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Thursday, October 24, 2013

Post 23: Chip and Dan Heath's "Switch"

Motivational School Leadership with Michael Horton

Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip Heath and Dan Heath


                I know that it is cliché and I hesitate to say it, but here goes . . . The only thing constant in schools is change.  OK, now that we got that out of the way, let’s talk about school change.  Presently, the only things changing are the standards and the standardized assessments (tongue in cheek).  These changes are going to require changes in instruction, professional development, unit planning, lesson planning, collaboration, data analysis, grading, and more!
                Chip and Dan Heath have some ideas how to implement change.  Their idea boils down to one metaphor, the elephant and the rider.  Here’s how the story goes.  If you want to get an elephant to a destination, the rider must know what they’re doing, the elephant must be motivated to get there, and the path must be marked well enough to follow without a lot of potholes.  In this analogy, the rider is logic and reason, the elephant is motivation, and the path represents the specific steps to get from where we are to where we want to be with as few obstacles as possible.  In different situations, resistance to change can come from any of the three areas.  Understanding these factors can help an administrator overcome resistance and get to implementation.
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                So, let’s say that you have a half a dozen teachers who simply aren’t updating their grades for the online parent portal.  There are three reasons why they might not be doing this: 1) They don’t know how to use the software 2) They’re not properly motivated to do it and 3) The process of importing the students into the gradebook takes many hours.  Each of these reasons requires a different response.  The difficult part is that amongst the six resistant teachers you’ll probably find each of the three reasons somewhere.  So, the response to reason 1 (the rider) is to have the district office come down and do a training.  The response to reason 2 (the elephant) might be to have some parents call in to the next faculty meeting to explain how important online grades are in supporting their child in homework and ensuring that they get assignments turned in.  The response to reason 3 (the path) might be connecting these teachers with a mentor, creating a step-by-step list, or having parent volunteers import all of the rosters for the teachers.
                A second example could be that teachers know that they should be making more parent contacts but still aren’t making nearly enough.  So, either   1) They don’t know what to say on the phone, 2) They’re not motivated to call home, or 3) They don’t know how to make the time, find the phone numbers, and create an organization system to log the calls.  The response to reason 1 might be modeling phone calls, recording expert phone calls, or practicing phone calls on each other.  Reason 2 might require reading some research, sharing some stories of beloved students and their difficult home lives, or studying teachers who do make plenty of parent calls.  Reason 3 might require setting up a phone room with a list of parent phone numbers, several phones and note-pads, and comfortable chairs to make calls.
                When analyzed through the lens of the elephant and the rider, implementation plans start to form and change begins to happen.  In the comments section below, share some changes you’re implementing and how this book might help.

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