Build authentic stakeholder buy-in through relational strategies: show don't tell, slow down to speed up, engage resistors, and asset framing¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The brief recommends concrete relational strategies for leaders seeking buy-in for restorative practices: letting stakeholders experience practices firsthand ('show, don't tell'), making intentional time for relationship building ('slow down to speed up'), finding allies and engaging resistors with 'curiosity and empathy,' doing mindset and heart work, and considering stakeholders as assets rather than deficits. It suggests practicing circle-keeping in staff meetings and using tools such as the Concerns-Based Adoption Model to assess concerns.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Leaders must make time intentionally for relational work, restructuring the flow of the day if needed

Constraints¶

• The brief notes relationship building 'does not happen organically' and requires created structures

Target Learners¶

• School staff, students, and families as community members

Target Learning Goals¶

• Building trust and social capital
• developing authentic buy-in for restorative practices implementation

Related Strategies¶

• Structural supports for restorative practices: funding, people, time, discipline policy, and equity
• District lessons for launching teacher-of-color support initiatives: safe space, clear goals, buy-in, and relationship time
• Build trust early through quick wins and visible responsiveness to feedback, using a tiered rollout to grow champions
• Build staff buy-in and mastery through opt-in professional development, social signaling, and preparation for fallback moments
• Treat educator implementation concerns as speed bumps: slow down and discuss nuances of the research to address them

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Trout, L. (2021). The toolkit before the toolkit: Centering adaptive and relational elements of restorative practices for implementation success. [Center to Improve Social and Emotional Learning and School Safety at WestEd]. WestEd. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED615970