Leading Change in Your School

How to Conquer Myths, Build Commitment, and Get Results

Douglas B. Reeves

• Publisher: ASCD
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781416616399
• Topic: Didattica
• Subtopic: Didattica generale

Guiding schools through significant change is one of the toughest challenges educational leaders face, but learning from the examples of those who have succeeded can make it less daunting. In Leading Change in Your School, distinguished author and researcher Douglas B. Reeves offers lessons learned through his work with educators in thousands of schools around the world and presents real-life examples of leaders who have met the challenge of change head-on—with impressive results for their schools and districts. Readers will also find practical resources for engaging their colleagues in change initiatives.

Expanding on a number of his columns in the journal Educational Leadership, Reeves offers insights ad recommendations in four areas:

* Creating conditions for change, including assessments to determine personal and organizational readiness for change;
* Planning change, including cautionary notes about strategic planning;
* Implementing change, including the importance of moving from rhetoric to day-to-day reality; and
* Sustaining change, including the need to reorient priorities and values so that individual convenience gives way to a shared sense of the greater good.

The change leaders—both teachers and administrators—whose stories Reeves tells come from varied districts, but they share a passion for creating schools that work for all students. They are, Reeves says, "people like you, sharing similar challenges but perhaps with different results."

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Part 1

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Creating Conditions for Change

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Failure in change strategies need not be inevitable. In fact, it is avoidable if change leaders will balance their sense of urgency with a more thoughtful approach to implementing change. If we have learned anything about effective change in schools or any complex organization, it is that neither managerial imperatives nor inspirational speeches will be sufficient to move people and organizations from their entrenched positions. Fortunately, there are practical steps that leaders can take to maximize their probabilities of success.

In Chapter 1, we first suggest that leaders must identify what they can stop doing before asking their colleagues to take on a new change initiative. Leaders must also assess with diligence the readiness to change their organizations—and themselves. Change initiatives without such individual and collective assessment are doomed. Chapters 2 and 3 offer Change Readiness Assessments for individuals and organizations, respectively. For an even more extensive analysis of system change readiness, review Appendix A, which contains reproducible forms for analysis of change readiness for every stakeholder.

Chapter 4 presents four imperatives of cultural change, beginning with the counterintuitive suggestion that the first rule of change, particularly when deep cultural change is required, is that leaders must identify and communicate what does not change. Although many leaders can eloquently describe their vision of the future and convey genuine optimism and hope, they nevertheless fail to grasp the fear and anxiety that change—even positive and necessary change—creates among their colleagues. Anxiety displaces the advantages of change with overwhelming, if irrational, disadvantages and therefore stops change before it has the opportunity to begin. See if these reactions to change proposals sound familiar:

• “I know that the faculty needs more time for collaboration, but if I give up my role in leading faculty meetings, nobody will know who I am and the faculty won't get the essential information I deliver in these meetings!”
• “I know that our academic expectations of students are inconsistent and ineffective, but if we allow the establishment of standards, then it's the first step toward the federal government taking over the local schools.”
• “I know that our present grading system isn't working well, but if we change our grading system, then our children won't have transcripts and they won't get into college!”
• “I know that the way we assign our least experienced and least qualified teachers to our most needy students doesn't make any sense, but if we change our teacher assignment system, then we'll lose everything we have fought for in the union for 30 years!”
• “I know that our board meetings last until 1:00 a.m. and that we have had four superintendents in three years, but if we change the way we run our board meetings, we'll lose the voice of citizen democracy in our schools and the bureaucrats will take over!”
• “I know that vaccinations have saved generations from polio and diphtheria and protect millions of children from communicable diseases, but we can't require vaccinations because there's a chance that my child's illness was caused by vaccinations.”

The common theme in each of these reactions is that change leads to loss—not just any loss, but a devastating and personal loss. Opposition to change spreads like a virus, and the irrational fears of a few are quickly transmuted into mob rule. I have witnessed even the most benign reforms, such as the correction of mathematical errors in grading systems, stopped in their tracks because superintendents or boards were unwilling to confront irrational opposition to change. Find a change—any change, no matter how essential—and you'll find opposition to it.

This is hardly unique to education; in fact, opposition to change is embedded deep in the human psyche. Intelligent and rational people are alcoholics and anorexics (and victims of a host of other diseases associated with behavior). They know that their illnesses devastate their lives and the lives of those around them. Nevertheless, they persist in the behaviors associated with their illnesses, often based on the fear that if they stop drinking or starving themselves (or overeating, smoking, snorting cocaine—the list is a long one), then the people who loved them in the past will abandon them. Change means loss; loss means abandonment. Deutschman (2007) notes that while humans rationally associate change as a vital part of life, we nevertheless crave continuity and consistency. We like to think that our conception of our personal identity does not change direction with the wind but rather remains stable over time. The loss of this sense of individuality is threatened by change even, as Deutschman notes, when the change is tremendously positive. Thus change is defeated by anxiety almost every time. In fact, he concludes, the odds against change—even when change is literally a matter of life and death—are a staggering nine to one.

The anxiety that opposes change is not addressed with speeches or memoranda. It is not enough that the leader is a self-proclaimed Change Agent. Rather, psychologists suggest a useful strategy in “reframing” issues that create irrational anxiety (Burns, 1999; Deutschman, 2007). Successful reframing depends on placing the new behaviors into perspective by identifying what does not change. Rather than proclaiming that “I'm here to change the entire culture” or “We're about to engage in massive change”—both announcements that are profoundly counterproductive—the effective change leader will look at the qualities, values, and stories that can be reaffirmed. For example, even in schools that are clearly candidates for a turnaround, the wise change leader will begin by asking the faculty, “Who in this room is the first in your family to graduate from college?” In almost every group of educators to whom I have asked the question, more than half of the people respond affirmatively. “What a great story you have to tell! The first in your family to graduate from college! You are models, and I know that I can learn from you and that our students can learn from you.” Change leaders will also review specific examples of kindness, caring, and compassion that must be acknowledged and preserved. They will reaffirm the values of respect and fairness. They will, in brief, reframe change from an overwhelming and pervasive threat, to a modification of practice within the broader picture of affirming every colleague as a worthwhile professional and person. This is not a semantic game, but a profound leadership principle. Change leaders know that they do not change organizations without changing individual behavior, and they will not change individual behavior without affirming the people behind the behavior. Here are some examples of how that might sound:

• “Before we talk about changes in our grading system, let's begin with some assurances. We'll still have transcripts, honor rolls, and individualized education plans. We'll still respect your judgment and hard work. We'll still value the thoughtful and constructive feedback that teachers provide every day. None of that will change.”
• “Before we consider changes in course assignment, let's first reaffirm our commitment to our union agreement and the principles of collective bargaining and collaborative decision making. I've been a teacher and a union member, and I know how important these principles are, and I promise to work with you. That will not change.”
• “Before I commit myself to a regimen of diet and exercise, I want to think about my good qualities—the essence of who I am. I was a generous and decent person when I was overweight, and I will continue to be so in the future. That will not change.”

When change is reframed from a personal attack to a new, meaningful, and exciting opportunity, then the odds in favor of successful change are altered dramatically. Although reframing does not eliminate cynicism and doubt by the skeptics, it does provide the leader with space and time to gain trust. Opposition to change remains inevitable. In fact, if your proposed change does not engender opposition, then you should question whether or not what you are proposing really represents meaningful change. But opposition need not be deadly. When change leaders reframe a change, their essential message is not “You are broken and I am here to fix you.” Rather, their message is “You are so valuable and worthy, our mission is so vital, and the future lives of our students are so precious, that we have a joint responsibility to one another to be the best we can be.”

Change leaders must examine themselves and their personal examples before they engage in any exhortations for others to change. Howard Gardner (1995) reminds us that leaders influence us most not with their words but with their lives. When a superintendent convenes a mandatory meeting of all school administrators and delivers a wellintended lecture on the evils of mandatory meetings and lectures, then principals can't hear the words through the filter of actions. When a school board claims that their top priority is student achievement and educational equity, but they review the data on these goals only once a year in a deadly dull PowerPoint presentation, with the other 51 meetings devoted to buildings, budgets, and citizen complaints, then the real priorities are evident. When teachers recite the mantra that “all children can learn” but persist in lesson plans, grading policies, and assessments that embody the philosophy that only a few will succeed, then children quickly learn that yet another adult in their lives says one thing and does another. Too many leaders think that their defining moment for effective change will be their speech to employees, their “state of the schools” address to the community, or their remarks to the board of education. But of all the things leaders do in order to create the conditions for change, the most important are their thousands of moments of truth when their actions speak louder than words.

In the final chapter of Part 1, we consider the myths of change leadership. Myths can be convenient and even endearing, as we pass along cherished stories from one generation to the next. I'm quite fond of the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus, and I have it on good authority that the stork is by far the most convenient method for delivering new babies. Not every myth is so benign, and in Chapter 5, we consider change leadership myths that mislead our stakeholders and undermine our values. Although the evidence challenging these myths is overwhelming, the seductive appeal of leadership change mythology can be staggering. That is the only reason that practices devoid of an evidentiary foundation persist in so many school systems. Only by identifying the myths, confronting the evidence, and presenting clear and compelling alternatives can we ultimately put these tall tales to rest.

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Chapter 1

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Pull the Weeds Before You Plant the Flowers

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Imagine a gardener who sees row upon row of beautiful flowers in the nursery. He enthusiastically loads a basket to overflowing with annuals and perennials in anticipation of placing each new plant in a special place in the garden. The nursery salesperson is encouraging, explaining that these flowers are special hybrid varieties that research has shown will do well in the local climate. But on arriving home, the gardener faces an unpleasant reality: his garden is full of thistles, crabgrass, dandelions, and other weeds. Here are some choices the gardener might consider:

• Drop the new plants at the threshold of the garden and leave them there, hoping that delivering the plants close to the intended location will be sufficient.
• Plant the new flowers between the weeds, hoping that the nutrients in the soil will support both.
• Give the new plants a stern lecture about “growing smarter” and making wiser use of the available nutrients.
• Pull the weeds. Then, and only then, plant the flowers.

Although the last choice may seem like nothing more than common sense, it is decidedly uncommon in schools. Every education system has weeds. There is not a school district, a school, a department, an office, a job description, or a program that does not have a least a few. If we fail to pull the weeds, we can anticipate conversations like these:

• “We'll have professional learning communities—just as soon as we finish making announcements at the faculty meeting.”
• “We'll do common scoring of student work—just as soon as all members of the teaching team finish their parent conferences and discipline reports.”
• “We're happy to embrace 'writing across the curriculum'—just as soon as we finish covering a curriculum that has never yet been completed within the school year.”

Try this simple experiment. Ask your colleagues to list the initiatives and programs that your school has started within the past five years. Then ask them to list the initiatives and programs that have been discontinued as the result of careful evaluation and weeding. I have never been in a school where the first list is not significantly longer than the second.

Educators are drowning under the weight of initiative fatigue—attempting to use the same amount of time, money, and emotional energy to accomplish more and more objectives. That strategy, fueled by various mixtures of adrenaline, enthusiasm, and intimidation, might work in the short term. But eventually, each initiative added to the pile creates a dramatic decline in organizational effectiveness. As the academic growing season continues, we should not be surprised when some of the new flowers are choked by the omnipresent weeds.

Fortunately, there is an answer to initiative fatigue, and that is the common sense of the gardener. The strategic leader must have a “garden party” to pull the weeds before planting the flowers.

Some school principals have a simple rule—they will introduce no new program until they remove at least one or two existing activities, plans, units, or other time-consumers. These principals have time during faculty meetings for collaborative scoring of student work because they stopped making announcements at such meetings and committed every possible administrative communication to e-mail or written notes instead. Teachers have time for students to do more writing in science and social studies because a team of educators identified the standards that matter the most (Ainsworth, 2003) and made a deliberate decision not to engage in frantic and ineffective coverage of the entire text. Faculty teams make a game of it, finding weeds that seemed small when they started but that collectively were robbing students and teachers of one of their most precious resources—time.

Of course, one person's weed may be another person's flower. Moreover, intense accountability pressures can create a situation in which teachers believe that if a topic might be on the state test, then they must be able to show an accusing administrator that their class covered the topic. Although Marzano, Kendall, and Cicchinelli (1999) demonstrated that adequate coverage of many states' standards would require more than twice the number of classroom hours than are typically available, many schools steadfastly refuse to discard anything—or at least to admit that they do. Thus we are left with curriculum by default; we proceed at a moderate pace through the fall, pick it up to a canter by the winter, gallop through the spring, and still have material left at the end of the year that we did not have time to cover.

Research and common sense make it clear that initiative fatigue is rife in schools. We must identify some things we can stop doing. To begin the weeding process, consider the following three ideas.

1. Use intergrade dialogue to find the essentials. Ask me as a 3rd grade teacher what I am willing to give up, and I may say, “Nothing! Everything I do is important!” But ask the same 3rd grade teacher to tell a colleague in 2nd grade what 2nd grade students should know and be able to do in order to enter the 3rd grade with confidence and success, and the 3rd grade teacher will provide a list that is brief, balanced, and precise. I have asked this question of hundreds of teachers, and not a single time has one said, “For students to enter my 3rd grade classroom confidently next year, the 2nd grade teacher must cover every single state standard.” Rather, the teachers giving advice to their colleagues in the next-lower grades provide specific and succinct advice. Entire school districts can conduct this exercise, and they will find high levels of agreement ...