How to Develop Influence to Create Positive Change
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The only thing constant is change. Have you ever heard that saying before? Does it make you roll your eyes or groan with dismay? Or do you feel immediate stress and anxiety at the thought of change? Maybe you feel energized and inspired by the prospect of change? Whatever your experience, I think we can all agree change is… a mixed bag.
I know I’m not alone in having the experience of wanting something to change in my organization. It can feel like you are stuck in a never-ending cycle of frustration and disappointment when you so clearly see something that needs to change, yet you feel powerless to do anything about it.
Well, I have BEEN THERE friend, and let me just say, it sucks! But it doesn’t have to stay that way. I am here to tell you how to become a CHANGE AGENT. You, yes YOU, can create positive change in your school or organization. (Cue the internal naysayer who is telling you right now you are too unimportant or small to make change in such a big organization. Well, tell the naysayer to be QUIET for just a moment and hear me out.)
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing one of the most incredible change agents I have met in my educational career. Dr. Joleen Smith, a collaborative learning specialist with over 35 years of experience in education, is the executive director at my school and she has led a season of transformative change for our organization.
Part of the reason I interviewed her was because I wanted to hear some of the things she did to set change in motion at high levels in our school. I also wanted to get her perspective on how anyone can be a positive influence on their school. What I gleaned from our conversation was nothing short of inspiring and empowering to say the least.
I have taken what she shared in our interview, synthesized it, and categorized it to present 6 keys to becoming a change agent:
Partnership is Essential
The foundation to creating any lasting change is partnership. This needs to be built at all levels, between the leadership, the leadership and the staff, and within the staff. Change is difficult, and having a foundation of partnership can help the organization persevere amidst the struggles that will inevitably come during a season of change. Some of the cornerstones of partnership include love, respect, and effective communication. All of which I will discuss in more detail.
Love and Respect
In order to be a change agent within an organization, you need to build trust with your leadership. One way to do that is to get to a place of mutual love and respect with your leadership. I will be honest, sometimes you may have to be the first to show it to others before it is reciprocated.
“Typical resistance and hostility towards change can be neutralized if people know you love and respect them.”
This is one of the keys to building partnership. Building love and respect is so foundational to becoming change agents because the typical resistance and hostility towards change can be neutralized if people know you love and respect them. It aids the process of guiding change.
Effective Communication
This is CRITICAL in being an agent of change. If you don’t have strong communication skills, I would recommend starting out by OVERcommunicating. It is better to over-communicate than under-communicate. As time passes and you elicit feedback from others, you can start to whittle down to a good pace of communication, but the key is to communicate more than you think you need to.
Communication, when paired with all of these other actions, is what will ultimately get the change from an idea to an action. If you never communicate, it will stay on the ground and will most likely fizzle out.
Patience
It’s important to know that any change, big or small, won’t be perfected overnight. It takes patience to implement change on an organizational level. As a change agent, you need to guard your heart from becoming impatient with the process, because that can result in some damaging outcomes.
You might try to rush the process and the change could be implemented less effectively and ultimately fail. Or you might begin to respond in anger or frustration throughout the process, which damages relationships and that partnership I mentioned. Ultimately, you need to be patient and be ok with taking the process very slowly, and methodically. That is the best way to ensure long term success.
Systems Check
Before you can create any lasting change in an organization, you need to make a systems check. You could have the greatest idea for something to change, but if the systems and infrastructure are not capable of sustaining that change, it will ultimately fail. That’s why it’s so important to look outside of just the changes you want to make, to the bigger picture of how the organization runs the way it does.
If there’s something that needs to change, try to identify the source of why it is the way it is. Think about new systems and processes that you will need to help implement or ways to streamline current processes before the change can be long lasting and sustainable.
Take Ownership of Your Mistakes
(Ouch, I know!) This one may be one of the hardest things for most people to do, but it is so important when you are trying to build trust with others, which is ultimately one of the necessities of being an agent of change. It won’t come as a surprise to realize there will be a lot of mistakes made along the road to creating lasting change in any organization. The important part is that you own up to your part in the mistakes and learn from them.
Hiding your mistakes will just break that trusting partnership with others and it will create more obstacles in the long run. Also, the more you take ownership of your mistakes, the more respect people will have for you because they see that you are humble and teachable. As amazing as you are, you aren’t above it all.
The process of change can take years and years, as in the case of what Dr. Smith has done with our school. But, I can honestly say, I am so thankful for her influence and impact on our organization as a whole, and on my own life. So don’t sit around and wait things out when you know they could be better. BE a CHANGE AGENT.
Is there anyone in your life who is an inspiring change agent?
How are you going to put these steps into action in your life?
