"Reverse the Process"

I was recently challenged to think differently about communication with respect to process.  The easy to say but not so simple to do suggestion of reversing the process was given.  Huh?

Too often communication begins with what we want to say, right?  In doing so, we are often responding, reacting to an event, issue, question or conflict or attempting to persuade, convince, or motivate others to do what we perceive to be right, good, and true. 

Seldom does leadership have the opportunity to be proactive.  Even when we attempt to be proactive it is vulnerable to criticism of being self-serving, spin, self-promoting, or attempting to influence perceptions – sounds a lot like politics and marketing. In fact, 10 minutes of television or Internet makes my case and point.

Reversing the process requires an awareness, understanding, and artful delivery of what the listener needs to hear.  Reversing the process of what needs to be heard from what needs to be said is a game changer with respect to creating awareness, understanding and support for the work of transformation especially with the work of transforming teaching and learning.

Failing to meet or exceed the needs of the listener creates the potential for significant disconnects with the purpose or mission of the organization, program, initiative, or practice let alone the vision or preferred future we are desperately attempting to create.

This may, in part, explain the lack of ownership, responsibility, and accountability of, for, and by performance results to date. This is both an internal as well as external stakeholder issue.  For example, if our community has not embraced fully the mission of the “all means all – whatever it takes” we are hard pressed to authentically engage in conversations to improve education in our schools.  The same is true with civic leaders, business leaders, faith leaders, and with citizens that do not have children in the public schools.  Additionally, if the staff including administration, teachers, and support personnel have not internalized the mission they cannot engage others in conversation let alone act, behave, and make decisions that are aligned with the mission. 

Last but not least are the parents and students.  If they are not authentically connected to the mission, see himself or herself in the mission, and experience the mission, the likelihood of improvement is extremely low or inconsistent at best.

Reversing the process begins with asking two questions.  The first,  “What do you expect and require from your schools?”  The second, “What evidence are you willing to accept that the schools are meeting or exceeding your expectations and requirements?”

These questions are neither new nor profound.  They are, however, different when asked with the desire to understand “what” our internal and external stakeholders need to hear – not what we want to say.

The answer to the first question opens both a window as well as a door into what others think about the purposes and outcomes of teaching and learning.  The responses to the second question provide insight into “what”,“when”, “how” and “how often” communication occurs.

The responses to both questions are central to connecting the mission especially as we listen to what the listener needs to know – not what we want to tell them.  Before I go too far with this reverse the process thinking, I need to be sure that we don’t confuse what the listener needs to hear with telling the listener whatever will pacify, satisfy, or in any way placate the situation or circumstances. 

We need to be truth tellers but we also need to be truth listeners.  Understandably, we know truth telling is not always received in the spirit intended and we wonder why. We underestimate as well as overestimate the capacity of listeners to listen as well as hear honestly, sincerely, and without preconceived judgments about a topic.  Yet, the inability in most cases to share what listeners need to hear is, in apart why there are issues with truth listening.  Simply, we have not built capacity in authentic, two-way communication that has at its very core the desire to build mutual awareness, understanding and support for the, in our case, the mission.

Reversing the process is exactly the strategy we need.