What Are You Resisting

What are you resisting?  Is it a change in curriculum?  A change in staffing? A new assessment?

Whatever it is, your resistance is you being swept away by your own thinking and fears.  When you look at the formidable wall of resistance it’s easy to rely on your default tactics.  A default tactic is your personal position and when your emotions run high you subconsciously revert to one of these.  It could be the use of power to get your way, manipulation of others, applying the force of your reasoning to build a wall, ignoring what you don’t want, making a deal to get support for your position or killing the messenger.

Unfortunately all these tactics do is to sometimes create a win for you that turns out not to worth the cost. 

So how do you approach resistance without caving into your own fears?  First it’s important to recognize that all resistance is a natural part of change.   Before you can move beyond what is fearful you first have to recognize it.  Have a dialogue with yourself about what you are afraid of, is it failure, is it the adjustment of something new, or is it just moving out of your comfort zone?

Once you have clarified your feelings maintain a clear focus on the changes ahead.  Ask questions about the proposed changes, respect the other point of view, and remember that in a school everyone should have a shared mission and goals.   Keep in mind both a long and a short view of the changes to come.  Think about your present position and work and imagine how the changes will impact the future.  What is the desired future outcome; can you see the possibility of this?  And have patience, nothing happens successfully for any organization without the quality of perseverance which requires you not to quit or lose heart when things seem not to be working. 

Change can be a dynamic time, a time to embrace new ideas and to explore your own inquiry into your schools values and vision.  As you do this you will be able to embrace the commitment to continuous improvement.  No learning community can successfully survive without a commitment to the discipline of self-assessment and self-improvement. 

The best part about surviving these changes and shifts in your professional life is the ability to adapt to be flexible will become part of your personal relationships.  One side will constantly benefit the other.  You will find yourself being a better teacher and enriching all the other roles you have outside of the classroom.