Apologies, this was not posted yesterday due to illness!
Module 9: Whakataurite i ngā Huringa (Navigating Change in Education): This module equips you with the knowledge and skills to effectively navigate and lead change within the education system, fostering a culture of continuous improvement while ensuring the wellbeing of staff and ākonga.
“Titiro whakamuri, kōkiri whakamua”
“Look back to the past, strive for the future.”
Due: 8th September
Module Objectives:
- Understand the change process.
- Develop change management strategies.
- Build a shared understanding of the need for change.
- Lead and support staff through the change process.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of change initiatives.
A Harvard University study published twenty years ago, and various other research sources, such as the more recent study by David Leonard and Claude Coltea from Gallup, (published in Business Journal in 2013), estimate that 70% of all change initiatives in schools fail. As recently as 2016 in New Zealand this statistic was still quoted as relevant to understanding sustaining change in the presentation by Randy Pennington, Business Strategist and author, to NZSTA and available here: https://vimeopro.com/nzsta/govtalks/video/145795736.
The National Aspiring Leaders programme is committed to supporting delegates and ensuring growth in leadership skills, in this case by reflection on your role in change practice in your school. This will be achieved by supporting your exploration of change research sources against your current experience, particularly of change management and change leadership.
Reading: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YcwSPqd5k3yWUMe1yFIvEz3-ulMqwQJE/view?ts=689bc6d8
Task: Reflect on this reading in light of your own practice and discuss your reflections with your learning partner. Post on the forum as a partnership, your joint reflections. You may use some of the following prompts to support your reflections:
- Understanding of change management vs change leadership
- Essential skills for leaders of change
- Key reflections/learnings about change leadership
- Creating a culture which supports change implementation
- What I need to develop further
Assessment:
- Completion of reading.
- Discussion with learning partner(s).
- Participation in the online forum discussion.
- Submission of reflection on the forum.
3 Responses
(After discussions with my partner Colleen we came to a few conclusions regarding Understanding of change management vs change leadership. Change leadership is about creating a new system, which requires a clear vision, motivation, and buy-in from people. This is in contrast to change management, which is focused on minimising risk and keeping the current system operating.
Essential skills for leaders of change
Core Leadership Skills
Communication: You must be able to clearly explain the vision for change. This involves listening to people’s concerns, making them feel heard, and showing them how the change will benefit everyone.
Vision-Setting: A leader must create and share a clear, inspiring picture of the future. This vision helps people understand the purpose of the change and motivates them to move forward.
Motivation: You need to get people excited about the change. This means inspiring them, not just telling them what to do. A good leader builds enthusiasm and a shared sense of purpose.
Building Trust: Leaders of change must be trustworthy. People are more willing to follow someone they believe in, especially when facing something new or uncertain.
Problem-Solving: Change always brings unexpected challenges. Leaders must be able to think on their feet, solve problems creatively, and help their team work through obstacles.Key reflections/learnings about change leadership
The main takeaway for us was that that there’s a big difference between change management and change leadership.
Change Management is like being a careful planner. It’s about keeping things running smoothly and avoiding problems while you make changes.
Change Leadership is like being an inspiring guide. It’s about building a vision, motivating people, and getting them excited to willingly accept a big change.
We think that creating a culture that supports change implementation
For the new practices to stick, they must become part of the school’s culture and this means incorporating explicit teaching and cognitive load management into formal observation and feedback processes at our school. Also making sure new and overseas teachers are trained in these methods. We think that its important to create a culture where it is normal for teachers to discuss and refine their instructional practices in these specific areas. By following this leadership-focused approach, we can move beyond simply managing the curriculum change and truly lead our teams to embrace a new, more effective way of teaching.Leading change has made us reflect on what has worked well in our school. The one positive is creating a sense of urgency and following through. Getting everyone on board, offering resources and PD to support the change and creating a culture where it is normal for teachers to discuss and refine their instructional practices in these specific areas. Breaking things down step by step is a winner – and having a solid plan with short term goals. By being able to clearly explain the vision for change and involving listening to people’s concerns, making them feel heard, and showing them how the change will benefit everyone and support change. The article’s key point is that major change projects often fail because they have plenty of good plans (management) but not enough people who can truly lead and inspire others. Having a strong group of people to lead the change is also what leads to success.
What I need to develop further
Leading this change has to be a team effort. We need a powerful guiding partnership that includes other team leaders and l teachers from different year levels. We should believe in understanding the principles of explicit teaching and cognitive load.
Follow Kotter’s eight-step plan that, when you follow it in the right order to make success much more likely.
As a leader I must be resilient, stay positive and persistent even when things get tough.
Help my team “unpack the curriculum” by giving them the power and resources and try to remove barriers .
Give effective Feedback
Thanks, Ronelle, for being a great learning partner in this course. It has been great sharing resources, learning together, supporting each other, and hopefully helping us to become even better leaders at CPDS.
Thank you Coll, we are a great team!