Customer Reviews

Leading in a Culture of Change

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In an increasingly complex and fast-changing world, we cannot just rely on charismatic leaders to solve our problems. We need to cultivate leadership at all levels of any organization, business or education, "to face problems for which there are no simple, painless solutions" (p.3). Instead of prescribing recipes of set steps for leaders, Fullan gives a framework or new mind-set of 5 themes or capacities. Figure 1.1 (p.4) gives a clear image of the non-linear interacting components: the inner pie of moral purpose (acting with the intention of making a positive difference), understanding change, relationship building, knowledge creation and sharing, and coherence making. It is surrounded by an outer rim of the personal characteristics of leaders: "energy-enthusiasm-hopefulness". Effective leaders thus mobilize commitment, both external (based on management policies) and internal (getting a job done is intrinsically rewarding). The aim or outcome of leadership is to make sure that "more good things happen" and "fewer bad things happen" defined according to different contexts.

Fullan gives many case studies and quotes interesting and relevant sources. For example, it is very helpful to learn and use the different leadership styles identified by Goleman in response to different needs (pp. 35ff). The 6 styles are: 1. Coercive ("Do what I tell you."). 2. Authoritative ("Come with me."). 3. Affiliative ("People come first."). 4. Democratic ("What do you thin?"). 5. Pacesetting ("Do as I do, now."). 6. Coaching ("Try this").

While stressing the importance of relationships, the author also cautions us that close relationships are not ends in themselves. Bad practices can often be reinforced by the community (p.67). In talking about leading change, Fullan reminds us to be tortoise-like and quotes Claxton's "slow knowing" (pp.122-3).

I have read this slim book several times and have found it very worthwhile and enlightening.

In this book, Fullan integrates theory, research, case studies, and anecdotes to flesh out the dynamics of effective leadership in this post-modern era of complexity, interconnectedness, and rapid (often transformational) technological and social change. He identifies and elaborates on the five components of leadership, which can affect sustainable change: Moral purpose, understanding change, relationship building, knowledge creation and sharing, and coherence making. Fullan sees leadership as a process that all organizational stakeholders, who strive for survival and improvement in a competitive and complex world, need to embrace. Drawing from Heifetz (Leadership Without Easy Answers, 1994), Fullan stakes out new territory for change agents: "Leadership, then, is not mobilizing others to solve problems we already know how to solve, but to help them confront problems that have never yet been successfully addressed." (p.3)

In weaving a coherent tapestry of description and theory, Fullan devotes a full chapter to each leadership component. In its broadest form, moral purpose is the effort to improve how human beings live. Fullan argues that leaders need to cultivate this perspective within themselves and strive to transfer it and embed it within the culture of the organization in order for change to be sustainable. Transforming the culture of an organization - "reculturing" - is the key to continuous improvement. To develop the culture of an organization, leaders must understand that change, or innovation, is a complex process, fraught with "implementation dips" and, in effect, never complete. Leaders with moral purpose care first and foremost about the people they serve - employees and clients.

Citing extensively recent work by Goleman and others, Fullan argues that four leadership styles -- authoritative, democratic, affiliative, and coaching (all hallmarks of high emotional intelligence) -- are most conducive to affecting culture and change. Effective leaders employ all four of these styles at different times and places within the system. Cultural change likewise requires an infusion of knowledge (about problems, strategies, and solutions), and structures and processes to facilitate the sharing of knowledge. New knowledge and new practices represent potentially healthy "disturbances" within the organization, but require effective leadership to help them cohere as forces of cultural change.

During a time of rapid change and so-called leadership gurus, Michael Fullan draws from a wealth of research, case study scenarios, and theory to present an interconnected framework of five capacities for leadership which are relevant in today's world. These five components include moral purpose, understanding change, relationship building, knowledge creation and sharing, and coherence making. When effective leaders possess characteristics of energy-enthusiasm-hopefulness and practice the five components, one can expect the outcome that "more good things happen" and "fewer bad things happen."

The five capacities of leadership are interrelated. Moral purpose, both a leadership quality and a natural result of the other four leadership components, involves "doing the right thing" for your organization and the world while contending with the diverse interests of competing groups. Fullan analyzes the change models of Kotter (1996); Beer, Eisenstat, and Spector (1990); and Hamel (2000); and concludes that they all contain good ideas, but are generally "nonactionable." In Fullan's view, there are six principles when dealing with change: the goal is not to innovate the most; it is not enough to have the best ideas; appreciate the "implementation dip;" redefine resistance; recruiting is the name of the game; and never a checklist, always complexity. On relationship building, Fullan cites Lewin and Regine (2000) and states that relationships are not just networking, but "genuine relationships based on authenticity and care." Fullan also cites the importance of developing a high Emotional Quotient (EQ). Fullan's idea of knowledge building embraces the development of a learning culture as proposed by Dixon (2000) where organizational knowledge is created, distributed, and used effectively. The coherence making framework describes the situation where a leader must "disturb a system in a manner that approximates the desired outcome." Within this disorder, members of the organization will develop a sense of personal accountability, engage in purposeful sorting of created knowledge, and build shared commitment.

Fullan proffers that patient leadership is the most effective. Learning in the context of your organization over time yields the best payoff because it is customized to your specific experience. Fullan ends with two conclusions about leadership: anyone can become a better leader at any level of an organization; and internal commitment cannot be activated from the top. Your leadership will be judged by "what leadership you produce in others."

This book by a prominent educator is readable. That may sound like faint praise, but it isn't at all. Michael Fullan is a university dean, and as such is a full-fledged member of the fraternity of educators. Yet he has not written in educator-ese, that impenetrable, opaque jargon familiar to anyone who has trudged through books on education. His approach to leadership is useful and realistic, with sections on moral purpose, relationships, knowledge sharing and change. Fullan does not set out to break new ground. Instead, he includes a good deal of information he has gathered from other researchers. Occasionally his compendium of useful ideas feels a tad disjointed, but generally, he presents his selections in a logical sequence that leads you to his main conclusion: business leaders have a lot to learn from pioneering school system managers. We recommend this book to school administrators, business executives and managers who are looking for guidance during organizational transitions.

Author blends business and school success stories which confirm that affecting change in elusive. Successful practitioners recognize key elements of change and develop a flexible, coherant strategy rather than checklist of cliches.

Fullan does a complete job of providing tools for change leaders. This book provides the conversation starters for any leadership team wanting to make their organization better by leading it through sustained change.

There are five components of leadership which represent independent but mutual reinforcing forces for positive change, according to Michael Fullan in this book. The five components are: moral purpose, understanding change, relationship building, knowledge creation and sharing, and coherence making. All effective leaders also possess the personal characteristics which the author labels "the energy-enthusiasm-hopefulness constellation". Leaders who possess all of the five core components of leadership engender long-term commitment in their followers, and the result is that more good things happen and fewer bad things happen.

These insights are described in the first chapter. I found the rest of the book rather dry, but mercifully brief. Most of the author's examples are drawn from the author's experience with school systems, which he assumes can be extrapolated to other types of organisations; however it seems to me that the cultural gap between the typical business and the typical school is just too great to make such assumptions. Further, the book tends to equate leadership with knowledge building; this seems to be more relevant in a school environment where the whole purpose of the system is to build knowledge, rather than in a typical business environment.

On the whole, I think that the author's solution for leading in a culture of change, as described in the book, is not sufficient. The author is critical of visionary leaders, but his vague notions of "moral purpose" and aim of making "more good things happen and fewer bad things happen" are not sufficient for coping with a complex and rapidly changing environment. Organisations which focus only on incremental improvements will be swamped by organisations in which leaders can choose a clear path for future success and inspire their followers to align themselves with that path.

This book is very informative, but it is also extremely dry.

Michael Fullan, the dean of the Ontario Institute of Studies in education, in this work addresses the common challenges facing business, nonprofit, and educational sectors. He presents an approach for varied settings to leaders to help them navigate the change process. Fullan integrates these five core competencies...
1- attending to a broader moral purpose,
2- keeping on top of the change process,
3- cultivating relationships
4- Sharing knowledge
5- Setting a vision and context for creating coherence
These 5 competencies are intended to empower leaders to deal with factors that are difficult and ever changing. These disciplines were well explained and were accompanied with real life illustrations from schools and businesses to validate and clarify each component. My absolute favorite part of the book came in the end of the book. Fullan explains, through Fontaine's The Tortoise and the Hare fable, how learning to be a great leader is much more like the tortoise than the hare. These disciplines are slower (long haul) lessons. The three identified were slow learning, learning in context, and comprehensive internal commitment from leadership. These are tortoise lessons because the better leaders will take time to assess/reassess current status, listen to input, win over resistant members, and learning what is the right thing for each work setting. The author even goes as far as to suggest a ten year " rule of thumb" to really build relationships, strive for coherence, cultivate one' own moral purpose. It is apparent that this process challenges one's own personal practices as well as those of the organization. Sometimes educational institutions can "jump on the band" wagon with new approaches instead of staying the course for what will bring sustained change and improvement for all levels of the organization.
Melba Hooker

Great summmary and update on latest leadership styles and models. I liked the way they simplified terms and made the comparisons easy to understand.