Changing
the way we think and act is brutally hard – and trying to change someone else
is even harder! In her book, The Aquarian Conspiracy, Marilyn
Ferguson says, “A belated discovery, one that causes considerable anguish, is
that no one can persuade another to change.
Each of us guards a gate of change that can only be unlocked from the
inside. We cannot open the gate of
another, either by argument or emotional appeal.”
That
gate swings open for a variety of reasons. And when it does, coaches want to be
ready with recommendations that will stick.
This
week, I talked with a group of coaches as they considered how to increase the
likelihood that recommendations they make will be taken up by the teachers they
are working with. We determined that making sure recommendations are concrete
and purposeful was important.
Candace knew that an upcoming lesson would be more successful if the teacher showed
students examples of what their final products might look like. She decided
that having a few student samples that she could show the teacher would make
this recommendation concrete. Making recommendations concrete ensures that our
idea will mean the same thing to the teacher that it does to us. Chip and Dan
Heath, in their book Made to Stick, remind
us that concrete ideas are easier to understand and remember. Concreteness
makes an idea “sticky,” and sticky ideas are more likely to have a
lasting impact. The coaches I was working with realized that making sure their
recommendations were tangible, by providing a visual for teachers to connect
with, would make them easier to implement.
Madelyn recognized a teacher she was working with needed to tie her assessment more
closely to the objectives she had determined for a lesson. She felt an
explanation of why this was important would make the recommendation more
meaningful. Discussing the rationale increased the stickiness of Madelyn’s
recommendation by employing higher-level thinking. As she engaged the teacher
in dialogue, the reasoning for this practice was illuminated. And engaging in
higher-level thinking about an idea makes it more memorable. As our coaching
team discussed this example, we realized that providing a rationale for recommendations
would make the suggestions more attractive and “stickier.”
By being
concrete and providing rationale for their recommendations, coaches can improve
the chances that their worthy ideas will stick!
This week, you might want to
take a look at:
This
podcast on building a collaborative culture:
What
is “heavy coaching”?
Ideas
for student self-publishing to amp up engagement!
Use a
“fail tree” with teachers or students to increase resilience and learn from
each other’s mistakes:
Read
aloud volunteers in middle school:
That’s it for this week. Happy
Coaching!
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