The issue is “dealing with resistance” – and that occurs in any organization. This scenario just happens to be in a school, in a teacher meeting.
Watch a scenario titled “Disruptive Teacher” (directions below on how to access it):
You have chosen different pathways of decision making as the principal in this simulation. More than likely (hopefully), you view it more than once, going back and choosing different decisions each time, to note the differences in outcomes.
Answer the following questions:
- What do you think is driving the critical teacher? What is causing her to have such a strong emotional response of resistance in this meeting?
- Critique the way the teacher leading the meeting has presented the topic for consideration. Is there a way she could have introduced things differently that might have resulted in a less volatile reaction from the veteran teacher? In what ways have her prior interactions with the difficult teacher affected the way she led the meeting?
- You, as the principal, are privy to information before, during and after the meeting. You are asked to decide on a course of action from several choices at several different places. Discuss your initial choices the first time through and the outcomes of those choices. Did your initial choices lead to the outcome you desired? If not, why? What happened?
- If you re-did the scenario with different choices, did you finally get to a desired outcome? Describe.
- After the scenario played out, what kind of follow up from the principal needs to happen?
- What is a leadership lesson here? Bring in concepts from the article you read, titled “Tug of War Between Change and Resistance.”
