Whether you are an instructional coach, administrator, or teacher leader planning and supporting the growth of colleagues or designing your own personal improvement plan consider how to maintain momentum and push through the learning dips with implementation intentions, connections to beliefs and values, and a network of colleagues who provide reminders.
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Podcast Transcript:
[00:00:00.310] – Steve [Intro]
Welcome to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast. As instructional coaches and school leaders, you are tasked with guiding continuous teacher growth to create student success. This podcast looks to support you with strategies from experienced guests, as well as my own insights that I’ve gathered over the years. I’m thrilled to have you with us. Thanks for tuning in.
[00:00:29.890] – Steve
Coaches supporting teachers focus on goals. John Campbell from Growth Coaching International, posted a blog that describes sustaining effort and motivation for a coachee’s goals as being part of the coaching process. It’s easy for any of us to have goals slide off our plate when we get busy. And getting busy sure happens to all of us working in education. The first strategy that Campbell suggested was labeled as “implementation intentions.” That phrase comes from the work of Peter Galwitzer, who points out that what if planning in advance, greatly increases the chances of achieving one’s goals. These plans are often in an if-then format. If situation X happens, then Y is what I’ll do? This helps people to decide in advance how to respond to particular situations or challenges that may arise. I’ve been using a questioning strategy that ask a coachee who’s leaning towards a particular decision or course of action during our coaching to predict what possible positive or negative outcomes of their actions might be.
[00:02:00.570] – Steve
Now, it can seem contradictory to ask what could go wrong when the coachee is ready to commit to the action. However, I found that by predicting a problem or challenge and preparing a what-if plan really lowers the risk of implementation for the coachee. Here’s an example: A teacher is designing a more complex project-based activity than she has previously implemented. I might ask, are there any concerns you want to consider before you implement? The teacher may mention that the time students need for the project might be more than what she has initially planned. At this point, the teacher and I may discuss how to track and predict time as the project progresses. As well as what modifications could be made to the project along the way if needed. I sometimes call this approach a “what’s the worst case scenario question.” Years back, I was doing some work in the area of looking at optimism and I had this picture in my mind that optimists were people who had their heads up in the clouds, and they didn’t see the negative things underneath the clouds. But as I studied and found out, it turns out that optimists are highly skilled at playing the worst case scenario question.
[00:03:41.190] – Steve
In other words, when they get an idea before they take action on it, they stop and play out what’s the worst thing that could happen. And either one, they decide that that’s too big of a risk and they go back and modify their plan, or two, they decide that they have a strategy for what they’ll implement should that worst thing happen, or they may even decide that the worst thing actually isn’t that bad. By integrating implementation intentions into coaching conversation, coaches can help teachers translate their professional goals into specific, actionable plans that are more likely to be successfully implemented and sustained over time. Campbell’s second suggestion references the work of Richard Ryan and Edward DC on self-determination theory, as well as intrinsic motivation. It highlights the importance of linking goals to values and deeper meaning. A question such as, “why will achieving this be important to you?” can be a helpful and significant coaching question when discussing a goal. Seeking values and deeper meaning are my reasons for building an understanding of what I call “the teacher’s agenda” into my coaching pre-conferences. I describe this step as preparation for me to first observe in the teacher’s classroom through the eyes of the teacher before I observe through my own.
[00:05:26.440] – Steve
Before considering how a teacher might want to make a change, I want a clear picture of why the teacher would seek a change. What are the teacher’s beliefs about a goal, strategy, or learner outcome? As well as what degree of teacher effort would she want to invest in achieving any change? Understanding the teacher’s “why” and effort investment upfront guides my coaching actions. Consider the teacher who’s looking to raise the complexity of project-based learning task. I would explore how she sees that change positively impacting her learners. What will students gain from her investment in that change? I recall working with a somewhat reluctant teacher whose principal had required the teacher to work with me to implement the change change in her classroom. After a substantial amount of conversation, I turned to the teacher and said, “If I have a clear understanding, what you’re looking to do is to change as little as possible, but enough to meet the expectations of the administrator.” And she looked right back at me and said, “you got it.” And at that point, I signed on to be her coach. Now, my plan was that as she and I developed a relationship, as she began to meet some positive results from implementing the change, we could take things further along.
[00:07:11.430] – Steve
But reaching an agreement up front as to the goals she wanted to achieve and the amount of effort she was willing to implement, it really guided my coaching conversations and ongoing work with her. Lastly, Cambell points to a paper by Marshall Goldsmith and Howard Morgan titled, “Leadership is a Contact Sport: The Follow-up Factor in Management Development.” I found their comments on leadership development directly applicable to teacher development. Their studies showed that one variable emerged as central to the achievement of positive long-term change. The participant’s ongoing interaction and follow-up with colleagues. They found that leaders who discussed their own improvement priorities with their coworkers and then regularly followed up with these coworkers showed striking improvement. Leaders who did not have ongoing dialog with colleagues showed improvement that barely exceeded random chance. They describe that in many ways, a coach is like a personal trainer. The trainer’s role is to mind the person being trained to do what he or she knows should be done. Good personal trainers spend far more time on execution than on theory. The same seems to be true for leadership development. Most leaders already know what to do. For most leaders, the great challenge is not understanding the practice of leadership, it’s practicing their understanding of leadership.
[00:09:00.310] – Steve
I would say the same is true for us as teachers in classrooms. Making our growth as educators a social activity greatly increases the likelihood that we can maintain the conscious practice and reflection necessary to identify and internalize the skills that guide our learners to success. This is the benefit of PLC members having shared goals that generate all ongoing conversations which remind members to engage in conscious practice. Many educators start the new year with goals connected to conscious actions. But similar to New Year’s resolutions, that focus can fade. Whether you are an instructional coach, administrator, or teacher leader, planning and supporting the growth of colleagues, or designing your own personal improvement plan, consider how to maintain momentum and push through the learning dips with implementation intentions, connections to your beliefs and values, and a network of colleagues who provide reminders. I’m wishing you success in sustaining your efforts and motivation on your goals. Thanks for listening.
[00:10:32.280] – Steve [Outro]
Thanks for listening, folks. I’d love to hear what you’re pondering. You can find me on Twitter or LinkedIn at Steve Barkley, or send me your questions and find my videos and blogs at barkleypd.com.
