Making Change

Making Change for School Improvement is a game designed by Mundry and Hergert (1988) to help people cope with change in an educational setting:

"To make a change is to understand a process, to comprehend building a bridge from idea to action to use. Changes are so common that individuals are asked to make and adapt to them every day; and yet, as creatures of habit, we resist change. In organizational settings, people rarely pay attention to the best way to make changes occur, or to consider if there are ways to make changes smoother, more efficiently, or with more sensitivity toward those people who will be affected by the change.

Making Change for School Improvement is a tool for educators that simulates organizational change in education settings. Organized as a training game, players have fun while they learn to manage change in schools. More importantly, players get the opportunity to try out real-life strategies for changing policies and practices in a fictional school district, complete with administration, school staff, and members of the community.

Working as a team, the players assume the role of the 'change committee,' conducting various activities to influence the people on the gameboard. Because Making Change is based upon real findings from educational research, the situations and the people are real, as are the roadblocks and the excitement of achieving one's goal." (p. 1)

The following ideas are built into Making Change:

1. Change takes time and persistence.

2. Individuals go through stages of concern in the change process and have different needs at different stages.

3. Change strategies are most effective when they are chosen to meet people's needs.

4. Administrative support and approval is needed for change to occur.

5. Developing a critical mass of support is just as important as developing administrative support.

6. An individual or committee must take responsibility for organizing and managing the change.

7. The objective is to benefit students, not just "convert" staff.

8. Successful change is planned and managed.

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