kitchen table math, the sequel: Karen Pryor on 'changemakers'

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Karen Pryor on 'changemakers'

So you've become a clicker trainer! Naturally you are very excited. You want other people around you to stop using punishment-based methods and start clicking. So you introduce the clicker at your dog club or high school or wherever you are using it. And guess what: people not only don't change, they get mad at you.

Build a better mousetrap and, in chronological order, the world will:
  1. Ignore you
  2. Pretend to agree, but actually do nothing
  3. Resist, delay, obstruct
  4. Openly attack you (the dangerous phase, but also a sign that change is starting)
  5. Absorb
  6. Utilize
  7. Take credit
  8. Proselytize
On Being a Changemaker
In my school district, we've reached number 4.

5 comments:

Catherine Johnson said...

I like her passage on the 'open attack' phase:

The stage of open attack is a touchy time. People can get fired, for example. Keep your head down, but persist. Don't take the attack personally, even if it is a personal attack. Attack is information; it tells you:

a) You're getting somewhere: change IS happening, causing extinction-induced aggression.
b) Your attacker is frightened. Empathize.
c) Your attacker still believes in the efficacy of aversives.

Anonymous said...

Reminds me of two other sequences:

First they ignore you,
then they ridicule you,
then they fight you,
then you win.

-Ghandi


and ...

Engineering Project Lifecycle:
1) Enthusiasm
2) Disillusionment
3) Panic
4) Search for the Guilty
5) Punishing the Innocent
6) Rewarding those not involved

-Mark Roulo

concernedCTparent said...

Patience...

"A revolution takes time to settle in." ~Lanza del Vasto

Catherine Johnson said...

oh I love these lines!

Never, ever heard them!

Catherine Johnson said...

I love her line about: don't take an attack personally even if it is a personal attack.

Speaking of which, our school board president now routinely attacks the Parents Forum in board meetings. At Tuesday night's meeting, after I had left, she told the room that people with the wrong political views aren't allowed to post to the Forum.

Basically, I've got the board president telling the public, on camera, that I am a liar.

The good news: I have learned a new legal term.

Innuendo.

The universal concept has been that since the board president doesn't actually use my name, she's entitled to say whatever she likes, in public, on camera. Doesn't matter if it's true. She can say it 'cause she's not saying "Catherine," she's saying "Parents Forum."

Turns out that's not the case.