A Vision of the Change Process
In this week sessions we explore two ways of looking at the process of leading change. Although both of these may seem simplistic on the surface, their ability to provide an overall vision for the change is important. "In reality, even successful change efforts are messy and full of surprises. But just as a relatively simple vision is needed to guide people through a major change, so a vision of the change process can reduce the error rate. And fewer errors can spell the difference between success and failure." (Kotter, 1995).
School Vision and Learning
In his book on collaborative leadership, which builds upon some ideas form the work of John Hattie, De Witt (2016) notes that “Hattie often asks educators whether they have the word ‘learning’ on the first page of their school website or in their school's mission and vision statement”
School Vision Statements
In the session we will be reviewing the school vision statements added to the Padlets for each area, and looking for both common and distinctive themes. Here are the links to the Padlets:
Auckland Central / Auckland Al-Madinah / Auckland Clendon Park / Auckland East / Auckland Manurewa /
Auckland Mangere Bridge / Auckland West / Christchurch / Hamilton / Hawkes Bay / Invercargill / Marton /
Collaborative Leadership - What Makes A Leader Impactful?
De Witt (2016) identified the following features as being important in collaborative leadership. In each case the 'effect size' from Hattie's work is included. Hattie (2008) claims that an effect size of 0.4 is the expected impact on learning of a given practice. Higher than that is a positive impact:
- Instructional leadership (0.42) - a focus on learning
- Collective teacher efficacy (1.57) - collaborative leaders foster collaborative expertise
- Assessment-capable learning (1.44) - collaborative leaders meet students where they are and bring them to a new level
- Professional Development (0.51) - foster and inspire professional learning and use their venues/meetings to do it
- Feedback (0.75) - collaborative leaders foster growth in stakeholders and themselves - feedback helps them get there
- Family engagement (0.49) - giving a voice in the process
De Witt also notes that is it important to challenge thinking: "In order for collaboration to be real and for teachers, students, and parents to feel as though they are a part of a school climate in which they are valued, collaboration needs to include times where we not only learn from one another but also challenge each other’s thinking."
De Witt's Collaborative Leadership Framework is shown below. It outlines four types of leader, and suggests that leaders should move towards being collaborators. He suggests that leadership is situational, that all leaders might use these types of leadership in different contexts, but that they should always aim to be collaborators. The framework is meant to offer a reflective tool for leaders to study and understand how they might be leading and setting goals, depending on the situation.
The ultimate goal where the Collaborative Leadership Growth Cycle is concerned is to choose an area in which leaders can be more collaborative at the end, as outlined in this cycle from DeWitt & Slade (2014). "Regardless of where leaders start, whether they spend time in the bystander, regulator, or negotiator stage, they can take the necessary steps to move into the collaboration stage." (DeWitt & Slade, 2014).
Kotter's 8 step Process
Kotter (1996) stresses that management and leadership are different things. "The simple insight that management is not leadership is better understood today, but not nearly as well as is needed. Management makes a system work. It helps you do what you know how to do. Leadership builds systems or transforms old ones."
Kotter (1996) suggests that there is an 8 step process for leading change.
- Create a sense of urgency (identify crises and opportunities)
- Build a guiding coalition
- Form a strategic vision and initiatives
- Enlist a volunteer army
- Enable action by removing barriers
- Generate short term wins
- Sustain acceleration
- Institute change
This diagram summarises the most recent version of Kotter's process (Kotter, 2017). It is similar to the 1996 version but emphasises some broader cross-institutional roles.
The model has evolved over time from a sequential step by step process to a more agile and iterative approach. Both approaches can be valuable. Kotter (2017) International eBook can be downloaded after filling in the form found on this site The Kotter International eBook
Leading Change in the Digital Curiculum
For our final activity in the session we will be looking at the context of addressing the progress outcomes of the “Designing and Developing Digital Outcomes” technology area from the digital curriculum. These progress outcomes can be found at tinyurl.com/TMLDDO (English) or tinyurl.com/TMLDDOTeReo (Te Reo).
The following links should be helpful in applying either Kotter's or DeWitt's ideas to the following question
- Kotter’s 8 step change model - tinyurl.com/KotterNew8
- DeWitt’s Collaborative Leadership - tinyurl.com/collableader
'How you would lead a change in teaching within this curriculum area?'
References
DeWitt, P., & Slade, S. (2014). School Climate Change: How Do I Build a Positive Environment for Learning?(ASCD Arias). ASCD.
DeWitt, P. (2016). Collaborative Leadership: Six Influences That Matter Most. Thousand Oaks CA: Corwin
Hattie, J. (2008). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. Routledge.
Kotter, J. (1995). Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail. Harvard Business Review. March-April 1995, 59-67.
Kotter, J. (1996). Leading Change. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business Review Press.
Kotter International. (2017). 8 Steps for Accelerating Change (eBook). Kotter International
Maeroff, G. (1993). Building teams to rebuild schools. Phi Delta Kappan, 74(7), 512-519.
Senge, P. (1990). The fifth discipline: the art and practice of the learning organization. New York: Currency Doubleday.
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