Having Confidence for Crucial Conversations

As a person that has always been "behind the scenes" type of person, I've always stayed quiet and voiced my opinion when I was directly asked- this was something I thought that was effective when communicating with others about important ideas. After reading Crucial Conversation, I realized that my silence wasn't helping my cause to develop change in my organization. I definitely need to put forth more confidence in myself and in the project I am working on to help our students to become more successful in their futures.

When I look at my innovation plan and how I delivered the information to my team before, I realized that I wasn't as successful as I needed to be. Mostly because, I truly did lack the confidence in delivering my story. I've decided that although I have introduced my plan to my team that I still need to deliver a crucial conversation with them on why I want to make such a drastic change to our system. To make a successful influence on my team and organization, I need to be able to create an effective dialogue with them. So rem

Start with the Heart

The first start in my crucial conversation is I need to identify the heart of my change. In order to truly make a change in how I can help change the way students are utilizing tutorial times is to understand truly Why I want to make the change. So before, I start my crucial conversation with my team, I need to reflect on my Why Statement, this will allow me to remain focus on why am I implementing change as well as what do I want to from making the change in tutorials for students. In asking myself what I want from changing tutorials? I want students to understand that we, as teachers, are ready to help them when they feel lost on a skill or concept and that tutorials are beneficial in order for them to find success in education.

In addition to understanding what's in my hearts of heart, I also need to Learn to Look.

Learn to Look

What I need to focus on when I learn to look for conditions. Notably my own Style Under Stress. After taking my Style Under Stress quiz, I've noticed that I do fall under silence. So I find that I feel more safe with my team. This is one of the reasons why I would like to reintroduce my ideas to them so that I can gain the confidence to reroute myself when the condition become unsafe. Along with building the confidence to reroute myself, this will help me to ensure that I don't fall into silence and withdraw to my ideas. My clear heart of understanding my why will also help me learn to look as I build safety for myself and others.

Make it Safe

In order to build safety among discussing my innovation plan, my influencer model will become a great deal of help to ensure that I am creating an environment in which my organization can develop a mutual purpose and mutual respect in developing a tutorial program that will benefit all content areas. Within my influencer model, I do address that I want my organization to be open with discussing the critiques of what is working and what needs improvement in the tutorial program. I also want to enlist a open door policy in which my organization can come to me with any comments that will make our program a more productive and success for our students. If we need to brainstorm or create new strategies to ensure that the program has longevity then I want to make sure that there is safe place to discuss and critique ways to improve.

Although, I feel that working as team with my organization to improve student learning through a blended learning tutorial program. I still want to be clear on the path to make our students more successful.

STATE My Path

I want to make sure that the road is clear of misconceptions. So to ensure that all is clear. I will need to state my path by Sharing my facts. The first thing I must do is to share my 4 Discipline of Execution (4DX) with my organization. Although the 4DX is catered to the plan to change the way 7th grade ELA does tutorials, I think it would be a great model to use to show other content areas in how the blended learning tutorial program was utilized and successful. The points are measurable data to use as well as allowing us to tell our story on how we were successful in using it. Most importantly, I want to tell my organization the story of how my students were the inspiration of creating a tutorial program that would be benefit them. I also would want to open up the floor by asking different department to share their stories of success or obstacles as well. If we are able to talk tentatively about how we can help students to become confident in their learning through a blended learning program. If I also allow others to question how this can be successful then I would take their questions and see if there are holes in my plan that need addressing and to be fixed.

After reading Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High, I feel more confident in understanding how to lead with change. Differentiating leadership is about being able to not cater to everyone's needs to but to be open to the idea of adjusting when necessary. My earlier concerns that I've voiced before with a fellow teacher in how I should adjust my influencer model and my 4DX seem almost minor now that I have the skills and understanding on communicating my plan successfully. It's in my hopes that I am able to truly make a change in our students' learning and confidence so that they carrying to their next grade or level of education.

References

Covey, S., McChesney, C., & Huling, J. (2012). The 4 disciplines of execution: achieving your wildly important goals [Kindle DX Version]. Simon and Schuster. Retrieved from Amazon.com

Grenny, J., Patterson, K., Maxfield, D., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2013). Influencer: the new science of leading change (2nd ed.) [Kindle DX version]. New York: McGraw-Hill Education. Retrieved from Amazon.com

Patterson, K., Grenny, J., & Switzler, A. (2012). Crucial conversations: tools for talking when stakes are high (2nd ed.) [Kindle DX Version]. New York: McGraw-Hill e-books. Retrieved from Amazon.com