Behavior Over Talking Points

Step 1 of 4

Interpersonal · Module 2.2

Behavior Over Talking Points

You can deliver the message perfectly and still undermine the change. Your team is watching what you do, not what you say in the room.

1

Say the right thing, do the wrong thing

Picture a workload policy that changes how faculty are compensated for overload or summer teaching, streamlined to control costs. You supported it. You told the provost you understood why the change was needed, and you told your team the same thing. You meant it, in the room.

So far, so good. Where does it get away from us?

Then your team starts lobbying. Someone has an exception. Their department is a little different, more clinical faculty, a different tenure mix, a reason this specific policy should not quite apply to them. You make the exception. It feels reasonable in the moment.

Multiply that by a dozen small exceptions, and you have quietly told everyone the policy is negotiable, no matter what you said out loud when it was announced.

2

The two ways this leaks out

Undermining behavior rarely looks like open defiance. It shows up in two quieter ways.

Quiet exceptions

Granting a carve-out because one person’s situation feels different, even when you know the change was not built to bend.

Slow fade through inattention

Not granting an exception outright, just never bringing the change up again once something busier takes over your meetings.

Neither one feels like resistance while it is happening. Both send the same message: this is not actually a priority.

3

Audit the last 30 days

Look back honestly, not for a place you failed, just for a place the change quietly slipped.

Where did you grant an exception, let a timeline slide, or simply stop bringing the change up?

Capture your answer in your own notes.

4

Commit to holding the line

Pick one or two specific behaviors to hold this month, not a general intention, something concrete enough that you would know if you had slipped.

What are the one or two behaviors you will hold, and what does holding them actually look like?

Capture your answer in your own notes.