My personal reflections are italicized.

Introduction

Started with passing out index cards on which we wrote an issue we are having at our schools.

Change is not easy. It’s uncomfortable. We should be asking questions. We don’t have the answers. All of us have the answers.

Essential Question – has not changed. Will be our work for a long time

How does leadership support PLC work in the 21st century?

The essential question is critical because if you ask the wrong questions, you have differing outcomes. Everything in our work centers around our central questions.

Activity – Retreat Connection (Accessing Prior Knowledge)

Think about a movie and a song that is connected to the prior time we met with our teams.

My movie is a YouTube movie where child is asking for help building a fire. He assumes that the answers are out there, he had no trouble asking for help, and he understands that the experts are in the field. We know that experts are among us, and need to tap in to that expertise.
Help with bowdrill set

(I can’t remember where I saw this video, but it really resonated with me.)

Patton was the suggestion from my learning partner – This process is related to excitement. There were many great, inspirational films shared by all related to this reflection. I liked the exercise because it caused us to think differently and to connect concrete with abstract.

(My Song – Changes by David Bowie)

Shared all around – Pair share – share with all

It was great to hear everyone’s movie and song picks. Mostly, the songs and movie picks were about change, passion, and working together.

Story

Jose  shares about Walter George – a British Runner. In 1886, he set the world record for running. He had worldwide recognition. British had some of the best runners in the world. Harry Andrews, an authority on running at the time, refuted that no one could do a mile in under 4 minutes.

In 1951, Roger Bannister said he would break the 4 minute mile in the Olympics. In 1952, he did not break the record during the Olympics. He came in 4th place. He’s persistent. His training is different. May 6, 1954, he breaks the 4 minute mile. (Good inspirational choice of music here – Chariots of Fire). All of sudden, many are breaking the 4 minute mile. 37 in less than 1 year. In less than 2 years, 300 broke it. When they interviewed him, it wasn’t a physical barrier – it was a mental barrier.
Think about what are your mental barriers.

(I really admire how Jose has interwoven stories about running into his narrative. He’s an avid runner and encourages others to exercise and be fit. He has purpose and passion.)

Setting the Context

Purpose: Behave our core values

Outcomes: Continue to Build Team, Understand Change Process, Practice Coaching PLC’s

Challenge – don’t ever stop believing. Whether you can or you can’t, you are absolutely right. Henry Ford (Paraphrases quote from Henry Ford, Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right..)

Setting the Context is important – Behaving our core values – it’s not easy. Our team is going to hold us accountable for behaving our core values. Most of the day is going to be about understanding the change process.

We are going to practice peer coaching. We understand the collaboration model. Teaching should be revered – we’re all teachers. We have to be knowledgeable about the teaching strategies – Blooms, Marzano, metacognition. We need to learn to be better coaches – to sustain the learning going on. Collaboration, coaching, and teaching support the core values. Building teams is not a one shot deal. It’s a long process that should be maintained.

Process
Groups of 4 – Describe a change you made in your life

Al-

Understanding change is not all figured out, but the best thing is to talk about it.

(Al shares books that have influenced thinking about change.)

The Influencer (by varios authors), The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell,  One Small Step Can Change Your Life – The Kaizen Way by Rober Mauer, and Leadership and the New Science by Margaret Wheatley

Shows a picture of the flu virus. Wheatley says to understand change, you need to look at nature. How does that correlate? All change has to go through chaos – so that when the city is destroyed by a tsunami, it’s almost always rebuilt – quick change.

(My notes are sketchy here. I got caught up in the story and stopped writing for a few minutes.)

Then internet – No Child Left Behind – the change that occurred is that they tested every student in the US. The question is: Does change happen quickly, or in the small step at a time way? How do you approach change? Gets back to knowing ourselves and how we approach efforts.

Activity

Please stand.

You were dropped in  a school, Would you change quickly or slowly?

Al shares the story of a company that had to change and was told it need to make 10 changes. The question – Al’s question is – Do you make those changes all at once or one at a time?

(Al shares a personal story.)

When he first became a principal, he had 2 mentors.

One said, “Don’t change anything – observe for 1 year.”  The other said, “This is your honeymoon year – make changes now.”

Activity

Number off 1- 2 inner circle and outer circle talking about 1st experience with change in a school, fast or slow.

Coming into a school – process is most important for change process.

You get dropped into a school. What are your first 3 steps

When does the change take place in terms of time? Past, present, future? Coming into a new school, you can’t make change without understanding what happened in the past, but you also need to have a plan for the future. When does change take place? Change is in the present. That’s what we think.

Story – (with video)

The video clip shown is precluded by this story:
A young gymnast is attempting to make the Olympics. He’s not having success. His coach is not helping – He finds a mentor. This mentor knows nothing about gymnastics, but about improvement. The young gymnast asks for help. The mentor says, “Meet me here (in the park) so I can tell you the secret of how to succeed.” Maybe this mentor has something for him. He asks his mentor, “Can you please make this quick?!” Here’s a clip. about being in the present.

(Peaceful Warrior movie is source of this clip.) Be 100% totally devoted to the present. How do we bring people into the present? There are some things we do to bring people into the present?

• Asking questions
• getting people to stand – to talk to one another

We need to know strategies to bring people to the present.

Working small helps you to be less comfortable.

Bring out the lion inside of us – picture of kitten looking at reflection of lion.

Fremont Hight School closed down. Why? Cortines is quoted as saying, “There’s no sense of urgency.”

Create a sense of urgency!

What does it look like. You can feel it. It’s overused. How could you measure it? Behaviors that are in the present and behaviors of despair….

Principal who uses data to motivate an entire staff – might not be good idea. It feels like the principal is saying, “It’s all your fault that we’re failing.” Don’t give bad news to faculty about faculty. From Change or Die, Alan Deutschman, the author explains that even when the ultimate urgency is dying – only 1 in 9 change habits to avoid it.

How we live is what’s effecting our economy. Facts in front of us – but people continue to not change. Motivation:

Facts – don’t motivate – based on research
Force – compliance doesn’t go to the heart
Fear – just compliance not commitment

Can you think of a time when these tactics were used on you and they didn’t work?
Rationalization – Why are some of us wired by our convictions and what is right, while others just follow along.

Activity

Shawshank Redemption
People are motivated by:
new hope – discuss

Community – connected to a group and hang with them – befriended them -

connect to a community

connect to a coach or mentor

learn new skills – talk about it

Vital Behaviors -
21st century teaching
Coaching
Collaborative skills

Influencing

New Thinking – Core Values People don’t resist change, they resist being changed.

Make a list of the five most influential people with whom you work.

The Tipping Point Metaphor – Paul Revere was the connector that influenced change – They know the right people. Paul Revere knew which doors to knock on while William Dawes, one of the other Freedom Riders, didn’t know which door to know on . Connectors know.

Malcom Gladwell, in his book, The Tipping Point, explains that there are thee types of people who influence:
Connectors, Mavens, Salespersons

Review the influencers, mavens, and salespersons at your site.

Use a Marzano strategy – best thinking is done on our feet.

Hypothesis formulation – what is a hypothesis? It’s not so much about getting the right answer, but understanding change process.

1. Establish relationships
2. seek out influencers
3. find positive deviants
4. identify vital behaviors
5. teaching/provide experiences
6. coaching, reflection, and feedback

Activity from the Influencer – notes sketchy

Imagine that it is your job to take on a disease that has plagued public education for 160 years. We did an open close activity to find out the best solution.

Even the best schools are not prepared for the 21st century world. Tony Wagner. We need to re-invent education. Our homework:

1. Observe a PLC and report findings.
2. Participate in a PLC.
3. Coach a PLC.
4. Coach a PLC and be coached by a colleague.
5. Coach a PLC and be coached by a colleague in front of PLC.

Cascading Message

What happened today in the Leadership Lab, what would you say?
Change happens in the present.
How did my leadership skills improve?
Understand the process of change.
Important to know who your mavens, connectors, and salespersons.
We have the skills but lack the practice.

Charles Darwin quote, “It’s not the strongest nor the most intelligent of the species that survives, but the most adaptable to change”

These notes are sketchy at best, but they capture the essence of the powerful learning we experienced during our Leadership Lab on Change. Thanks to Al Castillo and Jose Hernandez for their leadership and vision in helping us understand the need to change.