Comments on: Can You Influence Change?

By: mrplough07

mrplough07 — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 16:19:22 +0000

@ Lee -
Our charter school is sponsored by the 5th biggest district in the country. All of the students and almost all of the teachers come right out of the Clark County district (las vegas) and most have been let down by that system. I understand about big districts, and it’s sad.

It’s almost impossible to make systematic changes (maybe that’s the plan) when they get too big. So, you if you can’t be an influencer at the top, then you have to try affect small groups. Like you are doing, like Scott says, and like Influencer states, you have to disproportionately target the leaders of those groups so you can at least get change going at the ground level.

By: Stony River

Stony River — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 09:05:26 +0000

Cory – Change is everywhere and always. The trick of the modern day is to make everything predictable! This mindset has been around over a hundred years hence Darwin, Einstein and Freud are so regularly taught – yet their theories are mostly incorrect or at least have never been proved. All of a sudden e-learning appears like the hippies of the 60s. The old anti-change argument is why fix it if it ain’t broke? Who said that system ever worked? At least efficiently and effectively as the statistics of numeracy and literacy show, which have a strike rate of about 3:4 the rest fall between the big cracks. We have progressed from the archaic pedagogy thru andragogy and now in heutagogy – http://ultibase.rmit.edu.au/Articles/dec00/hase2.htm – which is still struggling to be recognised as the new teaching or learning methodology – search it on ask.com – it derives from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Heuristic – in this Brave New e-World. Of course this new flow is not going to be recognised or embraced by the stagnant! The screaming need for e-learning and change I think is due to the chronic shortage of teachers in a population exploding world. The quotas for teachers went into IT and other vocations many years ago. If there is a real attempt to educate the masses then e-learning must be a supplementary method of teaching. My stats and those of Prof Michael Wesch are that about half the student population today prefer the online interactive distance learning scenario. For many students the cost of travel for F2F classes is becoming too high is another factor driving towards e-learning. Just like pizzas were not around before the hippie revolution, the student needs of today will demand the collaborative and continually improving services of e-learning. As you can clearly see the demands of today socially, economically, politically and environmentally are all demanding change. I can only wish that all this essential change happens in time and without violence. What has to change is the established rigid control system which inevitably will lead to the loss of power by many in this current system of establishment. Change is a rule that has been forgotten – it encourages innovation, creativity and flexibility – it is now beginning to be remembered, and learned. Wishing Well – Stony

By: Lee Kolbert

Lee Kolbert — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 02:40:08 +0000

Cory,
Nice post; it’s definitely got me thinking. Having people above you who get those titles with auto-influence power is something we can all appreciate. As in your comment to @Michelle, I am also “not one of them.” But, there are always people above us who don’t see things the same way we do. Being in a very large district, its very difficult to affect change. I’d like to think that in my small way (through edtech teacher trainings, project roll-outs and district-wide awareness programs), I am making small but effective changes. That is the reason I left the classroom to be in district admin after teaching for 20 years. I thought perhaps I could help make some positive changes that would impact more teachers than the few at my school. (We have over 12,000 teachers though so I try to be realistic.)

Unfortunately, politics in any large organization plays a big part in how things get done or if they ever do get done. As @scott mcleod said … focus on the people that others will listen to… That’s the ticket. The bigger ticket is to get THOSE PEOPLE TO LISTEN TO YOU!

By: mrplough07

mrplough07 — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 02:16:20 +0000

@michelle – I’m glad your role is that of a change agent. Some people (I’m not one of them) get designated with titles that automatically put them in a position to influence. You can use it for good (confronting those deadly elephants) or you can take the easiest route through the woods. Do good !

By: mrplough07

mrplough07 — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 02:14:15 +0000

@ Scott- That is one of the main ideas I got out of this chapter as well. If there are cliques or sub-groups in a school, you have to find the leaders of those groups and get them on your side. If you dont, like you said, your mission will fail.

By: Scott McLeod

Scott McLeod — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:26:45 +0000

Re: #2 and #3, the most powerful learning I took away from Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point was that you have to focus on people that others will listen to. They may or may not be in positions of formal authority. In schools we usually pick leadership teams based on role (i.e., we need the counselor, the dept. chair, the assistant principal, etc.) rather than on influence. That’s gotta stop.

What if the people that others listen to in your organization are naysayers? Well, you’ve still gotta get them on board because otherwise their influence will work against you every step of the way. That’s a guaranteed loser…

By: Michelle Baldwin

Michelle Baldwin — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 19:50:12 +0000

I have the great opportunity to be a change agent in my district this year… in other words, I’m going to stick my neck out more than I ever have. Perhaps I should read Patterson’s book before I start having those difficult conversations.

The point that resonated with me from your summaries is getting to those elephants in the room. A lot of us sit and complain about them, but there has to be some action if those elephants are ever going to disappear. Great post!