Becca Silver

Resistance can stall strong initiatives, drain leadership time, and leave leaders wondering what else they are supposed to try. You have explained the why, provided support, clarified expectations, and followed up, yet the pushback, avoidance, defensiveness, or surface-level compliance continues. In this interactive, full-day workshop, school and district leaders will bring real resistance challenges into the room and learn a practical process for figuring out what is actually getting in the way. School leaders would never respond to every reading difficulty with the same intervention. They gather evidence, identify the source of the struggle, and match the support to the need. Resistance requires that same diagnostic precision.

Participants will learn how to stop guessing and distinguish between different causes of resistance so they can choose a response that actually fits the problem. Using Becca Silver’s Catalyst Mindsets framework, attendees will examine whether resistance is being driven by a lack of value, ownership, belonging, confidence, or belief that improvement is possible. They will work through realistic leadership scenarios and challenges from their own schools and districts, learn how to recognize both obvious and quieter forms of resistance, and practice deciding when a situation calls for greater support, clearer accountability, or both. The goal is not to excuse resistance. It is to help leaders respond to it more strategically and effectively.

This is not a session about becoming more patient with resistance. It is about becoming more precise in how you lead through it. Throughout the day, participants will practice critical conversations, apply diagnostic tools, evaluate common leadership responses, and build a specific plan for a resistance challenge they are currently facing. Attendees will leave with repeatable frameworks, practical language, and tools they can use immediately to reduce defensiveness, address avoidance, strengthen follow-through, and move people from compliance toward greater ownership and commitment.