Leadership and Change Management

1. Leadership and Change Management EdisonLearning Leadership Development Academy July 2011 Paul Lincoln

2. EdisonLearning’s assumptions about change management • There is a life cycle for each of our contracts • If we have created dependency, we have failed • Our aim is to build the school’s capacity to embed and sustain change • The company should be known for its expertise in change management • Our partner schools can articulate their change journey, our added value and become excellent site references On this basis we continue to be the partner of choice

3. Why is change in schools so hard to achieve? • Inherent resistance – it’s easier to carry on as usual • Daily distractions – it’s hard to maintain focus • Lack of capacity and expertise • Not sufficiently specific, tangible and manageable for teachers to know what to do • Fear of failure

4. Our approach to change • Clarify what schools must have in place to ensure that all students are successful • Describe these ingredients in concrete, specific ways that staff can understand • Provide stepping stones so that staff can see how to get there • Make sure there are some quick wins to build confidence • Support the implementation of a rigorous and focused change process to ensure that it happens

6. Vision is critical • To achieve a successful transformation leaders have to: • Create a new and compelling vision capable of bringing the work force to a new place • Develop commitment for the new vision • Institutionalize the new vision

7. Year 3 Outcomes: Begin with the End in Mind For each of the 5 Strands we have defined a set of key outcomes that represent the features of a highly effective school that can be achieved by the end of the three-year partnership. These provide a framework for the school’s needs assessment and development planning process. Sample Learning Environment Outcome:The Physical Environment is the responsibility of all school community members and includes displays of meaningful learning resources to support learning and positive behavior as well as student work and data.

8. Year 3 Outcomes: Begin with the End in Mind • Outcomes: • Are based on school improvement research • Can be adapted to reflect the capacity and needs of the unique context of each school or cluster of schools • Help keep the work on track and provide a common language around the objectives of the partnership

9. Diagnose Plan Do Monitor Implementation Journey Research tells us that effective and systematic change management is the most critical ingredient in successful school transformation. • Needs Assessment: 360 Degree Diagnostic that identifies strengths and areas for improvement • Develop customized Achievement Plans from principal to classroom with clearly articulated goals linked to 5 Strands and Milestones • Relentless implementation of agreed activities and programs • Measure progress using a variety of data including eValuate, with regular tracking through dashboards • Regular reporting of progress to key stakeholders Report

10. What we know from research and experience • Sustainable change is hard to achieve • Most training and development models do not achieve change at classroom level • Effective implementation has the following features…

11. Three Stages of Effective Implementation Understanding the principles, theory and objectives Understanding what it is and what it is not 1 Presentations of principles and theory Clarity about objectives Connecting to prior learning Practice in context Modelling and demonstration Consolidating the principles Developing the skills Internalizing and applying to practice 2 Review progress with educative feedback Build in to structures and systems Maintenance with support Embedding and making it stick 3 Integrate with planning frameworks

12. Structures to promote effective change • Extended Leadership Team – identify senior & middle leaders who will be change agents • Key leads for each strand of the EdisonLearning design at school, local, national and global levels • Achievement teams tracking student progress and planning next steps learning • Regular student learning conferences

13. Making planning intentional • Implementation plan for the EdisonLearning design which becomes the school’s development plan • Regular reviews with the Principal and the Extended Leadership Team informed by data • Regular Lead Academies – bringing Key Leads from across a cluster together to: - plan implementation - problem solve - share new learning - agree monitoring & review

14. Building school capacity • Leadership & management development with Principal and Extended Leadership Team • Lead Academies modelling change management processes • EdisonLearning staff providing targeted support at school level working alongside the Key Leads

15. Leading the Change Process “Leadership is an effect not a skill. It is felt not imposed.”Andrew Strauss, England cricket captain

16. Five key features of leaders • The ability to accept people as they are, not as you would like them to be • The capacity to approach relationships and problems in terms of the present rather than the past • The ability to treat those who are close to you with the same courteous attention that you extend to strangers and casual acquaintances • The ability to trust others even if the risk seems great • The ability to do without constant approval and recognition from others ‘Leaders, the strategies for taking charge’ Bennis and Nanus

17. The importance of positive self regard in leadership • What it is not: self importance or egoistic self-centeredness • What it is: • recognizing strengths and compensating for weaknesses • nurturing of skills with discipline • capacity to discern the fit between one’s perceived skills and what the job requires • positive self regard is related to maturity and ‘emotional wisdom’ ‘Leaders, the strategies for taking charge’ Bennis and Nanus

18. The essence of leadership “If you think about it, people love others not for who they are, but for how they make us feel. We willingly follow others for much the same reason. It makes us feel good to do so. Now we also follow platoon sergeants, self-centered geniuses, demanding spouses, bosses of various persuasions and others, for a variety of reasons as well. But none of those reasons involves that person’s leadership qualities. In order to willingly accept the direction of another individual, it must feel good to do so. This business of making another person feel good in the unspectacular course of his daily comings and goings is, in my view, the very essence of leadership. Those you have followed passionately, gladly, zealously have made you feel like somebody.” Irwin Federman, CEO of Monolithic Memories From ‘Leaders, the strategies for taking charge’ Bennis and Nanus

19. Center for creative leadership • Never stop getting feedback. • Become more self aware. Take time out for reflection. Looking for patterns and getting perspective helps you remain flexible. • Understand your organizational culture. • Show empathy. Listen without judgment. Don’t cut people off in mid-sentence. • Learn to listen. Focus on the person in front of you.

20. Assumptions about change • Assume that successful implementation consists of some continual development of initial ideas • Assume that effective implementation is a process of clarification • Assume that conflict and disagreement are not only inevitable but fundamental to successful change ‘The Meaning of Educational Change’ : Michael Fullan

21. Assumptions about change • Assume that pressure and support are both needed • Assume that effective change takes time. It is a process of development in use. • Assume that knowledge of the change process is essential. • Assume that change is a frustrating discouraging business. ‘The Meaning of Educational Change’ : Michael Fullan

22. Transition Curve

23. Stages of Concern Source: ‘Taking charge of change’; Shirley Hord et al

24. The leader’s added value • Regular provision of the ‘big picture’ so that staff have a context for their own contribution • Providing direction by connecting strategic vision with day to day operational realities • Systemic thinking – the ability to see underlying structures in complex situations to inform action • The right balance between pressure and support • Supportive and timely interventions to improve future practice

25. What to look out for • Use or non-use of new practices • Why some staff have been effective in implementing new ideas • How best to use these people in influencing others • Those having trouble and what the trouble is • Basic things that get in the way • The one liners, informal comments, often cynical, often voiced as jokes

26. The Vicious Circle Source: ‘Corporate Culture’; Charles Hampden-Turner

27. The Virtuous Circle Source: ‘Corporate Culture’; Charles Hampden-Turner

28. What’s worth fighting for: guidelines for action for Principals • Avoid ‘if only’ statements, externalizing the blame and other forms of wishful thinking • Start small, think big • Focus on something concrete and important like curriculum and learning • Focus on something fundamental like the professional culture of the school • Practice fearlessness and other forms of risk taking ‘The Meaning of Educational Change’ : Michael Fullan

29. What’s worth fighting for: guidelines for action for Principals • Empower others below you • Build a vision in relation to both goals and change processes • Decide what you are not going to do • Build allies • Know when to be cautious ‘The Meaning of Educational Change’ : Michael Fullan

30. Leaders are perpetual learners Learning is the essential fuel for the leader, the source of high octane energy that keeps up the momentum by continually sparking new understanding, new ideas and new challenges. It is absolutely indispensable under today’s conditions of rapid change and complexity. Very simply those who do not learn do not long survive as leaders. ‘Leaders, the strategies for taking charge’ Bennis and Nanus

31. Leaders are perpetual learners Leaders are able to concentrate on what matters most to the organization and to use the organization as a learning environment. The most successful leaders have done this by developing the following skills: • acknowledging and sharing uncertainty • embracing error • responding to the future • becoming interpersonally competent • gaining self knowledge ‘Leaders, the strategies for taking charge’ : Bennis and Nanus

32. The leader’s new work • Extract from Peter Senge : The Fifth Discipline