TACTics Journal

A Publication for and by TOC for Education Practitioners

July 18, 2003

In this week’s issue:

Connections

(1) My Comments on the TOCFE Conference, Javier Arevalo

Editor’s Notes

(2) Kay Buckner-Seal

CONNECTIONS

(1) My Comments on the TOCFE Conference

From Javier Arevalo, Venezuela

Cheryl, I wanted to share my impressions, and the benefits I have obtained

from our last conference…late but here it is and I hope it adds some value to

the group.

The first thing that I must clarify, is that my perspective comes from a

person in business trying to help move TOCFE into education in my country

(Venezuela). As such, what impressed me the most and was most valuable

for me were three things:

1. Coming from business, it is reassuring and also humbling to see the

degree and speed of spread of TOCFE into several different fields within

the education community and the teaching subjects. The work that Belinda

Small, Danilo Sirias and Francois Moll shared is impressive and goes to show

how much each person can do specifically in their area of expertise within

education. The lessons here are one of absolute commitment to sharing the

knowledge. It empowers the community of educators to grow and continue

to expand the use of the tools. It carries an underlying theme of community

and belonging that again strikes home. If we could run our businesses and

relationships with the intent and purpose that these folks are showing us, we

would be in a much better place.

2. It was great to see all of the people from the different countries again,

and to be able to nurture those relationships in person. Thanks to all for the

fun, the words, the work, the level of energy is contagious and one wonders

if this is really work!

3. The conference track that I attended and that was extremely useful

was the one led by Audrey Taylor. Thanks to her, to Rami, and the entire

group. The experience was very useful as it gave me the opportunity to

revisit the relationships I have with my clients and people I set out to

influence. To understand that a client (thus someone I am trying to

persuade of my GREAT idea) will not move until we have covered and solved

all of the layers of resistance to change. If we realize that in reality there

are no conflicts and that reality is simple, and that our issues usually remain

conflicts from our lack of understanding of what we think, and doing the

work to understand and where the other person stands or why they are

blocked from seeing the benefits for them, only then we can properly

address those layers and arrive at the point where they are ready to

embrace the idea.

The discovery, if you will, while working at the conference on this area with

the group and Audrey was that usually we need to work hard at defining the

needs that are below the issue. Only then we can really begin to understand

how to start or where to unblock us in our communication with our prospects.

A: The objective that will be achieved and will provide gains for both of

us, be it individually or as part of the whole.

B: The need that really motivates me to drive this process forward, and

that according to me has to be satisfied in this particular way with D.

D: This is the action or decision I made to handle and satisfy the need I

have in relation to the objective at hand.

C: The need that motivates the other side actions, decision, position

D’: The actions that are in conflict with my chosen direction, action or

Decision.

So generically, a big concern that I was trying to address was how do I

generate trust in the relationship with the client, the person I am trying to

persuade of the value of my idea?

A: To generate trust

B: I must show understanding and knowledge of the client’s/person’s

Problem.

D: I must be prescriptive and show what I know and direct where and

how to move.

C: The client must feel I am trustworthy, sensitive.

D’: I must let the client/person lead the way.

Work out this cloud if you want to, by exposing the assumptions or adapting

them to your process. I will tell you what my injection was—I called the

person that I had been trying to persuade and just asked questions and

manifested our interest in working through obstacles and issues. That is all

it took.

Just recently I feel that we started to move forward faster on the

persuasion and the interest in our proposal. Thus we are probably at a

different layer of resistance. They were willingly sharing with us their

concerns and now it seems that they are the ones pushing to move faster

into the process. It works!

Finally, the other element that I think would be useful is thinking about the

layers of resistance. Clearly there is always an issue embedded inside the

first layer we discussed—There is no “Problem,or “A Problem-Who me?-I

am Fine” layer. There is also the need to answer the question, Why do I

need to change? I may have the problem; but, hey, I am coping and that is

the best I can do.I think that if this is not properly addressed, then we

may get stuck, even if we agree that there is a problem.

I would be happy to hear your thoughts about this.

Thanks to all,

Javier

EDITOR’S NOTES

(2) Kay Buckner-Seal

Javier, thanks so very much for sharing your insights with us! And, we do

hope some of our readers get a chance to share their thoughts about your

concerns with that first layer of resistance. So, TACTicsreaders, feel

free to share with us. Send your responses, applications of the thinking

processes, lessons, announcements, and etc. by mail to: Cheryl A. Edwards,

2253 S. Hill Island Rd., Cedarville, Michigan 49719, USA. Or send hyperlink

to cedwards@cedarville.net or bucknek@earthlink.net.

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