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Illinois School Board Journal
January/February 2006
Moods and school boards: Generating progress
by Cindy Reinhardt
Cindy Reinhardt is a Master Certified Coach who coaches public leaders and organizations, and is the founder of Creative Resources Group in Ransom Canyon, Texas.
School boards, like so many public bodies, are in a squeeze. The public demands "more" and "better," yet doesn't seem willing to pay the price.
State and federal legislative bodies and agencies mandate certain requirements without funding them. Teachers and administrators push for more resources. Students often don't seem to be part of the equation. It's enough to put any group in a "mood" and it does, limiting your capacity for action.
What if you could identify the "mood" of your school board and had the tools to shift that mood? What if your board could assess things differently and generate options that perhaps have not been apparent before?
We're not talking about emotional reaction and control, but rather emotional learning and maturity that seeks to help you lead your organization in new, powerful ways. This learning includes exploring what moods are, how they are generated and how you can shift them.
What are moods?
Moods are predispositions to action, emotional states from which we act. Although we generally are not aware of our moods, both individuals and groups are always operating from one. They live in the background 24/7. Once you are in a mood, you become what that mood allows you to be, do or say. The same is true for organizations.
We like to think that moods happen to us. That often seems to be the case. But, circumstances or events do not generate moods. Rather, it is our interpretation of whether they expand or limit future possibilities, as well as whether we oppose or accept them. Unless we've practiced, we are rarely aware of these interpretations. Like our moods, they operate in the background far from conscious awareness.
Two pairs of distinctions are important to understanding how moods are generated. When we understand where moods come from, they lose their grip and we learn how to shift them.
The first distinction concerns what can and what cannot be changed: whether something is "fact" or "possibility."
Fact includes that which cannot be changed (e.g. the past) and what we assess is not open to change. We often assess that no matter what action we take, things won't change. That is, no matter how we act, what we say, or what we do things will remain as they are.
Possibility includes what we assess can be changed. If we act effectively, then the future can be different. There are possibilities for action that have the potential to generate change. What we say is possible is actually an assessment of the capacity of our actions to change what is given.
The second distinction concerns whether we oppose or accept facts, possibilities and our assessments of fact and possibility.
What moods do these circumstances generate?
Four moods rise out of four basic underlying (and usually unconscious) conversations about what is possible.
The Mood of Resentment — "I oppose what has happened and my future is limited because of it."
When we oppose "facts," things that are fact and those things that we assess as facts, we generate the mood of resentment. Resentment has an underlying story that we have been the victim of an injustice, that we had a right to something we didn't get and that "someone" is to blame. We assess that someone or something has closed or limited our future possibilities.
Unlike anger, which is usually manifested publicly, resentment is hidden. In organizations, resentment stands in the way of making full commitments. Gossip and complaints are normal operating modes manifested by resentment. Cooperation and coordination of action is challenging and difficult.
Resentment is deadly in organizations, yet it is often found and seldom confronted with a commitment to change. Rather it is accepted as "the way things are," with little or no awareness that this choice has been made. Resentment blocks possibilities for action since its focus is on what happened in the past and who is to blame for it. This focus keeps us from looking ahead to the possibility for change.
The Mood of Acceptance or Peace — "I accept what happened, even those things with which I disagree."
The mood of acceptance is the opposite of resentment. We come to terms with that which we cannot change. We are in acceptance when we find ourselves not being disturbed by something we consider to be unchangeable. This includes the past and possibilities that were previously open and then lost. When we can accept the past, we increase our capacity to deal with present and future concerns.
The Mood of Resignation — "I want things to be better/different, but no matter what I do they will stay the same."
Unlike the past that cannot be changed, the future is yet to be created. It will be determined through our actions and our thinking. When we look to the future and assess that something cannot be changed and we want that something to change, we generate the mood of resignation. No matter what we do or say things will stay the same. When we live in resignation, we do not see the future as a space for possibilities where our actions can make the future different from the present.
We tend to see resignation as "reality" rather than as an assessment that our actions can have no bearing. We come to believe that, no matter what we do, that the future we long for will not come to pass.
The Mood of Ambition — "I am excited about the difference I can make in the future."
The mood of ambition is the opposite of resignation. Ambition is generated when we assess that our actions can or will make a difference. It opens the possibilities that resignation closes. In the mood of ambition we assess that the future is an open space of possibilities.
Ambitious people and organizations commit to getting the most out of future possibilities. The mood of ambition holds a drive to overcome and go beyond the present into a better future. It holds obstacles as opportunities not as blocks.
How can a mood be shifted?
The process of shifting moods is simple, and yet it requires diligent practice. Four practices will help you and your board to learn to become aware of moods and to create new possibilities for action. As an individual, you can do these practices to understand yourself and your board colleagues in new ways. They can also be practiced by the board as a whole.
Practice One — Observe your moods and your board's.
1. Which mood best describes your predominant mood?
2. Which mood best describes the predominant mood of your board?
3. What other moods are present?
4. That is happening when your mood or the board's mood shifts?
Practice Two — Explore and question these moods.
1. How does each mood feel?
2. How does the future look from resentment? From resignation? From ambition?
3. What assessments are underneath your mood?
4. Are the assessments valid? Can I [we] back them up with facts?
Practice Three — Choose to stay in the mood or to shift.
1. Is another assessment possible?
2. Do I [we] choose to change the assessment?
Practice Four — Repeat Practices One, Two, and Three
Let's look at how to move from resentment to acceptance. To move out of resentment, the conversations that come from the past must be closed. Using the practices above, consider these questions:
Whether you are aware of it or not, when you are bogged down in controversy and don't see how to create a positive future, resentment and/or resignation are likely the mood. A bold and mature pathway to getting beyond these conflicts is to recognize that underlying mood and to do the sometimes difficult work of shifting it.
Cindy Reinhardt can be contacted at cindy@successzone.com, at 806-829-2105 or through her Web site at www.successzone.com.