Resistance to change

I have been thinking a lot about resistance lately after a rather lengthy conversation with several colleagues.  I may have dragged this conversation on longer than necessary because I was trying to avoid the resistance that is inevitable in this change process.  There is a natural inclination to try and change people.  While this is a natural tendency and we have all experienced this, it generally doesn’t work.  As educators, we know that people learn best when they construct meaning themselves.  When ideas are come from us, we can have ownership over them.  When someone imposes an idea on us, we are less invested.

For thirteen years, I have been collaborating with an English teacher who had a very different experience in school than I did.  We agree on many things but we are different in many ways that have made it a challenge to plan together.  I have always embraced this challenge.  I saw it as an opportunity rather than an obstacle. I have consciously decided not to expect to get what I want.  I committed to being honest and sharing my best ideas.  I don’t really know why I approached this situation in this way since it has been thirteen years but I think my initial thinking was that this collaboration was imposed on my colleague.  I knew that he had not volunteered for this and I needed to approach  the task with a bit of sensitivity.  So, rather than  try to change his mind, I put ideas on the table to play around with instead.  When I was met with resistance, I shared my honest disagreement and brought it back another time.

Approaching new initiatives and especially large transformation projects can be approached with the same sensitivity.  Instead of fighting resistance and pushing before people are ready, there are several strategies I have used to keep things moving forward at a pace that works for those who may not quite be ready for a major change.

Listen

Sometimes just listening and allowing people to process their thoughts gives them an opportunity to move to the next level.  This processing time can be important for many.

Ask probing not leading questions

This is actually rather difficult.  When we have ideas in our mind or a vision for how things could be, it is easy to share this or give advice but this type of response can provoke a negative or resistant response.  A probing question on the other hand can truly change a perspective and allow someone to see things in a new and different way.  It can actually change the direction of thinking.  Our most common responses try to fix the situation: what about…? Have you tried…? but these questions are leading rather than probing.  Whenever someone says to me “wouldn’t it be cool if…”, I ask something like “ what would it take?” or “what are the barriers to making that happen?” and these questions allow the person to get to the next step without me suggesting it.  Questions are extremely powerful but I’ll save that for another blog post.

Reassure

At our last faculty meeting, our principal reassured the staff that although we were discussing grading philosophies and our beliefs about learning, nothing was going to happen overnight.  His expectation was that at the very least we were thinking about these issues and at the most, he would support us in exploring changes in our classroom.  This reassurance helps with the reaction that can sometimes happen with change and it also allows teachers to feel safe to take risks.

Provide a vision

Possible outcomes and visions of what change could look like can help people step outside of their roles and see possibilities.  Without other options, we are likely to go to what we know and that doesn’t help if we are trying to make change.

I am not suggesting keeping it safe or allowing those not yet ready to lead the direction of a particular initiative, but the risk of not being sensitive to where your change makers are at is short lived or ineffective changes.  It is important to provide opportunities to stretch but within a zone of proximal development.  If we simply keep in mind what we know as educators, we can provide “just right” opportunities to make change.  Please comment if you have other ideas about how to help people feel more comfortable taking risks.