This is not right!

Part of my teaching work brings me to a college up in Zhuhai (one
of the cities in southern China just north of Macau).

This being a new semester in a new academic year, I was assigned
the role of a subject leader which means that it is my job to
coordinate with all the professors teaching the same subject I am
teaching – Business Communication.

So, I held a first meeting with all the teaching staff, professor
and teaching assistant to discuss the syllabus, textbook,
assessment schemes, teaching approach, and so on such that we can
all on the same page.

I taught the subject last semester and so, thought it a good idea
to share what I did and experienced as well as what worked and what
didn’t work with the team so that we can make the necessary changes
this new semester.

Interestingly, even before I could start saying anything, one
professor, who was the subject leader for this subject last year
(and whom I took over from) said:

“Ethan, I saw from your syllabus that you have made significant
changes to the syllabus and assessment scheme which I wrote for
this course last year. You have also changed the textbook which has
been used for the past 3 years. I don’t see why you should make
these changes. This is not right!”

Well, you are just reading the words that she said here. If you
could hear HOW she said them (in terms of her tone and volume), you
would know for sure that she was not happy.

There being other teachers around who have no idea what she’s
talking about, I told her that I will address those issues later
and proceeded to give my background of the subject as planned.

From then onwards, she protested against everything that I had to
say (including the poor customer service provided by the publisher
of the new textbook I adopted for the course) and insisted that HER
syllabus and assessment scheme were the proper ones and whatever
changes I have made were simply “unaccredited.”

At the end of that first meeting, all I heard from her were the
problems that she perceive. No solution or way forward whatsoever.
No discussion.

The next morning, I got a call from the Dean of the faculty and was
told of the complaint that she lodge with the management.

I was dumbfounded and could feel a sense of anger rising up in my
chest. My shoulders tensed up and a frown started to show on my
face.

It was at this moment that I was reminded that it is not my job to
judge her. I mean how can I judge her when I don’t want her to
judge me! In any case, putting what I teach to work, what she says
or does is really… none of my business and as such, I can choose
the way I want to respond.

Once I began to let the anger go, something happened.

I was told by the Dean that I have not done anything wrong or
against any course accreditation. I later found that such
antagonistic behaviour from this particular professor is nothing
new and so, I shouldn’t take the adversarial stance personally.

The complaints didn’t stop there but I decided not to spend
unnecessary energies on unreasonable people and to put the effort
into more productive endeavours instead.

Still,  I wondered what triggered such behaviour from such an
“educated” person who refused to communicate so that the matter can
be resolved amicably. How can she be a good role model for her
students considering the fact that she’s teaching “Business
Communication”?

I realized that she might have taken the changes that I have made
as an attack on her capability or worth. This means that she’s not
actually unhappy with the changes that I’ve made per se but she’s
upset with what she perceived as my judgement on her when I made
those changes:

Changing the syllabus means the old one was not good enough.
Changing the textbook means the old one was not good enough…

Well, from my end, there was no judgement at all; only making sure
that what I teach is always improving. The fact remains that I
don’t even know her.

Her reaction was based solely on what she THOUGHT was happening. It
was not based on what’s REALLY happening in reality.

So, are you responding to what you perceive things to be OR are you
responding to the facts? Start being aware today and you’ll realize
how easy it is to change your thoughts and get better outcomes in
your life.