Implementing change is not an easy feat. Over the past four weeks, I have been researching how to become a better leader in helping ensure change in my organization. There has been a lot of self-reflecting during my current graduate course. I have learned how to influence and create change, participate in crucial conversations, and nail down my what, how, and what of my innovation plan.
These four different components laid out and linked below will help me implement my innovation plan to help teachers implement experiential thinking in their classrooms.
Simon Sinek argues that people don't buy what you do but why you do it. I started this course with figuring out my why for my innovation plan. The why helped me lay a foundation for helping teaching implement experiential learning for our students.
In the book Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change, the authors talk about how you need to start with the heart in mind. How can you target the heart of the people you are trying to influence? Once you start with the heart, you need to create your desired result. Using the Influencer model, I broke my innovation plan into desired results, how I am going to measure the results and vital behaviors I am trying to change. The Influencer model focuses on Six Sources of Influence, Personal, Social and Structural Motivation, and Personal, Social, and Structural Ability to help influence and create organizational change.
The best plans will fail if they are not executed correctly. 4DX creates a precise layout of how to create change in an organization despite the whirlwind of everyday tasks. This model helped me outline a strategy to complete our "Wildly Important Goal." The outline is a draft and will be completed as a team when configuring our WIG, lead and lag measures, creating a scoreboard, and creating accountability with the innovation plan.
A critical step to accomplishing my Innovation Plan is making sure I am communicating effectively. There are going to be hard conversations at the beginning with those from the district who will help my plan get moving, and then those who will be on my implementation team. This is where the book, Crucial Conversations – Tools for Talking when the Stakes are High come in. There will be crucial conversations when stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong (Patterson, 2012). I need to make sure I am being a strong and effective leader where I am not the villain, becoming a victim or helpless during these conversations that will inevitably happen.
Change is hard, and trying to implement change on an organizational level will not be easy. This course from Lamar has helped me create a plan of action and equip me with strategies to improve my plan and flourish when implemented. These strategies will help create experiential learning in classrooms and help students thrive in the 21st Century world, and I cannot wait for my plan to spread across my campus and district.
References:
Grenny, J., Patterson, K., Maxfield, D., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2013). Influencer: The new science of leading change. 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: Simon & Schuster.
Patterson, K. (2012). Crucial conversation tools for talking when stakes are high. New York: McGraw-Hill.