It's funny that I started this rant on January 3rd, then on January 4th this post appears on All Things PLC - Creating Buy-In for PLCs
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"The OSEP (Office of Special Education Programs) Technical Assistance Center on the SWPIS website (www.pbis.org) suggests that before schools begin implementing any sort of system change, they achieve at least 80 percent buy-in from building staff" (Windram, Bollman & Johnson, 2012).
80%! Really?
In the book How RTI Works in Secondary Schools:Building a Framework for Success authors Holly Windram, Kerry Bollman and Sara Johnson cite reliable sources - Mike Schmoker (Results Now) and Anthony Muhammed (Transforming School Culture) on the importance of buy-in. I'm not questioning the importance of buy-in. After a great deal of reading and seeing change flounder in different settings, I'm just starting to wonder what kind of Herculean effort is needed to pull it off? Windram, et al. don't sugar coat reality either admitting, "our experience suggests that gaining this level of commitment is more difficult at the secondary level...and takes longer" (2012).
If you played baseball or softball growing up, you probably had what was called a wheel house...an area where you really liked the ball to be pitched because you could crush it. As an aspiring leader it worries me how long it's going to take to find the change wheel house for my hypothetical staff. Am I going to be throwing BP all day/making my pitch for change, everyday until my arm falls off/voice goes numb? I feel like I'm pretty good at reading and interacting with many different types of people, but this seems like a HUGE challenge.
How much time do you spend shaking hands and kissing babies to get buy-in? Is there a point where you just say, the heck with it we're doing this because research says it's good for kids? I realize force feeding reform/change to adults is about as successful as trying to force feed our 2-year old, but at what point do you just push forward and get it done? I'm also not convinced that is an accurate analogy. At what time does doing what's best for kids just become part of professionalism?
I feel like many a great idea dies at the alter of planning to plan. Whenever I think about the frustration of bureaucracy I think of the movie Office Space. In the scene where Bobs are interviewing Peter there's a whiteboard with the title "Planning to Plan" with a hierarchy structure scratched out on the whiteboard (see the scene on Hulu). How long are you going to talk about rolling out PLCs/RTI/PBIS/insert favorite reform here or waiting for your staff to be "ready" before you just do it? What is the ideal speed of change? Do you really need 80% buy-in or reformer beware?
When I become a leader and want to make positive change. I want to do it to stand the test of time, so after I leave it just keeps on going. I'm 100% sure that's every leader or prospective leader's goal. What's the secret to getting things to work in the long run? Lillie Jessie from PLC at Work has some ideas here (also linked above). Jessie writes, "presenters of new ideas have to be able to change the hearts and minds of people. One slide presentation to a staff will not suffice."
After thinking about what is written above and reading the All Things PLC post, I asked myself the question "does it all really come down to charisma?"What do you think? Maybe I'm missing the point?
Reference
Windram, H., Bollman, K., & Johnson, S. (2012). How rti works in secondary schools: Building a framework for success. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
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"The OSEP (Office of Special Education Programs) Technical Assistance Center on the SWPIS website (www.pbis.org) suggests that before schools begin implementing any sort of system change, they achieve at least 80 percent buy-in from building staff" (Windram, Bollman & Johnson, 2012).
80%! Really?
In the book How RTI Works in Secondary Schools:Building a Framework for Success authors Holly Windram, Kerry Bollman and Sara Johnson cite reliable sources - Mike Schmoker (Results Now) and Anthony Muhammed (Transforming School Culture) on the importance of buy-in. I'm not questioning the importance of buy-in. After a great deal of reading and seeing change flounder in different settings, I'm just starting to wonder what kind of Herculean effort is needed to pull it off? Windram, et al. don't sugar coat reality either admitting, "our experience suggests that gaining this level of commitment is more difficult at the secondary level...and takes longer" (2012).
If you played baseball or softball growing up, you probably had what was called a wheel house...an area where you really liked the ball to be pitched because you could crush it. As an aspiring leader it worries me how long it's going to take to find the change wheel house for my hypothetical staff. Am I going to be throwing BP all day/making my pitch for change, everyday until my arm falls off/voice goes numb? I feel like I'm pretty good at reading and interacting with many different types of people, but this seems like a HUGE challenge.
How much time do you spend shaking hands and kissing babies to get buy-in? Is there a point where you just say, the heck with it we're doing this because research says it's good for kids? I realize force feeding reform/change to adults is about as successful as trying to force feed our 2-year old, but at what point do you just push forward and get it done? I'm also not convinced that is an accurate analogy. At what time does doing what's best for kids just become part of professionalism?
I feel like many a great idea dies at the alter of planning to plan. Whenever I think about the frustration of bureaucracy I think of the movie Office Space. In the scene where Bobs are interviewing Peter there's a whiteboard with the title "Planning to Plan" with a hierarchy structure scratched out on the whiteboard (see the scene on Hulu). How long are you going to talk about rolling out PLCs/RTI/PBIS/insert favorite reform here or waiting for your staff to be "ready" before you just do it? What is the ideal speed of change? Do you really need 80% buy-in or reformer beware?
When I become a leader and want to make positive change. I want to do it to stand the test of time, so after I leave it just keeps on going. I'm 100% sure that's every leader or prospective leader's goal. What's the secret to getting things to work in the long run? Lillie Jessie from PLC at Work has some ideas here (also linked above). Jessie writes, "presenters of new ideas have to be able to change the hearts and minds of people. One slide presentation to a staff will not suffice."
After thinking about what is written above and reading the All Things PLC post, I asked myself the question "does it all really come down to charisma?"What do you think? Maybe I'm missing the point?
Reference
Windram, H., Bollman, K., & Johnson, S. (2012). How rti works in secondary schools: Building a framework for success. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
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