“Titiro whakamuri, kōkiri whakamua”
“Look back to the past, strive for the future.”
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:
HBR: Why Transformation Efforts Fail
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.
24 Responses
Reflection on Leading Change – John P. Kotter
This reading made me reflect on the difference between managing change and leading change. Managing change is about planning and organising, while leading change is about bringing people with you and creating a shared vision. A real example at Huntly West is our PB4L and PRIDE approach. Staff, students and whānau were involved in shaping our PRIDE values, which helped create ownership and a shared school culture. This reinforced Kotter’s point that people need to understand and believe in the change for it to be successful. I also connected with Jess Robinson’s thoughts about empowering people to act on the vision. It is not enough to introduce a change; staff need the support and trust to implement it. Jess also highlighted that we can sometimes declare victory too soon, with initiatives eventually becoming “that thing we used to do.” Her idea of having a teaching handbook with clear school practices and non-negotiables also stood out to me. With long-serving staff beginning to retire, this could help protect the knowledge and practices we have built over many years while still allowing teacher agency and innovation. My biggest learning is that managing change may achieve compliance, but leading change creates ownership, commitment and lasting change.
Reflecting on Kotter’s reading helped me see the difference between change management and change leadership in my context as STEM Leader. Change management was the administrative side, making sure teachers had resources like Maths No Problem and Numicon. Change leadership was about inspiring real shift, modelling the teaching myself (“walking the talk”) and running staff meetings to listen to struggles and build buy-in. Looking back, our initial hurdles, like junior staff avoiding Numicon or senior staff relying strictly on textbooks happened because we didn’t build enough sense of urgency or fully connect our vision to our strategic goal of raising math achievement. We had a good plan to balance structure with rich routines, but it needed to be clearer.
To build a culture where this change actually sticks, I want to move us from just using new resources to changing how we view math teaching. My main areas to develop now are sharpening our vision into a clear, simple message and strengthening our math impact team. Since some members aren’t fully on board yet, I need to invest time in aligning us as a united guiding coalition. By celebrating short-term wins and showing clear evidence of student growth, I can help make these changes consistent, sustainable, and part of “how we do things here”.
Katleigh and I discussed our similarities in maths resourcing. She also shared about creating a transition document, she resonanted with “Worst of all are bosses who refuse to change and who make demands that are inconsistent with the overall effort”- I think this is something that we need to be aware of when leading change- ensuring that we are realistic and concious of the demands on our staff and ensuring adequite resourcing and support.
Braden’s, thoughts below….
From the reading for this module, these are the key takeaways that I have:
• Change management vs. change leadership: I thought this was a really key point to make – having too many managers and not enough leaders is a really common issue. I like the way the difference was outlined in this article – management is about maintaining order and systems, while leadership means creating new systems.
• Having a coalition of change: I think creating and championing a vision is a really key skill for a leader of change, and I liked the idea of having a ‘coalition of change’. Buy-in is key to implementing change processes, and having a team that is invested in change is so important for leaders.
• Creating a culture which supports change implementation: Creating short-term wins is essential for this. I think this is something that is overlooked so much – we tend to want to start looking at the big picture straightaway, and we forget that motivating a team to be part of change requires some positive reinforcement along the way. I also thought it was really interesting that the article pointed out that communication around vision makes up only 0.0005% of what goes around each year, which really highlights why it’s hard to lead significant change sometimes.
What I need to develop further:
• Personally, I think the idea of short-term wins is something I would need to focus on. I very much am the kind of person that comes in and wants to tackle the big issues right from the get go, so this is something I think I need to pay more attention to.
Here are my thoughts….
I found the urgency rate reading interesting, ‘about 75% of a company’s management is honestly convinced that business-as usual is totally unacceptable’. Getting people to see that change is needed when they have been in a school for a long time and have emotional attachment to traditions or the way it has always been a can be a challenge. I am currently experiencing this is school when trying to connect with other curricula to develop ‘knowledge rich’ learning. This thinking links with removing obstacles- ‘the big ones need to be confronted and removed’. An area I would like to work on is communicating fairly and directly to staff who do not want to ‘get on board’, who struggle to see the bigger picture and are sometimes tunnel visioned.
The point about change (creating a new system) demanding leadership important because without someone driving it, getting staff on board or being the visionary, it will not happen, or happen poorly.
Culture/vision- walking the talk, speaking the lingo- it is made easier when people buy into the vision. Vision can be easily lost in the day today running of the school. I found it interesting that the reading state that some transformations failed due to ‘plenty of plans and directives and programs, but no vision’. Sometimes we get lost amongst ticking boxes without wondering what the why is.
I agree with you Braden about short-term wins. I need to pay more attention to celebrating small successes. I think this is something that most leaders could work on.
When discussing the reading, Annami, Naomi and I had several key learnings about change leadership which are listed below.
1. A key takeaway for us was that change leadership is about inspiring movement. It requires creating a compelling vision, generating urgency, mobilising people, and shaping the cultural conditions that allow change to take root. Change leadership is relational, emotional, and future‑focused.
Reflecting on our school’s current change journey, we recognised that transformation is not achieved through compliance but through commitment, alignment to the vision, and consistently focusing on the big picture goal. The people on the journey need to have the capacity to sustain the change and to keep going, not giving up or declaring victory too soon.
2. We really liked the point that leading change is about being goal orientated and having the endurance and determination to see that goal through to fruition. It is about forming a coalition with likeminded people with the same passion and enthusiasm. It is having the patience and respect to listen to each person’s ideas which leads to positive negotiation which in turn leads to active change.
Our example of this is the recent uniform change that happened at our school this year. At first it was a challenging task working with the proprietor, BOT, uniform provider and the school. It became a partnership and all groups were trusted and respected to make a successful uniform change. We had a positive working relationship with the uniform provider. It was a friendly respectful relationship and a reciprocal give-and-take process. Due to us working closely together we were able to fast track the uniform so that it could be on the shelves ready to sell, from start to finish, within 7 months.
Reading Kotter’s article made me reflect on the difference between managing change and actually leading people through change. In schools we are constantly introducing new systems, expectations and ways of working. It can be easy to focus on the practical side of change — what needs to happen, when it needs to happen and who is responsible. However, I am realising that change leadership is more about bringing people with you and helping them understand why the change is needed in the first place.
One point from the reading that particularly stood out to me was the importance of creating a sense of urgency. I have seen that when people do not understand the reason behind a change, it can very quickly become another task that they feel has been added to their workload. As a leader, I need to be clearer about the purpose of the change and, where possible, use evidence and real examples to show why continuing as we are is not going to achieve the outcomes we want for our students.
Communication was another area that made me reflect on my own practice. Sometimes as leaders we can think that because something has been discussed in a meeting, it has been communicated. In reality, people need to hear the message more than once, in different ways, and also have opportunities to ask questions and raise concerns. I think listening is just as important as communicating the message. Staff need to feel that their experience and concerns are being heard rather than feeling that change is simply being done to them.
I also connected with the idea that change cannot depend on one person. In a school, sustainable change needs people at different levels who believe in what we are trying to achieve and can influence others. Building that shared ownership is important, especially because staff bring different experiences, strengths and perspectives.
One area I would like to develop further is being more patient with the change process. I can sometimes focus strongly on the outcome and want to see progress quickly. This reading reminded me that lasting change takes time. Small wins need to be noticed and acknowledged, while still keeping the bigger goal in sight.
My biggest learning is that successful change is less about having the perfect plan and more about people. If people understand the purpose, feel included in the process and can see that their contribution matters, there is a much greater chance that the change will become part of the culture rather than something that disappears when the initial focus moves on.
Our group discussion highlighted how deeply Kotter’s change principles resonate within an educational context. A central takeaway for us was the vital need for leaders to ‘walk the talk’; all too often in education, we see leaders introducing new policies or change initiatives that they aren’t actively modelling or following themselves. We also grappled with the real-world difficulty of working with resistors, recognising just how hard it is to navigate that pushback without losing momentum.
Interestingly, we linked change management versus change leadership to fixed versus growth mindsets, seeing traditional management as risk-averse, closed, and defensive of the status quo, whereas true change leadership embodies a growth mindset through openness, creativity, and fresh ideas.
Building on this mindset, we also emphasised the need for true sustainability in change initiatives. So often in education, initiatives can feel reactive, rushed in to meet immediate pressures, rather than responsive and designed for long-term capacity building. Ensuring that initiatives are intentional and supported over time helps prevent burnout and keeps momentum alive. Finally, we loved the idea of building short-term celebrations into a long-term plan, agreeing it’s a fantastic way to keep everyone motivated, recognised, and anchored on that journey of transformation.
Georgina, Shelley and Emma.
Since starting at HWS, I have been Leading Change by creating a transition to school programme that have been constantly developing for the last 6 years. It started off as they didn’t have any transition to school programme when I started and I would have kids just showing up to start without knowing or meeting them. Currently we offer 5 morning visits 8.45am-10.15am for their first week starting on a Monday, before they start they need to have a pre enrollment meeting with our principal.
I believe that the change has been a positive one as it allows me to plan effectively for my students coming in and that my next steps are to start going into the child’s ECE centre to meet them and start to build a positive relationship with them before they start in my class so they feel more comfortable with me as their teacher.
This year I have also been creating a New Entrant Information Pack that includes a visual transition to school booklet to support our students in their transition.
Something that stood out for me is the quote “Worst of all are bosses who refuse to change and who make demands that are inconsistent with the overall effort”- our principal gives us tasks that don’t relate to our overall goal and it just adds to our work load which is creating teacher burnout and inconsistent expectations for everyone. This includes being inconsistent with the things she says, she will tell one person something but then another person something else. For me as a leader I am caught in the middle, as for me I strongly believe in telling everyone one thing all at once so everyone gets the same message.
Shannon spoke about the Math resources and I had to agree with her. I gave out the resources to my team and unfortunately I haven’t seen them being used as much as I would have liked. However I do have to agree with my team that the website is extremely confusing when navigating it- but we are not allowed to order the books/folders.
In our discussion, we agreed that change management and change leadership are connected but have different purposes. Change management focuses on practical elements such as planning, timelines, responsibilities and monitoring progress. Change leadership focuses more on people—building a shared understanding of why change is needed, creating a clear vision and supporting people through the process.
Kotter’s reading highlighted that change can fail when leaders move too quickly, do not communicate the vision clearly, or celebrate success too soon. We connected this to schools, where new initiatives can sometimes be introduced before staff fully understand their purpose or have the confidence and time needed to implement them. Even a worthwhile initiative can feel like another task if staff do not understand the “why.”
We have seen that change is more successful when staff are involved early and have genuine opportunities to contribute. Leaders need to listen to concerns, recognise different levels of experience and provide practical support. This may include modelling, professional learning, collaboration time and regular check-ins. Communication also needs to continue throughout the change process.
Trust is essential. Staff need to feel safe to ask questions, make mistakes and give honest feedback. Short-term wins are valuable because they show that people’s efforts are making a difference. However, change is only sustained when new practices become part of everyday school culture.
A key area we would like to develop is involving others earlier in the change process. Rather than beginning with a finished plan, we need to gather staff and student voice and build shared ownership. Our main learning is that sustainable change requires a clear purpose, strong relationships, shared leadership, ongoing support and time.
I totally agree with the point you make around trust. Without professional trust, change cannot be sustained.
I really connected with a lot of what Kotter discussed in this reading, particularly the idea that successful change is about bringing people with you, rather than simply introducing a new initiative. I agree with my partner’s reflection around the importance of creating a shared sense of urgency and ownership. It made me think about the difference between managing change and leading change. For me, managing change is often about the practical steps and processes, whereas leading change is about creating the purpose, building commitment and supporting people through the journey.
This made me reflect on my own leadership at CMS. It can be easy to see the need for change clearly yourself and assume that others see it in the same way. I think creating genuine space for teacher voice and helping people understand the ‘why’ is really important. When people have an opportunity to contribute and see how the change connects to their learners and our wider school direction, they are more likely to feel ownership of it. This links closely with Kotter’s idea of building a guiding coalition and creating shared commitment.
I also really liked Kotter’s point about leaders needing to model the change themselves. Communication is important, but our actions need to match what we are asking of others. This made me think about the importance of creating an environment where people feel safe to try something new, ask questions and learn along the way. For me, this is where relationships and trust become really important. Kotter’s reminder that communication happens through both our words and our actions really stood out to me.
Another takeaway for me was the importance of recognising progress along the way. Change can take time, and we often have lots of priorities competing for attention. Celebrating small wins can help maintain momentum and remind people that the change is making a difference. At the same time, I liked Kotter’s reminder not to assume that because something has been introduced, it is necessarily embedded. Real change takes time and needs to become part of the culture.
Overall, the reading reinforced for me that leading change is not just about having good ideas or managing the implementation. It is about bringing people with you, building trust and shared ownership, communicating the purpose clearly, and having the persistence to see the change through. One area I know I need to develop further is being more actively involved in the change process and building my confidence in leading change alongside others. I am looking forward to leading the mathematicians next year as this will give me a real opportunity to put some of this theory into action, particularly around teacher voice, shared ownership and creating a clear sense of purpose. Ultimately, I want to support change so that it becomes part of ‘the way we do things at CMS’ 🙂
Reading Kotter’s article challenged me to think honestly about my own leadership practice. There are a few re-do’s I’d like. As with pretty much every school around the motu, I work in an environment where change is constant. Whether it is improving how we support transitions back to students’ enrolling schools, refining our systems for tracking student progress, or responding to changes in education and health, there is always a need to adapt. One of the biggest takeaways for me was the distinction between managing change and leading change. I can put what I think are great plans, processes, and structures in place, but me thinking they are great does not guarantee success. What makes the difference is whether people understand the purpose behind the change and feel motivated to be part of it. Kotter’s argument that change fails when leaders focus too much on management and not enough on leadership is pretty spot on.
The article also made me reflect on the importance of creating a shared understanding of why change is needed. I am a classic example of spending significant time thinking about a problem and exploring solutions before presenting them to staff. By the time I introduce a change, I am already convinced it is necessary, but our team may be hearing about it for the first time. I can think of times when I have interpreted hesitation or resistance as opposition, when in reality people simply needed more opportunities to understand the evidence, ask questions, and work through what the change would mean in practice. This reinforced for me that effective change leadership is as much about listening and building trust as it is about setting direction.
A huge takeaway for me is that sustainable change really comes down to culture and communication. At a school like NHS, where staff are spread across different locations and working independently, you can’t just share a vision once at a meeting and call it done—people need ongoing conversations, visible actions, and real involvement in shaping decisions. Real change isn’t just finishing a project; it’s when new ways of working become second nature. Moving forward, I want to be much more intentional about building that early momentum, celebrating small wins along the way, and making sure our changes actually improve things for our students. It takes time and patience, but when staff feel genuinely valued and connected to the “why,” the changes actually stick.
I like that Kotter’s core thesis is that organisational transformation is a multi-step process, not a single event. It requires a sustained leadership commitment over a significant period. Skipping steps creates only the illusion of speed and inevitably leads to disappointing outcomes, while critical errors in any single phase can severely paralyse momentum. Unfortunately we see time and time again in education steps being skipped, or changes being implemented too quickly.
Over 50% of transformation efforts fail during the very first phase. Leaders often overestimate how much urgency already exists or underestimate how difficult it is to push individuals out of their comfort zones. Kotter emphasises that a transformation cannot begin until management creates a frank, open dialogue. A key benchmark offered is that urgency is sufficiently high only when roughly 75% of a company’s management team is genuinely convinced that the status quo is unacceptable.
A recurring theme throughout Kotter’s analysis is the distinction between leadership and management: Management aims to minimise risk and keep current systems operating efficiently. Leadership creates new systems, drives transformation, and copes with radical change. Paralysed transformation efforts are frequently the result of an organisation having too many managers and not enough true leaders in key positions. I feel really lucky in this space at RI. Our SLT are all great leaders in very different ways, and I have learnt so much from all of them. Also, the way our school is structured provides a number of leadership opportunities throughout the school. This provides staff to lead in their chosen curriculum areas or in an area of particular passion such as sport or performing arts. It allows for a number of people to drive change in different ways.
My three key takeaways from Kotter’s work moving forward in my leadership journey were: Patience Over Shortcuts: Avoid the temptation to skip phases in pursuit of quick results; sequential alignment is vital for permanent change. Build Broad Support: Ensure transformation efforts are led by a strong coalition rather than relying solely on a single charismatic leader. Plan Wins Systematically: Actively engineer short-term, measurable successes to maintain team morale, silence skeptics, and sustain momentum.
Heya Ann – your point about skipping steps creating “only the illusion of speed” hits so hard in education. We’ve all seen initiatives get rushed through because of external deadlines, only to crumble a year later because no one actually built that foundational urgency or buy-in first.
That 75% benchmark Kotter sets for true urgency is a massive eye-opener—it shows just how much groundwork is required before you even start rolling out a change. It’s so great to hear how RI is approaching this by distributing leadership across the school. Giving people space to drive change in areas they are passionate about is such a smart way to build that strong coalition Kotter talks about, rather than relying on top-down pressure.
Your three takeaways are gold, especially “patience over shortcuts.” It’s definitely going to take some conscious effort on my end to slow down and focus on that foundational work, but like you said, it’s the only way to make the change actually last. Appreciate your insights on this!
A lot of the article sounded familiar and good… particularly around creating urgency, building a guiding coalition, communicating the vision repeatedly, and embedding change into culture rather than treating it as a project.
One area I reflected on is our work around culturally responsive practice and strengthening our partnership with Ngāti Tūwharetoa (our local iwi). I realised that while I feel strongly about this work and understand why it is important, I may not have ensured that my team is fully with me here (and have the same sense of urgency and ownership). From management this is a focus, but within our own setting my team might not see the ‘need’ for this from our ākonga. This made me think about Kotter’s points regarding creating a compelling reason for change and not trying to lead change alone.
I also reflected on some of the changes that seem to be becoming embedded in our unit culture, particularly our ongoing focus on attendance and equity. These are now regularly part of planning, discussions, decision-making and appraisal conversations. In contrast, I realised that some other priorities, such as student voice and co-construction of learning goals with students, are not as visible in everyday practice as I would like them to be, or probably as they should be as this is one of our main whole school goals this year.
My biggest takeaway (and reminder) from the reading was that successful change leadership is less about having good ideas and more about bringing people with you, creating collective ownership, celebrating progress, and embedding changes into the culture of the organisation.
Maaike, I really liked your biggest takeaway about successful change being about bringing people with you, creating collective ownership and embedding change into the culture. I think this really connects with my reflection too. It made me think about how important teacher voice, trust and understanding the ‘why’ are in helping people feel part of the change. It’s something I know I need to keep developing as I grow as a leader.
The reading highlighted an important distinction between change management and change leadership. Change management provides the structures that keep an initiative moving, including plans, timelines, responsibilities, resources and measures of progress. Change leadership focuses more strongly on people: establishing a shared purpose, building collective ownership, navigating resistance and sustaining trust and momentum. Lasting school improvement requires both. A school may have a well-designed implementation plan, but it is unlikely to succeed if people do not understand the need for change or see themselves as having a meaningful role within it.
Kotter’s reading connected strongly with my experience of change in schools. His identification of insufficient urgency, the absence of a strong guiding coalition, under-communicating the vision, failing to remove barriers, overlooking short-term wins and declaring success too early reinforced that change is a staged process rather than a single event. Moving too quickly through these stages may create the appearance of implementation without producing sustainable changes in practice.
My own example relates to our school-wide mathematics improvement work. We have developed many of the management components, including clearer planning expectations, professional learning, a more structured approach to mathematics and plans for Tier 2 support. However, progress has also highlighted the importance of developing stronger alignment, shared ownership and collective responsibility across all levels of leadership. Although the evidence has demonstrated a need for change, we have not yet established a consistently shared understanding of its urgency across the school.
Kotter’s concept of a guiding coalition was particularly relevant to this experience. A small number of committed people can initiate change, but they cannot sustain school-wide implementation without the visible and active support of the wider leadership team. If leaders communicate different levels of priority, staff may receive mixed messages about whether the initiative is an agreed expectation or an optional practice. Implementation can then become dependent on the motivation of individuals rather than developing into a coherent school-wide approach.
The reading also challenged me to reflect on the risk of moving too quickly into solutions. Developing resources, plans and intervention structures can feel productive, but these actions do not automatically create commitment. There first needs to be a shared understanding of the problem, supported by evidence and connected to a clear moral purpose. In our mathematics context, the need for change is not simply about curriculum compliance. It is an equity issue because inconsistent classroom provision and delays in accessing targeted support have the greatest impact on learners who already require additional support.
Another important reflection is that resistance should not automatically be interpreted as unwillingness. It may result from uncertainty, limited confidence, competing demands, previous experiences of unsuccessful initiatives or a lack of clarity about what implementation requires. An essential skill for a leader of change is being able to identify the source of resistance and respond appropriately. Some barriers require professional learning, modelling, resources or protected time. Others may require clearer expectations, accountability or courageous professional conversations.
My next step would be to support the establishment of a stronger guiding coalition and the development of a concise, shared change narrative. This should explain:
What the current evidence tells us.
Why maintaining the status quo is not acceptable.
What successful implementation will look like.
Which practices are agreed school-wide expectations.
What support staff will receive.
How progress and impact will be evaluated.
I also recognise the importance of creating short-term, meaningful wins. Rather than implementing every component simultaneously, we could trial agreed practices, evaluate their impact on teaching and learning, and share evidence of progress with staff. Regular check-ins, teacher voice, classroom observations and student achievement information would help us identify barriers early and refine our approach. Successful practices would then need to be embedded within planning, professional learning, induction and review processes so that they become part of the school’s culture rather than “something we used to do”.
An area I need to develop further is leading through influence when I do not hold sole positional authority. This includes communicating the case for change strategically, bringing different perspectives into the conversation, responding constructively to resistance and recognising when a barrier requires support or greater accountability. I also need to be conscious of pace. My commitment to improving outcomes can lead me to focus quickly on action, whereas sustainable change requires time to build shared meaning and collective ownership.
My central learning is that change is not sustained simply because a strong plan exists or because a few committed people work harder. It becomes sustainable when leaders create the conditions for people to understand the purpose, contribute to the direction, receive appropriate support, see evidence of progress and take collective responsibility for embedding the change into the culture of the school.
Such strong thinking Sherelyn in regards to the challenge that comes with not hoding sole positional authority on a change-matter. The communication that you are therefor forces to do, can be so empowering for change leadership by establishing a shared purpose, building collective ownership, etc. Makes me think that it could almost be an added benefit if change comes not from the person with positional authority, but from another (and then supported by the people with the authority)
When I reflected on the reading and my experiences in schools, one area where I think we can sometimes fall down is empowering others to act on the vision. I think it is relatively easy for a school to identify something that we want to change and communicate a vision for it. The harder part is making sure that the structures, systems and expectations within the school actually support people to implement that vision. If staff encounter barriers or existing systems that work against the change, then it can become difficult for the initiative to move beyond the initial enthusiasm. There also needs to be enough trust for people to try new approaches, make mistakes and share ideas without feeling that they are taking an unnecessary risk. Another reflection for me is that I think we can sometimes declare victory too soon. An initiative might be successfully introduced and become part of regular practice, but after a couple of years it can gradually disappear. It goes from being something we regularly do to becoming “that thing we used to do.” This has made me think about the importance of sustainability when we lead change, rather than seeing implementation as the finish line. One way I think we could combat this is through having clearer written guidelines around some of our key practices. I am thinking of something almost like a teaching handbook that outlines our school’s non-negotiables and core practices. I think this is particularly important at the moment as many of our long-term staff are beginning to move towards retirement, and with that transition, there is a risk that some of the knowledge, practices and shared understandings that have developed over many years can be lost. Having these things clearly documented would provide a shared foundation for both existing and new staff. It would also help ensure that the things we value as a school are not dependent on particular people being here, but instead become embedded in the way we work. This wouldn’t be about limiting teacher agency or innovation, but about making sure we have a clear core that can be maintained and built upon as our staff changes.
Ushanthi discussed: My personal experience with leading change and change management is during my time at other schools where as a staff member I could see changes for the better and changes for the worse. Changes that were successful were done with the correct vision alignment, proper buy-in from the staff, creating an action plan that was logical and most of all, they took into consideration the amount of work involved on top of an existing workload for the staff. The instances where change initiatives failed were when the staff as a collective could not see the “why” – the purpose and the desired outcome that would warrant the extra time and energy required to make it happen along with too many change initiatives happening – not necessarily happening overlapping each other – though that has happened, but also the frequency of these changes. Having experienced “initiative fatigue” as a staff member, I have strong empathy for how constant change impacts workload and morale. In the context of our school – the safeguarding of time is something that we do well. It is a fine balancing act of not tossing the baby out with the bathwater.
Karararaina said: This reading made me reflect on the difference between managing change and leading change. Managing change is about planning, organising and making sure things happen, while leading change is about bringing people with you, creating a shared vision and helping people understand why the change is important.
A real example I can see at Huntly West is our PB4L and PRIDE approach. When PB4L was introduced, there was a management side to the change – developing systems, expectations, rewards and processes. However, the stronger outcome came from the leadership of the change. Staff, students and whānau were involved in shaping our PRIDE values of Participation, Respect, Initiative, Dedication and Excellence. This helped make the change something that belonged to our whole school, rather than something that was simply introduced to us.
This really highlighted Kotter’s point for me that people need to understand and believe in the change for it to be successful. PB4L has become more than a behaviour management system; it has helped create a shared language and culture across our kura. Huntly West identifies PB4L systems as an established strength, with whanaungatanga also being an important part of our school community.
My biggest learning is that the better outcome comes when people feel part of the change. If I simply manage a change, I may get compliance. If I lead the change well, I am more likely to get ownership, commitment and lasting change.
Moving forward, I need to continue developing my ability to bring people with me, empower others, communicate the purpose clearly and celebrate progress. I can sometimes focus on getting things done, but this reading has reminded me that successful leadership is not just about completing the task – it is about creating a culture where people want to be part of the change.
Thanks for posting this up Jess 🙂
Change is the only constant it seems, currently in Education. How we navigate this depends a lot on the leadership of the school. While the reading was very much business-based, some of the Eight Steps to Transforming your Organisation I found applicable.
Through Ministry mandates, the need/reasons for change were made clear to us. The new curricula outlined a new direction that we needed to take. What I feel my school did well, especially for the new English curriculum, was to appoint passionate – but level-headed – curriculum leads to develop the way forward for our school (Powerful Guiding Coalition). They trialled their new programme of work firstly in their own classes for a term, then with their cohort class for another term before the rest of the school had a trial run in term 4 (Empowering others to Act). Then came the compulsory government-mandated roll-out at the beginning of the year (Institutionalising new Approaches). Throughout this process, tweaks were made; what worked well for one teacher/cohort may not have worked quite so well for others, etc. Teachers responded well to the change and enjoyed the flexibility of being able to have input into what works best for them personally and for their students.
What we found was that the whole school could see the need for change, but more importantly, through the phased roll-out of the programme, we could see the results and improvements teachers were getting from the changes.
The biggest hurdle education is facing, in my opinion, is burnout from the constant change – “Why do we do this when it will probably change again with the next government!” We, as leaders, need to carefully monitor our team members and not be afraid to say no to change for the sake of change, or at the very least, put things on hold or slow down so that our teams have the time and mental capacity to implement change well.
Kotter’s shows that change succeeds only when leaders treat renewal as a multi-year sequence rather than a short project. Urgency must first convince around 75 percent of managers that the status quo is intolerable; a powerful guiding coalition then crafts a clear five-minute vision and over-communicates it tenfold while walking the talk. Obstacles in structures, systems and resistant bosses must be removed so others can act. Visible short-term wins keep energy high, while declaring victory too soon lets tradition reassert itself. Culture finally embeds change when leaders relentlessly connect new behaviours to results and ensure successors personify the new norms.
My team is open to change, so reaching the 75 percent threshold is not an issue; that openness is a genuine strength. As a literacy lead, I have met some resistance. On reflection, over-communicating and crafting and sharing a short-term vision would have helped more. Celebrating short-term wins would also have helped; this is a practical step I can implement immediately. Doing so will keep momentum visible, continue to reinforce the vision, and remove remaining barriers so that new ways of working can take root.
When discussing this reading, Keryn and I found that what really stood out to us that the best thing leaders can do to encourage change is to ensure they have a supportive environment for their team to move through that change.
Keryn – Having short-term wins is important, because this change has been happening over the course of this year and will continue to develop, so having smaller, attainable goals and successes helps to break it down and support people in feeling successful in the change. I think this is something I need to continue with, and making sure I am celebrating these successes with the whole team. Possibly having a section in our weekly meetings about celebrating successes of not only individuals, but also changes we have trialled/implemented could be good in boosting morale.
Arima – Just pushing change in your team will not work if you cannot support your team in enacting their own steps within that vision and take advantage of all the different skills and perspectives that you have within your team and wider school. Your staff will have a lot of their own ideas on any change that you bring to them, and drawing on that wealth of knowledge is always a great step into embedding that change. When your team feels their own sense of ownership in the change, and are helping to lead it in their own ways, not just following, they will be more committed in making sure that change sticks.
Kirsten, Leonie and Nic have approached this module from different perspectives within the roles they hold in their kura. The reading ‘Leading Change – Why transformation efforts fail’ by Kotter is very business related – our wonderings are how does the content in this article relate to our educational environment? Our shared perspectives showcase the view from leadership versus the practical reality experienced by classroom teachers. Together our reactions highlight a sharp distinction between managing the mechanics of change and leading people through it. Structural tools, resource allocation, and rollout schedules (change management) mean little without active leadership. We reflect that change fails when it is treated as a top-down mandate or driven solely by an individual leader. Top-down initiatives in education (for example Maths No Problem and iDeal) risk joining Kotter’s 70% transformational failure rate because they lack a clear vision and rely on rigid compliance rather than inspirational leadership. Change leadership requires clearly framing why a change is necessary to benefit our ākonga. When an initiative is introduced without a clear problem to solve, staff perceive it as “change for change’s sake.”
We have identified that essential skills for leaders of change include:
Building Guiding Coalitions: no single leader can drive lasting change alone. Leaders must cultivate a broad coalition of staff to champion the vision; without this, resistance eventually dismantles progress.
Purposeful Communication: the necessity of communicating a shared vision clearly and consistently across multiple channels to motivate the team out of their comfort zones.
Securing & Leveraging Short-Term Wins: planning for and celebrating small, early wins as an essential skill to build credibility for tackling larger challenges. However, short-term wins alone cannot sustain an initiative if the underlying coalition is absent.
Fostering Relational Trust: is critical. Without trust between leadership and staff, even well-resourced programs fail to gain traction.
I can really relate to your wonderings, and the examples you have given.