Have you ever stood in front of your community and stared out into the abyss of empty stares, silent head nods, smiles, tired faces, only to land on that one person who has their hands folded, glaring at you. You know that person is not digging what you are saying, have no intention of moving, and want nothing to do with change. You walk out of the meeting, feeling like it went ok, except that one person keeps clouding your positive thoughts and it ends up sinking you. So why does that happen? Why are we, as leaders, so deadset on having the entire community or the consensus with us and when we don’t, we feel that we have failed?
We have all had community members who are resistant to change. I like to call them the unsuscribers! This can be one of the toughest barriers to go around or move. It haunts us and can often be the cultivator of the stories in our head that scream at us that we are not good enough leaders or we are not doing enough. It can cloud our messaging and turn it into a selling, dictating, and convincing tone rather than the supportive and clear message that we initially intended to present.
Some of this resistance to your messaging can come from community members who have been there a long time and have done this for way too long that they are not interested in changing. Other resistance could come from those who are already successful and do not want to rock the boat. There are many reasons for resistance. However, the important thing to remember is that this resistance isn’t always just about you as a leader.
The question is how do we activate dialogue that does not allow this particular barrier of resistance to stop the work that you are wanting to get going with your community? The answer is to move forward anyways. Moving forward does not require 100 percent of your community to be on board. Having all of them on board would be ideal but it may not be realistic. However, if the majority are rowing the same way, the resistant members may start to see or experience evidence of traction and momentum. That is what may eventually sway them to move from an individual towards more of a collective whole who gets results.
Another suggestion to help with those who are resistant is to provide value to their time. Instead of listing all of the things we have to do or change, link every day work of the classroom to the goals of your professional learning meetings. I am not suggesting to pile on initiative after initiative, or something entirely different every time you meet. Consider modelling the work, strategies, and quality of teaching that you expect that they do in the classrooms within your meetings. Make this the work that you do in your meetings. The framework of your professional learning communities should be directly linked to the work of the classrooms so they see the value and strategies modelled before them and can take it back to their classroom to use immediately. Keep the talking/telling to a minimum and the doing and active learning the bigger part of your time together. This way they have less time to fold their hands and zone out because they are doing the thinking, the talking, and the problem solving. Notice the gaps and the learning that your community wants. As a whole community, determine one problem and three actions they could do to get them from point A to point B the quickest. Download my free template for how to workshop your meetings to help you with this.
Big changes and lots of changes to your culture can immediately invite resistance. Start small and break down the work into smaller, doable chunks that require the community to take action right away. Give them time to practice and the expectation of commitment in order to take action and get traction. After each professional learning community, have your members decide on one action that they will do and practice in their classrooms before the next meeting. Provide clear and streamlined messaging and choices so your community can see the plan, the messaging, and where it is all going. End with the call to action so they can start to get traction and build momentum. Teach and give them something that gets them results and the engagement will start to grow. While you are calling them to action, make it clear that they have two choices. The first choice is to stay where they are and the second choice is to take action and start to take steps forward. Ensure that they know they always have a choice but to know that these two choices are the base of everything they do and will set the foundation to their own fulfillment and success. Be clear in your messaging that if you want to get traction then you have to take action but give them ways to provide clarity and support with how they could take action. Download my free template for how to engage your community through leaders in your school.
Ok, now let’s go back to that beginning picture that I painted for you. Remember the one where you were leading a meeting, staring out at everyone, and that one person who was folding their arms, not engaging, and not wanting to change? Imagine that the entire community now has momentum, clarity, traction and learn from each other. Imagine they suddenly saw the value in what you were saying. They knew the results they were going to get if they chose from a list of actions that you provided to help them get those results. Imagine if that person had only one action to do instead of twenty and they saw it modelled from their leader directly in the meeting. They saw your messaging clearly because you had mile markers along the way and had streamlined it so that it was clear to them what was in it for them. They see their leader and community forging ahead anyways, regardless of the resistance. They now know their leader was in it for the long haul, here to stay, creating ease and support every step of the way through choices and setting clear actions and moving forward regardless of whether or not everyone was all on board. From their perspective, those members may still resist but they will see the ship leaving the harbour with their colleagues on board building momentum. That may make it a little harder for them to miss the ride.
Here is what I know to be true. Leading a community is hard. We want everyone on board, happy, and engaging in your messaging. I know that, more often than not, there are always a few who are resistant. That is part of it and that is ok. Move forward anyways. Reflect often, streamline your messaging, and listen to your community but then make a decision and continue to build momentum. Show up consistently, especially when your resistant community members are not. Be obsessed with getting your community to the finish line as quick as possible through getting them to take action and the resistors will see and hopefully want a piece of that success. We leaders are here to serve and as long as that is at the forefront of your messaging, your community will start to grow in engagement.
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