Establish Reality: Effective Leadership for Learning Raymond J. McNulty, President International Center for Leadership in Education Springfield, IL. April 15, 2011

Schools are Improving School Improvement

Schools are Improving School Improvement Changing World

The primary aim of education is not to enable students to do well in school, but to help them do well in the lives they lead outside of school.

The Boston Globe Ray, reading the paper on your Kindle or online just isnt the same!

Almost everyone wants schools to be better, but almost no one wants them to be different.

Teacher – Student Comparisons T – I make learning exciting for my students. 86% S – My teachers make learning fun. 41%

The future is not some place we are going to, but one we (you) are creating. The paths are not found, but made, and the activity of making them, changes both the maker and the destination. --John Schaar

Many of our efforts to transform education look like the same old system!

Solid Implementation Focus Fidelity of Implementation Leading and Lagging Indicators

Current System Something Different

The Horse The Automobile

Henry Ford quote… If I had asked the public what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.

First practice must change, then results, then policy.

THEMES Three Transformative Issues Why Is It So Hard To Change? Best Practices, Next Practices and Innovation Closing Thoughts

THEME Three Transformative Issues

Transformation # 1 Leadership today requires a balance of traditional skills mixed with innovation skills Stability, control and standardization mixed with uncertainty, ambiguity and disruptive thinking

Transformation # 2 Making a better 20 th Century School is not the answer It is about becoming different not just better Using researched based best practices important, but for true transformation you need a mixture of BEST and NEXT practices.

Best practices allow you to do what you are currently doing a little better, while next practices increase your organizations capability to do things that it has never done before.

Transformation # 2 Making a better 20 th Century School is not the answer It is about becoming different not just better Using researched based best practices important, but for true transformation you need a mixture of BEST and NEXT practices. 70 – 30 or

Best Practices to Next Practices Fueled by Empowerment

AYP Research Based Successful Practices Tight Critical PointRemain Tight TightEmpowerTight Loose

AYP

Transformation # 3 Collaboration is essential for success today Cooperation wont get you the results you need Collaboration is mutual engagement to solve the challenge (21 st Century) Cooperation is a division of labor approach (20 th Century)

THEME Why Is It So Hard To Change?

Why is it so hard to change? The more successful a system is, the more difficult it is to recognize when it must change. By example, market leaders are the last ones to transform. The American Education System, The market leader during the industrial era!

Market Leader Thinking Dominant logic: Thats the way we do things here.

VII Shown below is the Roman numeral seven. By adding only a single line, turn it into an eight.

IX Shown below is a Roman numeral nine. By adding only a single line, turn it into a six.

SIX

IX6

Mental Locks We dont need to be creative for most of what we do (driving, shopping, business of living). So staying on routine thought paths enables us to do many things without having to think about it. Our training as educators has taught us that there is one right answer.

The Right Answer

Five beautiful and well-dressed woman are standing in a tight group. One is crying and she has never been happier. The other four are smiling and they have never been more disappointed. Why?

The Second Right Answer What is the answer? What are the answers?

The Right Answer Thats not logical

SOFTHARD

Logic Metaphor Dream Reason Precision Humor Consistency Ambiguity Play Work Exact Approximate Direct Focused Fantasy Reality Paradox Diffuse Analysis Hunch Generalization Specifics Child Adult

SOFT Metaphor Dream Humor Ambiguity Play Approximate Fantasy Paradox Diffuse Hunch Generalization Child HARD Logic Reason Precision Consistency Work Exact Reality Direct Focused Analysis Specific Adult

SOFT Shades of gray Hard to pick up Many answers Flood light, diffused HARD Black and white Easy to pick up Right answer Focused like a spot light

Cat - Refrigerator

THEME Next Practices and Innovation

Expertise (the way we do things around here) can sometimes be a road block to problem solving and the development of Next Practices.

A Story…. Not a bad idea, but to earn a grade more than a C+, the idea has to be viable! (Yale Professor) Fredrick Smith The idea FedEx

-Shurnyu Suzuki In the beginners mind there are many possibilities; in the experts mind there are few.

SystemInnovation

Sustaining Innovation Next Practice

Disruptive Innovation

NEXT PRACTICE THINKING The Iterative Process Versions Create a disciplined, managed space for development of new ways to accomplish difficult tasks

THEME Closing Thoughts

Talking with kids… Its not us against them!

First practice must change, then results, then policy.

Thanks Raymond J. McNulty, President International Center for Leadership in Education Springfield, IL. April 15, 2011