Finding and Influencing Behaviors that Drive Successful Results

Influencer Strategy Part A - Desired Results and the Behaviors that Drive Them 

In the next few years, the successful creation of online/hybrid alternatives to the face-to-face courses of the Computer Networking & Troubleshooting Technology program at Lamar Institute of Technology will depend on the commitment, efforts, and approval of a varied group of administrative and academic colleagues, as required by the Institute’s organizational chart (Lamar Institute of Technology, 2014). At different times, different colleagues will be influential in driving success: during approval and review stages, the Director of the Distance Learning Committee; during design and development of courses, instructors who have taught the course, and during all stages of the project, our Program Director, who develops curriculum and has taught all our classes.

Joseph Grenny and Kerry Patterson (2013) suggest that three keys of influence should guide the online/hybrid project: (1) focus on and measure desired results; (2) find vital behaviors that drive the results, and (3) engage all six sources of influence. How each of these keys apply to this project will be addressed.

Desired Results

The new online component’s success will hinge on two desired goals, or results, of the project developing the component.

The first result of the project will be the beta online/hybrid course, which is to be designed and developed during the Fall 2017 semester and offered in the Class Schedule beginning Spring 2018. Monthly progress reports on the development of the beta course will be provided to both academic and administrative colleagues for input and approval.

The second desired result will be the design, development, and offering of the remaining online-hybrid courses over the long semesters. The progress of this development will also be measured by the monthly reports, including Integrated Course Plans, and completed test Blackboard courses.

The following table illustrates the project’s desired results:

Result	Measurement	Those Involved
Design and development of one beta online/hybrid major-specific course during the Fall 2017 semester, for offering to students in Spring 2018	Review of monthly reports of course development, outlining progress by Chapter/Section of curriculum, as evidenced by content in the test Blackboard course	Course-developing instructors, the CNTT program coordinator, the Business Technologies department head, the Distance Learning Committee and its Director, and the Vice President for Student and Academic Success
Design and development of three online/hybrid major-specific courses (fifteen in total) in each long semester from Spring 2018 forward, completing development and offering of all courses by Fall 2020	Review of monthly reports of course development, outlining progress by Chapter/Section of curriculum, as evidenced by content in test Blackboard courses	Course-developing instructors, the CNTT program coordinator, the Business Technologies department head, the Distance Learning Committee and its Director, and the Vice President for Student and Academic Success

Finding Vital Behaviors

      To find the vital behaviors (Grenny & Patterson, 2013) that lead to our desired results, we must first look for obvious, though underused, behaviors that may be nurtured and better applied. Our first vital behavior, asking colleagues for help when falling behind schedule to meet periodic deadlines, is a behavior so obvious and easily understood that it might not seem necessary to list it. It is, however, vital to the success of each course and the project as a whole. Having to cancel an un-finished course before its first semester, despite its having been published in the Course Schedule, could lead to students dropping out of our program or out of school completely. Timely course development avoids that crucial moment where un-finished or inferior courses must be canceled.

      To be successful in our project, we must look at similar projects, hopefully to find a positive deviant, someone who succeeds despite facing similar challenges (Grenny & Patterson, 2013). The Internet has an abundance of information for students who are taking online courses, but not nearly as much for instructors who want to be successful in presenting online courses. Fortunately, in our own building, in our department, there is a director and instructor from another program who has designed and taught several of her courses online. She has succeeded in growing her online and face-to-face programs with the flexibility of class scheduling. Though she is not in our program or on our team, she will be a valuable resource and opinion leader for this project, as she knows the needs of the student body and also the available development tools and the approval process at our college. We will also collaborate within our program to share the best methods for design and content delivery, especially with program colleagues who have also taught the face-to-face course.

      Besides sharing best methods, collaboration with colleagues will also lead to brainstorming and innovation in design and content of courses. Once an instructor learns how to add edited videos, blogs, discussion boards, virtual classrooms, and Adobe Connect sessions to his courses, his classes will be more engaging to students and will encourage student success and retention. He will then share his new ideas with other developers for other courses.

      The team effort needed to ask for help, share best methods, and be innovative in course development may run counter to the cultural norm that each course is each instructor’s own, to design and present as he desires. Because the project’s overall success depends on each course’s individual success, it is important that we all work to ensure that all courses succeed. Course-developing instructors will be encouraged to be open to suggestions and new methods, especially those proven to be successful.

The following table shows three vital behaviors for our project, why they are considered vital, and who should adopt and/or develop the behavior.

Vital Behavior	Why Vital	Those Involved
Ask colleagues for help if falling behind schedule to complete courses within the development timeline.	To have courses ready for offering in their first semester, as already published in the upcoming Course Schedule/Catalog	Course-developing instructors
Share models of design and content with other developers working on similar courses.	To provide a cohesive and collaborative series of courses, based on successful design	Course-developing instructors, the CNTT program coordinator, and the Distance Learning Committee and Director
Use creativity and innovation in course design and content delivery methods.	To increase interest and student success	Course-developing instructors, the CNTT program coordinator, and the Distance Learning Committee and Director

Instructors will use an Integrated Course Plan for Online Courses to outline and track their course development progress (Harapnuik, 2016). These Course Plans, as they are completed, will be part of the monthly progress review. Besides the course design, content, and progress information they provide for the instructor and the program, Course Plans may also be useful in sharing innovative formats and/or media for content presentation with other colleagues for their courses.

INTEGRATED COURSE PLAN FOR ONLINE COURSES (TEMPLATE)

Module	Learning Goal	Assessment Activities	Learning Activities
1	Learners will …	Online pre-tests, labs, quizzes, worksheets, and/or tests; Class discussions, blogs in Blackboard.	Read textbook chapter(s), online materials. Watch podcasts of lecture. View online videos. Participate in weekly Adobe Connect sessions.
	Update development progress here, deleting this cell when development is complete.	Update development progress here, deleting this cell when development is complete.	Update development progress here, deleting this cell when development is complete.
2	Learners will …	Online pre-tests, labs, quizzes, worksheets, and/or tests; Class discussions, blogs in Blackboard.	Read textbook chapter(s), online materials. Watch podcasts of lecture. View online videos. Participate in weekly Adobe Connect sessions.
	Update development progress here, deleting this cell when development is complete.	Update development progress here, deleting this cell when development is complete.	Update development progress here, deleting this cell when development is complete.
3	Learners will …	Online pre-tests, labs, quizzes, worksheets, and/or tests; Class discussions, blogs in Blackboard.	Read textbook chapter(s), online materials. Watch podcasts of lecture. View online videos. Participate in weekly Adobe Connect sessions.
	Update development progress here, deleting this cell when development is complete.	Update development progress here, deleting this cell when development is complete.	Update development progress here, deleting this cell when development is complete.
4	Learners will …	Online pre-tests, labs, quizzes, worksheets, and/or tests; Class discussions, blogs in Blackboard.	Read textbook chapter(s), online materials. Watch podcasts of lecture. View online videos. Participate in weekly Adobe Connect sessions.
	Update development progress here, deleting this cell when development is complete.	Update development progress here, deleting this cell when development is complete.	Update development progress here, deleting this cell when development is complete.

Influencer Strategy Part B - Motivating and Enabling Vital Behaviors

The success of the online curriculum development project will depend on careful attention to all Six Sources of Influence as explained and outlined by Grenny and Patterson (2013). The motivational and ability domains of influence are further sub-divided into influences of Personal Motivation, Personal Ability, Social Motivation, Social Ability, Structural Motivation, and Structural Ability, which must all be addressed thoroughly, both to remove or anticipate those influences which are driving the wrong behaviors and to establish those influences which will drive the right, or vital, behaviors.

Personal Motivation. To show colleagues the intrinsic value of online course development, they will take a quick student survey asking whether students have had to change their course or work schedules and/or expected graduation dates because classes are not available and whether they would benefit from having online options. The Online Instructor, our successful Positive Deviant, from other program will speak about her success and the increase in the number of new students taking both online and face-to-face courses. Historical day- and night-class enrollment figures will be shared, as additional evidence that there need to be more choices for students.

Personal Ability. So that instructors will feel that they are able to build online courses, there will be general Blackboard and specific Lecture Capture and Podcast training through the Department of Distance Learning. To ensure that instructors will not be overwhelmed, they will act as lead developers for only those courses which they have already taught face-to-face. Finally, during progress meetings, the Distance Learning director and instructors will share proven design ideas so that the overall curriculum will have continuity in design and structure and so that no instructor will have to start from scratch. New and innovative ideas can be brainstormed in the scheduled meetings or in collaborative work times. Instructors will be able to keep on track with their Integrated Course Plans.

Social Motivation. The first, or Beta, online course will be created by Instructor Bonnie Cobb and Lauri Arnold-Calder, formal and opinion leader and director of the program. To model the course-building process, the Beta course developers will enlist help of those instructors who are not yet working on their own courses. All instructors in the program, who will eventually develop courses, will be included in the progress meetings from the beginning of the project, to help generate excitement, ideas, and motivation before they begin work on their own courses.

Social Ability. Instructors who are best at certain content creation skills, such as creating labs, capturing lectures, designing Blackboard structure and gradebooks, etc., will share, teach, and/or provide their skills with other developers. Instructors creating their first online course will work with an instructor who has completed and launched an online course, who will act as a mentor and/or co-developer.

Structural Motivation. Information detailing the additional compensation that is given per semester for each online course taught will be provided to instructors as an extrinsic incentive to create and teach online courses. The lead developer for each course will be given the option to teach the first semester of that course. If the lead developer chooses not to teach the course first, then those developers and/or colleagues who provided support for the course, if qualified, will be given the option to teach the course.

Structural Ability. So that help may be given easily, all developing instructors will have observer access to Blackboard base (test) courses during development.      Co-developers who are working together on courses will have instructor access to those courses.

To keep the “big picture” in mind, a chart listing courses in development, their developers, expected semester rollout, deadlines for submission for review and approval, and progress will be posted in Room 103.

Monthly progress meetings will be calendared by the Program Director on all developers’ Outlook calendars and timely email reminders of the meetings will be sent to developers and the Distance Learning Director.

For ease of access, training content, course content, and other work-in-progress will be saved and shared in the program’s Office 365 SharePoint folder.

Each semester, the deadlines for (1) submission to the Distance Learning committee, (2) submission to the Vice President for Student and Academic Success, and (3) courses to be included in the Course Schedule/Catalog will all be communicated by email and calendared in Outlook for developers.

Following is The Six Sources Strategy Matrix, originally designed by Grenny and Maxfield (2013), and modified for our project.

The Six Sources Strategy Matrix

	Motivation	Ability
Personal	·  Student survey whether students have had to change their course/work schedules and/or their graduation semester due to unavailability of classes, and whether they would benefit from online options. ·  Have Online Instructor in other program (Positive Deviant) speak about the increase in number of new students taking both online and face-to-face courses. ·  Share day- and night-class enrollment figures, as evidence that there need to be more choices for students.	·  General Blackboard training by Distance Learning ·  Lecture Capture and Podcast training by Distance Learning ·  Instructors will act as lead developers for only those courses which they have taught face-to-face. ·  During progress meetings, Distance Learning director and instructors will share proven design ideas so that overall curriculum (and students) will have continuity in design and structure and so that no instructor will have to start from scratch. New and innovative ideas can be brainstormed. Instructors will be able to keep on track with their Integrated Course Plans.
Social	·  Bonnie Cobb and Lauri Arnold-Calder, formal and opinion leader, and director of the program will create the Beta online course. ·  Beta course developers will enlist help of those instructors who are not yet working on their own courses. ·  All instructors, who will eventually develop courses, will be included in progress meetings, to generate excitement, ideas, and motivation before they begin work on their own courses.	·  Instructors who are best at certain content creation skills, such as creating labs, capturing lectures, designing Blackboard structure and gradebooks, etc., will share and/or provide their skills with other developers. ·  Instructors creating their first online course will work with an instructor who has completed and launched an online course to act as a mentor and/or co-developer.
Structural	·  Distribute information detailing the additional compensation per semester for each online course taught. ·  The lead developer for each course will be given the option to teach the first semester of that course. If the lead developer chooses not to teach the course first, then those developers and/or colleagues who provided support for the course, if qualified, will be given the option to teach the course.	·  All developing instructors will have observer access to all Blackboard base (test) courses in development. ·  Developers who are working together on courses will have instructor access to those courses. ·  A chart listing courses in development, their developers, their expected semester rollout, deadlines for submission for review and approval, and their progress will be posted in Room 103. ·  Monthly progress meetings will be calendared by the Program Director on all developers’ Outlook calendars. ·  Timely email reminders of the monthly progress meetings will be sent to developers and the Distance Learning Director. ·  Training content, course content, and other work-in-progress will be saved and shared in the program’s Office 365 SharePoint folder. ·  Each semester, the deadlines for (1) submission to the Distance Learning committee, (2) submission to the Vice President for Student and Academic Success, and (3) courses to be included in the Course Schedule/Catalog will be communicated by email and calendared in Outlook for all developers.

Conclusion

      Because the online curriculum development project has not begun, we do not have perfect information about possible attitudes or commitment to it. Though this strategy attempts to predict and prevent any adverse behaviors that might develop, there may be additional behaviors that need to be addressed once the project begins. The strategy can and probably will be modified as the project progresses. As crucial moments arise, we hope to address and influence the behaviors we need to successfully implement our project.

References

Distance Learning Instructor Handbook - Lamar Institute of Technology. (n.d.). Retrieved January 29, 2017, from http://www.lit.edu/common/pdfs/Distance_Learning_Handbook.pdf

Grenny, J., & Maxfield, D. (2013). How to 10X Your Influence (Rep.). Retrieved February 18, 2017, from VitalSmarts website: https://www.vitalsmarts.com/influencerreport

Grenny, J., & Patterson, K. (2013). Influencer: the new science of leading change, second edition. McGraw-Hill.

Harapnuik, D. (2016, September 27). EDLD 5304 Leading Organizational Change [Syllabus]. https://sacs.lamar.edu/opa/syllabi/public/lamarsyllabi.php.