Unit 11: Principal as Driver of Change Day 1

1. Unit 11: Principal as Driver of ChangeDay 1

2. The Heart of Change “People change what they do less because they are given analysis that shifts their thinking than because they are shown a truth that influences their feelings.” John P. Kotter, world-renowned expert on leadership at the Harvard Business School The Heart of Change

3. Unit 11 Outline • Economic, political, and social forces driving school change • Breakdown of the Kotter 8-Step Change Model • Role of the principal in designing, implementing, and anchoring a change process • Bolman and Deal’s lensing technique for analyzing stakeholder interests

4. Key Questions • How can a principal effectively lead systemic change? • How can a principal distinguish and balance the roles of change leader and change manager? • How can a leader overcome resistance to change? Do you need everyone to come along? • When is it appropriate to take the risks associated with a change initiative? • How can a leader build and maintain momentum for long-term change? • How do you achieve a “tipping point” in embedding improvements in a school?

5. Kotter’s Leading for Change sequential and invariant Ready Aim Fire Unit 1 – Urgency Unit 2 – Vision Units 3-10 Strategies Source: John P. Kotter

6. Instructional Change Initiative

7. Word Association Speed Round: “Urgency” Urgency Identify 8-12 words or phrases that characterize the term “urgency” – What do you associate with urgency?

8. Sources of Complacency The absence of a major and visible crisis Too much happy talk from senior management Too many visible resources Human nature, with its capacity for denial, especially if people are already busy or stressed Low overall performance standards COMPLACENCY Organizational structures that focus employees on narrow functional goals A kill-the-messenger-of-bad-news, low-candor, low-confrontation culture A lack of sufficient performance feedback from external sources Internal measurement systems that focus on the wrong performance indexes Source: John P. Kotter

9. Complacency Activity

10. Charting: Urgency What did you do to get people out of the bunker and ready to move? How did you start telling others, "Let's go, we need to change things!"

11. Characteristics of the Guiding Coalition • Power • Expertise • Credibility • Leadership Source: John P. Kotter

12. Creating a Guiding Coalition Core Challenge: Get the right people in place with the trust, emotional commitment, and teamwork to guide a very difficult change process • Put together a group with enough power to lead the change. • Get the group to work together like a team. Desired New Behavior:A group powerful enough to guide a big change is formed and they start to work together well. Source: John P. Kotter

13. Charting: Guiding Coalition How did you get the right people in place with trust, emotional commitment, and teamwork?

14. ? A vision statement simplifies many detailed decisions. It motivates people to take action by giving them purpose.

15. Develop the Change Vision and Strategy Core Challenge: Get the guiding team to create the right vision and strategies to guide action in all of the remaining stages of change. This requires moving beyond number-crunching to address the creative and emotional components of vision. • Create a vision to help direct the change effort. • Develop strategies for achieving that vision. Desired New Behavior: The guiding team develops the right vision and strategy for the change effort. Source: John P. Kotter

16. Vision for your Change Initiative Develop Communicate Implement Maintain

17. Charting: Vision and Strategies How did you get the guiding team to develop the right vision and create the strategies for the change effort?

18. Communicate the Change Vision Core Challenge: Get as many people as possible acting to make the vision a reality. • Use every vehicle possible to constantly communicate the vision and strategies. • Have the guiding coalition model the behavior expected of employees. Desired New Behavior: People begin to buy into the change, and this shows in their behavior. Source: John P. Kotter

19. Charting: Communicating for Understanding and Buy-in • How did you use every vehicle possible to constantly communicate the vision and strategies?

20. Empower for Broad-based Action • Change the systems or structures that undermine the change vision. • Encourage risk taking and nontraditional ideas, activities, and actions. • Get rid of obstacles. • Invest in people and increase skills. • Engage in honest dialogue with resisters. Desired New Behavior: More people feel free to act, and do act on the vision. Source: John P. Kotter

21. Charting: Empowering for Broad-based Action Empower Broad-Based Action • How did you use the core challenge to get to the desired behavior?

22. Early wins that come fast Wins that are as visible as possible to as many people as possible Wins that penetrate emotional defenses by being unambiguous Wins that are meaningful to others—the more deeply meaningful the better Early wins that speak to powerful players whose support you need and do not yet have Wins that can be achieved cheaply and easily, even if they seem small compared with the grand vision Launching too many projects all at once Achieving the first win too slowly Stretching the truth Guidelines for Generating Short-Term Wins What Works What Does Not Work Source: John P. Kotter

23. Benefits of Short-Term Wins • Provide evidence that sacrifices are worth it • Reward change agents with a pat on the back • Help fine-tune vision and strategies • Undermine cynics and self-serving resisters • Keep bosses on board • Build momentum Source: John P. Kotter

24. Generate Short-Term Wins Core Challenge: Produce Short-Term Wins. • Plan for visible improvements in performance, or “wins”. • Create those wins. • Visible recognize and reward people who made the win possible. A good short-term win has the following characteristics: • Visible • Unambiguous • Connected to the change effort Desired New Behavior: Momentum builds as people try to fulfill the vision, while fewer and fewer resist change. Source: John P. Kotter

25. Charting: Generating Short-Term Wins What did you do to promote short-term wins that empowered people to act on the vision?  What actions did you take to promote short-term wins and help others feel able to act on the vision?

26. Consolidate Gains and Produce More Change Don’t Let Up! • Press harder and faster after the first success. • Be relentless with initiating change after change until the vision is a reality. • Continuously support the people involved in the change initiative Desired New Behavior: People remain energized and motivated to push change forward until the vision is unfilled.

27. Anchor New Approaches in the Culture Make It Stick! • Anchoring change come last, not first • Depends on results • May involve turnover • Hold on to the new ways of behaving, and make sure they succeed, until they become strong enough to replace old traditions. Desired New Behavior: New and winning behavior continues despite the pull of tradition, turnover of change leaders, etc.

28. The Importance of Culture • When new practices and behaviors introduced in a change process are not compatible with the culture, the new practices slowly give way and the change efforts become undone • Cultures change only after people’s actions or practices have changed and people see the benefit of their new behaviors for a period of time

30. ‘Glows’ & ‘Grows’ by Stage N=140 (6 Cohorts) Empower Coalition Urgency Vision Communicate Percent of Participants that Claim a GLOW Short-term wins Make it stick Anchor Kotter Stage Implemented over Time

31. Day One Summary • The Kotter Change Model • How can the model inform and guide your work? • Which of the 8-steps have you seen leaders forget? • Which step(s) do you find most natural/intuitive? • Which step(s) will you find most difficult? How can you plan to overcome difficulties? • Review of pre-work for day two • Complete daily evaluation

32. Unit 11: Principal as Driver of ChangeDay 2

33. Day 2 Key Questions • How can a school leader effectively lead systemic change? • How can a school leader overcome resistance to change? • When is it appropriate to take the risks associated with a change initiative? • How can a school leader build and maintain momentum for long-term change?

34. Corporate Case Study Questions • Group 1: Was a sense of urgency established? • Group 2: Was a change management team/coalition created? • Group 3: Was a change vision created? • Group 4: Did the change management team communicate the vision?

35. Corporate Case Study Questions (cont.) • Group 5: What kind of structural barriers existed for the change management team? What steps did they take to remove the structural barriers? • Group 6: Did the change management team handle individual resistance appropriately? • Group 7: Was the change management team able to create small wins? • Group 8: Did the leadership anchor change in the culture at NUMMI?

36. Resistance-Friction-Pushback

37. Sample Statements of Resistance and Complacency “Standards-based education is just the latest fad. We’ll return to the good ole days soon enough.” “When the economy picks up, we’ll get additional funds for these special programs.” “We’ve always done it this way.”

38. Emotional Aspects of Change Stages Character Assignation Fear Mongering Delay Confusion Resistant Actions

39. Emotional Aspects of Change 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

40. Resistance Resistance is not bad, it is inevitable. Your job is to find a way to embrace the resister and not allow him to stop change.

41. Resistance Ethics and Behavior Don’t scheme to keep potential opponents, even the sneakiest attackers, out of the discussion. Let them in! Don’t try to overcome attacks with tons of data; logic and yet more logic; or lists of reasons why unfair, uninformed, or sneaky attacks are wrong, wrong, wrong. Instead, do what might seem to be the opposite.

42. Resistance Ethics and Behavior Don’t try to crush attackers with ridicule, counterattacks, or condescension, even when it seems as though people deserve it, even when a part of you really wants to do just that, and you have the skills to do so. Don’t focus on the attacker and his or her unfair, illogical, or mean argument (though it will be extremely tempting to do so).

43. Getting Past Resistanceto Buy-In

44. Visualizing the Discussion

45. Bolman and Deal’s FourLenses • Structural • Allocates responsibilities to participants (“division of labor”) and creates rules, policies, procedures, and hierarchies to coordinate diverse activities • Human Resource • Looks at individuals’ needs, skills, and relationships to find ways to get the job done while making the individuals feel good about what they are doing • Political • Analyzes how to identify the needs, perspectives, and interests of different stakeholders who are competing for power and scarce resources, and negotiate to get the work done • Symbolic • Sees organizations as cultures propelled more by rituals, ceremonies, stories, heroes, and myths, than by rules, policies, or managerial authority Source: Bolman and Deal

46. Structural Lens • Organizations exist to achieve established goals and objectives. • Organizations work best when rationality prevails • Structures must be designed to fit an organization’s circumstances • Organizations increase efficiency and enhance performance through specialization and division of labor • Appropriate forms of coordination and control are essential • Problems and performance gaps can be remedied through restructuring Source: Bolman and Deal

47. Human Resource Lens • Organizations exist to serve human needs • People and organizations need each other • When the fit between individual and system is poor, one or both suffer • A good fit benefits both Source: Bolman and Deal

48. Political Lens • Organizations are coalitions of various individuals and interest groups. • There are enduring differences among coalition members in values, beliefs, information, interests, and perceptions of reality. • Most important decisions involve the allocation of scarce resources—who gets what. • Scarce resources and enduring differences give conflict a central role in organizational dynamics and make power the most important resource. • Goals and decisions emerge from bargaining, negotiation, and jockeying for position among different stakeholders. Source: Bolman and Deal

49. Symbolic Lens • Activity and meaning are loosely coupled — events have multiple meanings because people interpret experience differently. • Most of life is ambiguous or uncertain • High levels of ambiguity and uncertainty undercut rational analysis, problem solving, and decision-making. • In the face of uncertainty and ambiguity, people create symbols to resolve confusion, increase predictability, provide direction, and anchor hope and faith. • Many events and processes are more important for what is expressed than what is produced. Source: Bolman and Deal

50. Question Frame if Answer is Yes Frame if Answer is No Are individual commitment and motivation essential to success? Human resource, symbolic Structural, political Is the technical quality of the decision important? Structural Human resource, political, symbolic Are there high levels of ambiguity and uncertainty? Political, symbolic Structural, human resource Are conflict and scare resources significant? Political, symbolic Structural, human resource Are you working from the bottom up? Political Structural, human resource, symbolic Choosing a Lens/Frame Source: Bolman and Deal