Persuasion as a Catalyst for Change

I’m not going to lie; Daniel Pink is one of my heroes.  After reading his book Drive a few years back my professional practice was significantly changed for the better.  His work really made me critically reflect upon my leadership practices.  This led to a decision to give my staff and students more autonomy, which resulted in a greater sense of ownership of their learning.  The power of social media then connected the both of us leading to him Skyping with the students at New Milford High School, a personal dialogue over the years, and his endorsement of my new book on Digital Leadership.  Pink was the morning keynote on the opening day of the Annual ASCD Conference in Los Angeles, CA.  His presentation focused on the research presented in his new book To Sell is Human.  This post will be my best attempt to summarize his keynote.

Image credit: http://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/2014/03/10-keys-for-brand-persuasion-and-change.html#.UyXBv61dXJ4

Persuasion is a huge component of what we do in education. Roughly 40% of our time is spent moving other people from point A to point B or in another direction. The change process and its success for that matter lie in our ability to persuade people to embrace new ideas, concepts, and strategies. We are currently trying to accomplish this in a radically different landscape in a world dominated by technology.  All ideas and information can be fact checked immediately as society continues to become more connected by the day. There is no longer a monopoly on information.  Everyone has it, which makes the art of persuasion and moving people in a better direction much more difficult as there is no longer an information advantage. Instead of information imbalance there is information parity.

So with these challenges what do we do about it in the field of education? One way is to look at current research, especially the work of Robert Cialdini.  His research into influence and behavioral science allows us to piece together more effective ways to persuade, or embrace change, as I would prefer.  Social science suggest three core qualities to move people towards change:

• Attunement – Can you get out of your own head and see a different point of view? We must learn to accept and embrace different perspectives.
• Buoyancy – If we are facing an ocean of rejection how do we stay afloat?
• Clarity – How do we make sense of information? We must move from just accessing information to curating information. 

Instead of having  “big, hairy goals” Pink suggests that we should focus on small wins. As we continue to find success through these small wins they will eventually culminate into moving people where we want, and need, them to be. For this to happen we must relinquish a certain amount of power and control.  It is important for us to not let power overtake our core values, as it will negatively impact our willingness to be open to the perspectives of others.  We can become more effective by reducing our feelings of the need for power.  This was extremely refreshing for me to hear as we have moved away from directives and mandates at NMHS, both heavily aligned to power hungry leadership.  This, in combination with giving up control and trusting both students and teachers, has allowed us to initiate sustainable change at my school leading to transformation.

So who is better at selling stuff, introverts, extroverts, or ambiverts? Well the answer was ambivert, but what the heck is this? According to Pink ambiverts are in the middle of both extroverts and introverts.  None of us really possess all of the qualities and characteristics that define either an introvert or extrovert.  What this really means is that we have to become a better version of ourselves in order to improve our ability to persuade.  Or better yet, to move people to where they need to be. 

You can do this! Well actually this might not be the best course of action. Buoyancy in this frenetic world rests on interrogative self-talk.  A change in mindset that has us ask the question can I do this actually leads to better outcomes related to change. Interrogative self-talk is actually more instructional and can spark the autonomous intrinsic motivation to pursue and accomplish a goal. Pink provided a great analogy in Bob the Builder, who asks the question can we fix this? Taking this perspective can really assist educators move people towards a better way.

Persuasion and motivation are not done to someone; it is actually something they want to do.  Context drives behavior more than we realize. Sometimes changing people’s minds is what we focus on when instead we need to give them an off ramp to act.  When we try to lead there is a tendency to focus on the how.  This is important, but it shortchanges the why.  The cheapest persuasive tool we have is explaining the why. Pink recommends having tow conversations on why to every on how.  As others understand the why the road the change becomes clear.

QR Codes in the Math Classroom

In Mrs. Chellani’s continual efforts to create an engaging learning experience for her students, she has found utilizing QR codes to facilitate collaboration to be highly beneficial.  In order to review material discussed in an assigned video and in class in her Pre-Calculus and Calculus courses, she created QR codes with relevant questions on the material and its’ applications.  Students were placed in groups of four to five; and, using a QR reader app on their phone, they were able to view the question.  Once the students worked on the problem together, they would confirm the result with Mrs. Chellani. When the solution was correct, they would be given the next QR code (i.e. question).  The level of engagement increased dramatically with the use of QR codes and simply allowing students to utilize their cell phones in the learning process! 

Image credit: http://www.youngupstarts.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/QR-Code.jpg

Mrs. Chellani has been a pioneer in flipping her classes at New Milford High School where her tools of choice have been Adobe Captivate and Edmodo.   Be sure to check out her class website at Learn Math Easily. In addition to the interactive videos she has created to flip her class you will also find case studies and online resources on her site. 

Moving Beyond 140 With Google+ #digilead

The following was written by Evan Scherr and the original post can be accessed at Just Thinking Out Loud.

I love Twitter. I have connected with some really amazing practitioners because of it. I have become friends with some really fantastic people as a result of it. Twitter serves as the bridge to my connecting and my learning.  It is a beautiful bridge. It is not a very long bridge to walk across. Sometimes, I just want to take a longer walk.

Eric Sheninger wrote a great book on Digital Leadership.  The timing of the book was fantastic. I had just accepted my first admin position with a large international school in Germany. I wanted a way to discuss the book with other leaders out there.  So I started a Google Plus Community in the hopes of connecting with other leaders out there to discuss the book and leadership in general.

Image credit: http://i2.cdn.turner.com/

Why Google Plus?

Twitter is great for those shorter walks. 140 characters of quick, rapid fire, tweets. That works well for me at times. The other times I just want to dig in and really begin to discuss a topic and not be limited by the 140 character limit. G+ communities provide me a way to accomplish all of this and so much more.

Other benefits of the G+ community are:

• The ability to hold threaded discussions
• The ability to add video chats (called Hangouts)
• The ability to remain in the Google Ecosystem and leverage other Google products like Calendars and Docs.
• The ability to further grow and deepen the PLN experience.
• Adding New Layers

The Digital Leadership community centers around Eric’s book. Last week we held our first BookOut (probably not a name that will stick) Hangout. Four of us, including Eric, connected and discussed chapter one of the book. This added a layer to the community that I really enjoyed. It was a great experience to have face to face (via video chat) conversations with other leaders and hear their thinking and ideas. Eric added more back story to the chapter and provided us with even more of his thinking and experience with the tools that he discussed in the chapter.

Beyond 140

The goal of the community is to go beyond 140 characters. It is a place where you can share your thoughts on the book, on leadership/digital leadership, or connect in new ways with new people from around the world. The community experience can be anything that you would like it to be. That is the beauty of it. You can even be a lurker, though I am hoping that you become an active participant and add your voice, ideas and knowledge to our growing thinktank.

Global Connections Made Possible Through Technology

Mrs. Collentine’s Global Perspectives in Literature had a different spin on their research paper this year. In previous years, students had selected a charity to research and then, where possible, were to work for that charity in some capacity as part of the research paper experience. This year, students were to select a charity from a different part of the world—namely the country that is their own heritage and background. 

Image credit: http://www.refresh-marketing.co.uk/tag/sales-2/

After they selected their charities and then began their research, students were having amazing “real world” experiences. Senior Raechel Sontag actually set up an interview with the CEO of the charity she selected in Scotland and held it via Skype! Senior Leah Subrizi emailed her charity, located in Italy, back and forth and corresponded completely in Italian! Senior Christopher Learn was so touched by his charity and their work—done in Germany—that he actually donated to the cause and plans on attending a conference the organization is holding when they come to New York City! Research papers are more than a paper this year in Global Perspectives Honors!