Influencing Change
Influencer Strategy
Change is hard. That's a reality, not an excuse. It is why so many psychologists, sociologists, and behavioral scientists have spent so many years trying to determine what moves people to change. We have a tendency to "underwhelm overwhelming problems." (VitalSmartsVideo, 2009) There are many factors that work to encourage and discourage people's behaviors, so we cannot tackle a large change project with one approach or with limited effort. It is important to develop a detailed plan that addresses these behaviors and takes actionable steps to influence colleagues towards change.
THE PLAN: To successfully implement blended learning at my school, I will start with the heart by sharing my WHY and embodying the change I want to see in my organization. I will use the Influencer strategy to leverage all six sources of influence in order to have the biggest impact and to ensure success. I will focus on a few vital behaviors that will help colleagues embrace blended learning.
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THE GOAL: I want teachers to implement blended learning in their classrooms to engage students and create self-directed, life-long learners. In one year, 50% of the teachers at my school will adopt blended learning.
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MEASUREMENTS: We will use data from our progress trackers, weekly PLC meetings, and grow and glow conversations to help us progress towards our goal.
Vital Behaviors
Vital behaviors are repeatable, high-leverage actions performed to get the desired results you want to achieve (Grenny, Patterson, Maxfield, McMillan, & Switzler, 2013). We must first identify the behaviors we want to change before we can create a plan to change them. The Influencer uses the four key strategies to identify vital behaviors: notice the obvious, look for crucial moments, learn from positive deviants, and spot culture busters (Grenny et al., 2013).
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The vital behaviors needed to achieve the goal:
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1. Teachers use the technology available in the classrooms.
2. Teachers implement blended learning.
3. Teachers partner with each other to share, plan, and hold each other accountable.
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Using the technology available to us is obvious, but we tend to dismiss it if it is unreliable, or we're not familiar with it. These are also crucial moments where we can choose to ignore the problem or take actionable steps to maintain the availability of technology or learn how to use it. "Doing" blended learning is also obvious. We want our students to "do" because we know they'll learn better and develop skills by actively learning. We'll learn how to do blended learning by just doing it - rather than get getting stuck in planning, we can research and develop in real-time! Positive deviants are our innovators. They find a way around or through a problem and keep on trucking. We have a wealth of positive deviants on campus, and by sharing our struggles and putting our heads together, we are sure to overcome any obstacle. Culture busters are not afraid to speak up and hold others accountable. We will count on these people to voice concerns when things are not going according to plan.
Six Sources of Influence
Application of the 6 Sources of Influence to promote change in my organization.
Click on image to enlarge.
References
(2015). Influencer model. [image]. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/133896810@N06/19390580600
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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 Education.
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VitalSmartsVideo. (2009, September 21). All Washed Up! [Video file]. In YouTube. Retrieved September 12, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osUwukXSd0k