Leading Change Step-by-Step

Tactics, Tools, and Tales

Jody Spiro

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9780470635629
• eBook ISBN: 9780470915271
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Administration

A practical, step-by-step guide to leading change efforts for sustainable results

Leading Change Step-by-Step offers a comprehensive and tactical guide for change leaders. Spiro's approach has been field-tested for more than a decade and proven effective in a wide variety of public sector organizations including K-12 schools, universities, international agencies and non-profits. The book is filled with proven tactics for implementing change successfully, with helpful tools to put change efforts into practice (including forms, rubrics, and helpful questions to ask). Also included are success stories that show how this approach has been used effectively in 22 states and internationally. The tools reveal how the leader analyzes situations, identifies the groups needed to get desired results, and works with them effectively to do so.

• Includes engaging self-analyses for leaders to inform their leadership when putting in place a change initiative
• Jody Spiro is an experienced leader of systems change for public, nonprofit, and private sector organizations
• Offers information on assessing a situation, engaging stakeholders, planning "early wins, " minimizing resistance, building a supportive culture and much more

This important resource shows how to translate a vision of a sustainable educational reform into a series of coordinated action steps.

Step Seven

Scaling and Sustaining-or All Your Effort Will Be for Naught

Having been part of this magic, I can tell you that it all started one day and never ended.

—A leader from Pacifica

Planning for sustainability at the beginning of the strategic planning process was the most important thing we could have done. We wouldn’t have thought to do that without the tools.

—A state leader

Tactics

From the beginning of an initiative and throughout its life, scale and sustainability are key aspects to consider. Even if you succeed at your change strategy, it means little if the resulting program or practice does not spread or live on after the initial success.

Scale involves not only “breadth”—that is, widespread adaptation of a program or practice—but also “depth,” that is, evidence of penetration and high quality in all programs that result from the change. Too often “scale” is associated only with “spread” and the resulting programs may be numerous but watered-down versions of the original. For successful scale to occur there needs to be, first of all, a clear understanding of the core elements of the original model. As the program or practice spreads, you must strike the right balance between preserving the essential properties of the original and allowing for and encouraging local adaptations.

Scale is hard to achieve even for highly defined and effective programs. What is brought to scale must be a proven model and its effectiveness should be demonstrated with data.

The program or practice needs to have a niche beyond anything currently available or it won’t have a market. When possible, the new program or practice should make use of and be combined with existing infrastructure and programs. You have to determine just how much scale is required to have the impact you are seeking and, of course, to assess the readiness for participation of the various stakeholders. An important aspect of creating scale is to provide training and assistance for new sites or users and supporting them all by uniting them in an ongoing network or community of practice where they can share experiences and learn from each other.

Sustainability involves the long-term staying power of the resulting program or practice. This involves enduring laws, skilled staff, communications, ongoing evaluation and continuous improvement in infrastructure, partnerships, and organizational capacity. It involves funding that is reallocated from other programs of less importance. All this is necessary but insufficient. To ensure that a program or practice is truly “in the water supply,” people’s attitudes and behaviors need to change, culture needs to change, and key stakeholder groups must embrace the program as their own. Often, sustainability may begin with laws and policies and funding. But to last, a change must become embedded in the culture, and in the attitudes, values, and behaviors of those most affected by it.

The Real Goal—Change in Behavior and Culture

A Program Embedded in the Culture

In one mid-sized urban school district, one of the only programs unscathed by recent major budget cuts was the academy for training school leaders. When asked why this program survived the ax, a senior official noted that principals, assistant principals, and teacher leaders in the district now expect such training throughout the year to help them do their jobs and to prepare them for future advancement. A district leader commented: “They [the school leaders] don’t even think about it. They don’t even know who is responsible for making it happen. They only know that they participate in training and it helps them get through the year. They expect it. We couldn’t possibly take it away without major complaints.” That is a culture change in the district. It promotes the sustainability of the program and also of the behaviors that result from participating in the program.

Although we most often think of scale and sustainability as referring to a program or practice, it should be noted that the most enduring impact is change in people’s behavior or organization culture. This was the reason you identified and pursued your change strategy at the beginning. You were trying to solve a problem and thought this change strategy would do that. The problem isn’t solved by a program; it is solved by changing behavior and culture. That is, both individual behavior and the behavior of the entire group. Sometimes creating or changing laws or position descriptions can be an early win—and a good place to start because they get people used to the new norms of behavior. But more is needed so that people continue the behavior and the values become embedded in the culture.

An example of this is the no-smoking regulations that have led to the recognition of the importance of a non-smoking environment. It is unthinkable to smoke in the workplace now, for example, whereas not so long ago that was common practice. It is not universal, of course, but the values and practice of smoking have gone beyond regulation to common practice.

What you are looking for is a measurable increase in impact based on the spread of a program or practice. An example can be seen from an elementary school principal who participated in a program where he had an operations manager to handle noninstructional functions, freeing him to spend more of his time on improving instruction. His percentage of time spent on instruction improved from 25 to 90 percent in three years. So the “program” sustained and had a measurable impact.

Even better, however, is that this principal later assumed the same position at a different school—one that did not have this program. And the time he spent on instruction was still way above the norm at 65 percent. He commented that as a result of previously having the operations manager, he was now aware of what he was supposed to be doing to improve instruction and was finding the time to do it. In other words, his concept of the job had changed and his behavior had changed, and these changes outlived his participation in the program. Other principals who have been participating in the program are also changing their behavior—and principals who are not in the program are hearing about the success of those who are and may choose to participate in the future.

Essential Elements

Achieving scale and sustainability is difficult and involves planning from the very beginning of the initiative. However, keeping your eye on these fundamental aspects can help the effort last well into the future.

The Program Serves a Need and Has a Market

In order to be scaled and sustained, the program must address problems that are perceived as needs. Decision makers, planners, participants, and funders must believe that the program to be scaled and sustained serves an important purpose and has the potential for broad impact. Only then will they be willing to contribute time, skill, and resources to the effort in an ongoing way. An effective change leader tests the assumption of need by conducting market research to find out if the assumed need is there in reality—and to identify any roadblocks that may be apparent.

Core, Nonnegotiable Elements Are Identified

The foundation of both scale and sustainability is to distinguish the core, nonnegotiable elements of the program from those that are less critical to replicate precisely. Often the developers feel that the program should always be implemented exactly as it was originally. In order for scale and sustainability to take root, there are only a few elements that are essential to enact exactly as the originators did things. Everything is not of equal weight. It is very important to identify those elements that need to be replicated faithfully from everything else, which needs a local touch.

Resource Reallocation Is Possible with Political Will

One state demonstrated its commitment to training for school principals by setting up four local leadership academies in different parts of the state. They contained a common core of program elements but were largely based on the needs of the local school districts. Once these academies were in operation, the leaders of these districts and the program participants were enthused about the programs.

As a result, the state reallocated millions of dollars from other purposes to the creation and operation of leadership academies in all the high-needs districts across the state. ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Praise
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Introduction: The Essentials of Leading Change Step-by-Step
• Step One: Determining Your Change Strategy-and Making Your Plan
• Step Two: Assessing Readiness-Where You Are Isn’t Necessarily Where They Are
• Step Three: Analyzing the Stakeholders-Who Cares? Why? and What Can They Do About It?
• Step Four: Minimizing Resistance-While Maximizing Your Tolerance for It
• Step Five: Securing a Small, Early Win-Turning the Tide Toward the Results You Want
• Step Six: Engaging the Key Players in Planning-Achieving Collaboration Without Disintegration
• Step Seven: Scaling and Sustaining-or All Your Effort Will Be for Naught
• Step Eight: Monitoring and Continuously Improving-Taking Advantage of the Changes You Will Encounter
• Conclusion: Using the Tactics and Tools to Make a Real Difference
• Appendix: Sample Completed Tools
• Index