Change

Change is a reality of life, and people don’t always welcome change. Overcoming the barriers to change requires planning and effective leadership in which the shared vision is clearly and repeatedly communicated and values are modeled through actions. The purpose of change is school improvement which ultimately improves student learning.

There are several reasons why people may resist change (DuFour & Eaker 1998, p.48):

• change was too fast (people are overwhelmed)
• change was too slow (people lose their enthusiasm)
• change lacks strong leadership from principal
• change is too big
• change is too small
• change is top-down without buy-in by the staff
• change is bottom-up without support from board or administration
• gains celebrated too soon
• gains not celebrated or recognized
• commitment to status quo
• change becomes the latest fad (move from fad to fad)

Initiating and sustaining meaningful change is difficult (DuFour & Eaker, 1998).

DuFour & Eaker (1998, p. 51) also identify 8 common mistakes in the change process.
1. Allowing too much complacency: Change efforts always fail when complacency is high.
2. Failing to create a sufficiently powerful coalition: Individuals working alone will never have everything that is needed to overcome the powerful forces of tradition and inertia to establish change.
3. Underestimating the power of vision: Vision helps to direct, align, and inspire the actions of the members of an organization.
4. Under communicating the vision by a power of 10: Without credible communication, change efforts will fail.
5. Permitting structural and cultural obstacles to block the change process: Organizations often fail to address obstacles that block change.
6. Failing to create short-term wins: Change initiatives risk losing momentum if there are no short term goals to reach and celebrate.
7. Declaring victory too soon: Until change initiatives become anchored in the culture, they are fragile and subject to regression.
8. Neglecting to anchor changes firmly in the culture: Change sticks only when it is firmly embedded in the school’s culture, and is seen as “the way we do things”.

Fullan (2001) also recognizes that understanding the change process is, in itself, a force for positive change. He states that the goal is not to introduce the most changes, as they end up being only limited, superficial innovations. It is not enough to have the best ideas; these ideas must be clearly communicated , or they will meet overwhelming opposition. Changes in education consistently bring about temporarily lower results. Ongoing resistance to change should be analyzed, as we are more likely to learn from people with differing opinions. Once the change becomes a permanent part of the school’s culture, it will be sustained. “Leading in a culture of change means creating a culture (not just a structure) of change” (Fullan, 2001, p. 44).

Acting with a moral purpose means “acting with the intention of making a positive difference in the lives of individuals” (Fullan, 2003, p. 23). This is the first of Fullan’s 5 mutually reinforcing forces for positive change. Building and nurturing relationships with people is “the single factor common to every successful change initiative” (Fullan, 2003, p. 77). It is therefore the interaction and relationships among people, not the people themselves, that make the difference in organizational success. It is imperative, however, that these relationships are genuine. Creating and sharing knowledge through open communication helps keep people connected to one another and the common goal. Data can be used to reinforce and sustain change, as long as the goals are measurable, the gathering of the data is ongoing, and the results are reflected upon and used to adjust the current practices. Lastly, creating coherence and sustaining change is predicated on the assumption that changes are based on the shared visions and values of school.

Reculturing is creating a culture of change which “activates and deepens moral purpose through collaborative work cultures that respect differences and continually create and test knowledge against measurable results.” It enables the inclusion of new ideas and practices and involves “developing relationships, creating knowledge, and striving for coherence” (Fullan, 2003, p. 76).