Page 22 - July 2020

FIELD NOTES

From Denial to Acceptance

Dr. Gwendolyn Avington - Pathways Chair

After attending Toastmasters Leadership So how can we help members move to
Institute (TLI) on June 27th and listening to acceptance—the last stage of the model? I think
the Pathways discussions, I realized that there two questions need to be answered before we

were members having difficulties letting go of can successfully help anyone reach acceptance:
the traditional program and moving forward • Why were members stalled at anger and
to accepting Pathways. If you are reluctant to bargaining?
embrace Pathways, you are not alone! • How can these individuals be moved to

In 1969, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross introduced acceptance?
the five stages of grief (denial, anger, At TLI, we began to understand that the anger
bargaining, depression and acceptance) in her members were voicing was due to unanswered
groundbreaking book, Death and Dying. Since questions about how to navigate through

then, psychologists have used her model to Pathways. People were apprehensive because
understand human behavior no matter the loss. it was a change. Change is always hard, even
The Kubler-Ross Model of Grief bears out that when it may be a good change. Pathways is an
the grief process holds true when it comes to unfamiliar program with many unknowns,

business, work, or employment (or transitioning just as the traditional curriculum was when
from the traditional program to Pathways). Toastmasters implemented it back in 1969.
Anastasia Belyh, in the blog Cleverism, noted that Before the traditional program, as it is
besides the improvement of systems or process, affectionately called, there was The Basic

there must be a change in the mindset of people Training Manual created by the founder of
affected by the change. Toastmasters International, Ralph Smedley, in
Since September 2017, when the move to 1942.
Pathways began in District 7, many Toastmasters Toastmasters International recognized the

experienced the stages of grief. Not all need for an educational change in 1969 to keep
successfully completed the transition. Some leadership and communication styles and skills
appear stalled between stage two (anger) and moving with the times. More recently, a move
stage three (bargaining). from the traditional program to Pathways was

22 ONE COMMUNITY