Which is most feasible and has the greatest likelihood of success in obtaining desired results? What should Janet have as a backup?


Choice A

To make the greatest impact over the long term, Janet would have been wise to lay the groundwork for shaping her strategy much more carefully. It may take longer, but eventually, it will generate the greatest gain.

As a backup, she should have, in hand, the results and lessons learned from a school district that has successfully implemented the program.


Choice B

Janet made the gruesome mistake of mixing up apples and oranges. Why is she trying to hide the fact that Jay and his parents are the real problem? No amount of burying an intervention strategy to change his behavior in a generalized program is going to work.

To attain the most success, she should back off trying to make a broader program of the change she wants. Instead, she ought to adapt what she is learning about Cooperative Discipline to solve Jay’s problem. Then she can build from there.

As a contingency plan, she should consider how to get Jay in the hands of the school psychologist so that he is evaluated for special education placement.


Choice C

We vote for using part of the principal’s discretionary in-service fund to send the three participating teachers and Janet to a school district in which the Cooperative Discipline program has worked. Nothing beats face-to-face exchange about what lies ahead in the planned change process.

The basic step of learning firsthand is absolutely essential to success of the program at Eagle. As a backup, it may cost less to bring in an individual who has made the Cooperative Discipline approach work in his or her school. What an in-service session that will make!


Choice D

I’m not pleased with any of these statements.

Who are audiences Janet must pitch to obtain needed resources, and what should her messages be?

You Chose A
Keep these internal audiences in mind. Janet never got to all of them, but they are some of the ones with whom she should have communicated. And with her first pitch, she struck out. It was a good start, but didn’t go far enough. Janet worked hard to craft those phrases for the teachers she pitched—putting a spin on cooperative discipline so that it tapped into educational excellence and quality goals of education. She also made sure that her message focused on outcomes for kids—now and in the future. What she should have added was a brief mention of what cooperative meant, and the ways in which some key roadblocks might be overcome for this group of teachers to participate.

You Chose B
Put Choice A and B together and you and Janet have a great start on how Janet should communicate with her internal and external audiences about needed change.

You Chose C
Wrong! If Janet can’t articulate her message, then she can’t expect the result or change that she desires! And once she has her messages down pat and knows the formula for communication planning, it should be fully integrated into her strategizing. Communication planning only succeeds in sync with other strategic thinking. If it is done after the fact or in isolation, it will fail, and so will the initiative.

Choice D
So, what did would you pitch and how would you tailor your message to the audiences you think need reaching? What did you say that you thought would secure the resources needed for successfully launching and carrying out the project? Suggestions?

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