The success of the 'Join the Club' Innovation Plan depends on buy-in from all levels of my organization, from administration to teachers aides.  Prior to studying the Influencer, 4DX, and Crucial Conversations strategies, I had no idea how to make that buy-in happen.  Having developed specific plans for implementing all three of these strategies, I now feel  prepared for the challenge ahead.  

Start with Why

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Communicating the Why of my plan fits in well with the Personal Motivation aspect of the Six Sources of Influence.  We as educators want to give our students engaging and meaningful learning experiences already, but we struggle with how to do that within the constraints of the current system of state standards and high-stakes testing.  Reminding ourselves of what kinds of learning experiences made an impact on us as students will help us refocus on the Why and realize that when we prioritize increasing student agency in their own education through project based learning, test scores will follow. 

Use Crucial Conversations Effectively as a Self-Differentiated Leader
In my differentiated leadership blog post I compare a self differentiated leader to a lighthouse: dependable and unwavering, not allowing the storms around it (sabotage) to affect its steady guidance.   We know that innovation requires change, and change brings storms in the form of anxiety and resistance.   A self-differentiated leader will keep their own emotions in check while working through these inevitable storms by using the strategies presented in Crucial Conversations (Patterson, Grenny, McMillan, & Switzler, 2011),  Having a plan in place before a difficult conversation not only helps resolve the conflict effectively, but also builds stronger relationships within the organization.  Read about my personal leadership goals in the "Changing Myself First" blog post.

Engage my Organization Using the Influencer Model and 4DX

Together Influencer (Grenny et al., 2013) and 4DX (Covey, 2016) provide a blueprint for change.  Whereas Influencer outlines the factors of changing human behavior,  4DX takes those factors to the next level with actionable steps in a process to bring about organizational change to achieve the WHY.