed.). Mcgraw-Hill Education.
Harapnuik, D. (2021). 4 effective ways to find and test vital behaviors. Harapnuik.org.
https://www.harapnuik.org/?p=6253
Influencer worksheet find and clarify your vital behaviors. (2007). VitalSmarts, L.C.
https://vitalsmartsindia.com/downloads/InfluencerWorksheet.pdf
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