Embracing the Emotional Journey of Implementing Project Based Learning: Navigating the Five Stages of Change | E172

Ever felt the dizzying highs and crushing lows of bringing innovative learning methods into the classroom? Our journey through the Five Stages of Change Cycle promises to shine a light on the emotional journey that comes with integrating Project Based Learning (PBL). As we navigate from the hopeful beginnings of uninformed optimism to the challenging depths of the valley of despair, I share not only my anecdotes but also practical guidance to help you stay the course. This discussion is packed with real-life insights, ensuring that your dive into PBL is armed with strategies to keep you buoyant even when the waters get rough.

This episode isn't just a theoretical walk in the park; it's a battle-tested guide to managing the complexities of educational change. With a keen focus on the power of coaching, training, and the sharing of success stories, we emerge from the valley of despair into informed optimism. The conversation extends into how vision and support structures can usher us into a fulfilling stage of success, making PBL an integral part of our educational culture. Whether you're a seasoned educator or a leader in the throes of transformation, this episode serves as your beacon, helping you to not just expect the unexpected but to conquer it.


CHANGE CYCLE GRAPHIC
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Transcript

Ryan Steuer: 0:00

These are the five stages of the emotional cycle of change and how to make the dips shallower and shorter. Welcome to PBL Simplified Podcast. I'm your host, ryan Stoyer, and today we're talking about change process. If you're an educator listening to this, you're a leader or principal assistant superintendent. Superintendent, you are leading people and you're leading change, or you're listening to the wrong podcast. But once you start moving things from a traditional classroom to project-based learning, some student-centered model, you're now involved in the change process and the change process will be really easy. I've got all the tips, the tricks, the structures, the resources you need for project-based learning, except there's people involved. If there were no people involved in change, it'd be a piece of cake. You'd have no problem. You can just stay attuned to your tasks. But there's relationships being built, there's people to move through this process, and information and knowledge may be part of it, but it's only a small part. So we've got these five stages of the cycle of change and I think they're valid for us. I will tell you that I am one of those people, probably just like you, who's a mover, a pusher. You know a three on the Enneagram scale, a high D. Really. We're gonna move things forward because we see it. Now we're gonna do it. But again, you've got people that are not like you. You've got people that are gonna go through these five cycles and I would even say, as much as I try to push against these five stages, I'd probably go through them, but what we found is that we have structures and processes, people, inspiration, vision that can make the lows less low and make them a little bit shorter. So your people are still probably gonna go through them. You're probably gonna go through these stages, but they don't have to last as long because you're not doing it on your own and it's not your first time.

Ryan Steuer: 1:45

So let's take a look at the five stages of the change cycle. As you'll see on the screen, stage one is uninformed optimism. This is a fun time. We're dreaming, we're visioning. Oh, school could be so much better. I can't believe we used to do that. Now we're gonna do this Like we were on a futures protocol in our design days and we take you and your leadership team through this process and it's always high energy.

Ryan Steuer: 2:07

People are excited about it and they can see the future, they can see the vision and you wanna hang onto that. It's part of what design days is to hang onto that. But part of design days is to also say hey guys, there's a cost to this. Because that moves you into stage two. Stage two, you'll see the line of optimism versus pessimism and you just start to go underneath that line into pessimism, because while the first cycle is exciting it's full of optimism the second stage is gonna be your informed pessimism. So now what happens typically in this cycle is you were really excited about the vision and the place you were gonna go, but now you're like there's a cost to this. So what is the cost? We hadn't thought about this. We didn't think about the hard work, the insecurities that might come out. We might have some obstacles we hadn't thought about before. We're gonna have to problem solve, we're gonna have to think critically, and this is all about adults. We're not even talking about kids yet. So in stage two there's this informed pessimism. So you're starting to come down on the cycle. We were all excited about what we could be doing. Now we have to do it and it gets hard and that's okay. That's part of the process. Now what we do in design days actually is we try to bring up some of these costs that are gonna come up. So before you leave, you kind of go through the optimism and we're there with you as you get to some of the informed pessimism, like, oh, it's gonna be hard, but you can start to think through how you're gonna get through those first couple of obstacles, cause then you're going down into and it sounds really bad stage three, the valley of despair. Oh no, like we're despairing, like this is our lowest point emotionally. We're down at the bottom of this pessimistic valley, and this is where a lot of people turn back. Here are two examples that we've seen.

Ryan Steuer: 3:50

One that we went through as magnified learning is the organization Real early on, we're doing a lot of great work. People are like, yes, yes, yes, we wanna do all of this. We had COVID was in there, we pivoted, but somewhere in there it was hard, right, and if you've started something new, you get it. It was hard. And this other job came up, a job. So I founded magnified learning, standing on the shoulder of giants. There's a lot of work that went into this from a lot of different people, but I started the organization, started the business, and when you do that, it's different, right? You're an entrepreneur, so there's no insurance, there's no bank of money that pays you. And then eventually you hire someone and now you're actually responsible for their salary. And At one point we were in the valley of despair or I was right and we saw this other job was an after-school job and it had benefits and steady pay and it was like maybe that's the best thing for my family and my five kids.

Ryan Steuer: 4:42

We've got five kids and so how are we gonna work this out? And we looked at it and I talked to some close advisors and so well, what happens if I take this? And so well, ryan, you could take it. Like, if it's the best thing for your family, go ahead. But understand that magnified learning is done like it'll just be done. There's not enough structure to it yet. You can't sell it like nobody's gonna be able to take this over. It's too much. You right, and there was some hard thinking down in the valley of despair. So you want people with you. So it's not as deep and it's not as long.

Ryan Steuer: 5:08

And what helped me was the vision that we talked about the beginning, that optimism, like. There was a second of like, yeah, maybe we should play it safe, maybe we should have insurance and all these different things. But then the vision was like this all goes away. But we've got this vision of all these schools using project-based learning. We've seen that it works. Like how do we do that? So my wife and I had that conversation. We jumped in like yeah, let's do it. And that took us out of the valley of despair up into informed optimism.

Ryan Steuer: 5:36

But let me tell you another story before we get there, because what happens in the valley of despair is in the project-based learning world. Is you, and Probably not you, hopefully it's not you, but we've seen people grab some of our resources, which is fine. We're building a movement, not an empire. We want to share. But they'll take it and we never hear from them again. So they go and they're excited. They're in stage one, they start doing some of the work, they get in the stage two, they get into stage three in the value of despair. They don't have coaching, they don't have training, they don't have supports built up and they turn back. So what the research shows then is that you're gonna turn back around and you're gonna go through steps one through three again. You're gonna try something different so we can get in the valley of despair One.

Ryan Steuer: 6:18

I want you to know it's coming, whether it's you or some of your staff members like they're gonna, they're gonna be there. They make this is not working. Project-based isn't, learning isn't working, it's hard. I don't get it. They, the kids, really like it, but what do I do? And then we're gonna push through that to informed optimism. And if you notice, on the chart, it goes just above that line. I Did.

Ryan Steuer: 6:41

You just have a major PBL win and you've got to share it with somebody. Let's do it on the podcast. If you go to pblsharecom, you can share your win and then I'm going to bring it to people right here on the podcast so that all of our listeners can hear it. You need to share your wins. It's good for you, right, but it's also good for other people who are in the trenches doing this work, trying to change school culture, trying to change instructional methods, trying to change mindsets. It's hard work. You need to hear your wins because it's encouraging. So go to pblsharecom to share your win today, because now, if we use our project-based learning example, your staff has been really excited about it.

Ryan Steuer: 7:23

In stage one, the leadership team says yes, let's move. They start to see the costs. It gets tough. Should we really be doing this? Is this the right idea? It gets harder, there's some pushback. Maybe you get a parent comment that isn't great, you get a teacher that's loud and doesn't like it.

Ryan Steuer: 7:39

So what do you do? You can go back through steps one, through three, but your vision that you start with pushes you through. The support structures that you have, whether it's coaching, whether it's leadership coaching, teacher coaching, coaching your coaches all the resources that you have push you through. You look at your successes and your vision to informed optimism. So now you're excited about that vision still. But now you have a reason to be Because you have your own success stories from your school. Your leadership team started to implement PBL because you have some teacher leaders on there and now those stories are starting to propel people above that pessimistic line, because if you put your staff going through this, they're not all going to be in the same place at the same time. Gosh, that would be awesome If you created kind of this live graph of all of your staff and where they're at on the emotional cycle of change. It'd be awesome.

Ryan Steuer: 8:28

But those local success stories are going to take your innovators, your early adopters, your early majority up into that informed optimism stage, and that's when you can't stop Like it seems like, oh, things are great, it's going well, but you cannot stop at this stage. That's why there's still another one, there's still five, because you want to get to success and fulfillment. Now you, as the leader, have structures and processes. Maybe it's through your PLC process, maybe it's tuning protocols. Nobody implements a PBL in your building unless it goes through a tuning protocol with an adult and that structure starts to build more success. Success builds fulfillment.

Ryan Steuer: 9:05

And now this is just what we do. Was it hard to get here? Yeah, it sure was. Like tell that story right. Like we started here and boom, it got hard. And then we got to the other side. But look, here we are Now. It's just what we do.

Ryan Steuer: 9:16

And now, at this point, your late majority has joined you, right. So your late majority is above the optimistic line. They still want structures, they still want training, no-transcript. But they're with you, they're above the optimism line. Now your laggards, you might have to pull them a little bit more. They might never come up, but they're better. They're not in the valley of despair, they're with you. So now your staff has made it through that valley. And what you want to do.

Ryan Steuer: 9:44

I think the key is is one as somebody who likes to think that I'm unique, creative and visionary. I like to think this doesn't apply to me, but then I look back at my life and go, yeah, probably. So. Then I think, what's the next question you ask is how do you make the valley not so deep, like if you know your staff are going to get to a place where it's hard? What can you implement in those hard times to make sure that they don't go all the way down and want to start over? And I'll give you a hint it's not just nachos Now, it might be nachos, nachos, help. But you're going to want to have extra supports when it starts to get tough. Or you just say hey guys, we're going to hit there, it's going to get tough, but it's worth it.

Ryan Steuer: 10:23

Remember the vision. You keep talking about the vision day in and day out. You talk about the vision, about a student-centered classroom, empowered learners. They're not passive. They're aggressively going after their college courses. They're aggressively going after their jobs after school, like they know who they are and what they want to do. That's what we want, right? Yes, that's what we want.

Ryan Steuer: 10:40

Okay, let's get fired up and go do it again and you can make that valley not so low and I think you can also make it. So it's not so long. You see that long. It takes a long time to get down there. I think you can make it, not so long. You can squeeze that up and get your folks to that fourth stage of informed optimism. I think the success stories in your school are really important because, yes, we've got a lot of data that it works in schools like our model schools. We have that and I can send you there. I want to Like, design days are usually held at a model school site.

Ryan Steuer: 11:10

Maybe it's Missouri or it's in Indiana or Florida, you pick the site Kentucky, whatever you want to pick. But then you still have to say that's great for them. What about us? So when you build your own success stories, that trough is not as long. Right, because you have those stories locally. That can pull your folks up into informed optimism.

Ryan Steuer: 11:32

Because you want optimism, you don't want it fake, though. Right, you want it to be informed. Like we know, it's going to be hard. It's change process. Change process is hard. It's what we do, but here's what we're going to do to make sure it's not too hard. Here's what we're going to do to make sure that we don't get stuck in the valley of despair. We're going to pull each other up In PLCs. This is what we're going to do as teams. This is what we're going to do. Group contracts are there to help you, the planning process there to help you. Tuning protocols are there to help you. Coaches are there to help you. That's going to pull us up into informed optimism. And then the model schools you go visit. They're in success and fulfillment, like they have processes that are training their people. Somebody new comes in, they go right into the culture Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And now they understand what that process is and they have helped get people through this change process. So that's the five stages of the cycle of change, and that comes from psychologists Don Kelly and Daryl Conner.

Ryan Steuer: 12:26

I heard it actually through the 12 week year, which is a process I really love about goal setting and getting things done. Maybe we should talk about that on the podcast at some point, but it's about the intentionality of the work, and if you're a leader that's still with me on this podcast, then you believe in the intentionality of the work, that we're not just going to see what happens, we're not going to plan every step out. We're going to formative assessments, essentially for ourselves and for our staff. Where are you at, where do you need to be? And we're going to get you there. But it's the intentionality, day in and day out, that makes things work. So I hope that this graphic on the screen and we can give you a link to it.

Ryan Steuer: 13:00

But as you look at this emotional cycle of change, I want you to think, especially if you're that high D, like I am, and maybe you're not even necessarily a people person right away, you're task oriented. That happens a lot for us too. You need to understand that, even if this cycle doesn't affect you as much and you can pull yourself through it, not everybody can. Not everybody can. So, as you're talking to your APs and your coaches, I want you to think through the idea of who's going to have a hard time when we get down below the optimism level Once we get into the work. We have to count the costs and we have to do the work and how can we support them, because they're all going to need to be supported in different ways. And we're actually going to have a couple podcasts from now. Next month, we're going to talk about the innovation curve and where your people are at and how you can help train and assist them, so I hope this is helpful for you. You can take it back to your leadership team and start to plan how you're going to move from a traditional school system to a project-based learning system that is student-centered and doing amazing, amazing things. As we approach the summer training season, we'll have some links in the description where you can look at some open workshops that are virtual, so, wherever you're out in the country, you can join us for either a jump start advance or maybe even certification if you're crushing it, or we can come right to you. I will tell you, though, that at this point, we're only going to work with 41 schools Might be that way for you 41 schools so our calendar is going to fill up, so make sure that you schedule a time so we can talk about what your vision is and how we can fulfill that vision with an onsite design days and a PBL workshop that's directly at your school, customized for your vision, your environment, your staff.

Ryan Steuer: 14:35

Thank you for joining me today on the PBL Simplified Podcast. Go out and lead inspired. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the PBL Simplified Podcast. I appreciate you. I'm honored that you tune in each week. Would you please take two minutes to leave a rating and a review. When you leave a review, it lets the next person know that this is a podcast worth listening to. When they go into their player and search project-based learning, and PBL Simplified popped up. When they see those reviews, they know that high quality, visionary leaders are listening, so they tune in too and they can find their way into the PBL journey. Thank you so much for leaving a review. Thank you so much for listening. I appreciate you.