What We Know Works - Circle Education...RF Russell, The Role of Values in Servant Leadership Where do our values ﬁt in? 7 principles of values-based leadership 1. ... - Theodore

What We Know Works:

A contemporary approach to leadership in schools

August 2012

Context: About Dr Phil Dr Philip SA Cummins

Teaching and working in and with schools since 1988

Presenter, Thought Leader, Consultant, Author, Textbook Writer, Syllabus Writer, PhD in Australian History

Managing Director: CIRCLE – The Centre for Innovation, Research, Creativity and Leadership in Education – supporting over 500 schools and other organisations nationally and internationally

[email protected]

www.circle.org.au

+61 410 439 130

1. PROVOCATIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES: VALUES AND LEADERSHIP IN SCHOOLS

What We Stand Against •  Not making decisions; not supporting beginning teachers; arrogance;

controlling; lack of communication; his/her way or no way; seeing leadership as just being a good organizer; autocracy; not collaborating with people; power trip; giving the impression of being democratic but really being autocratic;

19th century educational agenda: “Filling up empty vessels”

•  Imperial values, mostly content, little process.

•  Primary education for most, secondary and tertiary education focused on “character” for some.

•  Class consciousness that lingers today: – Public vs. private. – Funding wars.

Early 20th century educational agenda: “Filling up factories”

•  Industrial values, mostly content, some process. •  Secondary education for most, even more

education for some focused increasingly on “the future”.

•  Centrist, bureaucratic planning approach designed to occupy space and people through the transmission of content.

Late 20th century educational agenda: “Filling in forms”

•  Post-industrial and increasingly relativistic values, crowded curriculum with too much content and not enough process- ”more for less and more for me”.

•  Secondary education for all and dream of tertiary education for most, despite uncomfortable reality that it costs too much and that many families still don’t value it.

•  Retreat from meaning: Separation of content, process, values and meaning.

21st century educational agenda: “Fulfilling the promise”

•  Increasingly professional aspirations and values, content and process for all: Autonomous, aligned, transformative, authentic.

•  Focus on things that work in schools with improved outcomes across all sectors: Localisation, personalisation, empowerment.

•  Education seen as the great hope for the realisation of technology.

•  Serious possibility that teaching and learning outputs might determine funding and structural inputs in a much more tangible way than they have historically.

Ideas and Themes

•  Continuity: “educare” (to lead out into a transformed state)

•  Change: In our contemporary climate, we have a chance to do some “education” instead of “filling” (completion of an act of transmission)

Our shared educational mission

Students should: •  Become expert independent learners •  Be passionately engaged in challenging,

substantive and rewarding work in interdependent collaboration with their peers, teachers, families and communities

•  Rehearse for a life of meaningful contribution, learning and service to others

Let’s think about your leadership challenges …

It isn’t that top leaders are less skilled or less experienced than leaders of the past. Nor are the teams they lead. The challenge is the change in roles of both leader and team member, roles that have been reshaped in the cauldron of intense competition and relentless change ...

Today ... it’s all about scope, speed and customer intimacy. Leadership teams must consistently ensure that clients’ needs are met, and do it right now.

Ruth Wageman, Debra A Nunes, James A Burruss & J Richard Hackman

Senior Leadership Teams

What are the three most significant challenges that face you in your role as a school leader?

Our Top Leadership Challenges •  Being well informed with up-to-date changes or issues we are faced with as a teaching

executive. •  Time •  Juggling •  Resistance to initiatives •  Resistance to change •  Difficult personalities •  Improving performance •  Student welfare •  Challenges of 21st century learning in a 19th century classroom •  Challenge of the national curriculum

Our educational leadership challenge

Complex educational environments place difficult, challenging and contradictory demands on leaders. Long-term educational leadership success lies in clear purpose and direction, strong values and organisational belief which enhance team flexibility and responsiveness.

Leaders in education must be adaptable and possess many skills to meet challenges, including: •  Finding new and better ways of doing things •  Accepting greater levels of responsibility •  Understanding the implicit need for decision-making by making

judgements, managing risk and allowing freedom of action by team members

Confronting our leadership •  We are all still learning about leadership •  Our intentions and execution most likely will both need to improve

from here onwards •  We will make mistakes along the way •  Our leadership must be focused on doing the hard things •  Our leadership must be focused on helping other people •  Our leadership must help people change to become the people they

need to be •  Our leadership must be sustainable and achievable •  Our leadership needs integrity – even though it’s hard and it makes us

vulnerable •  If we are not prepared to do this, we shouldn’t do the job •  We should be prepared to do this – because most likely we can

Provocation 1: Do we provide meaningful leadership?

•  Do we do leadership well? •  What is the purpose of our leadership? •  What should be the content basis for our

leadership? •  What might be the relationship between content,

process, context, delivery, people, environment and purpose in schooling? What might make this relationship meaningful?

Provocation 2: Are we educating wise children?

Wisdom and values cannot be communicated like knowledge or facts. Educational experience can point young people in the desired direction but a free response is an essential part of any authentic personal change.

- M Crawford & G Rossiter, Reasons for living, education and young people’s search for meaning, identity and spirituality,

2003

Provocation 3: Are we educating for the future?

“To make human civilization work well [with 21C] technologies and exist at peace with Gaia, we need another revolution, putting into place the desirable management, laws, controls, protocols, methodologies and means of governance. This is a complex and absolutely necessary transition – the 21st Century Revolution...

Whether the revolution happens smoothly depends on the education that is put in place and how widely it is acted upon.”

James Martin The meaning of the 21st century

Challenges •  How do we stop perpetuating the status quo? •  How do we challenge our often unstated rationale of why

we do what we do? •  What changes will help us to do what works instead of

what we have always done? •  What change management processes can work in and

around this to support people in the process?

Opportunities •  Time to do some pretty serious thinking about the

structures that underpin: –  Purpose, content, context and environment –  Pedagogy, curriculum, built and technical spaces –  Values

•  Time to restore meaning to leadership and learning unashamedly

Why do you want to lead?

•  Is it someone you’ve seen? –  Modelling

•  Is it the ability to have things done a particular way? –  Power

•  Is it to be able to make a difference? –  Influence

•  Is it to be able to help others do what they do? –  Servant

Do you have a mandate to lead?

Leadership based on bureaucratic authority seeks compliance by relying on hierarchical roles, rules, and systems expectations.

Leadership based on personal authority seeks compliance by applying motivation theories that meet psychological needs, and by engaging in other human relations practices.

By contrast, leadership based on moral authority relies on ideas, values, and commitment. It seeks to develop a shared followership in the school – a followership that compels parents and principals, teachers and students to respond from within.

- TJ Sergiovanni, Leadership for the schoolhouse, How is it different? Why is it important?, 2004

Defining our leadership •  Our leadership begins with who we are as a person, flows

into who we want to be and is demonstrated through our actions.

•  Our leadership practice reflects our capacity …

to motivate, influence and direct people to achieve willingly the team or organisational goal.

Position power is eroding in many organizations; therefore, leaders must derive their influence from values.

J Huey, The new post-heroic leadership

Leaders must clarify and understand their own belief systems in order to transmit good organizational values to others.

RF Russell, The Role of Values in Servant Leadership

Where do our values fit in?

7 principles of values-based leadership

1.  Leadership begins with identifying and understanding our values. 2.  Leadership should place our values at the core of what it is that we

do. They should be the context for and the justification of all of our actions and relationships.

3.  Our values should derive from, be driven by and nurture the relationships within our community.

4.  We construct our identities as individuals and as members of our community by negotiating the relevance of our values in our daily lives.

5.  We need to develop and acknowledge shared values that all of our team members can apply.

6.  Team members will need to adopt strong personal positive moral values that align with our team’s desired values.

Your Values, Your Leadership

What are the values that matter the most in leadership of schools?

Write a list of 10 values which are important for leaders.

Choose the three values that define or encapsulate your leadership.

Discuss with the person next to you – why are these values are so integral to you as a person and you as a leader?

What We Stand For

2. WHO AM I? A SERVANT’S HEART

FOR LEADERSHIP

The Challenge of Service Contemporary models of leadership emphasise the qualities of humility and will power, as well as an understanding of how to resolve the apparent tension between these two:

–  What is my value system? –  How well do I value those around

me? –  How well connected am I to my

community and its needs? –  Am I the servant of my fellows?

Who am I?

Leadership begins with identifying and understanding your values – your fundamental beliefs, those principles, standards and qualities which you consider to be worthwhile and desirable.

The hardest thing is to be yourself in a world that is trying its best, day and night, to make you like everyone else.

- ee cummings

Where do I fit in? Leadership develops as we consider the context we find ourselves within.

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly ... who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who have never known neither victory nor defeat.

- Theodore Roosevelt

How might I best serve others? Leadership continues as we recognise the people and needs within our context and how our skills and values might aid those around us.

I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore, that I can do, or any kindness I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.

- E de Grellet

Let’s think about your leadership model …

Not until we have considered our leadership model at the level of its values, assumptions, and principles, can we discern to what extent we are leading from a power or a servant base.

ST Rinehart, Upside down: The Paradox of Servant Leadership

What kind of leadership model are you currently operating within?

Write down three essential characteristics of your approach to leadership and discuss with the person next to you.

A values framework for contemporary school leadership

Leadership that motivates, influences and directs others to achieve the team’s goals willingly: •  Authenticity:

acknowledging truth –  “For real”

•  Transformation: enabling change –  “For change”

•  Sustainability: nurturing the team and protecting resources –  “For life”

•  Service: serving others first –  “For others”

Excellence in values,

rela/onships, learning and

leadership at all levels in your

school

Authen/city

Transforma/on

Sustainability

Service

Authenticity: For real

Servant leaders are honest, authentic, transparent and trustworthy. The earn the respect of their followers; they don’t demand it.

Trust is unquestionably of greatest importance in establishing leader credibility and is at the heart of fostering collaboration.

JM Kouzes and BZ Posner, The Leadership Challenge

Trust provides the foundation for people to follow their leaders with confidence and enthusiasm. However, trust must be earned.


Valuing authenticity

•  Acknowledging truth: “For real” •  Concepts:

–  Values –  Meaning –  Knowledge –  Construction –  Identity –  Culture –  Philosophy –  Assumptions

Authentic leadership is … •  Underpinned by a commitment to the truth. •  Ensuring that your actions have genuineness and integrity. •  Demanding honesty in your relationships with others and,

more importantly, the capacity to be true to yourself. •  Best achieved when you are inspired by your values to

match them to your actions as best you can. •  Developing a deep knowledge of yourself. •  Made possible through a combination of self-discipline

and compassion.

Transformation: For change Servant leaders help followers to see the possibility of change; they encourage and give them the confidence to act for change.

Appreciation of others by servant leaders reflects fundamental personal values that esteem and honor people


In addition to appreciating followers, servant leaders believe in and encourage the people they lead.

CW Pollard, The leader who serves

Valuing transformation

•  Enabling: “For change” •  Concepts:

–  Fluidity –  Freedom –  Possibility –  Articulation –  Explication –  Permeation –  Models –  Outcomes

Transformational leadership is …

•  Bringing about necessary change in people’s lives. •  Transforming the needs, values, preferences and aspirations of

followers so that the interests of the wider group replace the self-interest of individuals within that group.

•  Inspiring followers to not only perform as expected, but to exceed expectations.

•  Motivating followers to work for goals that go beyond immediate self-interest, where what is right and good becomes important.

•  Moving people from a position which enables them to meet their current needs and those of their school’s culture to one where they can adapt to the future needs and the changing context of their community.

•  Combining a futures orientation with a respect for the honourable and successful traditions of their past.

Sustainability: For life Servant leaders share their responsibility and authority with others to meet a greater need; they lead others to lead themselves through:

•  Depth: delivering leadership for the fundamental moral purpose of deep and broad learning while caring for and among others.

•  Length: meeting the challenges of leadership succession, of leading across and beyond individual leadership over time.

•  Breadth: distributed leadership that encompasses what leadership might deliberately become.

•  Justice: socially just leadership that shares knowledge and resources with the community.

•  Diversity: promoting cohesive diversity and networking among the community’s varied components.

•  Resourcefulness: prudent and resourceful leadership that both recognises talent early and wastes neither people nor money.

•  Conservation: steadfast preservation of long-standing purposes and honourable traditions.

Andy Hargreaves and Dean Fink, Sustainable Leadership:

Valuing sustainability •  Nurturing the team and protecting resources: “For life” •  Concepts:

–  People –  Connection –  Access –  Portability –  Alignment –  Resources –  Contextualisation –  Environment –  Aesthetic –  Technology –  Funding

Sustainable leadership is …

•  Bringing about change that enables your team and team members to continue to grow

•  A shared responsibility that preserves resources wisely and cares for the surrounding community and environment

•  Actively engaging with the forces that affect it and building an environment of diversity that promotes cross-fertilization of good ideas and successful practices in communities of shared learning and development.

•  Ensuring principles, policies and processes that specifically aim to pursue change at a rate and with a level of resources that your team can manage.

Service: For others

Leadership must be focused on meeting the needs of others:

Servant leaders value human equality and seek to enhance the personal development and professional contributions of all organizational members.

Robert K Greenleaf, Servant Leadership

Values are the core elements of servant leadership; they are the independent variables that actuate servant leader behaviour.


Valuing service •  Serving others first: “For others” •  Concepts:

–  Personalisation –  Plans –  Accountability –  Professionalism –  Standards –  Mission –  Strategy –  Permissions –  Authority –  Community –  Consultation

Servant leadership is … •  Acknowledging the obligation to serve the needs of others

before your own needs. •  Connecting you to your team and the tasks which it must

achieve. •  Your means of expressing a genuine culture of

servanthood.

Discussion

A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way … The first step to leadership is servanthood.

John Maxwell

In your school, what measures could be taken to either strengthen or change leadership for real, for change, for life, for others?

Work in groups of four to discuss, before reporting back to the whole group.

The CIRCLE Leadership Capability

Framework

Leadership through values & rela/onships,

authen/city, transforma/on,

sustainability, service

Leadership in ac/on

Leadership style

Team culture

Discipline

Vision Communica/on skills

Problem-‐solving and decision-‐making

Resolving conflict

Understanding and managing

change

Leadership in Action •  Demonstrates an effective understanding of key leadership tasks of setting

direction, building the team and managing the team and of the team’s individual, group maintenance and task needs.

•  Employs a range of suitable and practical principles of leadership in action to meet needs and achieve group tasks.

•  Demonstrates character and competence to lead by example. •  Central characteristics of leadership in action are:

–  Far-sighted vision and clarity of goals. –  Drive and a passion for responsibility. –  Effective team structure.

Leaders must focus more on outcomes and long-term sustainability of the team rather than leadership style or details of tasks which can be delegated, relying on the initiative of team members

How do I rate myself? 1= Below expectation 2 = Meets expectation 3 = Above expectation

Leadership Style

•  Demonstrates a strong understanding of motivation, integrity, courage, compassion and humility in applying a range of effective personal approaches to leadership.

•  Adopts an effective balance of participative and motivating behaviours in making decisions and influencing the team to achieve the desired results.

There is no ‘best’ style of leadership – leaders should develop a personal style of leadership with practical day-to-day skills of administration and working with people to resolve issues.


Team Culture •  Displays a mental attitude of confidence and self-belief both in

individuals and groups, provides support for all team members and contributes effectively to high team morale through positive leadership.

•  Places other before self in applying an ethos of service to the nation, the team and its community, and team members and influencing a positive team culture which responds appropriately to the environment.

•  Leads the team through high ethical and physical standards of discipline, respect and professionalism and influences the team to demonstrate values of courage, initiative and teamwork.


Discipline •  In response to imposed discipline, the leader gains mastery over physical

and mental challenges and demonstrates satisfaction, a sense of achievement and perseverance in the face of adversity

•  Shows consistent self-discipline by accepting the standards taught and applying them willingly and personally with mental control and restraint

•  Influences and motivates team collective discipline through an understanding of team members, maintaining high standards, personal example, fair enforcement and effective communication


Vision

•  Communicates to the team a clear vision which challenges, creates, focus and commits the team.

•  Successfully translates the vision into action through positive leadership.

•  Continually interprets, reviews and reinforces the team vision.


Communication Skills

•  Employs effective verbal and non-verbal communication to inform, motivate and control the team and express appropriate emotions.

•  Provides responsible, accurate, brief and clear written communication which promotes the team’s credibility and the viability of achieving the team’s goals.

•  Demonstrates effective listening and speaking skills with team members.


Problem-Solving and Decision-Making

•  Employs a range of appropriate decision-making models which results in timely personal decisions which meet the desired object.

•  Employs team members appropriately in making decisions and avoids groupthink in the process.

•  Successfully manages the stress and risk associated with the decision.


Resolving Conflict

•  Identifies potential and actual areas of functional and dysfunctional conflict within the team

•  Makes effective choices about methods of resolving conflict appropriate to the situation

•  Employs suitable conflict resolution techniques to brings individuals/groups to short-term agreements and improve long-term working relationships


Understanding and Managing Change

•  Employs effective change management processes and strategies to overcome resistance and maintain team cohesiveness

•  Introduces and manages desired changes in an intentional, goal-oriented and purposeful way, leading to a successful change process


The CIRCLE Leadership Capability Framework

Leadership through values & rela/onships,

authen/city, transforma/on,


Leadership in ac/on

Leadership style

Team culture

Discipline

Vision Communica/on skills

Problem-‐solving and decision-‐

making

Resolving conflict


change

How did I rate myself?

Add up your scores. Divide by 9. Round up.

1= Below expectation 2 = Meets expectation 3 = Above expectation

One thing I know; the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.

Albert Schweitzer

Which of these capabilities are the most important in strengthening the culture of leadership in your school?

–  Leadership in action –  Leadership style –  Team culture –  Discipline –  Vision –  Communication skills –  Problem solving and decision making –  Resolving conflict –  Understanding and managing change

Discussion

The CIRCLE Leadership

Model School leadership:

For others, for change, for life, for

real

Achievement: Leadership in

action, leadership style

Relationships: Team culture,

Conflict resolution

Communications: Communication,

Vision

Initiatives: Understanding &

managing change, Problem-solving & decision-making

Reputation: Team culture, Discipline

School Improvement Domains Improved culture and practice should be reflected in tangible evidence of change in: •  Achievement: How we will improve achievement across all areas of the

school community, especially for our students – learning, leadership, service, sport and co-curricular.

•  Relationships in our community: How we will build and nurture our important relationships – students, staff, parents, Board, alumni, broader community members.

•  Communication: How we will communicate among our community members and to others about what we are doing and how we are going.

•  School initiatives: How we will implement what we see as the most important programs that will benefit our community.

•  The school’s reputation: How we will care for and promote the school’s identity within and external to our community.

School Improvement Domain: Achievement

•  Values: We believe that achievement in all areas of school life and especially student achievement should be our core business and that we should all strive to promote and enhance it.

•  Aim: Our focus should be on how we will improve achievement across all areas of the school community, especially for our students – learning, leadership, service, sport and co-curricular.

•  Leadership Knowledge and Understanding: –  Do I know about how to implement the principle of leadership in action? –  Do I understand how to develop and implement an effective leadership style? –  Do I know how to be an effective manager of the process of leadership? –  Do I understand how to evaluate my own leadership? –  Do I understand how to evaluate the leadership of others?

•  Leadership in Action: –  Do I achieve good results as a leader? –  Does my team achieve good results?

School Improvement Domain: Relationships

•  Values: We believe that good relationships should be at the heart of a community’s ethos and success. In leading for relationships, we draw on content related to personal qualities – social and interpersonal skills, developing self and others, team culture, and conflict resolution.

•  Aim: Our focus should be on how we will build and nurture our important relationships – students, staff, parents, Board, alumni, broader community members.

•  Leadership Knowledge and Understanding: –  Do I have a sound understanding of the principles of human behaviour? –  Do I understand the principles of motivation? –  Do I understand how to lead groups well? –  Do I understand how to manage stress effectively? –  Do I understand how to resolve conflict effectively?

•  Leadership in Action: –  Do I build good relationships in the school? –  Is my team built on principles and practice of good relationships?

School Improvement Domain: Communication

•  Values: We believe that the primary purpose of a leader is to help a team to define and implement its shared vision. We should, therefore, aim to be accurate, supportive and appropriate in the way we communicate with each other. In leading communication, we draw on content that is related to personal qualities – social and interpersonal skills, engaging and working with the community, communication and vision.

•  Aim: Our focus should be on how we will communicate among our community members and to others about what we are doing and how we are going.

•  Leadership Knowledge and Understanding: –  Do I know how to construct and communicate vision? –  Do I understand the principles of strategic thinking and school planning? –  Do I know how to use effective planning processes? –  Do I understand how to communicate effectively?

•  Leadership in Action: –  Do I communicate well? –  Is my team built on principles and practice of good communication?

School Improvement Domains: Initiatives

•  Values: We believe that we should plan for, implement and achieve programs and initiatives well. In leading initiatives, we draw on content that is related to vision and values, leading improvement, innovation and change, understanding and managing change, problem-solving and decision making.

•  Aim: Our focus should be on how we will implement what we see as the most important programs that will benefit our community.

•  Leadership Knowledge and Understanding: –  Do I know how to set goals and plan for their achievement? –  Do I understand the principles of functional leadership – the team, the task, the individual? –  Do I understand effective problem-solving and decision-making processes? –  Do I recognise and understand change-management processes? –  Do I know how to build a culture of enterprise within my team?

•  Leadership in Action: –  Do I plan for, implement and achieve programs and initiatives well? –  Does my team plan for, implement and achieve programs and initiatives well?

School Improvement Domain: Reputation

•  Values: We believe that we should recognise the importance of a school’s reputation and act in ways that enhance it. In leading for reputation, we draw on content that is related to personal qualities - social and interpersonal skills, developing self and others, team culture, and discipline.

•  Aim: Our focus should be on how we will care for and promote the school’s identity within and external to our community.

•  Leadership Knowledge and Understanding: –  Do I know how to manage my team’s identity? –  Do I understand the principles of teams and team relationships? –  Do I understand how to manage team culture, environment and ethos? –  Do I know how to build a culture of discipline within my team?

•  Leadership in Action: –  Do I have a good reputation and enhance our good reputation? –  Does my team have a good reputation and enhance our good reputation?

Evaluation Criteria

•  Outcomes: Did we achieve what we set out to achieve with our performance?

•  Processes: Have we used the best teaching and learning, research and development, information recording and tracking, evaluation and decision-making, and resourcing and other business processes in our operations?

•  Community Engagement: Have we engaged with and satisfied our community’s expectations?

•  Ethos: Have we enhanced our school’s ethos and values? •  Strategic Intent: Are we aligned with and contributing to

our strategic intent?

The CIRCLE Leadership

Model School leadership:

For others, for change, for life, for

real

Achievement: Leadership in

action, leadership style

Relationships: Team culture,

Conflict resolution

Communications: Communication,

Vision

Initiatives: Understanding &

managing change, Problem-solving & decision-making

Reputation: Team culture, Discipline

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. Mahatma Gandhi

In which of these domains are you most comfortable working? –  Achievement –  Relationships –  Communications –  Initiatives –  Reputation

Now think about your school – in which of these domains might your school improve its performance? How might this happen?

Discussion

3. WHERE DO I FIT IN? CONTEXT AND STRATEGY IN

CONTEMPORARY SCHOOL LEADERSHIP

Old school

Replication of the industrial factory model in a public system

New school

Colour, space, light constructed through a public/private alliance

Old classroom

The 19th Century classroom – the architecture of control

New classroom

The contemporary learning space – the architecture of

empowerment

Old expectations

The discipline of the 3 Rs – preparing most 14 year olds for the work force …

Old expectations

… and an elite few to rule them.

New expectations

Unlocking potential and capability – preparing most 18 year olds for

tertiary study or training

Old curriculum

Transmitting knowledge and skills for compliance

in a rigid and structured industrial society

New curriculum

Building understanding for exercising judgment

in a fluid and dynamic information society

Old leadership

The natural-born heroic individual: autocratic, participative or laissez-faire?

Authentic leadership

Building authentic leadership in teams through values and relationships:

transformation, sustainability and servanthood

Discussion

Anchoring a set of practices in a culture is difficult enough when those approaches are consistent with the core of the culture. When they aren’t, the challenge can be much greater.

JP Kotter, Leading Change

Are we as a school ready for the challenges of contemporary school leadership? Discuss.

Readiness for the Challenge of Contemporary School Leadership

•  On the right track •  Collaborative teamwork •  Leadership team managing unique issues that arise •  High level interpersonal skills in a very complex environment •  Diagnose before you prescribe •  Listening, sharing, encouraging staff to have a go •  Ready to go, putting teams together, having a look at things, continuums •  School with a vision – know where you’re going •  An open minded staff who are happy to look at themselves and their learning •  The need for a stable executive team •  Moving towards a goal with resistance •  On the right track, put the people in place, have a plan but not trying to do

everything all at once

Authentic school leadership

Core leadership tasks •  Building vision and setting

directions. •  Understanding and developing

people. •  Redesigning the organisation. •  Managing the teaching and

learning program.

Key personal traits •  Open-mindedness and

willingness to learn from others. •  Flexible (not dogmatic) thinker. •  Strong moral compass within a

system of core values including persistence and resilience.

•  Optimism and a positive disposition.

•  Geoff Southworth, School Leadership: What we know and what it means for schools, their leaders and policy, CSE, 2009 – UK research establishes success on the basis of performance in 4 core tasks and 4 key personal traits:

Authentic school improvement and reform

Vic Zbar, School improvement and reform: The ‘holy trinity’ of consistency, innovation and capacity, CSE, 2009:

“Transformative Schools:

These are schools where innovation is pursued on the back of high levels of consistency and agreement among the staff. School leaders adopt a disciplined approach to innovation, which ensures that any proposed new initiative is based on relevant research and/or successful practice in other schools, is documented and trialed, and then can be shared with other staff so that the lessons can be spread …When the system is weak and lacks capacity, then priority should fall to consistency, with innovation coming on stream later down the path.”

Effective drivers for school improvement

Wrong vs. right drivers •  Accountability vs. Capacity

Building. •  Individual vs. Teamwork. •  Technology vs. Pedagogy. •  Piecemeal vs. Systemic.

Essential conditions: •  Intrinsic motivation. •  Engage students and teachers in

continuous improvement. •  Inspire teamwork. •  Affect 100% of students and

teachers.

Michael Fullan, Strong Performers and Successful Reformers Lessons from PISA, July 2011 – international research establishes what

works in helping schools to change their practice effectively :

Sequence, alignment and cohesion are essential in synthesising and implementing change. With respect to accountability, it means colleagues

working as peers in a transparent way to get results, supported and monitored by the centre.

Transformational leadership John Adair, Leadership for Innovation, How to organize team creativity and harvest ideas, Kogan-Page, 2007 – 5 characteristics of creative leadership:

•  A willingness to accept risk. •  An ability to work with half-baked ideas. •  A willingness to bend rules. •  An ability to respond quickly. •  Personal enthusiasm.

Overcoming immunity to change Robert Kagan & Lisa Laskow, Immunity to Change, Harvard Business Press, 2009 – 7 critical attributes of an organization that is a home for the continual transformation of talent: •  It recognizes that, like adolescence, adulthood must be a time for ongoing

growth and development •  It honours the distinction between technical and adaptive learning agendas. •  It recognizes and cultivates the individual’s intrinsic motivation to grow. •  It assumes that a change in mindset takes time and is not evenly paced. •  It recognizes that mindsets shape thinking and feeling, so changing mindsets

needs to involve the head and the heart. •  It recognizes that neither change in mindset nor change in behaviour alone

leads to transformation, but that each must be employed to bring about the other.

•  It provides safety for people to take the kinds of risks inherent in changing minds.

The business of schools

•  Context and culture of leadership and learning focusing on needs of students – learning is our core business.

•  Values and relationships influenced by parent/student “customer” and filtered perceptions.

•  Academic and other results influence perceptions. •  Resource limitations – “more for less”. •  Not for profit – financials are the means to the end. •  Value-added results measured part-way through students’

learning cycles. •  Bricks and mortar are peripheral but highly influential •  The students are the brand.

Building a culture of learning

Leadership through values,

authen/city, transforma/on, sustainability,

service

Establishing principles for excellence in learning Conserving

tradi/onal values and relevant

learning skills

Emphasizing contemporary

skill sets

Making evalua/ve thinking a priority

Defining standards of excellence in

student learning

Teaching for student

excellence

Crea/ng a student culture of service and leadership

Building a suppor/ve pastoral care

system

Focusing the school on its

learning culture

The school leader’s expertise Leaders must be experts in the evaluation of data, and the data that has been assembled across research worldwide indicates that activators are more successful than facilitators.

John Hattie, Visible Learning, 2009

Moving from data to action

•  Data alone is not enough: we need to move from information to actionable knowledge, from evidence to improvement.

•  This occurs ‘when data users synthesise the information, apply their judgment to prioritise it, and weigh the relative merits of possible solutions.’

Marsh et al 2006

Solutions architecture in practice: Telling compelling stories within a framework

The study of effective practice ‘involves more than telling tales or relaying stories about practice’; those studying practice need an explicit framework to guide their data collection and focus their analysis.

Spillain 2012

7 principles of evidence-based leadership in schools

1.  Mission alignment: Understand your purpose and concentrate your activity on this goal; don’t spread your resources too widely.

2.  Open inquiry: Ask good questions; don’t expect a particular outcome.

3.  Dynamic explication and experimentation: Define your processes, test and iterate; don’t lock things down too soon.

4.  Wise measurement: Use grand school averages and value-added models; avoid benchmarks where possible.

5.  Contextualised interpretation: Analyse data by finding patterns that tell the real story; don’t let data speak for itself.

6.  Balanced judgment: Temper data with intuition. 7.  Collaborative improvement: Use the findings to help engage all

members of the community to construct better outcomes for more learners.

The school leader’s learning journey

A process of becoming better instructional leaders through the right processes for development of our capacity, that is, initial training, induction and continuing professional development, including mentoring and cluster professional development support structures.

- Philip SA Cummins, Autonomous schools in Australia: Not ‘if’ but ‘how’, CSE, February 2012

Professional Goal-Setting, Evaluation and Growth Planning

Initiation

Survey & Dashboard

Executive Reflection

and Evaluation

Executive Professional Growth Plan

Ongoing Review and Reflection

How do I serve others and build my career?

1.  Know where you stand with your values: –  What is my value system? –  How well do I value those around me? –  How well connected am I to my community and its needs? –  Am I the servant of my fellows?

2.  Put your family first: No matter how much you believe in your school, it is not as important as your family. Make sure that you spend your life raising your own family while doing the job of serving the people of the school community.

3.  Master the basics: Ensure that your own teaching and coaching are superb. Other people should want to learn from you. Your classroom should be the place you go to relax!

4.  Focus on people: Acquiring technical skills are important but the most successful school leaders master skills related to relationships and strategy.

5.  Participate in mentoring and coaching: Find mentors and coaches for yourself; be a mentor or coach for others.

6.  Serve professional associations: Join and serve professional associations outside your own school.

7.  Balance change, tradition and renewal: Learn how to balance these competing tensions in school culture and provide solutions for them.

8.  Initiate projects and action research: Become involved in projects that promote action research and innovation.

How do I serve others and build my career?

How can you better serve others and build your career?

Think/ Pair/Share:

1.  Three things I am doing well are...

2.  Three things I need to improve/ focus on are...

3.  How am I going to go about addressing/improving these three things?

4. HOW CAN I BEST SERVE OTHERS? LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE IN SCHOOLS

Are we preparing our students for change?

Best practice schooling creates opportunities for individuals based on their natural strengths and aptitudes. It has a culture that accepts and works with young people so that their skills are acknowledged and they have the disposition and skill to deal with the world as it is ...

Change needs to be central to all that young people experience in school because through it young people will develop resiliency, adaptability and personal flexibility to become not only people who can cope with change but also agents of it ...

Schools need to deliberately create a culture of change where young people can feel not only part of it, but also contribute to it.

- D Warner, Schooling for the knowledge era, 2006

Are we ready for change? Without an appropriate vision, a transformation effort can easily dissolve into a list of confusing, incompatible, and time-consuming projects that go in the wrong direction or nowhere at all ...

Accepting a vision of the future can be a challenging intellectual and emotional task ...

In an organisation with 100 employees, at least two dozen must go far beyond the normal call of duty to produce significant change ...

Anchoring a set of practices in a culture is difficult enough when those approaches are consistent with the core of the culture. When they aren’t, the challenge can be much greater ...

- JP Kotter, Leading Change, 1996

Let’s think about your approach to making things

happen…

Why do so much education and training, management consulting, and business research and so many books and articles produce so little change in what managers and organizations actually do?

Jeffrey Pfeffer & Robert I Sutton, The Knowing-Doing Gap

How good are you at effecting genuine change in your job?

What is one initiative you really want to make happen this year?

Coordinating change Conservatism and routine of habit-forming behaviours require change management approaches based on: •  Inspiration. •  Creativity. •  External, provocation, support and validation. •  Data gathering, analysis, reflection and synthesis. •  Strategy and appropriate risk-taking.

Deliberate, intentional and targeted change

•  All focused on building cultures of: –  Excellence –  Leadership –  Learning –  Improvement –  Evaluation –  Enterprise

•  Some do it, some talk about doing it, some don’t do it.

How do we do about making change happen?

Like this?

Or this?

Or this?

Like this guy?

Or this guy?

What are the ways in which we can manage change?

Linear and hierarchical model of change

Strengths •  Easy to write •  Hierarchical •  Authoritative •  Neat •  Simple •  Conceptually easy to grasp •  Looks good on paper

Weaknesses •  Artificial •  Top-down •  Reductionist •  Inflexible •  Ineffective •  Divorced from reality •  Impossible to implement

(People don’t want to hear this!)


Surface effect: •  Little cultural penetration. •  Most activity occurs at an official, executive and

developmental level over a short period of time. •  Limited cycle of political significance. •  Never really progresses beyond pilot or early

implementation stage. •  Hits road blocks, takes a detour or lacks sufficient

institutional will.


Doesn’t reflect genuine change or grounded relationship patterns: •  Lacking in authenticity in real time. •  Usually functions in retrospect as an exercise in historical

revisionism that maps, tracks and seeks to justify an imagined and intended narrative of control.

•  Founded less on genuine process and more on protecting an illusion that justifies a perceived structure of power.

•  Precision is elusive as perceptions of empirical methodology and data are flawed.

•  Poor selection and partiality compromises authenticity.

Organic, dynamic, cultural model of change

Intuitive, adaptive, data-driven and unique approach: •  Influences of chaos, uncertainty, complexity and game

theory •  Potential recreational, transactional and transformative

outcomes •  Values, respects and honours the contribution of all

throughout the process


Focuses on practicalities – what works: •  Ideas driven by practice and intuition. •  Moderated, informed and contextualised by data analysis. •  Aligned and synthesised solutions. •  Community engagement. •  Not the product of wishful thinking, pure theory or a

combination of the two.


Strategy of “evolve and capture”: •  Experimental, playful, confident focus on working our a few

essential rules about parameters. •  Frustrates attempts to control, but does encourage one to

shepherd. •  Messy and hard to see at times.


Sociological rather than scientific in approach: •  Aspires for validity rather than correctness. •  Authentic, credible cultural currency. •  Directional more than prescriptive. •  Intentional more than the result of certainty. •  Aspires for validity rather than correctness. •  Authentic, credible cultural currency. •  Directional more than prescriptive. •  Intentional more than the result of certainty.


Game theory approach: •  Interactional and interactive through lost of different

‘nibbles’. •  Viral, infectious, swarming and horde-like behaviour. •  Requires focus on encouraging, guiding and enabling. •  Actioned through provision of strategic intent, cultural

alignment of key personnel then process of delegation, supervision and feedback.


Embedding culture through real impact: •  Real changes in what people do. •  Contractual nature: offer and acceptance, haggling and

bargaining. •  Consistent overarching aesthetic throughout design and

spaces.


Focused on the needs of the organisation: •  Describes the energy that all need to do their work. •  Leadership that matters. •  Distributed service.

Building cultures of …

 Learning  Leadership  Improvement  Excellence  Change  Evaluation

Building a culture of learning

Leadership through values,

authenticity, transformation, sustainability,

service

Establishing principles for excellence in

learning Conserving traditional values and

relevant learning skills

Emphasizing contemporary

skill sets

Making evaluative thinking a

priority

Defining standards of excellence in

student learning

Teaching for student

excellence

Creating a student

culture of service and leadership

Building a supportive

pastoral care system

Focusing the school on its

learning culture

Building a culture of leadership

Leadership through values & relationships,

authenticity, transformation,


Leadership in action

Leadership style

Team culture

Discipline

Vision Communication skills

Problem-solving and decision-

making

Resolving conflict


change

Building a culture of improvement

1.  Values and Relationships: school improvement flows from values and is achieved through the relationships of people in community.

2.  Culture-building: schools can achieve best possible outcomes for students by developing cultures of leadership and learning that are principled, authentic, transformational, sustainable and service-oriented.

Building a culture of improvement

3.  Principles of change: change should be overseen according to principles that move from ethos to excellence to embedding to example to enterprise.

4.  School improvement outcomes: the success of a school is best evaluated through examining its student achievement, communications, school initiatives, school reputation and, most importantly, the health of relationships within and external to its community.

The CIRCLE Process of School Improvement

•  Authenticity • Transformation • Sustainability • Service

Values and relationships

•  Ethos •  Excellence •  Embedding •  Example •  Enterprise

Change principles •  Student achievement •  Relationships in your

community •  Communication •  School initiatives •  Your school's reputation

School improvement

domains

Defining excellence

•  Excellence in anything starts with a vision and a passion and a will.

•  Something that is excellent is of the highest quality. It achieves the highest level of performance; it is exemplary. In doing so it exceeds normal expectations of performance and meets the highest expectations of what can be achieved.

•  Ultimately, a school with a strong culture of excellence is not merely good, it sets the standard to be followed, and it is something of great virtue and worth – it is excellent.

Building a culture of excellence

Building change through excellence means the way in which your school community increases its willingness to strive to be the best at what it does: •  Understanding the context: Responding to historical

perspectives of and contemporary provocations for excellence

•  Defining the culture: Constructing a vision, frameworks, standards and goals for excellence

•  Cultivating the passion: Building commitment to excellence and collaborating in practice

Building a culture of change

Leadership through values &

relationships, authenticity,

transformation, sustainability,

service

Ethos: Articulating your

culture – your values, your

philosophy, your strategies, your

goals

Excellence: Cultivating a

shared passion to achieve your goals to the

highest standard

Embedding: Creating a

“leadership spine” – the

shared culture of leadership

practice at all levels in your community

Example: Building team

performance and discipline through

attention to the details of your

culture

Enterprise: Fostering a spirit

of excitement, adventure and

initiative in your community

Are we there yet?

•  How will we know when we are achieving our goals?

•  What will it feel like when we are successful in accomplishing our mission?

•  How can monitor progress along the way? •  How do our benchmarks relate to our

vision?

Building a culture of evaluation

Improved culture and practice should be reflected in tangible evidence of change in: •  Student achievement: How a school will improve student achievement

across all areas of the school community – learning, leadership, service, sport and co-curricular

•  Relationships in our community: How a school will build and nurture its important relationships – students, staff, parents, Board, alumni, partners and sponsors, broader community members

•  Communication: How a school will communicate among its community members and to others about who it is, what it is doing and how well it is doing it

•  School initiatives: How a school will implement what it sees as the most important educational programs that will benefit its community

•  The school’s reputation: How a school will care for and promote its identity within and external to its community

So how does this work?

The CIRCLE Process of School Improvement






School improvement

domains

Case Study: The Ethos Stage

Leadership through values &

relationships, authenticity,

transformation, sustainability,

service

Ethos: Articulating your

culture – your values, your

philosophy, your strategies, your

goals

Excellence: Cultivating a

shared passion to achieve your goals to the

highest standard

Embedding: Creating a

“leadership spine” – the

shared culture of leadership

practice at all levels in your community

Example: Building team

performance and discipline through

attention to the details of your

culture

Enterprise: Fostering a spirit

of excitement, adventure and

initiative in your community

The Ethos Stage

•  Building change through ethos means helping a school to research, identify and articulate what it stands for, what it is and what it does. Ethos refers to the identity of an organisation or groups. A school’s ethos shapes the beliefs, ideals and standards that characterise and motivate its members.

•  Your strategic aim in this stage is to articulate your school’s ethos.

Outcomes in the Ethos Stage

•  Student achievement: Define the rationale for a desired culture of student achievement and the changes that will need to occur to create this

•  Communication: Engage in conversation at governance and executive team level to gain acceptance for the notion of a collective change to your culture of leadership

•  Relationships within your community: Involve your community in articulating your philosophy to gain their acceptance

•  School initiatives: Build your executive team and its commitment to the desired culture

•  Your school’s reputation: Create the vision for your culture and develop plans for defining and implementing your goals

Actions in the Ethos Stage

•  Student achievement: Identify, record and track data on student leadership and achievement

•  Relationships within your community: Consult widely within the community at all levels: Board, executive, staff, students, parents, alumni, broader community

•  Communication: Articulate the priority of leadership throughout the community

•  School initiatives: Develop a values-based strategic plan and an aligned operational plan

•  Your school’s reputation: Initiate a series of stories which discuss your values and justify the need for building your leadership culture

Enablers in the Ethos Stage

•  Student achievement: Encourage students with significant peer and social influence who role-model the desired leadership model

•  Relationships within your community: Build a track record of teamwork between the governance and executive teams

•  Communication: Develop a clearly defined vocabulary of leadership and understanding of your ethos at the highest level: values, mission, philosophy, goals, heritage

•  School initiatives: Develop and implement a conceptual model of leadership that works in your community and reflects its values

•  Your school’s reputation: Cultivate a critical mass of community support for your aspirations

Values to emphasise in the Ethos Stage

•  Consultation: Recognize the voices of students, staff, parents, alumni, community partners and the Board in your plans and associated documents

•  Regard for the future: Allow for growth and change in your school and its environment in the future – what you will become, not just what you are and have been – in your strategic, operational and master plans

•  Imagination: Investigate new solutions within your consultation and planning processes

•  Stewardship, heritage and tradition: Conserve the founding principles, honourable traditions, points of distinction and successful processes of your school

•  Integrity: Correlate the words and actions of community members with your community’s ethos and philosophy

You can do the same for each of the principles of change ...

•  Ethos: Articulating your culture – your values, your philosophy, your strategies, your goals

•  Excellence: Cultivating a shared passion to achieve your goals to the highest standard

•  Embedding: Creating a “leadership spine” – the shared culture of leadership practice at all levels in your community

•  Example: Building team performance and discipline through attention to the details of your culture

•  Enterprise: Fostering a spirit of excitement, adventure and initiative in your community

… and end up with this!






School improvement

domains

5 Principles of Time Management

1.  Time is a unique resource: everyone has the same amount, it cannot be accumulated, you can’t turn it off, and it can’t be replaced.

2.  Time management and prioritization like other resources benefits from planning.

3.  Time management is a very personal thing; it must fit your style and circumstances.

4.  In a sense, time management is a misnomer: we cannot actually manage time, we can only manage ourselves in relation to time. We can only control how we use time.

5.  So in a real sense, time management is about self management and prioritization of activities.

Number of vehicles/ Critical tasks

Time through the system

Long

Short

Overload Independent

Vehicles/ Tasks Interactive Vehicles /

Tasks

Techniques to Manage Overload

  Plan critical tasks at significantly below our peak capacity – but do not reduce your workload.

  We can do 3 things: 1.  Leave room in your plan so you have a reserve capacity to

accommodate unexpected events. 2.  Use this reserve capacity wisely so that your capabilities do

not weaken. 3.  Have a list of important tasks to do after the planned tasks are

accomplished. This will use your reserve capacity effectively.

Personal Management

Urgent Not Urgent Im

portan

t 1 Crises Pressing Problems Deadlines

2

Preven9on Empowerment Planning Development Maintenance Communica9on

Not Im

portan

t

3

Interrup9ons Some phone calls Some mail, some reports Some mee9ngs Proximate & Pressing

4

Trivia Busy work Some phone calls Procras9na9on ac9vi9es “Escape” reading “ChaLng” Time wasters

Discussion

In which quadrant is most of my time spent? What about the rest of my team?

How can I change priorities to improve my time and our time?

Your questions

Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that you have received…only what you have given: a full heart enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice, and courage.

Francis of Assisi

Dr Phil Cummins [email protected] www.circle.org.au +61 410 439 130

Documents

What We Know Works - Circle Education...RF Russell, The Role of Values in Servant Leadership Where do our values ﬁt in? 7 principles of values-based leadership 1. ... - Theodore