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 Back To Module ListModule Main | Module Description | Instructional Outcomes | Instructional Proficiencies | Instructional EventsFacilitating Positive Attitudes Toward Collaborative Change: Module One Author Anita L. DeBoer, ED.D., Ball State UniversityTask for Completion and Discussion #7 A Pre-Test on Effective Change Strategies
To assess your current knowledge and practices regarding effective change strategies, one scenario of a change that is likely to occur, or is now occurring, in your school is presented below. After you read the scenario, scan the 18 strategies listed and then go back through the list slowly to select what you believe to be the best 4 strategies. (There are only 4 correct responses.) At the end of module 3, you are given another opportunity to retest yourself. You can then compare your current skills and knowledge regarding effective change strategies to those you are likely to employ in future situations similar to the following. In most change situations, you are either the “changer” or the “changee”. In the following scenario, you want your colleagues to change their instructional practices so you are in the role of a change agent. Here is the scenario:
You are convinced of the benefits of a change currently happening in your school for the past two years (e.g., interdisciplinary teaming, performance assessments, or cooperative learning). Many of your colleagues, however, are not as convinced that this change will reap the benefits you describe. In fact, many are vehemently opposed to the change and are openly resisting it.
To decrease their resistance, what four strategies would you select to help your skeptical colleagues to even consider adopting the practice?
___ 1. Bring in a motivational speaker to get people pepped up and energized.
___ 2. Find more time and resources to implement the practice.
___ 3. Provide nitty-gritty, nuts-and-bolts training as soon as possible.
___ 4. Avoid conversations related to the change.
___ 5. Help people identify their questions and concerns about the change.
___ 6. Focus primarily on building trust among colleagues.
___ 7. Leave people alone for now. The unrelenting winds of change will move them forward.
___ 8. Arrange for special recognition and rewards for the early adopters.
___ 9. Listen attentively as they criticize the whole idea with you.
___ 10. Focus on the problem, not the solutions.
___ 11. Allow time to grieve the past, what they believe they have lost by the change.
___ 12. Provide research that speaks directly to the benefits of the change.
___ 13. Get people to collaboratively plan acceptable procedures for implementing the change.
___ 14. Clarify purposes and procedures immediately when people openly express resistance.
___ 15. Design ways to do action research related to the change.
___ 16. Have solutions readily available to avoid the pain of confusion.
___ 17. After all other efforts have failed, encourage administrators to apply pressure.
___ 18. Provide a strategy for problem solving, not problem finding.
Task for Completion and Discussion #7
After you have selected what you believe to be the 4 best strategies in the exercise above, be prepared to defend your choices. The best strategies suggested for this scenario are listed at the end of Module Three. |