Change Leadership : A Practical Guide to Transforming Our Schools

by Wagner, Tony; Kegan, Robert; Lahey, Lisa Laskow; Lemons, Richard W.; Garnier, Jude; Helsing, Deborah; Howell, Annie; Rasmussen, Harriette Thurber; Ark, Tom Vander

• ISBN13: 9780787977559
• ISBN10: 0787977551
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-12-02
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass

Summary

The Change Leadership Group at the Harvard School of Education has, through its work with educators, developed a thoughtful approach to the transformation of schools in the face of increasing demands for accountability. This book brings the work of the Change Leadership Group to a broader audience, providing a framework to analyze the work of school change and exercises that guide educators through the development of their practice as agents of change. It exemplifies a new and powerful approach to leadership in schools.

Author Biography

Tony Wagner is co-director of the Change Leadership Group (CLG) at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.  He is also Education Chair of the Harvard Seminar on Redesigning American High Schools.  He consults widely with schools, districts, and foundations around the country and internationally and is Senior Advisor to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  Wagner is the author of Making the Grade and How Schools Change.

Robert Kegan is co-director of the Change Leadership Group (CLG), and Meehan Professor of Adult Learning and Professional Development at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.  His work focuses on the importance of continued psychological development in adulthood.  Kegan is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including four honorary doctorates and the Massachusetts Psychological Association's Techer of the Year award.  He is author of The Evolving Self and (with Lisa Laskow Lahey) How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work.

Lisa Laskow Lahey is associate director of the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.  For over 20 years she has been a consultant to schools and businesses helping to turn workplace problems and issues into opportunities for transformational learning.  A former principal and high school teacher, Lahey is co-founder and senior consultant at Minds at Work, a consulting firm specializing in school and workplace learning in the U.S. and Europe.  She is co-author (with Robert Kegan) of How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work.

Table of Contents

Foreword	xi
Preface	xv
Acknowledgments	xxiii
About the Authors	xxvii
Introduction: Reframing the Problem	1	(20)
A Knowledge Economy Requires New Skills for All Students	3	(3)
Greater Supports for Learning in a Changing Society	6	(2)
Reform or Reinvention? Technical Challenges Versus Adaptive Challenges	8	(4)
Organizational Beliefs and Behaviors	12	(2)
Individual Beliefs and Behaviors	14	(2)
Accepting the Challenge and the Risks: Moving Toward Communities of Practice via Collaborative Learning	16	(5)
PART ONE Improving Instruction	21	(40)
Creating a Vision of Success	23	(28)
Challenges to Improving Instruction	24	(3)
Seven Disciplines for Strengthening Instruction	27	(5)
Using the Seven Disciplines	32	(2)
Launching an Instructional Improvement System: The Critical First Conversations	34	(1)
Developing a Shared Vision	35	(3)
Defining a New Framework for Effective Instruction	38	(5)
Linking the New 3 R's of Instruction	43	(8)
Committing Ourselves to the Challenge	51	(10)
Identifying Your Commitment	51	(3)
Spotting Your Obstacles Through Self-Reflection	54	(7)
Reflections	59	(2)
PART TWO Why Is This So Hard?	61	(34)
Generating Momentum for Change	63	(20)
Obstacles to Improvement Versus Momentum for Improvement	64	(10)
Generating the Momentum for Systemic Change	74	(1)
Communities of Practice as a Strategy	74	(9)
Exploring Individual Immunities to Change	83	(12)
Attending to Countering Behaviors	83	(2)
A Deeper Look	85	(2)
Finding the Competing Commitment	87	(3)
Taking the Next Step	90	(5)
Reflections	93	(2)
PART THREE Thinking Systemically	95	(36)
Relating the Parts to the Whole	97	(26)
Arenas of Change	98	(12)
Toward Transformation: Using the 4 C's	110	(10)
Another Use for the 4 C's	120	(3)
The Individual as a Complex System	123	(8)
Hidden Commitments and Personal Immunities	124	(3)
Big Assumptions and Immunities	127	(4)
Reflections	130	(1)
PART FOUR Working Strategically	131	(126)
The Ecology of Change	133	(34)
Phases of Whole-System Change	133	(1)
Change Levers: Data, Accountability, and Relationships	134	(3)
Strategic Change in Action	137	(25)
Putting the Pieces Together: The Ecology of Educational Transformation	162	(1)
Measuring Success and the Challenge of High-Stakes Test Scores	163	(4)
Overturning Your Immunities to Change	167	(26)
Steps Toward Individual Change	168	(16)
Considering Steps for the Most Powerful Learning	184	(1)
Phases in Overturning Your Immunities	185	(2)
Becoming Fully Released from Immunities to Change	187	(6)
Reflections	191	(2)
Conclusion: Bringing the Outward and Inward Focus Together	193	(64)
Hold High Expectations for All Our Students	196	(2)
Involve Building and Central Office Administrators in Instruction	198	(4)
Choose a Priority and Stay Relentlessly Focused on It	202	(5)
Foster a Widespread Feeling of Urgency for Change	207	(2)
Encourage a New Kind of Leader	209	(5)
Develop a New Kind of Administrative Team	214	(4)
Shining a Broader Light on Change	218	(3)
Implications for the Change Leader: Toward Adaptive Work	221	(6)
Concluding...or Commencing?	227	(4)
APPENDIXES
A. Team Exercises	231	(24)
B. Recommended Reading	255	(2)
Index	257