Effective School Management

participant(s) are demanding, and puts a ‘+’ against the things he or she thinks
he or she can do something about; also a ‘–’ against things he or she does not
agree with, or will not change without a quid pro quo.
This completes the first round of the role revision strategy. It is based on
the assumption that the status quo is held steady by forces (whatever people
are now doing, they have reason for it) which must change if behaviour is to
change. One of these forces is likely to be misapprehension of what the other
people want. There are others, however. To achieve change, there must be a
change in the driving or restraining forces (see force-field analysis in Chapter
17), and that change must be perceived or experienced by the individual. A
change strategy is needed to bring this about.
It is unrealistic to expect one participant to change his or her behaviour
unless the other participants do something different – like giving help, or
putting pressure on. One cannot assume that people of goodwill will

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change their behaviour merely as a result of a discussion. So we have to
ask:  ‘What am I prepared to do to influence others to change their
behaviour?’ The second round of the strategy is, therefore, to obtain answers
to this question.
Step 5
The facilitator may explain the foregoing, and will ask the participants to
identify the areas where they think they can make progress. It is best not to
tackle the tougher things first, unless there is a high degree of trust, but to go
for something in the middle, success in dealing with which will lay the
groundwork for dealing with the bigger issues.
Step 6
The facilitator asks the participants to talk about what could be done in the
area selected, and constructs a chart under two headings:
Desires
Difficulties
The facilitator encourages the participants to offer help in overcoming the
difficulties that emerge.