Sustaining Change: Just Keep Talking (and Listening)

In a recent post, I talked about the pendulum swing of education and the ongoing search for the holy grail that will solve education’s ills. I cited research that it takes three years for new initiatives to be implemented sufficiently to produce significant, measurable improvement. How can coaches and other instructional leaders encourage the necessary stick-to-it-iveness? When I faced this problem leading a million-dollar literacy adoption, I dug into the research about change – personal, business, and educational, and I mined a few gems that I could apply.  Perhaps the most important tool for creating persistence is communication.

Throughout a change process, communication within and to stakeholder groups is key. “Stakeholder groups” is a clinical term for “everyone who cares.”  This means teachers, parents, administration, and even students.  This means bringing groups of people together to talk, collecting what they talk about, and doing something with it.  Don’t ask for input unless that input will make a difference. Asking and not acting is disingenuous and destroys trust. Be transparent about how the information gathered is being used. Communication doesn’t just mean telling. It means building community – listening, understanding, dialoging.  It is ongoing – important when we begin to consider a change and continuing thereafter.  The bottom line is, you can’t go in with your own agenda, no matter who you are.  A superintendent is doomed to failure if the initiative she proposes isn’t grounded in what the stakeholders say. The same is true for a principal, literacy coach, or department head.  Start with what the people say.

With the literacy initiative I lead, the hardest thing, initially, was convincing people that there wasn’t a pre-set agenda, that decisions really hadn’t already been made.  I said this, and they didn’t believe me. At first, even my actions (survey groups, hold public forums) were seen as hollow. But eventually, my actions showed that the opinions of the collective were important to decisions. The late nights I spent tallying survey results, creating summaries of focal group conversations, and showing how these led to next steps eventually convinced people that what they said mattered. When people know that what they say matters, they buy in for the long haul.

Can you think of a change that would improve instruction in your school or district? Start talking with people about it in systematic ways. Decisions will be stronger because of what is said, and as the process unfolds, folks will be more likely to stay the course.

(More gems for change that sticks will be featured in upcoming posts.)

This week, you might want to take a look at:

Ways to make teaching personal (I especially love the idea of handing a parent a photo to start parent-teacher conferences!):

https://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=794

Do you ever feel lonely as a coach?  Here are some ideas for combatting that loneliness:

https://blog.teachboost.com/the-loneliness-of-coaching

How to’s for a group essay writing assignment that improves students’ writing:

https://www.edutopia.org/article/group-work-really-works

This review of reading research comes from a psychological, not an instructional, perspective, but offers helpful insights for teaching nonetheless:

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1529100618772271

Science and poetry that celebrates skin tone:

https://www.rethinkingschools.org/articles/celebrating-skin-tone

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