Category: 5304 Leading Organizational Change

Crucial Conversations

Posted on by karinst8ler

“If everyone were a better listener, respecting what each other has to say, what a difference that would make for each person.”

Michelle Gilbert (Knight, 2015, p. 52)

I struggle to feel heard.

I belong to a leadership cohort in my district called Future Ready Leadership Academy. In FRLA, we were tasked with reading a leadership book and sharing it with a small group. I chose a book called Better Conversations (Knight, 2015). Why? Too often, I interacted with leaders who lacked effective communication skills. It didn’t surprise me when I read that a Gallup 2013 Survey question – At work, do my opinions seem to count? – placed teachers at the bottom of the list (Knight, 2015). That is, teachers feel their opinions are less valued than all blue-collar, service, and healthcare workers. No wonder I struggled to feel heard!

Feeling heard means listening?

As I dug into Better Conversations (Knight, 2015) the first habit wasn’t about being heard at all. Rather, it was about listening with empathy. Really? Listening in order to feel heard? This chapter started to help me consider whether I was truly a good listener.

You see, I’ve never been one to shy away from a difficult conversation. When I first started working in GCISD, I had to take the Gallup Strengths Finder and my greatest strength is Empathy. I am great at feeling out the “vibe” in the room, encouraging people to express their feelings, and encouraging deep conversations.

Image from Clifton Strengths Finder (2018).

Yet I definitely still worry more about being HEARD than about how well I am listening.

Becoming the master of my stories.

I think this is where crucial conversations come into play. I may be good at listening, but how well do I listen when the stakes are high? In my post Don’t Be a Virus: Master Your Story (2022), I tell a story about an experience where I didn’t communicate my needs. I talk about the story I was telling myself and how, in spite of working so hard with Cognitive Behavior Therapy over the years, I still struggle with the stories I make up in my head. Why don’t I feel heard? Simple – I still struggle listening to myself, especially when the stakes are high. I also recognize that Crucial Conversations (Patterson et al., 2012) offers a path to improving the habits mentioned in Better Conversations (Knight, 2015). Namely, using those empathy skills to provide me the attention I’m looking for.

A brief summary of Crucial Conversations.

Are you having those crucial conversations? 

When I notice a conversation with varied opinions, strong emotions, or high stakes, I work to use my crucial conversation muscles. For example, when a peer recently pushed against a process I created, I kept it factual. She continued to push against the process. I responded by focusing on what I wanted – a clear process AND mutual respect. I also created a mutual purpose. When she criticized the process, I explored her path and we agreed on a better workflow. I was proud of myself and we now had a better understanding of a ticketing workflow.

Do you have the strength of confidence to go down that path? 

You know what? I don’t have the strength… YET. I will use crucial conversations and my Growth Mindset plan to continue to build my confidence as a leader.

Growing a Growth Mindset in Grapevine-Colleyville ISD

Are you using the crucial conversation tools to build a strategy? 

For now, my focus is to practice mastering my stories during crucial conversations. Specifically, when I notice hurt, anger, or sadness, I will pay attention. That is, I will retrace my Path to Action:

Photo from CrucialLearning.com

I will pause, take a breath, and ask myself the questions in Crucial Conversations (Patterson et al., 2012, 112):

  • “Am I in some form of silence or violence?”
  • “What emotions are encouraging me to act this way?”
  • “What story is creating these emotions?”
  • “What evidence do I have to support this story?”

With practice, I can improve the way I am listening to myself during crucial conversations.

Discover the answers from within.

“All the wonders you seek are within yourself.”

Sir Thomas Browne

Through trials and tribulations over the course of my life, I have learned I can turn inward for every answer I seek. As I take steps toward a leadership role, I realize that this still rings true. Whether I’m practicing empathy, listening, or flexing crucial conversation muscles, I need to trust myself to lead. As soon as I do my confidence will shine forth to light the way for others.

References

Clifton Strengths. (2018). Your CliftonStrengths 34 Results. Gallup, Inc.

Knight, J. (2015). Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves and Each Other to Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected. SAGE Publications.

Patterson, K., Grenny, J., Switzler, A., & McMillan, R. (2012). Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, Second Edition. McGraw-Hill Education.

Stateler, K. (2022, March 2). Don’t Be a Virus: Master Your Story. Cookies N Cache. https://karinstateler.com/?p=712

5302 & 5304: Contributions to the Learning Environment

Posted on by karinst8ler
Stephen Lewis
Kimberly Purvis
Photo by Mikel Parera on Unsplash

5302 & 5304 Grades: 97/100 (97%)

As I entered the second semester of the ADL graduate program, I was much more confident and prepared to take on the role of learner and leader. I am proud to say that I went to the first class with the necessary reading completed and my first blog post done. While I was very prepared physically, I was not prepared for how much I would grow this semester. While I eventually slid back into the habit of submitting my work on time rather than early, I realize that it is because I needed the time to process the heavy, higher-order thinking. Again, I am proud of what I accomplished and grateful for the opportunity to learn.

Key Contributions

Glows & Grows

Glows:

This semester started off rough for me – I received my first “B” on an assignment. On the Why assignment in 5304, I mistakingly modeled my work from an exemplar instead of thinking it through for myself. Therefore, my grade reflected my lack of thinking. Using the growth mindset thinking I learned in 5302, I took some time to reflect. Why did I do poorly?

  • I realized that I was so worried about the workload this semester that I was rushing to get the work done instead of committing to learning.
  • I also realized that I didn’t really know why I wanted to go paperless.

As usual, the structure of this program is such that over the semester, I gained clarity on my Why. The final blog post for 5302 reminded me of Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle. It was then that my ideas came together, and I gained clarity on my Why.

Grows:

In my contribution for learning in 5303 and 5305, I shared that I turn my “grows” into goals that I can implement! Those goals were:

  • Build confidence: I can implement my plan innovatively! I know that I have the right pieces in place.
  • Increase flexibility: I am going to listen to feedforward regarding my innovation plan for the paperless office. It will keep me from getting stuck. I definitely have room for improvement here.

I believe that both goals remain consistent with my work in 5302 and 5304. As I grow as a leader, I will continue to build confidence in my abilities. Also, I will continue to hold my ideas loosely that I am open to change – then I can refrain from getting stuck.

Collaboration 

I am proud to be a part of two collaborative groups for 5302 and 5304. The larger group consists of Charlie, Kelvin, Ileana, Erica, Andrea, Kim, Stephen, Danielle, Pedro, Andre, and others. I am a self-identified empath. That is, I enjoy helping others so much that I have to work to identify my own needs. This semester, I kicked up my involvement in the larger group. For example, I took notes during each 5302 and 5304 class and shared them with everyone in our chat. I also supported my peers who had questions, shared my work with my peers, and participated heavily in class and on discussion boards.

In our smaller group, I continue to develop professional and personal friendships with Stephen and Kim. The three of us – coined by Stephen “The Three Amigos” – rarely go a day without chatting. I continue to grow with each assignment we share. In the final blog post for 5302, I talk about what I learned from blogging, though I believe it holds true for collaborative work as well. That is, I’ve learned not to compare. Stephen and Kim both come with strong skillsets and unique backgrounds. These skillsets and backgrounds are different from mine. While I could compare to them, I would most certainly miss out on the opportunity to learn alongside them. As I continue to practice non-comparison, I think about how important that skill is as a self-differentiated leader. I also recognize that employing growth mindset thinking will improve my self-talk.

To continue to hone my collaborative skills, I am going to consider taking notes and sharing them with everyone in the course in Blackboard.

Revisions

I made revisions constantly based on comparison and feedforward from my peers and from class, 1-on-1 meetings, and feedforward from Dr. H and Dr. Grogan. Examples include:

  • As I tighten up my ePortfolio for my final grade, I improved my front page.
  • I continue to edit my blog format.
  • I improved my Why assignment! My confidence grows daily.
  • After meeting with Dr. Grogan, I felt much more confident in how to employ my Influencer Strategy. 
  • In an e•mail with Dr. H, I clarified the expectations for the Growth Mindset assignment.
  • Finally, my drafts were continually changing with the support and feedforward of my group. 

This semester, I read every book, watched every video that I found, and read most of the other required readings listed in the Classroom Modules in Blackboard. My intention in grad school – and in life really – is to keep learning, reading, reflecting, and connecting as long as I can. I see this as a constant need for improvement. I met all of the various course deadlines.

Supporting Contributions

Leadership Responsibility, Participation, and Communication

I have always loved to write. One of the reasons I decided to go to grad school was because I wanted to write with purpose. Early in the ADL program, I used each discussion board topic as a chance to blog. This is the basis of my learning in ADL – the opportunity to reflect and connect “dots,” or big ideas. By modeling my learning process, I believe I help others grow. Not a week goes by without a comment on one of my discussion board posts about how much someone enjoys my writing or how much they learned. That’s not to brag, more to reflect the importance of the active role I take in my own learning. Really, the active (or inactive) role any of us takes in our learning.

As I said, I love to write. However, I feel like I am unable to put into words how much the ADL program means to me. The connections I make – from people to ideas – continue to push me to be a better leader, communicator, and person.

Don’t Be a Virus: Master Your Story

Posted on by karinst8ler

Hello, my name is Karin, and I am a “virus.”

Okay, so not really or I probably wouldn’t be in the ADL program at all. But I had a rough day today and it all comes back to crucial conversations and self-differentiated leadership.

You see, I share an office with 7 other people. It can be really tough to complete thought work when you’re in an office with so many people, but usually, I manage pretty well. Except for today. Today I had forgotten to take my special “focus assistance” medicine and I noticed. Anyway, I had a meeting in another office from 9-11 am. When I got back to my office, one of my teammates was on a Zoom call. I was talking in a normal voice, and another teammate quickly and politely let me know to keep it down. “Sure!” I whispered happily.

Fast-forward – When she got off of her call, the whole team started to be loud and boisterous. “I’m glad you’re off your call, we can finally talk!” a particularly fun teammate said, and they began to carry on about non-work topics.

Meanwhile, I was trying to work and focus. 

First, I tried to turn up my earbuds. Nope – couldn’t focus. Then, I tried huffing and puffing passive-aggressively to remind my teammates that I was still trying to focus. No dice. Finally, I mumbled about not being able to focus and stormed out of the office. I met another teammate outside and immediately started to vent. 

“Everyone will be quiet for Jennifer, but not for me!”

Self-Differentiated Leadership

I acted like a “virus” – that is, I tried to infect an uninvolved teammate with my anxiety (Camp, 2010). Another way of wording this is that I “triangled” my teammate (Camp, 2010). What does this mean? Instead of going to the source when I had a problem, I vented to someone uninvolved. Why did I do this?

Crucial conversations

Rewind – I love self-help books and personality tests. Last night as I read Crucial Conversations (Patterson et al., 2012), I excitedly answered the true-false questions in Chapter Four to determine my Style Under Stress (pp. 64-67). Truthfully, I had an idea and was hardly surprised when I scored high in all of the “silence” behaviors and in “controlling” under the “violence” behaviors. However, when I looked at my Dialogue Skills Assessment results, I was surprised to see that I didn’t mark any of the boxes in Chapter Six: Master My Stories (Patterson et al., 2012, p. 69).

Chapter Six and the Feeling Good Handbook

Why was I surprised? You see, Chapter Six is all about mastering your stories. In fact, Figure 6-2 shows The Path to Action, which is a typical Cognitive Behavior Therapy tool to help someone analyze and assess their actions and break the cycle of rumination. 

Photo from CrucialLearning.com

As Patterson et al., put it, “If we take control of our stories, they won’t control us” (2012, p. 111). I first learned of CBT from The Feeling Good Handbook (Burns, 2020) back in 2013 when I started my therapy journey. CBT involves the same concepts described in Chapter Six – retrace your path. When you notice a feeling, you are supposed to think about the story you’re telling yourself that caused that feeling. Then, review the facts, or what triggered the storytelling in the first place.

“How could I still need so much help in telling my story if I intentionally work at it so often?” I wondered. I think I might revisit my growth mindset blogs, as I hear some fixed mindset thinking popping up.

Growth Mindset: Useful Tool or Parlor Trick?
Too Close to Home
Growing a Growth Mindset in Grapevine-Colleyville ISD

As soon as I said the words, I wished I could take them back.

Fast forward again. Why did I turn up my earbuds, mumble passive-aggressively, and snap about the noise in the office? Because I didn’t Master My Story. If I retrace my steps, the story I was telling myself was that my team didn’t respect me as much as they respected each other and that I wasn’t important enough to “tone it down” for. The facts were that my team was boisterous after another teammate got off of a call. Also, it was noon, so it was lunchtime. Meanwhile, I had forgotten to take my medicine and I wasn’t expressing my needs.

My teammate suggested that I was valid in my feelings. Then, she said, “You always empower me to take charge. I want to empower you to express your needs.” I told her, “Thank you. What I need right now is to go home, take my medicine, and accept personal responsibility for my part in this.” When I got back to the office, I messaged my teammates and took responsibility for my behavior. I didn’t tell them the story I was making up, however, I did tell them that I would work on expressing my needs.

Because in the end, we’re all going to face anxiety in leadership. It’s how you respond when you notice that defines you as a leader.

References

Burns, D. D. (2020). The Feeling Good Handbook: The Groundbreaking Program with Powerful New Techniques and Step-By-Step Exercises to Overcome Depression, Conquer Anxiety, and Enjoy Greater Intimacy. Penguin Publishing Group.

Camp, J. (2010, November 10). Friedman’s Theory of Differentiated Leadership Made Simple. YouTube. Retrieved March 1, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgdcljNV-Ew

Patterson, K., Grenny, J., Switzler, A., & McMillan, R. (2012). Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, Second Edition. McGraw-Hill Education.

4DX: Baby Steps, Big Results

Posted on by karinst8ler

In my new role as a Digital Learning Specialist, I have a lot of variability in my job and I absolutely love what I do. I am responsible for managing the help desk for the Digital Learning team. Also, I spend a lot of time managing communication for our team, whether that is internal communication between departments or externally on Twitter. Finally, the bulk of my work is project-based, so I spend some of my day organizing and completing tasks toward a larger project. Unfortunately, I spend a lot of time managing the whirlwind of the day-to-day tasks and I don’t always make as much headway on projects as I would like, let alone acknowledge my impact on our district’s WIGs.

What is the whirlwind and why does it get in the way of successfully implementing behavioral change? 

Photo by Nadeena Granville on Unsplash

According to Chris McChesney (2011), the Whirlwind is “all of the work, energy, and attention necessary to maintain the operation.” It is urgent, systemic, and highly habitual. Take technology help tickets as an example of my Whirlwind. Help tickets will keep coming in whether I pay attention to them or not. Also, if I don’t give them the right amount of attention, my boss will hear about it, ergo I will hear about it. Our long-term change goals sit in opposition to these daily tasks. McChesney (2011) says that these goals to move an organization forward get in the way of the Whirlwind of tasks that pile up when we ignore them. In fact, most meaningful initiatives that require significant systemic and behavioral change are “choked and starved by the whirlwind” (McChesney, 2011).

How does 4DX recommend you compensate for the whirlwind? 

To make any significant organizational change, we need to get intentional about planning and executing our goals. The book The 4 Disciplines of Execution (McChesney et al., 2015) implores us to apply The 4 Disciplines of Execution.

1: Focus on the Wildly Important

The first discipline is about goal setting. You should focus your energy on one to three simple goals. Why? “Human beings are genetically hardwired to do one thing at a time with excellence” (McChesney et al., 2015, p. 25). This means that any more than three goals and your team is spread too thin.

2: Act on the Lead Measures

The focus of the second discipline is on what to measure and why. It is important to acknowledge lag and lead measures, but to act on lead measures. Lag measures denote the success of the WIG, but by the time you see them the performance that drove them has passed, while lead measures track activities that drive a lag measure (McChesney, 2016). In this sense, they are predictive and act as the lever to move your lag goal (McChesney et al., 2015). Why do humans often pay more attention to the lag goal? 

3: Keep a Compelling Scoreboard

Creating a compelling scoreboard is all about motivation! Why? It’s all about the power of small wins in lead goals (McChesney et al., 2015). People notably perform best when they are engaged emotionally, and the highest level of engagement comes when people know if they are winning or losing (McChesney, 2016). The best scoreboard is designed for & by the players and should show, “where you are, where you should be, and the ultimate goal” (McChesney, 2016).

4: Create a Cacdence of Accountability

Last but certainly not least is the concept of accountability through in form of WIG meetings. A WIG meeting is a brief daily-weekly meeting focused solely on the WIGs. The driving question in a WIG meeting is, “What are the one or two most important things I can do this week that will have the biggest impact on the scoreboard?” (McChesney, 2016). Team members focus on their contribution to the goal in the form of bite-size tasks. It is important to note that individuals have choice and ownership over these commitments.

I know that I’ll always struggle with the Whirlwind.

The moment I open an email or look at the help desk, I’m sucked back into the flow of day to day tasks. Daily tasks are like hard-to-break habits – they are a part of us. That’s why 4DX is so important. Applied correctly, 4DX can make lead goals a part of the routine. And when that goal has become a habit, we can move onto another one. Like I said in From Cog to Metacognition: My Story (Stateler, 2022), you eat an elephant one bite at a time.

How can you incorporate these concepts intentionally as we all work toward meaningful structural change in our organizations? 

References

McChesney, C. (2011, July 26). Move Your Middle – Chris McChesney. YouTube. Retrieved February 21, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3ThJ5b3vww

McChesney, C. (2016, December 29). The 4 Disciplines of Execution in a Nutshell. YouTube. Retrieved February 21, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEJDliThj7g

McChesney, C., Huling, J., & Covey, S. (2015). The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals. Simon & Schuster UK Limited.

Stateler, K. (2022, February 21). From Cog to Metacognition: My Story. Cookies N Cache. https://karinstateler.com/?p=619

Paperless Plans: Harnessing People Power!

Posted on by karinst8ler

A few days ago, I was walking past the Chief Technology Officer’s office and he asked me to come in to talk to him. No matter how approachable and wonderful he is, my heart still races when he wants to talk to me. He is an influencer to the “T.” Not only is he a big wig in GCISD, but he is well known amongst his peers as well.

I walked into his office and sat down.

Last week I had shared my ePortfolio with him in chat. I shared it really casually. My message said something like, “Hey, here’s a thing I’ve been working on. Have a good one!” and I plopped in my website. The CTO had looked over my proposal and had a lot to share on reducing paper usage across the district! With a great deal of vulnerability, I confessed to him that I didn’t know if I had what it takes. He quickly replied that I might not have the confidence yet, but learning to influence others takes time and practice. Not only was he demonstrating his support for my ideas – by such an important organizational influencer to boot – but he was also demonstrating a growth mindset. In all, our conversation reminded me that 1) I am an influencer and 2) big changes require intentional planning.

What does it take to get people to change?

Everyone knows that making big structural changes is difficult. Year after year, we see people create new year’s resolutions only to abandon them moments later. The video All Washed Up! (Grenny, 2009) explores what it takes to make people change by observing the habits of children using hand sanitizer before eating a cupcake. The experimenters add sources of influence one at a time. It surprised me that it took three sources to make the slightest difference in the number of kids sanitizing their hands before eating. Even then, only three of the 12 participants sanitized their hands! The real kicker came when the fourth source of influence was added: The social motivation of a peer speaking up. At that moment, all 12 children sanitized their hands before eating a cupcake. Again, this only happened once four of the six sources of influence were included in the experiment.

The Tipping Point: Peer Influence

Peer influence was the straw that broke the camel’s back, so to speak. This doesn’t come as a surprise to me. Think about the concept of the Bystander Effect. When a crime is witnessed, why do witnesses fail to stop it? In 1968, Bibb Latane and John Darley concluded that the more witnesses, the less likely each individual will intervene (Bibb & Darley, 1968). Logically, my brain tells me that I would try to help, but statistically, I know that I probably wouldn’t. But what if just one person stepped up? “The intervention of bystanders is often the only reason why bullying and other crimes cease” (Psychology Today, n.d.). When just one person steps up, others are more likely to act as well (Psychology Today, n.d.).

All of this demonstrates the power of peer influence in a social situation.

People Power!

In the video Influencer, Cricket Buchler (2008) says that we nee to “harness the power of social pressure by finding strength – rather than resistance – in numbers.” How can we harness this power? Buchler (2008) has three suggestions: 

  • #1: Pave the way by modeling behavior.
  • #2: Enlist the power of those who motivate, also called opinion leaders.
  • #3: Seek the support of enablers.

I can definitely think of people in my sphere that are opinion leaders and enablers!

Going Deeper: Analyzing the Influencer Model

Okay, now we know how many sources of influence are required and we understand the power of social influence. What does each of these sources of influence really mean? How does social influence fit into the equation? In the powerful image below, the authors of Influencer (Maxfield et al., 2013) outline the six sources of influence into a data table of sorts.

Image from Influencer: The Power to Change Anything (Heine, 2018).

Across the top of the table, there are two categories: Motivation and ability. Motivation represents a desire to act on new behaviors, while ability represents whether a person, group, or environment has the capacity. The left side of the table represents the person, people, or environment in which the behavior takes place. In other words, each person, group, or environmental structure is analyzed based on whether there is motivation and ability to enact behavioral change. Once we determine the vital behaviors, we can support each vital behavior by thinking about it through the lens of personal motivation, personal ability, social motivation, social ability, structural motivation, and structural ability.

Paperless Office, Paperless District: Applying What I Learned

The placement of this post made me wonder if I “should” post first and brainstorm or if I “should” complete the Influencer, Part B assignment and come back to this. I will be honest here – I watched all of the videos related to this module, reviewed the book Influencer (Maxfield et al., 2013), and outlined my Six Sources of Influence before writing this post. I really had to dig into the information and define and apply the sources of influence, before I could reflect on my application. This makes sense of course – I started in lower areas of Bloom’s and built my way up.

In the image below, I demonstrate generally how I will apply each source of influence:

Image created by Karin Stateler (2022).

I will use my power of personal influence to tell the story of a paperless office and how it can support our goal of a blended district. I will incorporate deliberate practice into team meetings to demonstrate best practices of a paperless environment. Regarding social influence, I’ve identified three people of focus – two opinion leaders and one enabler. I plan to involve the opinion leaders with specific tasks. For example, one will offer support by sharing her thoughts on a specific process that needs to change. Another will offer her support as a thinking partner and behavior model. The enabler will require a lot of support through the transition that I will gladly provide! I plan on using extrinsic motivation sparingly and still don’t have a great plan for how I’ll apply it. Do I really need one? Finally, I’ll share the data I collect at our bi-weekly team meetings.

As this plan comes together, I am astounded that it’s actually happening. Like anything else, leadership is a learned skill, and I’m learning how to lead. I think I finally understand why 5304 was paired with 5302. It’s all about the power of YET.

References

Bibb, L., & Darley, J. M. (1968). Group Inhibition of Bystander Intervention in Emergencies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 10(3), 215-221.

Buchler, C. (2012, December 17). Influencer | Cricket Buchler. YouTube. Retrieved January 31, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu7UBY5euBg

Grenny, H. (2009, September 21). All Washed Up! YouTube. Retrieved January 31, 2022, from https://youtu.be/osUwukXSd0k

Heine, B. (2018, December 18). Influencer: The Power to Change Anything. Professional Business Coaches. Retrieved February 3, 2022, from https://theprofessionalbusinesscoaches.com/influencer-the-power-to-change-anything/

Maxfield, D., Patterson, K., Switzler, A., Grenny, J., & McMillan, R. (2013). Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change, Second Edition (Paperback). McGraw-Hill Education.Psychology Today. (n.d.). Understanding the Bystander Effect. Psychology Today. Retrieved February 3, 2022, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/bystander-effect

What is My First Move?

Posted on by karinst8ler
Photo by Alexis Fauvet on Unsplash

Start at the Beginning

When I was in the classroom, I taught students a lot of content. After I moved into a STEM role, my job became more about teaching students to think using the engineering design process. After watching IDEO: Shopping Cart Design Process (Sahakyan & Dateline NBC, 2017) for the fifth or sixth time, it dawned on me how much time the engineers spent researching problems with the shopping cart before they considered solutions. First, they brainstormed potential problems. Then, they categorized types of problems. Next, they divided into teams to brainstorm potential solutions for each problem. Finally, they brainstormed again as a whole group. Much of what was shown on the program demonstrated that to really meet customers’ needs, we needed to know what problems they were facing.

Define Your Problem

In his TED Talk Change Behavior- Change the World (Grenny, 2013), Joseph Grenny describes a woman named Jane who ended up in the sex trade in her country through some unfortunate circumstances. As he talks about her life and how to help her change her situation, he asks how to define the problem of Jane (Grenny, 2013). This question resonated with me. As I struggle with my proposal on The Paperless Office, I have a hard time determining what the problem really is. Much like Jane’s story, the scope of this problem seems so large. I find that I’m left with more questions than answers:

  • What do I want to accomplish?
  • What will the lead measure be?
  • How will I determine which behaviors are vital behaviors?
  • How will I determine the real problem of the paperless office?

Create A Goal

According to Influencer (Switzler et al., 2013, p 13-14), the 3 keys to influence are:

  1. Focus and measure
  2. Find vital behaviors
  3. Engage all 6 sources of influence

I know that eventually, my goal will be to connect to each of the 6 sources of influence, but like the engineers at the IDEO, I need to start with the problem at hand. Based on the Influencer worksheet and book, this involves setting a SMART goal. My SMART goal is:

Goal: Decrease printed paper use by administrators and administrative assistants over the course of one year by 20%.

This is just a sample goal. To be honest, I’m not sure I’m measuring the right kind of influence. I’m pretty sure measuring paper usage is a lag measure. Should I focus instead on writing a lead measure? According to The 4 Disciplines of Execution (Covey et al., 2012, p. 109), a lead measure focuses on a behavior that is observable before the fact, while a lag measure looks at something in the past that you can no longer act on. Decreasing paper usage is definitely a “past” measure.

Back to the drawing board

As I think through what I’m measuring, it’s important to think through the vital behaviors that I might need to measure before I can plan how to engage the sources of influence. On his site, 4 Effective Ways to Find and Test Vital Behaviors | It’s About Learning, Dr. Harapnuik (2016) talks about 4 vital behaviors for identifying behaviors to change:

  1. Notice the obvious
  2. Look for crucial moments
  3. Learn from positive deviants
  4. Spot culture busters

What are obvious uses of paper that I can address that might be a lead measure?

  • Taking notes during a meeting 
  • Creating meeting agendas and printing them
  • Use of sticky notes or notebooks

As I think about making meaningful change, I think I might have the start of a goal:

Goal: Increase the use of digital notes during meetings, training, and day-to-day tasks by administrators and administrative assistants over the course of one year by 20%.

While this is definitely in the brainstorm phase – I plan on doing research to determine the percentage increase – I can start to think about what steps I need refine this goal. This will help me to adequately determine the problem. Otherwise, what am I even doing? If I don’t know the problem and can’t communicate it, I certainly won’t be able to influence others to implement solutions.

References

Covey, S., Huling, J., & McChesney, C. (2012). The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals. Free Press.

Grenny, J. (2013, April 26). Change Behavior- Change the World: Joseph Grenny at TEDxBYU. YouTube. Retrieved January 26, 2022, from https://youtu.be/6T9TYz5Uxl0

Harapnuik, D. (2016, January 28). 4 Effective Ways to Find and Test Vital Behaviors. It’s About Learning. Retrieved January 26, 2022, from https://www.harapnuik.org/?p=6253

Sahakyan, D., & Dateline NBC. (2017, September 29). IDEO: Shopping Cart Design Process. YouTube. Retrieved January 26, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izjhx17NuSESwitzler, A., Maxfield, D., Patterson, K., Grenny, J., & McMillan, R. (2013). Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change, Second Edition (Paperback). McGraw-Hill Education.

Promoting Change: Perception is a Gamble

Posted on by karinst8ler

“A single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities.” JRR Tolkein

Photo by Josué Soto on Unsplash

My very first grad school post was about a dream I had the evening after our first class meetings. In the dream, I was facing a team of people – a church choir – that needed to undergo change if they wanted to attract new members. However, I saw myself as a divisive leader. My solution was to step down as the single leader and to develop a team of people. When I woke up, I was pretty proud of my dreamstate problem solving. At this time I had been reading the book Blended (Horn & Staker, 2015) and was deep in the chapter on the type of team to develop to enact disruptive innovation. However, as I reflect on the readings and videos in this discussion, my thinking has shifted.

Start with WHY

“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it” (Sinek, 2009). I’ve seen this talk over a dozen times, and each time I glean something meaningful. Each time I watch, I watch through a different lens. In this instance, I was looking through the lens of leading meaningful change. In his famous TED Talk Start with Why, Simon Sinek (2009) explains that innovation must start with why. A company, individual, or team needs to understand why and how they do what they do and communicate that information in order to effect change. By speaking to the why and how change leaders can communicate with the part of the brain that is rooted in instinct and feeling: The limbic brain or lizard brain. This “inside out” communication turns mere “power holders” into inspiring leaders who people actually want to follow.

Facts vs. truth

I tried to wrap my head around the concept of starting with why while working through more course materials. Tom Askar’s TED Talk Why TED Talks Don’t Change People offered some insight (2014). In his talk, Askar shares the broken metaphor comparing humankind to computers. In my blog post titled What a strange machine man is! I go into more detail on this metaphor. For this purpose, I focused more on why “The Why” is so important to change. It comes back to the concept of fact vs. truth. In this talk, Askar quotes Robert McKee: “What happens is fact, not truth. Truth is what we think about what happens” (2014). Ankar said, “We make decisions based on facts, but only if they support our personal truths” (2014). But what is a “personal truth?”

Quantum Psychology

Author, futurist, and philosopher Robert Anton Wilson says that “all perception is a gamble” (2008) and refers to the concept of naive realism. Naive realism is the idea that one person’s perspective encompasses the whole of reality. Wilson argues that this thinking is incomplete, as everyone is looking at reality through their own “reality tunnel,” that is filtered through past experiences, social constructs, and our location space-time. Any observation cannot be separated from the observer. This means that if I make an observation, my thoughts, experiences, and ideas affect that observation. I cannot separate it from who I am.

With all of this in mind, to enact change requires moving beyond the facts and the frontal lobe and reaching into the feelings and limbic brain of the people you serve.

Dream State

How would I solve the problem posed in my dream now? Instead of giving up and delegating, it was time for me to lean into the discomfort and develop a sense of urgency amongst the people I was serving. How? Start with Why. Tap into the stories the people in the choir were telling about themselves. Create a reality that all of us can stand behind. Develop a sense of why we needed to grow as a church choir.

The same is true for my innovation proposal, Paperless Office, Paperless District. I need to lean into the discomfort I have around leading change. I can do this by creating a reality that everyone in my district can stand behind. I’m glad that our first assignment is to develop our Why around our proposals because I have a lot of questions for myself moving forward:

  • Why am I going to grad school?
  • Why did I choose Paperless Office? How will it lead to a Paperless District? What are the implications? 
  • What story am I telling myself about myself?

Most importantly: Why should anyone listen?

References

Askar, T. (2014, June 30). Why TED Talks don’t change people’s behaviors: Tom Asacker at TEDxCambridge 2014. YouTube. Retrieved January 16, 2022, from https://youtu.be/W0jTZ-GP0N4

Sinek, S. (2009). Start with why — how great leaders inspire action | Simon Sinek | TEDxPugetSound. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4ZoJKF_VuA

Staker, H., Horn, M. B., & Christensen, C. M. (2014). Blended: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools. Wiley.

Wilson, R. A. (2008, September 17). Robert Anton Wilson On Reality. YouTube. Retrieved January 16, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuOplymDx4I