Transcript Leadership FOR Change Key Change Concepts and Leadership Practices West Virginia 21st Century Leadership for 21st Century Schools November, 2008 Jerry Valentine Professor of School Leadership Director, Middle.

Leadership FOR Change
Key Change Concepts
and Leadership Practices
West Virginia 21st Century
Leadership for 21st Century Schools
November, 2008
Jerry Valentine
Professor of School Leadership
Director, Middle Level Leadership Center
University of Missouri
1
What I heard Chuck say this
morning about Leadership…
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
“Jumping the Gap requires leadership to leap the chasm.”
Distributive Leadership creates leadership density.
Surviving the Implementation Dip requires quality leadership
“Disruptive Innovation creates Positive Turbulence” (leadership)
“If we don’t replace what we are changing with something new, we just
revert back to what we used to do.” (leadership)
“The art of progress (leadership) is to preserve order amid change, and to
preserve change amid order.”
When true 2nd Order Change occurs, members of the organization attack
the person (leader) leading it…it’s all they know how to do due to the
discomfort they feel.
“Gentle Pressure Relentlessly Applied Over Time” (leadership)
Establishing Collective Efficacy changes student achievement
(leadership)
2
Leadership Matters
• Chuck’s presentation confirmed
unequivocally that…
LEADERSHIP MATTERS to school and
student success!
• So, let’s look at “Leadership FOR Change”
for a few minutes…
• Let’s begin with this concept:
“If you are not improving, you are declining”
3
Why We Must Change: The
Knowledge-Implementation Gap
Our Implementation with No New Knowledge
4
1st & 2nd Order Change
• First Order
–
–
–
–
–
Incremental
“Next most obvious step”
Relatively quick-fix solutions
Address simple problems where traditional solutions suffice
Single-loop learning where previous strategies will work
• Second Order
–
–
–
–
Significant departure from the norm
Deep change affecting values, beliefs and assumptions
Slow, evolving process over time
Addresses complex problems requiring new, thoughtful, and often
creative comprehensive solutions
– Double-loop learning (organizational learning) where new
strategies are needed and created to solve the problem
– Becomes institutionalized in the culture of the organization
5
Lewin’s Freeze/Unfreeze/Refreeze
Model of Change
6
Mountain Stream Ice Flow: Freezes, Thaws, Reshapes,
Refreezes with the Environmental Factors of
Sun-Shade-Current Flow-Water Depth
7
Freeze-Unfreeze-TransitionRefreeze Explanation
• Freeze is our current state—the way we are…
• Unfreeze is the time we spend realizing and
accepting that we need to change.
• Transition is the actual implementation of the
change
• Refreezing is stabilizing the organization so the
new change can be internalized and maintained
until it needs to be changed
• Learning organizations are in a continuous
cycle of change from freeze to unfreeze to
transition to refreezing just as the mountain
stream transitions in the fall or spring
8
Same Concept, Different Visual
Lewin’s Stages of Change:
Current State
Unfreeze
Transition
Freeze
9
Low
Comfort with
High
Staff Anxiety
On-going Emotions (Anxiety) During
Times of Change
Optimism with
Decision to
Change
current conditions
Persistence
Realization of
needed change
Realization of
urgency for
change
Comfort w/ ongoing change
Engagement
& Problem
Solving
Frustrations of
implementing
the change
TIME
10
Three Common Change Models
• Authoritative (Top Down)
• Strategic (Established Sequential Steps)
• Transformational (People Capacity Building)
Transformational leadership with flexible
strategies understood by all is usually
necessary to achieve lasting, second-order
change
11
Increase Pressure, Decrease Resistance:
Common Strategies in Authoritative Change
• Increase the force/pressure to make the change
• By increasing incentives, power, authority, negotiate (transactional)
• Decrease the forces that create resistance to the change
• By decreasing fear, anxiety and other impediments
• If resistance was low, leaders did not worry about resistance and just
increased force/pressure to make change;
• If resistance was high, leaders increased force/pressure to make
change while trying to decrease resistance to change
• Basically…change was MANDATED!
12
Why Teachers Resist Change—Especially
in Authoritative Model
• Lack of trust… “It’s just another administrative ploy to get
more workout of our already full day.”
• Absence of belief change is needed… “It works just fine
now, why change it?”
• Believe change is not feasible… “We will never get ‘those
kids’ to learn!”
• Cost of change may shift resources away from “what I
think is important.”
• Loss of status or power… “Those new, young teachers
are just taking over our school. I am tired of their new
ideas!”
• Threat to existing values and ideals… “I just don’t believe
that is the right thing to do…and besides, it’s more work!”
• Resentment of interference… “Leave me alone and let me
do what I have always done!”
Adapted from Yukl, 1998
13
Social Significance during
Change
Successful change strategies are…
Socially based (staff working and learning
together)
And…
Action oriented (Focused on accomplishing
meaningful, authentic tasks that change the
school)
Fullan 2006
14
Traditional Faculty
“Discussions”
Principal
Talks
Teachers
Listen
(sometimes)
15
A Model of Faculty Collaborative
Conversations for Change
Whole
Group
Whole
Group
Small Groups
16
Other Barriers to Change
• When talk and planning replace action
• When memory of what we did, what worked and
what did not, override new thought
• When fear, anxiety, or stubbornness prevents
action grounded in knowledge and reflection
• When measurement impedes the use of good
judgment
• When internal competition and blame-pointing
override cooperation and relationship building.
Adapted from Pfeffer & Sutton 2000
17
Stages of Change under
Transformational Leadership
• Make a compelling case for change (intellectual
stimulation; clarify existing values and beliefs
through whole and small-group collaborative
conversations)
• Inspire a shared vision to guide the change
(broad-based input for direction setting via
collaborative conversations)
• Lead with a sense of urgency (maintain
momentum and provide energy and inspiration;
maintain collaborative conversations)
• Embed the change (internalize change into the
culture; assess progress and effectiveness via
collaborative conversations)
•
Adapted from Ian Hay www.weleadinlearning.org/transformationalleadership.htm 18
The Significance of Collaborative
Conversations
Collaborative
Collaborative
Conversations
Actions
Professional Relationships
Trust
Commitment
Efficacy
Professional Community
Organizational Learning
School Change
19
• A purposeful community is one with the
collective efficacy and capability to develop
and use assets to accomplish goals that
matter to all community members through
agreed-upon processes.
• Marzano, Waters, McNulty 2005
20
The Design Team (for Change)
• Develop and maintain a teacher-leader team that leads the faculty
and champions continuous improvement
• If the Team’s Name reflected their tasks, they might be called:
– The Design Team
– The School Improvement Team
– The Think-Tank Team
– The Capacity Building Team
• Members of the Team should be respected, quality, teacher
leaders who care and want to make a difference across the whole
school
• The principal should participate and co-lead the Team’s work
sessions
• The Team’s responsibility it to be on the edge of knowledge and
needed change and support the development of a culture for
change across the school.
• The principal (and usually outside support) help guide the work of
the team and build capacity of the team to analyze, problem-solve,
and design for change
•
Painter et al. Engaging Teachers in the School Improvement Process, 1999.
21
Staff Capacity
Assume that lack of personal and group
capacity is the problem….
and work on it continuously.
• Fullan, 2005
22
The Big Picture of Meaningful
School Change
• Set Directions and Build Commitment through
Meaningful Involvement
• Develop Individuals, Teams, and Whole Faculty
• Redesign the Organization, Internalize the Specific
Changes into the Culture (Second-Order)
• Internalize the “Change Process”…It has to
become CONTINUOUS (a part of the culture)
23
Final Thought…
Collaborative
Conversations are the
centerpiece for secondorder, meaningful,
continuous school
change!
24
References and Recommended
Readings
• Berliner, David (2005). Our Impoverished View of Educational Reform.
Teachers College Record, August>
• Cotton, Kathleen (2003). Principals and Student Achievement: What
the Research Says, ASCD.
• Danielson, Charlotte (2003). Enhancing Student Achievement: A
Framework for School Improvement, ASCD.
• DuFour, Richard, et al. (2004). Whatever It Takes, National Education
Service.
• DuFour, Richard, et al., Eds. (2005). On Common Ground: The Power
of Professional Learning Communities, National Education Service.
• Fullan, Michael (2003). The Moral Imperative of School Leadership,
Ontario Principals Council/Corwin Press.
• Fullan, Michael, et al. (2006). Breakthrough, Corwin Press.
• Fullan, Michael (2006). Turnaround Leadership, Jossey-Bass.
• Hargreaves, A. and Fink, D. (2006). Sustainable Leadership. JosseyBass.
25
Recommended Readings
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Hopkins, David, et al. (1994). School Improvement in an Era of Change,
Teachers College Press.
Kanter, R. (2004). Confidence: How Winning and Losing Streaks Begin and
End. Corwin Press.
Lambert, Linda (2003). Leadership Capacity for School Improvement, ASCD.
Leithwood, Kenneth et al. Eds. (2000). Organizational Learning in Schools,
Swets & Zeitlinger Publishing.
Leithwood, Kenneth, et al. (2001). Making Schools Smarter: A System for
Monitoring School and District Progress, Corwin Press.
Leithwood, Kenneth, et al., Eds. (2006). Teaching for Deep Understanding:
What Every Educator Should Know, Corwin Press.
Leithwood, Kenneth. (2005) Teacher Working Conditions that Matter.
Toronto: Elementary Teacher Federation of Ontario.
Marzano, Robert, et al. (2001). Classroom Instruction that Works: Research
Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement, ASCD.
Marzano, Robert (2003). What Works in Schools: Translating Research into
Action, ASCD.
26
Recommended Readings
• Marzano, Robert (2005). School Leadership that Works: From
Research to Results ASCD/McREL.
• Nye, B., Konstantopoulos, S., & Hedges, L. (2004) How Large are the
Teacher Effects! Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, #26.
• Painter, Bryan, et al. (1999). Engaging Teachers in the School
Improvement Process, NASSP/Middle Level Leadership Center,
University of Missouri.
• Painter, Bryan, et al. (2000). The Use of Teams in the School
Improvement Process, NASSP/Middle Level Leadership Center,
University of Missouri.
• Pheffer, J. & Sutton, R. (2000) The Knowing-Doing Gap, Harvard
Business School Press.
• Quinn, David, et al. (1999). Using Data for School Improvement,
NASSP/Middle Level Leadership Center, University of Missouri.
• Reeves, Douglas (2006). The Learning Leader: How to Focus School
Improvement for Better Schools, ASCD.
• Tschannen-Moran, Megan (2004). Trust Matters: Leadership for
27
Successful Schools, Jossey-Bass.
Recommended Readings
• Valentine, Jerry (2001) Frameworks for School Improvement: A
Synthesis of Essential Concepts, International Confederation of
Principals Recommended Web Reading or Queensland Elementary
Journal 2002, or Middle Level Leadership Center, University of
Missouri.
• Valentine, Jerry, et al. (2004). Leadership for Highly Successful
Middle Level Schools, NASSP.
• Valentine, Jerry, et al. (2006). Project ASSIST: A Comprehensive,
Systemic Change Initiative for Middle Level Schools, Paper
presented at American Educational Research Association Annual
Conference, San Francisco, April. (Available from author or at Middle
Level Leadership Center web site).
• Wheatley, Margaret (2005). Finding Our Way: Leadership for an
Uncertain Time, San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.
• York-Barr, Jennifer, et al. (2006). Reflective Practice to Improve
Schools: An Action guide for Educators, Corwin Press.
Jerry Valentine, Middle Level Leadership Center, 211 Hill Hall, University of Missouri
(573) 882-0944
[email protected]
www.MLLC.org
28