How Can I Help Others Catch My Vision?

Bringing innovation to education has the potential to be a daunting process.  You have to have an idea that is do-able, you have a lot of work to re-tool lessons and instruction, and you have those that don't understand why you feel the need to change things.  We have personally seen what happens when we do not address concerns and communicate well up front, and have learned tremendous lessons from it.  For our new change we have begun to be proactive rather than reactive with our peers.

First we developed the idea as fully as possible between the three of us, to ensure that we had our "talking points" and that we were able to share a clear, well-thought out vision.  This is extremely important as the lack of preparation can cause outsiders to think that the idea lacks merit, not because it is bad, but because someone who stumbles over their words and thoughts does not inspire confidence.  Look at the process of business proposals for a real-world example.  If you want to pitch a business idea to investors you had better come prepared.  No one wants to invest (money, time, etc.) in something that has not been well planned, has gaps in thinking, and appears to be an idea that just popped into your head.

The next step was to determine who our shareholders would be.  We focused on disciplines that might see an overlap in our course, as well as potential supporters and detractors.  In order to be successful in starting our new course, the department chairs will first listen to our idea and determine whether they will support it.  If they do not, we are dead in the water.  This is such a great idea that we are not willing to leave it to chance and our enthusiasm alone.  We needed to start dialogues with people ahead of time.

We started with overlap issues, meeting with those teachers whose subjects would be utilized in our course to discuss our ideas, acknowledge that there may be some commonalities, and seek to supplement each program rather than creating a competitive environment.  This allowed any concerns or issues to be addressed immediately, to prevent any feelings of competitiveness from causing distrust or animosity between staff members.  By having a clear idea of where we wanted to go, we were able to share actual information, not just theoretical ideas.  Advanced preparation is a huge benefit.  This open communication also prevented feelings of being undercut, but instead created a resource by acknowledging their expertise and respecting it.

For supporters, we first looked at teachers who were working to improve their own programs and were open to change.  We identified their strengths, and looked for ways to bring them into our vision.  This allows other teachers to have an investment in our program, and helps to bring their strengths in to support us.  Each person we talked to was very enthusiastic about our idea, and very willing to share their information and help us incorporate it into our course.  They were also excited about the ability to have our course support theirs and visa-versa.  This is cross-curricular collaboration at its best, and has created a supportive base for our class.

The last group we worked with were those who had a history for being cautious about change.  These are teachers who have usually been in the school for many years, and feel a very strong attachment to every program.  For this potentially difficult group, we took a lesson we learned from a local university professor who modeled dealing with reluctant staff.  We began by explaining our course, why we felt the need for this course, and then turned the tables and asked them to share any concerns they had about the idea.  It allowed us to look at their concerns ahead of time, and gave us plenty of time to ensure that we were addressing these concerns in both our course design as well as our presentations.  This wasn't done with the idea of manipulation.  We were not trying to minimize them, but identify what might cause them to feel they could not support us.  It was done to determine potential problems ahead of time so that they can be addressed, because this group of teachers does usually have the success of the school in mind.  By taking teachers who normally struggle with change and bringing them into the planning portion, we allowed them to share in the process and gain a sense of involvement that they would not have otherwise, as well as identify issues we may not have seen ourselves and work to eliminate them.

Good communication with peers, as well as a well thought out plan of action can help to take an idea from the drawing board to the classroom with a lot of support, and very little push-back.