How Do We Get People to Change?

This perspective from Cheryl Scholar ...

I want to share with you something I just read from a book by a favorite author, Peter Block. It is sticking to me because of something Steve said near the end of our last meeting, when he was commenting on the teacher who felt bad about asking money for the students trip to Washington D.C. Up until that point, I had been feeling a bit unsettled. I couldn’t figure out why – Karin was doing such a great job of facilitating us and getting ideas up on the wall for our next steps. But there was something uncomfortable about the path we appeared to be gearing up to follow.

So let me share an excerpt from the book “The Answer to How is Yes.” As you read it, think about our brainstorming around the question: How do we get public schools to value art more, to include it in their curriculum?

“How do you get those people to change? This is the power question. . . We may say we want others to change for good reasons. But no matter how we pose the question, it is always a wish to control others. In asking the question we position ourselves as knowing what is best for others. . . No one is going to change as a result of our desires. In fact, they will resist our efforts to change them simply due to the coercive aspect of the interaction. People resist coercion much more strenuously than they resist change.”

Block suggests that we turn the question around and ask ourselves: “What is the transformation in me that is required? This is not a question about methodology, it is a question of will and intention. And when we honestly ask ourselves about our role in the creation of a situation that frustrates us, and set aside asking about their role, then the world changes around us.”

I know how “new age” that sounds; even as I write it, I can’t stand thinking about it like that. I want it to be someone else’s fault – the government, for example. Of course, we know that government isn’t capable of fixing it (at least not in the current working paradigm). Which is why when we were asking the how questions about our next steps, no one wanted to spend much time addressing school boards. Are we really satisfied with that?

What I came away thinking after reading this section (and there was a lot before it), is one of the main points in Block’s book. Rushing to answer How? can lead us to a focused sort of pragmatism that isn’t at all reflective of our values. We miss looking at the complexity of the problem and what we are really faced with—as a community. It can’t all be about getting other people to change . . . or do you disagree? What do you think?


Interested in Reading more from Peter Block - check out his website:

www.peterblock.com/