Plan for Resistance: The Missing Step in Professional Development Implementation

I’ve been sitting with an idea lately.

As a professional development designer, facilitator, and coach, I can design strong learning. I can build the slide decks. I can model the strategy. I can facilitate powerful conversations.

But if it doesn’t get implemented in classrooms, and if it doesn’t impact student learning, what am I actually doing?

Recently, I was listening to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast in conversation with Becca Silver, and something struck me deeply. They talked about how schools are constantly changing. New initiatives. New curriculum. New frameworks. New expectations.

And in that change, adults experience resistance.

Not all adults.
Not all the time.
But some.

And resistance isn’t good or bad.

It just is.

What shifted my thinking was this idea: resistance shows up because there is an unmet need.

When we introduce a new instructional initiative, we often plan the rollout:
• The launch
• The training
• The materials
• The timeline

But how often do we plan for resistance?

If we know change creates uncertainty…
If we know uncertainty creates vulnerability…
If we know vulnerability can surface as resistance…

Then resistance isn’t a surprise.

It’s predictable.

And if it’s predictable, it’s plannable.

What if Implementation Plans Included Adult Needs?

What if, alongside our professional development plan, we asked:

• What fears might this initiative trigger?

• What workload concerns will surface?

• Where might teachers feel loss of competence?

• Who needs clarity? Who needs modeling? Who needs reassurance?

• What quick wins can we design so early success is visible?

Instead of reacting to resistance, we could anticipate it.

Instead of labeling it as negativity, we could diagnose it as information.

Because if resistance signals an unmet need, then our job as instructional leaders isn’t to push harder.

It’s to get curious.

Professional Development Isn’t the Goal. Student Impact Is.

I’ve realized something humbling:

Professional development is not the work.
Implementation is the work.

And implementation only happens when adults feel safe enough, clear enough, and supported enough to try something new in front of students.

If we don’t plan for adult experience, we risk mistaking compliance for change.
We risk mistaking attendance for impact.
We risk mistaking training for transformation.

And I don’t want to design “events.”

I want to design impact.

So lately, I’m asking a different question before I launch any initiative:

How will we support the adults through the change, not just deliver the content?

Because student learning moves at the speed of adult implementation.
And adult implementation moves at the speed of trust.