Transcript The Succession Challenge

THE SUCCESSION CHALLENGE
ISSUES IN SUCCESSION MANAGEMENT
with
Sustainable leadership
Sustainable leadership matters, spreads and
lasts. It is a shared responsibility that does not
unduly deplete human or financial resources,
and that cares for and avoids exerting damage
on the surrounding educational and
community environment.
Hargreaves & Fink 2003
Seven principles of sustainable
leadership
1
Depth
It matters
2
Endurance
It lasts
3
Breadth
It spreads
4
Justice
It does not harm the
surrounding
environment
Continued…
Seven principles
of sustainable leadership
5
Diversity
It promotes diversity
& cohesion
6
Resourcefulness
It conserves
expenditures
(human/material)
7
Conservation
It honours the past in
creating the future
Principle 2: Endurance
Sustainable
leadership lasts. It
preserves and
advances the most
valuable aspects of
learning and life over
time, year upon year,
from one leader to
the next.
Succession Planning
Ensuring the right person is
in the right place
at the right time
for the right reasons
Succession Management
Succession management involves the long
term development of a pool of well
prepared, contextually sensitive, dedicated
leaders who are available for promotion
whenever the need arises within an
organization
Leadership Succession in Three
Countries
• Ontario Canada –South Board of
Education - 83 schools
• Eastern School District – 10 schools ( one
secondary)
• Midlands Local Authority - 614 schools
Generic succession Issues
1. Supply and Demands
2. Warm Bodies or Leaders of Learning
3. Boomers and their Babies
4. Location, location, location
5. Diversity
Some Policy Issues
a. Grow your own or hire and hope
b. Hire for potential or existing proficiencies
c. Rotating leaders
d. Unplugging the pipeline
Some Procedural Issues
1. Entry and exit strategies
2. Selection strategies (vetting, interviews)
3. Honest feedback
4. Induction processes (the first year)
5. Appraisal of performance
6. Local Politics
7. Preparing faculties for transition
1. Supply and Demands
Is there a shortage of Qualified Leaders?
There is no shortage of qualified candidates for the
principalship, it makes little sense to rely on strategies
aimed solely at adding more candidates to the pipeline.
It’s time to move beyond the pipeline, away from policies
aimed solely at increasing the number of certified
candidates, and focus far more attention and resources on
reforming policies and practices to:

Adjust incentives and working conditions to enable
non competitive schools and districts to attract qualified
candidates
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Bring local hiring practices into line with heightened
expectations for principals performance; and
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Redefine the job itself in ways that allow principals
to concentrate on student learning above all else.
The Wallace Foundation (2003). Beyond the Pipeline:Getting the principals we need where they are needed most. Center on Reinventing Education,
available at www.crpe.org , accessed February 15, 2009, 4.
Vickie: Elementary Principal
This whole thing with No Child Left Behind,
accountability, data, the amount of paper and less
time for the work I love to do which is coaching
teachers, creating a vision for the school, being
passionate in getting to know the kids. Doing this
kind of work I think has made my school very
special . . . . It is in many ways the school I had
envisaged. The piece I am frustrated about is how do
we get better if we are so busy spending time with
the paper things we are doing, and we are losing the
passion and the creativity. I feel that so much of
what we do is about aligning documents, making up
paper plans, but for me, the job is creating the story,
somehow the passion is lost.
Do we have
a supply problem
or a demands problem?
2. IMAGE OF EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP
Warm Bodies
or
Leaders of learning
Leadership is Important
Our conclusion . . . is that leadership has very
significant effects on the quality of school
organisation and on pupil learning. As far as we
are aware, there is not a single documented case of
a school successfully turning around its pupil
achievement trajectory in the absence of talented
leadership. One explanation for this is that
leadership serves as a catalyst for unleashing the
potential capacities that already exist in the
organisation.”
Leithwood, K, Day, C. Sammons, P., Harris, A., and Hopkins, D. (2008).
Four ‘Layers’ of Knowledge
1. knowledge of the substance/subject matter: What the
work is about?
2. knowledge of how to facilitate the learning: The
how of the work?
3. knowledge of how teachers learn to teach and how
others can assist their learning: The how of learning
for the previous two layers.
4. knowledge of how to guide the learning of other
adult professionals: The how of learning for the
previous three layers.
Stein, M.K. & Nelson, B.S. (2003)
A Leader of Learning
There’s no way in five years of teaching experience
that a person can know and understand all three
divisions (ages 4 to 16), and that worries me because,
number one, I don’t know how you can support your
staff and number two, I don’t know how you can be
believable to parents that you really have a clue on
what’s going on for their children. Whereas I pulled
on my experience so often especially working with
parents of special needs kids, but also parents whose
children were struggling in whatever way, or even
parents whose kids were gifted and didn’t
understand why we might not want to identify that
particular thing until later in their life.
Canadian elementary prinicipal
Warm Bodies
Because the principal must decide which teachers
will receive tenure, it is crucial that principals
have prior experience as teachers and understand
What good teaching is and how to recognize it.
They will be called upon to evaluate and help
struggling teacher, which they cannot do unless
they have experience in the classroom. . . .
People with little personal knowledge of good
Instruction . . . are likely to rely exclusively on data
because they have so little understanding of teaching.
Diane Ravitch
I honestly believe that most principals
want to be educational leaders. I think
that there are a couple things getting in
the way. I think that the expectation of
the person still doing those managerial
tasks is part of the problem but I think the
other part and probably the bigger part of
the problem is that I’m not so confident
that we have prepared principals to truly
do the job of an educational leader.
American Senior Official
PETER DRUCKER
Do you know what
business you‘re in?
Diane Ravitch:
Our schools will not improve if we continually
reorganize their structure and management without
regard for the essential purpose. Our educational
problems are a function of our lack of educational
vision, not a management problem that requires the
enlistment of an army of business consultants.
Death and Life of the Great American School System
Purpose?
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Test scores?
Over subscribed schools?
Customer satisfaction?
Short-term achievement targets?
‘Adequate yearly progress’?
Educational leadership
is about a passionate, steadfast,
obstinate commitment to the
enhancement of ‘deep’ learning for all
students – learning for life, learning for
understanding, learning for an
increasingly fluid, messy and risky
world.
Standards and Sustainability
Testing  Achievement  Learning
or
Learning  Achievement  Testing
Hargreaves & Fink, 2006
What Matters ?
•What does the focus on standardized
outcomes determined by external (to schools)
testing actually stand for and thus do they
represent valid, worthwhile or meaningful
outputs?
•Does increased emphasis on preparation for
the tests and the adaptation of teaching and
curriculum to the requirements of test
performance constitute worthwhile effects of
‘improvement’?
•In terms of economic competitiveness, is
what is measured here what is needed?
Stephen Ball, The Education Debate
The Accountability Question
Do we evaluate what we value
or
do we value what we evaluate?
The Two Hungers
In Africa, they say there are two
hungers, the lesser hunger and the
greater hunger.
The lesser hunger is for the things
that sustain life, the goods, and
services, and the money to pay for
them, which we all need.
Left Brain Thinking
Any job that depends on routines
- that can be reduced to a set of
rules, or broken down into a set
of repeatable steps – is at risk.
Daniel Pink - A Whole New Mind
Why Indians can’t Fix Your Car
… the emerging labor market is not between
those with more or less education, but between
those whose services can be delivered over a
wire and those who must do their work in
person or on site. The latter will find their
livelihoods more secure against outsourcing to
distant countries. You can’t hammer a nail over
the Internet. Nor can the Indians fix your car.
Because they are in India.
Michael Crawford
Going Deeper
The greater hunger is for the
answer to the question ‘why’,
for some understanding of what
life is for.
Handy, C. (1997). The Hungry Spirit. London: Hutchison, p.13.
Deep Learning
Our educational system does its best to ignore and
suppress the creative spirit of children.
It teaches them to listen unquestioningly to
authority.
It insists that education is just knowledge
contained in subjects and the purpose of education
is to get a job.
What’s left out is sensitivity to others, non-violent
behaviour, respect, intuition, imagination, and a
sense of awe and wonderment.
The Body Shop
Broad Learning
John Adams
I must study politics and war, that our sons may
have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.
Our sons ought to study mathematics and
philosophy, geography, natural history and naval
architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture
in order to give their children a right to study
painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary,
tapestry and porcelain
(McCullough, 2001, pp. 236-237).
The Right Side of the Brain
The future belongs to those who ‘do’ engage
the right side of the brain, with its abilities to
think holistically and long term, recognize
patterns, interpret emotions and nonverbal
communications, . . . . The top jobs of the
future are in the helping professions,
designing new or modifying old products, and
creating new technologies. At the same time
we will still need people who can build houses,
repair the plumbing, put in sewers and attend
to all the services that make modern life
livable.
Based on Daniel Pink
Breadth
Old basics
New basics
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Numeracy
Literacy
Obedience
Punctuality
Multiliteracy
Creativity
Communication
Info.Technology
Teamwork
Lifelong Learning
Adaptation &
Change
• Environmental
Responsibility
Five pillars of learning
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Learning to know*
Learning to do*
Learning to live together*
Learning to be*
•
Learning to live sustainably
UNESCO Learning: The Treasure Within, 1996.
Commitment
Leaders of learning
are ordinary people who, through
extraordinary commitment, effort,
and determination, have become
extraordinary and have made the
people around them exceptional.
Summary
Are we hiring and supporting :
Leaders of learning
or
Managers of things ?
3. Boomers and their
Babies
The Vets
Pre -1928
Margaret Thatcher, George H.W. Bush,
Queen Elizabeth II, Jimmy Carter
Shaped By the depression and World War II
Thrifty, corporate structure and chain of command
The Silents
1928-1945 (demographic trough)
Woody Allen,
Gloria Steinem, John McCain
Influenced by vets and indirectly by depression
and W.W. II
Conformist, play the game, delayed gratification,
intact families
The Boomers
First stage 1946-1953
Tony Blair, Bill &Hilary Clinton, Bill Gates,
George W. Bush, Prince Charles
Second stage 1953-1963
Steve Jobs, Barack Obama (cusper)
Numbers (competitive), good times (optimism),
television ( informed), Dr. Spock ( indulged), self
absorbed (me generation), live to work (never really
retire)
Generation ‘X’
1963 -1978
(Demographic trough)
Michelle Obama, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan,
Michael Dell, Wayne Gretzky
Economic downturn, latch-key kids, Skeptical (work
to live), life-work balance, technological literacy
(solitary)
The Millennials
1978 - 2000
Prince William, Prince Harry, , Lebron James, Sidney Crosby,
Daniel Radcliffe, Britney Spears
Wired, (facebook, My Space, You Tube), good times,
indulged, helicopter parents, work to live collaborators, customizers, freedom ( entitlement), speed,
entertainment, innovation, integrity
The Future of Leadership ?
One reading of these norms is that this new
generation will burst the bonds of industrial
age structures and cultures and move the
education of our young people into a hightech era of collaboration, innovation, and
creativity. Another reading might suggest
however, that this is a generation, that is ill
prepared for the hard work, perseverance,
and sustained inquiry that educational
leadership requires and is more interested
in going along, getting along, and when
things get tough, moving along.
The Succession Challenge
Are Millennials up to the succession challenge
“This is a generation that is more interesting, more
confident, less hidebound and uptight, better
educated, more creative, in some essential fashion,
unafraid”
OR
This is the “dumbest generation” that suffers from
“vigorous indiscriminate ignorance? No cohort in
human history has opened such a fissure between its
material conditions and its intellectual attainments.
None has experienced so many technological
enhancements and yielded so little mental progress.”
4.Location
Location
Location
The World is Flat ?
THE WORLD IS SPIKEY
“There are many advantages that
children can enter this world with
including intelligence, physical
power, and agility, good looks and
caring parents. It also matters
where you live”
Edward Leamer
Deep Learning
30% produce 50%
The Creative Class
Florida, R. (2002). The Rise of the Creative Class. New York: Basic
Books
Diversity
Talent
Technology
Tolerance
Attracting Leaders
Aesthetics
–parks, culture, history, sports facilities
Basic Services
–affordability, public transportation, health
and educational facilities, churches
Openness
- tolerance, public safety, quality of
leadership
Florida, R. (2002). The Rise of the Creative Class. New York:Basic Books.
Some Operational Issues
a. Grow your own or hire and hope
b. Hire for potential or existing proficiencies
c. Rotating leaders
d. Unplugging the pipeline
a.Grow your Own
or
Hire and Hope
Succession Management
identify
transitions
recruit
Appraisal
(Feedback)
&
support
celebrate
develop
select
induct
b. HIRING FOR
POTENTIAL
OR
EXISITING
PROFICIENCIES
c. Rotating Leaders
d. Unplugging the Pipeline
Assistant principal: career position
or
Principal in training
Pipelines
Pools
Reservoirs
In
Memory
of Jock
Succession Management
Succession management involves the long
term development of a pool of well
prepared, contextually sensitive, dedicated
leaders who are available for promotion
whenever the need arises within an
organization
Succession Planning
Ensuring the right person is
in the right place
at the right time
for the right reasons
1. Supply and Demands
There are concerns across countries that
the role of principal as conceived for
needs of the past is no longer
appropriate. Potential candidates often
hesitate to apply, because of
overburdened roles, insufficient
preparation and training, limited career
prospects and inadequate support.
[i] Pont, B., D. Nusche and H. Moorman (2008), Improving School Leadership:
Policy and Practice: Executive Summaries OECD, Paris, retrieved from,
www.oecd.org/edu/schoolleadership, accessed December, 2008, 1
2. Leaders of Learning
is about a passionate, steadfast, obstinate
commitment to the enhancement of ‘deep’
learning for all students – learning for
life, learning for understanding, learning
for an increasingly fluid, messy and risky
world.
3. Leadership and the Millennials
The succession challenge is to
rethink our notions of
leadership and of leadership
development designed “for
another time” to invite, prepare
and sustain newer generations
to assume the mantle of
educational leadership.
4. THE WORLD IS SPIKEY
“There are many advantages
that children can enter this
world with including
intelligence, physical power,
and agility, good looks and
caring parents. It also matters
where you live”
Edward Leamer
Pipelines, Pools, & Reservoirs
• We need to unplug the
pipeline, fill up the pool and
build ourselves a reservoir
through distributed forms of
leadership
Learning from Noah’s Ark
1 Don’t miss the boat
2 Remember we’re all in the same boat
3 Plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah
built the Ark
4 Stay fit. When you’re 600 years old,
someone may ask you to do something
really big
5 Don’t listen to critics; just get on with the job that
has to be done
Learning from Noah’s Ark
6 Build your future on high ground
7 For safety’s sake, travel in pairs
8 Speed isn’t always an advantage;
the snails were on board with the cheetahs
9 When you’re stressed, float awhile
10 Remember the Ark was built by amateurs,
the Titanic by professionals
11 No matter the storm,
there’s always a rainbow
waiting
The woodpeckers may have to go