Chapter 7 Grow Your People

Through the stories/examples in chapter 7, “Grow Your People”, these were the ideas that caught my attention:

Page 152 - “Paul Butler didn’t shrink the change. Instead, he grew the people.” I think when we are faced with a difficult task, breaking it down can be helpful. When the task or change becomes a part of who you are it can be powerful and create momentum for hard work.

Page 156 - “Identity is going to play a role in nearly every change situation.” Individuals need to take ownership of their work. When one has ownership in the process, change or learning can be more meaningful.

Page 165 - “A growth mindset compliment praises effort rather than natural skill.” I try to remember this with my students. I have learned to choose my words carefully, wanting to acknowledge the hard work and not just the finished project. Noticing each step in the process, the positives, as well as the struggles, can sometimes help students continue to strive for change and growth in different areas.

Page 168 - “But to create and sustain change, you’ve got to act more like a coach and less like a scorekeeper.”

We need to point out what is working well and keep practicing to get better or make a change.

Page 169 - “We will struggle, we will fail, we will be knocked down-but throughout, we’ll get better, and we’ll succeed in the end.” I think it is important for anyone trying to make a change to keep this in mind. Students need to know we will be there to support them.

Page 175 - “There’s no “never” at Jefferson anymore, only a “Not Yet”.” I really liked this idea. So often kids and adults get hung up on grades and not the actual learning or growth taking place. The idea of “not yet” allows one to notice that some work has been done, but the job is not over. That’s ok. Keep working.

Page 175 - “The Elephant has to believe that it’s capable of conquering the change.” The idea of confidence is an important part of making a change. 

Chapter 6: Shrink the Change

Chapter 6 is all about continuing to motivate that darn elephant. 

I’ve been wedding planning for about six months now, and let me tell you…motivating the Elephant gets harder as time goes on. I’m seriously considering running away with my fiancé to Las Vegas and getting married by an Elvis impersonator. Seriously speaking though, wedding planning is tough!

My Elephant was extremely motivated when the ring first landed on my finger. I searched Pinterest for wedding ideas and was delighted to call and set up appointments with prospective vendors. However, as I reach “the year of my wedding,” I find my desire to complete tasks dwindling. The wedding just seemed SO big as I looked at my checklist of things to do before August 6^th. After reading this chapter, I thought of the snowballing debt concept, and tried to implement it into my planning. Instead of looking at one huge checklist, I organized it into categories like “Catering,” “Flowers,” and “Centerpieces.” I realized I only had a few things left to do before I knocked some of those big chunks of planning out of the way. (I mean seriously, if I never have to look at another centerpiece idea again…I think I’ll survive!) Doing this helped me get rid of a few bigger pieces to the planning, and it helped me realize I was “20 percent of the way to the destination, not 0 percent” (p. 128). What a feeling that is! Recognizing you aren’t completely drowning in your plans truly does help motivate. I think coming to the realization that, “To motivate change, you’ve got to plan for [those smaller milestones],” helped me get my butt in gear to finish this wedding planning (p. 136). Telling myself, “Just one more phone call and I can be done with transportation,” or “I just need to buy this ribbon and I’ll be done with the ceremony location decorations,” feels awesome!

To use a more school-related concept, this chapter had me thinking about how we spend time teaching kids things they’ll never officially use in their future. We all teach something in our subject areas where we laugh and think, “Great…how am I going to get my kids to buy in to this?!” When the authors said, “The Elephant hates doing things with no immediate payoff,” this is what I thought of (p. 130-31). Kids look to learn things they can use right this second. They don’t consider what they’ll need “for the future.” The future is a made up place where kids need to learn how to use their words and write in complete sentences. They hate that. In AIS, I spend large amounts of time expanding vocabulary knowledge. I don’t give kids definitions and say, “We’re having a quiz next Friday.” I show them one word at a time, in conjunction with videos, comic strips, and classroom activities. At the beginning of the year, every kid flips through their vocabulary dictionary and says, “No way am I learning all these words. This is impossible.” I “shrink the change.” I only give 12-15 words per marking period, and we review each separately. I don’t go in alphabetical order. I give short, meaningful quizzes, instead of massive unit tests. I break down the knowledge first, so my kids don’t have to do it themselves. Just yesterday, I had a kid tell me, “Ms. Herbert, this quiz was way too easy today.” I said to him, “Are you sure it was easy? Or was it that you learned all the words, so it seemed easy?” It’s amazing how a simple change on my part completely transforms the way my students perceive their learning. (And for the record, you never hear an AIS kid saying vocabulary is “easy.”) J

Shrinking the change is one of those concepts that makes you wish you thought of it first because it's so simple. I love the idea, and find it easy to use with kids. I just need to get better at doing it for my own life. 

Chapter 6: “Shrink the Change”

In this chapter we learn from several interesting examples that big changes come from a succession of small changes.  The elephant is reluctant to start a daunting task. The challenge is to get the elephant moving by shrinking the change. 

One example of shrinking the change was the loyalty card promotions for a free car wash.  In one promotion the customer received a stamp for each car wash purchased, and then received a free car wash after filling out the loyalty card with 8 stamps.  In the other promotion, the customer needed to fill the loyalty card with 10 stamps, but the card already had two stamps on the card.  To get a free car wash in either promotion, customers needed to buy 8 car washes, but customers were more motivated in the second promotion because they were already 20% of the way to their goal of getting their free wash rather than starting from scratch.  It is more motivating to be partly finished with a longer task than to be at the start of a shorter one.

Another example of shrinking the change is a fundraising campaign that is not publicly announced until contributions making up 50% of the goal have been received. People are more apt to contribute when they think the goal is within reach.

I can relate to the dreaded housecleaning example.  Starting the unpleasant task of cleaning house is worse than continuing it.  Facing a daunting task, the instinct is to avoid it.  Using the “five-minute room rescue“ technique  is shrinking the change.  The smaller goal is a cleaner house rather than a clean house.   At the end of the five minutes, achieving small, visible goals creates momentum to keep cleaning.

Personally, I find wearing my Fitbit Flex to track the number of steps I take in a day helps motivate me to achieve 10,000 steps by shrinking the change into five smaller goals of 2000 steps.  When just one of five LED lights are blinking on my Fitbit, I know I am between 0 and 2000 steps. The closer I get to 2000 steps, the faster the light blinks. When I reach 2000 steps, the second light displays to show I am between 2000 and 4000 steps. When I see one of the lights blinking fast, I am motivated to keep walking to get to the next level. When I see all five lights, I know I am getting close to my 10,000 steps for the day, and I want to keep walking to see the fifth blinking light and finally feel the vibration to indicate I have reached my goal.

In my classes I need to find ways to break down tasks for my students so they can achieve small successes that will motivate them to continue the journey with a feeling of confidence.

“If you want a reluctant Elephant to get moving, you need to shrink the change.” (Page 129)

Chapter 5: Finding the Feeling

This was a very interesting chapter as it focused on the way to change behaviors through engaging the emotions and using that to foster change. In education we have faced many negative depictions and simplification of our profession, which has brought about the reform movement that says that it will hold everyone accountable while hunting down the “Bad Teachers”. Keeping that in mind, I found it ironic that the most successful companies and groups are shown to not use these methods, but it is expected to work in education. On page 122 the author notes “Negative emotions tend to have a narrowing effect on our thoughts,” which is interesting as we are trying to think outside the box and create solutions to problems for a variety of students and situations. As I reflect on this chapter, I realize that at different times I have felt that the attack on teachers over the last decade has frustrated me and made me focus too much on the barriers to change. As I read further, I liked how it was stated that for success we need “hope and optimism” and that will lead us to collective success. Now we can’t always change the decisions that are made at the governmental level, but I think that as a group we can be optimistic and have hope that we will always do the best for our students. We do it already and I think we have to focus on the bright spots and support each other, and through our own shared accomplishments we can show a better way to foster creativity and success in children and adults. I plan as my new year’s resolution to focus on the good things that are happening and push myself to be more optimistic. I hope that by doing this I can be energized, hopeful, and creative (p.107) when solving the many problems that we all face.

Chapter 4: Point to the Destination

In addition to finding the bright spots and scripting the critical moves, Chapter 4 asks us to point to the destination in order to direct the rider. To do this, the authors suggest making a “destination postcard” which shows what can be possible in the near-term future. Destination postcards should simultaneously direct the rider and motivate the elephant, which is a departure from “data-driven” goals that do not generate emotion. For example,  a teacher’s goal for her first graders was to be like third graders academically by the end of the year. Destination postcards look for a strong beginning, a strong ending, and getting moving. The middle will look different. I feel like this is very applicable to students as their journeys can be very different while working toward the same academic goals. I think the emphasis of our district on posting learning targets and making sure students know their end goal aligns with this chapter; however, while there is a clear destination in the learning target, it seems to lack the critical emotional component. For example, in kindergarten, a long-term learning target is “I can read Level D books in June.” While the direction is clear to me as a teacher, how can I make that motivational to a kindergartner? 

Chapter 3 - "Script the Critical Moves"

I felt that chapter three had many valuable points.  For example, I agree with the idea of decision paralysis.  When given too many options, people will shut down and not make a decision.  Also, I agree with the point made about being crystal clear (clarity dissolves resistance).  People need a clear picture to move forward.  I found that this applies to education because specific directions help lead students through tasks.  My only struggle seems to be that what is specific for one student is too much for another, so how do we meet all needs?  With that said, I know the answer to that question will be for teachers to differentiate. 

The hardest part for me to grasp in this chapter was the fact that it stated that we don’t need to get to the root of the problem.  The example given was related to child abuse.  I believe change can occur without getting to the root of the problem, but I do wonder about the long term effects of the change because I feel that the root of the problem needs to be addressed. 

Chapter 2: Find the Bright Spots

Here are my thoughts on Chapter 2:
     Look from within an organization for solutions, the change is then considered internal  and not from an external force.  It lends validity to the change  because it is already happening and by a known source.    Instead of focusing on what's going wrong, focus on what's going right.  Change is initiated  from a strength based position instead of a weakness based one.  Use effective questioning as a technique for pulling solutions from someone. Many times the solutions are already within ourselves, we just have to reason through them and be able to articulate it.
     The only thing that I didn't think was addressed was the environment in which all these things will occur.  There has to be trust and an understanding amongst all stake holders that the purpose of  using this lens is not to call people out but to pull from the expertise within.  It's not a process that  should be viewed from a personal perspective.   Instead it should be viewed from the following:   this is what works with our kids.  Let's share, reflect and make it our own.