"Change is disturbing when it is done to us, and exhilarating when it’s done by us."
—Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Initiating and sustaining the KEYS 2.0 school improvement initiative involve the use of collective processes and social interaction among all stakeholders within the school community. Inevitably, some members will resist efforts to change. If the initiative is to succeed, however, it is important to identify and target the resistors by appealing to their self-interests and recognizing and addressing their fears and concerns. In effect, you can overcome this initial resistance through increased open and positive two-way communication and more effective group interaction and facilitation. Although persuading individuals who may be skeptical is not easy, this task is facilitated by the fact that KEYS 2.0 is not a top-down bureaucratic school change initiative. On the contrary, the school owns and retains full control of the KEYS 2.0 data as well as the ensuing improvement process.

WORKING WITH TEAMS AND SECURING COMMITMENTS

In your school, you may already have effective and inclusive site-based decision-making teams that work on specific projects or on whole school improvement efforts. If this is the case, then use an existing team for the KEYS 2.0 initiative that has already carried out projects successfully and has developed sound group norms and effective dynamics.

The first task for an experienced team after having gathered information about the KEYS initiative and examining how it can be integrated within the school's ongoing improvement efforts, is to help bring along the whole school community. This task is made easier when the experienced team consists of respected members who represent the interests of all stakeholders: teachers, administrators, education support professionals, students, parents, community, and civic leaders — and the Association, local, state, and national. Although not prescribed, schools that have used KEYS successfully have required a minimum support of 70 to 80 percent of school employees.

If your school does not have a tradition of working effectively in teams, you must begin the KEYS initiative by organizing and forming a KEYS school improvement team. Again, make sure that the team is representative of all stakeholders and that is has a clear and explicit mandate. However, at this point, with an inexperienced team, your task is considerably more difficult. Before you can consider and act on the content issues and concerns that surfaced as a result of the KEYS 2.0 survey, you may need to participate in team building experiences in order to establish effective work norms, ground rules, and team dynamics.

The purpose of this section is to provide the reader with an overview and conceptual basis for understanding the basic skills for change by using facilitation processes that can provide support or enhance an interactive group environment. The art of facilitation is supported by the effective use of various processes and interventions.

In order to improve or grow as a facilitator, you will need to appreciate the strategies and approaches that constitute effective facilitation. The role of the facilitator is to assist the group in performing effectively. This will involve assisting the group to assess, resolve problems, and address group dynamics while relying and trusting its own resources (NEA KEYS Facilitator's Manual, 1997).

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