Changing Vital Behaviors
Articulating a clear desired result required me to analyze my innovation plan deeply. I had to continually ask myself, "why are you doing this?" The more I worked on my plan to influence change, the more I realized the importance of "why?" I have had to keep in mind that I want to provide students with otherwise unattainable experiences and the skills necessary to pursue ideas and aspirations. I know that I have to convince my peers that we can be the starting point of this process, that we can set students on a pathway of inevitable innovation. I plan to set this plan in motion by implementing iPad apps in the classroom to teach coding fundamentals and allow students to take charge of their learning by creating learning projects.
Learn more about my purpose, "What is your why?"
To achieve my desired results, I had to identify the vital behaviors to set my plan in motion.
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To find those vital behaviors, I started by noticing the obvious. It's evident that if the teachers I am targetting are not familiar with the apps they can use to promote coding and creativity, they will have no reason to use them. So I want to start there, taking them on a journey similar to what the students will experience. To become familiar, we will dive into the coding lessons teachers will hopefully soon be implementing weekly in their classrooms. Furthermore, they will become familiar with the creativity apps such as Keynote, Clips, GarageBand, Pages, Numbers, and iMovie. We will approach this through projects, where teachers will apply concepts students learn to create a learning product.
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The next vital behavior will be candid collaboration among all members of my organization. This is a crucial moment, this is when we take what we have learned and decide to adopt it or forget it. After a fun and involved learning experience, we will share impressions of what we have learned. Voice what we liked, what we didn't like, obstacles, and engaging moments. Most importantly, we want to share ideas of how we can implement this in our classrooms. Discuss upcoming units and topics and decide how we can use what we have learned to modify and redefine learning experiences.
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Lastly, continuous practice and progress collaboration will be imperative to keep this plan alive. We will meet weekly to practice learned and new iPad skills. Share what we have done in the classroom, celebrate aha moments, and collaborate with peers who have hit a stumbling block. We want to keep the goal alive while promoting accountability among peers.
The vital behaviors that will drive change must be measurable. We have to hold the plan accountable, recognize when we are making progress or not. I realize that when we measure in a school setting (and in many other settings), we usually focus on the final results. In this case, I have to focus on the steps we are taking to get there, are we enacting the vital behaviors. Also, it is crucial to celebrate the moments in which the vital behaviors occur.
Six Sources of Influence
To succeed in this need for change, we have to go beyond merely telling people to do it because it'll be useful for their students in the long run. We have to appeal to their motivations and abilities, broken up into three categories, personal, social, and structural.
Personal motivation deals with making something that perhaps they view as hard or unpleasurable and turn it into something they appreciate and feel a need for. We do this by creating direct experiences and connecting to the values of our stakeholders. I want my peers to experience the same redefining, positive, and engaging moments that their students will hopefully experience using iPads. I want to make them feel like we can develop critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity skills by allowing students to explore and demonstrate their learning using iPad apps. Most importantly, I want to connect to their core values of why they get up and come to work each morning and show how we can support those values by implementing coding and creativity in the classroom.
We can be extremely motivated to do something, but there is no way to get it done if we lack the skills. This is why personal ability is so important. By submerging teachers into the Coding and Creativity lessons that teach how to use the various iPad apps, not only will they get the full student experience, but they will also get a sense of what will work for their classroom and what won't. By providing ongoing opportunities to practice using different iPad apps to create and explore learning, my peers will hopefully see that this can take student learning to new horizons.
Social motivation is the most important of the six sources of influence. Opinion leaders and formal leaders can make or break my innovation plan. These people are respected in my organization, and if they buy into the idea, then the rest will follow. Furthermore, we must ensure that socially the targets of my change feel praised, supported, and encouraged when engaging in one of the vital behaviors. We have to create a climate that encourages people to think that one person's improvement is everyone's improvement. I want my peers to feel comfortable sharing their wins and setbacks, knowing that we will all be there to cheer each other on or give each other the push needed to get over the stump.
Social ability will also play a significant role in the failure or success of our implementation. We need everyone in the organization to feel as if they can come to anyone for help. When the team creates a learning project to implement with the students, everyone will have similar and different classroom occurrences. If something didn't go as planned, we should have various opportunities throughout the day to get real-time feedback and support from our peers.
Finding my structural motivations and abilities was one of the hardest things for my innovation plan. Structural things can impact change because you don't need to convince "things" to change. These are objects, items, space, visuals that are under our control. More often than not, these are the hardest thing to identify because they go unnoticed. Extrinsic motivations cannot overpower the personal or social, so we have to be very careful in applying this. For structural motivations, I want to focus on visual trackers; positioned in commonplaces of my organization. For structural abilities, I want to create spaces that promote the sharing of ideas and feedback.
Grenny, J., Patterson, K., Maxfield, D., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2013). Influencer: The new science of leading change (2nd ed.). North Ryde, NSW: McGraw-Hill.