ART WORKS FOR TEACHERS PODCAST | EPISODE 073 | 25:29 MIN
How to Build Buy-In for Arts Integration and STEAM
Enjoy this free download of the Building Buy-In resource.
The problem with that, with a lever, is that if you’re using it and you’re constantly cranking it, It’s a lot of effort. It’s a lot of effort to push arts integration onto somebody. And it’s usually not met with success at all because they don’t want it. They’re not used to it. It’s not what their focus is. And it’s a whole lot of effort to try to pull people to you, to convince them. Because when you’re trying to convince people, you feel like a used car salesman, right? Right. So we don’t want to do either one of those. We want to attract people to us. We want to magnetize them to the arts integration process so that when they see it, boom, they are instantly invested as well.
And they’re like, yes, I want to do that. You’ve had success with this. I want to see if I can do it too, right? So that’s our aim here. And all of our messaging and how we’re going to approach people and how we’re thinking about where they’re at, we’re thinking about how to attract the right people in our school community to this effort. Remember, sometimes you don’t want to attract everybody, okay? Sometimes you want to attract a smaller group of people so that you can practice it together before you attract everybody to you, right? So be thinking about that as we’re moving along today, but think about as you’re thinking about your own efforts and how to approach other people about trying this with you, make sure that you are being the magnet and not the lever.
Okay, now, To create buy-in, there is a four-step sequence, okay? And I’ve got it listed out for us. I’m gonna go over these briefly, and then I’m gonna go into very specific examples. So the first step is to diagnose. We’re gonna use a tool called the Concerns-Based Action Model. This is in your downloads today. If you wanna pause this, print it out so that you have a copy, that’s great. This model is gonna determine where each team member is on a readiness scale for change. So you’re gonna know very quickly whether somebody is ready to be attracted to this or not, and what they need to have happen in order to be there. Step two is to take the vitals. So understanding the psychological triggers that are used to make decisions.
This is human psychology. Understanding these particular ones, reciprocity, commitment and consistency, liking, authority, social proof, and scarcity or urgency. We’re going to talk about each of those and how to use them ethically with where people are on their CBAM diagnostic. Then the step three is a consent for action. You can’t move forward with a prescription without a consent. And so in order to get consent, you have to have three pillars for change. People need these three things in order to change. A why that they believe in, trust in you in the process, and training so that they know exactly what to do. When they have those three things, they will get on board and train with you 95% of the time. We’ll talk about the other 5% later.
And step four, once you have all of that done, you’re going to prescribe. So this is how we’re going to actually make the change. And in order to ask people to make the change, I have a framework for you called the pastor framework, which is informed by your diagnosis step and your vitals to address the consent and to build buy-in. So this framework, I’m telling you, it’s genius. You’re going to go through it and you’re like, oh, wow. We’re going to practice this as part of your take action template today. All right, so let’s go into these. The first one is using the concerns-based adoption model. So this is called CBAM for short. And in general, what this is, is an understanding of where people are on a scale of readiness for change.
So when a change is approaching, or is available to people, they fall into one of three buckets, a self-focus, a task focus, or an impact focus. For a self-focus, there are three stages. They become aware of what the change is. So they may or may not be aware or know about arts integration, and they may or may not be ready to effectively use that independently. The aware stage is just kind of bringing the idea of what the change is into their orbit. Then there’s the informed stage. So this is when somebody is aware of it and now they want to learn more about what is it, right? They’re interested in how other teachers are using arts integration in their classroom as an example.
And then from there, there’s the personal connection. So now I am aware of what it is. I know others who have used it. I’m informed about it. Now I’m thinking about myself. I’m worried about, can I, I’m not a good artist. Can I do this? I’m worried about my own skill level. I’m concerned about looking foolish in front of my students or my colleagues. So this stage, I know it and I’m okay with it, except how does it apply to me? Right? Once you get past those three stages, then you’re into the task focus. So now you know what it is. You are informed with some really good, you know, research and information. And you’ve kind of gotten past this barrier of feeling foolish because you’ve tried a couple of strategies and they’ve worked.
Now, You’re in the manage stage. So this is when you want practical suggestions on how to use arts integration for very specific reasons. And you need help with specific problems like, I don’t know, I’m not really good at the cognitive demand piece. Can you show me some examples of that? I really am struggling with putting these standards together. Can you help me with that? Very specific problems within the process. That’s at the manage stage. The consequence stage of task focus is when teachers are thinking about How does this impact my classroom? So it’s not about me, but my classroom and my students. So this is when teachers are researching arts integration strategies and techniques. They’re still unsure about how to use this process with their students effectively, and they’re looking for tangible examples.
So they want to go to a classroom and watch this in action, or they want to see a video of somebody else doing this so that they can then figure out, okay, how do I do that in my classroom successfully? Once you’ve got all that done, then we have impact focus. So this is where you are really comfortable with the arts integration approach and you’re looking for two things. One is to collaborate with others, which is sharing lessons, getting support and feedback, kind of having that really fulfilling feedback journey. Or to refocus, which is looking for ways to improve their practice and get even better. or to serve on an arts integration committee, or think about new ways to use arts integration in the school.
So this is your readiness for change with arts integration. Think for a second about the people in your building and who you’d love to have work with you on arts integration. What stage are they in in this CBAM model? Just kind of write that down. Jot that down for yourself. That’s important information to know. Because if they are in the informed stage, you can’t get them to come all the way over to collaborate with you. You have to know, much like the other continuum, you have to know where they are so that you know what their next step needs to be. All right? So now we’ve got through that. Then we get to go take the vitals. So these are the psychological triggers that are used to make decisions.
This is what all people use in order to validate any kind of decision that they have to make Or in order to help them make that decision. So the idea of reciprocity. If you do something good for me, I want to return that favor. It’s a natural human instinct, right? So if you share arts integration lessons with me, I want to at least be willing to say thank you and maybe come and sit in your classroom and watch you do it, right? To thank you for that offer. Commitment, consistency. Being able to showcase that this is… This is something that happens on a regular basis. It’s not a flash in the pan. It’s not something that’s leaving tomorrow. This is just how I teach.
This is how I love to teach. This is results driven for me. I love this. When people know that it’s not just another thing, but it’s actually something that’s going to stick around, they’re willing to invest their time in it. How many other people are liking what you’re doing? the perfect example of this is how many of your students are engaged in your lessons when you use arts integration? If the majority of them are, I guarantee you they are going out to their friends saying, oh my gosh, this is what we did in class today and i loved this and i loved that and this was so great. And those students that they’re talking to are going back to their other classroom teachers saying, why can’t we do that?
That’s an example of liking. Authority. If you have a research base behind something, People respond to facts. They respond to authority, right? I used this at the very beginning of our workshop. I shared with you that I have written for Edutopia and ASCD and Scholastic. And when I start saying those things, it’s not because I’m, you know, super prideful about them. It’s because it builds authority in your mind for you to understand, know, like, and trust me, right? So when you share the results of what’s happening in your classroom, as well as research from other classrooms and others who have done this work, there’s 40 years worth of research, by the way, that proves this, you’re providing some authority. Social proof. So again, when you’re having something work in your classroom, share it.
Share it everywhere. Post it on social media. Put pictures in the hallway. Have your students do a showcase. Because the more you do that, the more other teachers are going to see this is something that, is a positive benefit that I could also participate in. And then scarcity or urgency. This is when we’re encouraging people to take an action in a period of time, because if they don’t, something negative might happen or they might miss out. And that’s typically what happens. So if we want to encourage people to join us for an Arts Integration Gallery Night, please join us by this date. because if they don’t, they might be the only teacher in the building that doesn’t attend and nobody wants to be that.
So, um, that’s, these are some some psychological triggers that when we’re working with people, we take into account. Now, could we manipulate people by using each of these? Sure. We don’t want to do that. And that’s not what we’re trying to do. It’s important to understand the difference here. It’s important to know what these triggers are. and then to use them ethically in order to encourage people or attract people to us in the right way. So I’m going to show you an example of how to do that with our pastor framework in just a minute. Step three, and I kind of talked about this earlier, I’m not going to go into a lot of detail here because this is covered a lot in our certification program.
And if that’s something that you’re interested in, we’ll be attacking this in sprint four. So we go into a lot of depth there. But it’s important to know that you still need to attack these three things with your buy-in approach. You need to have a why that people can believe in. And sometimes your why is not their why. So this is where going back to the CBAM model and knowing, okay, where are they in this process? And what would their why be in order to get them to move one step further, right? Also, having people trust in you and the process. And I will also say, even if they don’t trust you yet, if they respect you and trust the process, that can also still cultivate a really wonderful relationship and buy-in.
And then training so that they know what to do. It’s not enough to trust you and to believe in it. You have to empower people to use it. So much like you’re here for this training, We want to train our colleagues so that they feel comfortable. And there’s so many ways to do that, right? There’s workshops, there’s conferences, there’s masterclasses, there’s certifications, there’s courses, there’s just so many options, right? But the point here is that they have training and they’ve been empowered to be able to do this in their classrooms. Okay, so the fourth step here is called the pastor framework. And so the This is how we’re going to use those psychological triggers ethically to make a request or to ask for people to be a part of the process.
So the process looks like this. You’re going to identify the person, problem, and or pain first, right? So we’re going to call out the third grade teachers. We’re seeing this problem. And here’s why this is a pain for us, right? Then you’re going to amplify that pain a little bit. You’re going to Just twist it a little bit like, and if we don’t fix this pain, here’s the next thing that’s going to happen, right? And instead of that, what do we aspire to? What is our aspiration? We want to fix that, right? We want to have it look different. So how do we do that? Well, I’m going to tell you a story about what’s worked for me, or I’m going to share a solution that we’ve researched, or I’m going to share a system that we can put into place to make this a little bit easier.
Then I’m going to tell you what transformation could look like. and share a testimonial or something from another person or organization that has seen success with it to offer you some proof that this is going to work. Then I’m going to extend my offer to you. So I’m going to say, you know, I would really like for you to join me. And then the response is what they have to do in order to respond. In order to participate, please be sure to sign up on this Google Doc by 3 p.m. on Friday, right? That’s the sequence that we go through. And it’s important that we go through this sequence in this order because you’re building upon the psychological triggers and you’re doing so in a really ethical way that’s not manipulative.
You are really taking care to ensure that you are addressing the problem itself, not a personality, not a person directly. And then going through How do we solve that problem? And what can I offer you to make that problem a little bit easier? OK, so let me give you an example. This looks like a lot, but I’m just going to share this with you so you can see along the way. This is an example of an email that I would send out to present my new arts integration initiative to staff to see if they would like to join me. OK, so it goes like this. Hi there, classroom teachers. As you know, We have been struggling with literacy scores across all age groups since the pandemic.
Okay, person, classroom teachers, pain, struggling with literacy scores across all age groups since the pandemic, right? So I’m being very specific here about a problem. And I’m getting straight to the point too. There’s no fluff here. After almost a full year, it’s clear that if we do not change our strategies and approach, students will continue to struggle to read. So that pain of struggling with literacy, that’s going to continue. I’m amplifying that. Since it’s been a full year, we’ve tried this. It’s clear, right, that that’s going to continue. Our school improvement team has researched a variety of methods and has found that arts integration can have a positive effect in this area. Now, Now, this is showing a very specific strategy or tool that teachers could use, sequence that they could use because our school improvement team, which adds validity, shared that this is something that they’ve researched and has found that this could be a positive aspect.
If I wanted to, I could have shared a personal story. That can also work. That’s up to you. Stories work great. So does evidence-based research. You pick. OK, in fact, here’s our testimonial and here is our and our transformation all wrapped up in one. In fact, schools who are using arts integration in their literacy blocks are seeing a 10 to 15 percent increase in student literacy standardized test scores. That comes directly from research, by the way. So that’s a really compelling transformation. Right. That’s very compelling. And it’s coming straight from research. So I can believe that. Now here’s my offer. We’d like to recommend implementing a pilot arts integration program for this school year. This pilot program would include one teacher per grade.
Very specific offer. And here’s how they can respond. To indicate your interest in participating, please reply to this email no later than this Friday at 3 p.m. We look forward to working together. This is a very clear, to the point, ask for buy-in. that uses all of those triggers in a very ethical way to invite people to be a part of your effort. I have used this more times than I can count, or something that I could adjust slightly, and almost every time I get way more people in the effort than I ever thought possible. Originally when I used this I was looking for two volunteers, and I ended up with ten. Because so many people wanted to be a part of it and I had to turn people away.
So when you’re looking for a way to ask someone to create that buy-in, again, we want to magnetize them to us, right? That’s our whole goal. So again, if this makes you nervous, if you’re like, oh, but I don’t want to be like that salesy person, but you still need to get that buy-in or you struggle with working with your administrator and you’re not quite sure how how to phrase that conversation. This is something, again, we talk about in Sprint 4. Buy-in requires understanding change efforts, how to work with leadership, and how to build trust over time. And so it’s a much longer conversation than what I can share in this particular workshop. We do cover all of this in Sprint 4 of the certification program.
And our alumni use this particular framework and these skills to build arts integration and STEAM efforts from scratch or to scale efforts that are already in place. We have had hundreds of alumni use this buy-in technique in order to see success at bringing arts integration into their schools. And also we’ve had many of them become consultants, instructional coaches, start award-winning programs that have gotten awards from the Kennedy Center and the CMAs and so many others for how incredible their work is just by understanding some of how this process of how to work with others and build that buy-in through attracting people to our work. All right, now your take action task today. This is your final one before we get to our action, our 30-day action plan.
So I want you to think about, determine what audience or audiences do you want to start building buy-in from? Is it your parent community? Is it other teachers? Is it your administrators? I want you to just pick one and then create a request to perhaps explore arts integration as something to use using the pastor framework. So I give you that model. I have it in the task sheet as well so that you can see it in action. I want you to try to think about how can you plug in each of those areas to make that request.