Michael Fullan opens his preface to “Leading in a Culture of Change” by noting that “the more complex society gets, the more sophisticated leadership must become.” I am thankful that Fullan didn’t prove this point by inundating the reader with hundreds of pages of material regarding the complexities of leadership.
This is a useful book which reads quickly because the author sticks to five basic components of leadership that are used to represent what he calls “independent but mutual reinforcing forces for positive change.” By sticking to his script, Fullan delivers an impressive argument for future leaders everywhere.
Fullan’s five framework components are - moral purpose, understanding change, relationship building, knowledge creation and sharing and coherence making. His points make sense because they work as long as the leader continually works on improvement with each component with the energy and enthusiasm requested by the author.
The first component is moral purpose. Business leaders might lose sight of this, but it should be of utmost importance in an academic milieu. The main thought of this argument states that the means are as important as the ends. In other words, the importance of moral purpose comes from the trust and stability built into the relationships developed. Human relations are the key. This theme resonates over many of Fullan’s components, and it should. A leader truly is nothing without followers, and they are built through relationships. It is felt that working on improvement with all five qualities will naturally lead to an increasingly moral pursuit.
The next component is understanding change. With the great speed and “nonlinearity” of change, Fullan suggests that there will be messiness involved with any creative breakthrough. While others may say that change is not “rocket science,” Fullan strongly disagrees, although the witch doctor source (Micklethwait and Wooldridge, 1996) may have been extreme.
I appreciate how well Fullan cites other processes in search of the happy medium. On the topic of change, his take on others theories is that it seems contradictory and that one could get confused deciding on a best theory to follow. Perhaps change cannot be “managed,” but it can be led and the leadership is meaningful. Goleman’s six leadership styles were an interesting addition to the argument, particularly by stating that two (coercive and pacesetting) led to a negative climate and reduced performance among groups. The argument for being careful about trying to make too many innovations is sound advice for any leader.
Next is what I think is the most pertinent of the five components, relationship building. Fullan puts it as “job two” but I think you need one for the other (moral purpose - job one). The genuineness in relationships is very important and I appreciate the statement about burying the cynic who said “leadership is about sincerity, and once you learn to fake that, you’ve got it made.” There is no room for “faking it” in education, as even the kids can see through a phony persona.
The example of Superintendent Alvarado in District 2, San Diego is a good case study of the case re-culturing or an educational organization and the seven principles of the reform strategy (instruction only, instructional improvement as a long, multistage process, shared expertise, focus on systemwide improvement, talented people work together, clear expectations, followed by decentralization and collegiality, caring and respect being paramount) are a good model for others to follow.
Knowledge building is the fourth of Fullan’s five principles. This works best when we look at the power of people and see people as the root of knowledge. This sounds like such a simple task to accomplish, but so few organizations, especially in the education industry put out their best efforts toward collaborating the resources of their members through knowledge sharing activities. In the culture of change, the sharing of knowledge toward the acquisition of new knowledge is key. Relationships may be the key, but shared knowledge is crucial among groups. This sharing should not be mandated, but freely transferred back and forth. If treated as a core value, the sharing helps build relationships among group members, helping the overall culture of the organization. The session with an instructional leader and 22 principals studying a video of one of the principals conducting a staff meaning leads to a true learning opportunity.
Fullan’s final component is coherence making. Having already acknowledged the messiness associated with change, it made sense to have the last component deal with the “cleaning-up” involved with change. The effective leader is the one who recognizes that not all change starts out as a neat process, and the ability to let go and then rein in is a requirement. The disturbance involved has to be deliberate and have a desired outcome at the end. This is especially important in education where mandates can come from many different levels and the burden is almost overwhelming from outside the building. This gets back to the importance of not undertaking too many projects at once. Hatch’s (2000) survey showing that roughly two-thirds of schools were engaged in three or less programs bodes well for the mental health of their employees.
The truth is that the new interactions resulting from a major change do cause shifts in the organization and this situation can build coherence, but only if the effort is led properly with an end result in mind. Few positive changes happen by accident, although there may be by-product positive changes which are unexpected. The “strange attractor” term works well here, much like the “politics makes strange bedfellows” argument from class.
There are some other thoughts about Fullan, particularly with the Tortoise and Hare analogy. There are several concepts mentioned in this text which appear to go against the grain. The idea of seeking out resistance seems to go against some leadership teachings of the past. But the term “slow knowing” jumped out at me. If leadership in a culture of change is about learning how to cope in a quickly changing world, is there time for slow, calculated thinking?
Claxton (1997) believes so and his reasoning is as follows: “...the more patient, less deliberate modes are particularly suited to making sense of situations that are intricate, shadowy or ill defined.” The belief is that it takes a patient and confident leader to be able to wait. Claxton calls it “inner security.” Part of this skill includes having the ability to listen and to think things through after hearing all of the information. By comparison, less successful leaders make up their minds quickly and listen less afterwards.
I agree with almost all of Fullan’s viewpoints because they make sense and depend on skills that most people possess, but don’t always build. To be capable of leading in a culture of change requires listening skills, the ability to build relationships, strong moral beliefs, team building skills and knowledge creation. The effective leader understands and is willing to accept the chaos when may initially ensue when change occurs. However, having patience and a set objective can lead to success. This a useful, no-nonsense book.
Claxton, G. (1997). Hare brained and tortoise mind. London: Fourth Estate.
Fullan, M. (2001). Leading in a culture of change. San Francisco. Jossey-Bass.
Hatch, T. (2000). What happens when multiple improvement initiatives collide. Menlo Park, CA:
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Micklethwait, J., and Wooldridge, A. (1996). The witch doctors: Making sense of management
gurus. New York: Random House.
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