Bassett+and+change

__ Friday, January 27, 2010 – Pat Bassett __
 * Wisdom of a 5 year old – “My 1st day in Kindergarten was great but it’s a long time to keep your shoes on.”
 * Schools fit adults more than students – what would 21st century schools look like that fit kids?
 * 21st century schools – teachers as professionals who do action research, lesson studies, and visits
 * Leadership styles of heads: ambassador, general, priest
 * Ambassador – very high EQ; gracious and disarming, immediately connected to others; downside: never achieved goals because focus is on building trust; //teachers want this//
 * General – very personable and humorous; very organized, good delegating, welcome descent and controversy and then everyone on board, very achievement-oriented; downside: he’ll take you down if you stand in his way; //Board wants this//
 * Priest – charismatic; visionary; capture’s people’s spirit and has you in his hands; downside – vision but not good with details: //Parents want this//
 * Ultimate stressor for Leaders: responsibility without authority
 * Understanding and using power to be a Change Agent: James Madison Case Study
 * He had no positional power
 * He brought secondary power
 * Interpersonal power – high EQ
 * Associative power – develop social networks with those who have influence and being well-liked/respected
 * Informational power – having knowledge (doing HW) to be perceived as credible
 * Expertise power – due to the person’s skills and knowledge at a given time
 * How do authors define and talk about CHANGE?
 * Dan Pink – Drive: Science of Motivation
 * Research-based results: motivators for teachers are not money, pay for performance, course teaching-status;
 * Motivation is autonomy given, mastery of their domain, and sense of purpose
 * Financial incentives are counterproductive
 * What works: more pay for more work
 * Including faculty as stakeholders for planning
 * Heath – Switch: How to change things when change is Hard
 * The Rider (mind/rationale) vs. The Elephant (emotional)
 * Find and address the elephant
 * Emotions are more powerful than the mind
 * Kegan – Immunity to Change
 * Kegan studied the gap between intentions and actions
 * Only 10% of life-threatened people could change their behavior to increase their life span
 * 4 ways to affect change
 * Identify the goal (ex – be a change agent)
 * Behaviors I do/don’t do that undermine the goal (fail to align resources and incentives, make case for rider and not elephant)
 * Identify the invisible competing drivers – what prevents us? (keeping peace is more important than effecting change, fear that change will not work, failure)
 * Big, untested assumptions behind competing drivers (no one wants change, failure will be punished more than trying as the reward)
 * We need to align resources – money, people, and time
 * Bassett - 7 stages of the Change Cycle
 * Business as Usual
 * External threat
 * Denial
 * Mourning
 * Acceptance
 * Renewal and Creativity
 * New Structure
 * Overcoming resistance to change
 * Conventional wisdom: raise the volume (declare war, demonize the enemy, mobilize the public)
 * Teachers are skeptics
 * Coercive models do not work
 * Appeal to idealism is not that effective; nor is the mutual benefit of change approach
 * Alternative: Lower the noise and personalize the event