Chapter 7 Unmistakable Impact—Communication

This chapter focuses on the importance of communication between partners.  So much of what is written is clear and concise and when you read it, you have a tendency to say that it is just common sense material.   So many things would be easy to comment from this section but I want to focus on two main points that I feel are instrumental for administrators, coaches, and teachers to focus on.  The two areas involve asking good questions and finding common ground.

Asking good questions is a key component to finding out information.  Questions can drive the instructional process and more importantly the partnership process.  Knight describes the different types and their effects.

Closed-ended questions:

• You get limited response
• Typically short, factual, or yes/no
• Ex:  Who is the governor?

Open-ended questions:

• You may get extended responses
• Typically longer, detailed, knowledge, or opinion responses
• Ex.  What do you think of the governor's policy on....

 Right-or-wrong questions

• You get an answer that is factual in nature
• Some may hesitate for fear of answering wrong
• Ex:  Who was the 20th governor of Alabama?

Opinion questions:

• You get more personal in nature and get a true sense of the person
• Key is to be nonjudgmental with these questions
• Being nonjudgmental elicits trust and opens communication further

 

Finding common ground is so important.  We have more in common than we do different, yet we allow our differences to cause such division.  The following quote from Knight spoke to me:

“In our day-to-day experiences, we can easily lose sight of how much we hold in common with others, especially when people let us down, disagree with us, treat us poorly, or stand in the way of us achieving our goals.  This is especially true when leading change in schools because we can become frustrated when others’ legitimate questions slow down a change initiative we are championing….if we label others as resistors just because they need time to think through new learning on their own, we may make change more unlikely by damaging relationships.” Unmistakable Impact p. 217

Enough said after that quote!  Guilty as charged!