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We speak with Swarthmore's Dr. Edwin Mayorga, who explains how abolitionist classrooms and schools create "freedom as a place" in contrast to racial capitalism. Teachers are the lead inquirers and try to "move at the speed of trust," helping to create classrooms full of joy. Edwin describes Philadelphia's Kensington Health Sciences Academy as a school where teaching and learning are based on establishing relationships of mutual respect.

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Abolitionist education: Creating liberatory spaces (Part One) - Ethical Schools

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We speak with Swarthmore's Dr. Edwin Mayorga, who explains how abolitionist classrooms and schools create "freedom as a place" in contrast to racial capitalism. Teachers are the lead inquirers and try to "move at the speed of trust," helping to create classrooms full of joy.

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Amazon.com: How to Be a (Young) Antiracist: 9780593461600: Kendi, Ibram X., Stone, Nic: Books

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01:34-04:55 Making the shift from a more traditional to a more liberatory school

04:55-08:11 Sustainability after school founder(s) leave

08:11-11:37 Relationships of capital to schools: Now and a century ago

11:37-14:47 Education sovereignty

14:47-18:08 Community land trusts as models for schools

18:08-22:20 Balancing autonomy with accountability

22:20-24:41 Humans' relationships with other animals: Moving away from anthropocentrism

24:41-28:58 Where the joy is

28:58-34:32 Takeaways: joys, hope, healing, radical possibilities

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Abolitionist education: Creating liberatory spaces (Part Two) - Ethical Schools

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We continue our conversation with Dr. Edwin Mayorga of Swarthmore College. We discuss the corporatization of schools that reduces students to their test scores. Dr. Mayorga encourages educators to center joy and healing. Schools should be liberatory rather than places that are too often focused on punishment and surveillance.

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Businesses must constantly evolve and adapt to meet a variety of challenges-from changes in technology, to the rise of new competitors, to a shift in laws, regulations, or underlying economic trends. Failure to do so could lead to stagnation or, worse, failure.

Approximately 50 percent of all organizational change initiatives are unsuccessful, highlighting why knowing how to plan for, coordinate, and carry out change is a valuable skill for managers and business leaders alike.

Have you been tasked with managing a significant change initiative for your organization? Would you like to demonstrate that you're capable of spearheading such an initiative the next time one arises? Here's an overview of what change management is, the key steps in the process, and actions you can take to develop your managerial skills and become more effective in your role.

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What is Change Management?

Organizational change refers broadly to the actions a business takes to change or adjust a significant component of its organization. This may include company culture, internal processes, underlying technology or infrastructure, corporate hierarchy, or another critical aspect.

Organizational change can be either adaptive or transformational:

Adaptive changes are small, gradual, iterative changes that an organization undertakes to evolve its products, processes, workflows, and strategies over time. Hiring a new team member to address increased demand or implementing a new work-from-home policy to attract more qualified job applicants are both examples of adaptive changes.

Transformational changes are larger in scale and scope and often signify a dramatic and, occasionally sudden, departure from the status quo. Launching a new product or business division, or deciding to expand internationally, are examples of transformational change.

Change management is the process of guiding organizational change to fruition, from the earliest stages of conception and preparation, through implementation and, finally, to resolution.

As a leader, it's essential to understand the change management process to ensure your entire organization can navigate transitions smoothly. Doing so can determine the potential impact of any organizational changes and prepare your teams accordingly. When your team is prepared, you can ensure everyone is on the same page, create a safe environment, and engage the entire team toward a common goal.

Change processes have a set of starting conditions (point A) and a functional endpoint (point B). The process in between is dynamic and unfolds in stages. Here's a summary of the key steps in the change management process.
Check out our video on the change management process below, and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more explainer content!

5 Steps in the Change Management Process

1. Prepare the Organization for Change

For an organization to successfully pursue and implement change, it must be prepared both logistically and culturally. Before delving into logistics, cultural preparation must first take place to achieve the best business outcome.

In the preparation phase, the manager is focused on helping employees recognize and understand the need for change. They raise awareness of the various challenges or problems facing the organization that are acting as forces of change and generating dissatisfaction with the status quo. Gaining this initial buy-in from employees who will help implement the change can remove friction and resistance later on.

2. Craft a Vision and Plan for Change

Once the organization is ready to embrace change, managers must develop a thorough, realistic, and strategic plan for bringing it about.

The plan should detail:

Strategic goals: What goals does this change help the organization work toward?

Key performance indicators: How will success be measured? What metrics need to be moved? What's the baseline for how things currently stand?

Project stakeholders and team: Who will oversee the task of implementing change? Who needs to sign off at each critical stage? Who will be responsible for implementation?

Project scope: What discrete steps and actions will the project include? What falls outside of the project scope?

While it's important to have a structured approach, the plan should also account for any unknowns or roadblocks that could arise during the implementation process and would require agility and flexibility to overcome.

3. Implement the Changes

After the plan has been created, all that remains is to follow the steps outlined within it to implement the required change. Whether that involves changes to the company's structure, strategy, systems, processes, employee behaviors, or other aspects will depend on the specifics of the initiative.

During the implementation process, change managers must be focused on empowering their employees to take the necessary steps to achieve the goals of the initiative and celebrate any short-term wins. They should also do their best to anticipate roadblocks and prevent, remove, or mitigate them once identified. Repeated communication of the organization's vision is critical throughout the implementation process to remind team members why change is being pursued.

4. Embed Changes Within Company Culture and Practices

Once the change initiative has been completed, change managers must prevent a reversion to the prior state or status quo. This is particularly important for organizational change related to business processes such as workflows, culture, and strategy formulation. Without an adequate plan, employees may backslide into the "old way" of doing things, particularly during the transitory period.

By embedding changes within the company's culture and practices, it becomes more difficult for backsliding to occur. New organizational structures, controls, and reward systems should all be considered as tools to help change stick.

5. Review Progress and Analyze Results

Just because a change initiative is complete doesn't mean it was successful. Conducting analysis and review, or a "project post mortem," can help business leaders understand whether a change initiative was a success, failure, or mixed result. It can also offer valuable insights and lessons that can be leveraged in future change efforts.

Ask yourself questions like: Were project goals met? If yes, can this success be replicated elsewhere? If not, what went wrong?

The Key to Successful Change for Managers

While no two change initiatives are the same, they typically follow a similar process. To effectively manage change, managers and business leaders must thoroughly understand the steps involved.

Some other tips for managing organizational change include asking yourself questions like:

Do you understand the forces making change necessary? Without this understanding, it can be difficult to effectively address the underlying causes that have necessitated change, hampering your ability to succeed.

Do you have a plan? Without a detailed plan and defined strategy, it can be difficult to usher a change initiative through to completion.

How will you communicate? Successful change management requires effective communication with both your team members and key stakeholders. Designing a communication strategy that acknowledges this reality is critical.

Have you identified potential roadblocks? While it's impossible to predict everything that might potentially go wrong with a project, taking the time to anticipate potential barriers and devise mitigation strategies before you get started is generally a good idea.

How to Lead Change Management Successfully

If you've been asked to lead a change initiative within your organization, or you'd like to position yourself to oversee such projects in the future, it's critical to begin laying the groundwork for success by developing the skills that can equip you to do the job.

Completing an online management course can be an effective way of developing those skills and lead to several other benefits. When evaluating your options for training, seek a program that aligns with your personal and professional goals; for example, one that emphasizes organizational change.
Do you want to become a more effective leader and manager? Explore Leadership Principles, Management Essentials, and Organizational Leadership-three of our online leadership and management courses-to learn how you can take charge of your professional development and accelerate your career. Not sure which course is the right fit? Download our free flowchart. This post was updated on August 8, 2023. It was originally published on March 19, 2020.

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5 Steps in the Change Management Process | HBS Online

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The change management process includes: Preparing the organization for change, planning, implementation, embedding the change, and review & analysis.

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Rita Pierson, a teacher for 40 years, once heard a colleague say, “They don’t pay me to like the kids.” Her response: “Kids don’t learn from people they don’t like.’” A rousing call to educators to believe in their students and actually connect with them on a real, human, personal level.

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Anneliese A. Singh PhD LPC (Author), Derald Wing Sue Ph.D. (Afterword), Tim Wise (Foreword) & 1 more

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The Racial Healing Handbook: Practical Activities to Help You Challenge Privilege, Confront Systemic Racism, and Engage in Collective Healing (The Social Justice Handbook Series)

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The Racial Healing Handbook: Practical Activities to Help You Challenge Privilege, Confront Systemic Racism, and Engage in Collective Healing (The Social Justice Handbook Series) [Singh PhD LPC, Anneliese A., Wing Sue Ph.D., Derald, Wise, Tim] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The…

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Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

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4. Match the message to your audience.

This is Communications 101. A deep history lesson about the racist origins of the children's song "Ten Little Indians" is lost on anyone below the age of a parent. Knowing that history is for you, so you have the conviction to say, "Just don't sing it. It's a terrible song." Ensure your message is appropriate for the age and capacity of the child you are addressing.

Teaching inclusive language should be just like teaching manners or grammar. As children get older, we can add to the understanding of why we never use the word "Aboriginals" or "disabled" to refer to someone. In the beginning, we just establish the habit of using inclusive language like "Aboriginal person" or "person with a disability".

5. Accept that your child will say discriminatory things, and that doesn't mean your child is racist.

Don't over-react to their comments or questions. BUT, don't ignore it either. According to Susan Linn, a psychologist at the Judge Baker Children's Center at Harvard Medical School and coauthor of Talking to Children about Racism, Prejudice and Diversity, the key is responding in a non-judgemental way. There are also a few key phrases that will help:

"Let's talk about that for a minute ..."

"What made you notice that?"

"What made you say that"

Don't be afraid to apologize for something they've said, and when appropriate, privately talk to your child about their language.

6. Teach your kids how to use inclusive language by discouraging and avoiding labeling.

This will require some practice, because you likely use labels like race all the time. Use people's names or use the most neutral descriptors possible. Be specific.

Labels generally carry complex meaning, like the term Canadian or Asian. There is a subtle difference between referring to someone as the "Asian kid", versus "that child from Asia." The first has assumptions about their identity, which might not be true, especially if that "Asian kid" is actually born in Canada. Maybe what you actually mean is that "Asian looking kid" or that "kid whose family is from Asia"?

If all this seems complex, it's because it is. Refer to people by their names.

Take the time to think about how you would explain to your child that labels cause us to lose sight of the person and their individuality, and focus on the label (for adults, we refer to this as stereotyping). Children understand uniqueness. It's what makes them special.

7. Use respectful language.

This is especially true when referring to ethnicity, gender identity and expression, indigenous people, and especially when talking about disability. According to Varda Epstein, writer on kars4kids.org:

"When talking to kids about disabilities it's important to use the right terminology. Children are always watching and listening, so we need to be careful with our speech. For instance, it's important to make a distinction between the disability and the person who lives with it. It's better, for instance, to speak of someone as "having autism" or being "on the autism spectrum" as opposed to saying, "He's autistic."

If you're not sure of the proper terminology to describe a disability, Mobility International USA has a helpful tip sheet.

Unfortunately, kids also pick up on what they hear from their friends. If you hear your child using a derogatory term for a person with a disability, for instance, "Retard," firmly correct your child, explaining that the term is hurtful. You might say, "How would you feel if you had an intellectual disability and someone called you a retard?"

8. Break down "them and us" by pointing out similarities.

When setting the stage for cross-cultural interaction or dialogue, the first goal is establishing a strong sense of commonality. This is true with our own children, because it is in the imagined similarity that children (and adults) begin to build empathy for others. Children will not be able to talk about cultural or personal differences in a non-judgemental way unless they have some sense of similarity.

9. When talking to children about disability, emphasize strengths.

Don't ignore disabilities. Pretending they are not noticeable is a disservice to both those with disabilities and your child. If another child requires a support or accommodation because of a disability, having ignored that disability will make it harder for your child to understand why the support is needed. Worse, they will think the support is unfair or unnecessary.

Children notice physical and intellectual disabilities in other children and adults. What they don't automatically do is judge them as a weakness or strength. It is up to you to help build a non-judgemental response to the differences. This is best achieved by focusing on people's strengths. This is what is meant by "seeing past someone's disability."

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13 Tips on How to Talk to Children About Diversity and Difference - Alden E. Habacon

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This is Communications 101. A deep history lesson about the racist origins of the children's song "Ten Little Indians" is lost on anyone below the age of a parent. Knowing that history is for you, so you have the conviction to say, "Just don't sing it. It's a terrible song."

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LETS! T.A.L.K.(Teach, Affirm, Learn, Know) A body-positive, inclusive curriculum for people ages 5-10 This curriculum is designed to be taught in school classrooms, as extracurricular after-school programming or at home with families. The LETS! T.A.L.K.

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We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom

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We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom [Love, Bettina] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom

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Sir Ken Robinson PhD (Author), Lou Aronica (Author)

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Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That’s Transforming Education

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Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That’s Transforming Education [Robinson PhD, Sir Ken, Aronica, Lou] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That’s Transforming Education

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These indicators supply in-depth discussions on the condition of education by geographic locales, with a focus on rural areas. Indicator topics include characteristics of children's families and family involvement in education; student enrollment, assessments, coursetaking, and graduation rates; and teachers, principals, and other staff. These indicators are also cross-listed in the topic areas of family characteristics; preprimary, elementary, and secondary education; and postsecondary education, as well as population characteristics and economic outcomes.

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These indicators supply in-depth discussions on the condition of education by geographic locales, with a focus on rural areas. Indicator topics include characteristics of children's families and family involvement in education; student enrollment, assessments, coursetaking, and graduation rates; and teachers, principals, and other staff.

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Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria: And Other Conversations About Race

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Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria: And Other Conversations About Race [Beverly Daniel Tatum] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria: And Other Conversations About Race