My father was a watchmaker. His prices did not change in 20 years. He and his generation were not wired to relate to a chaotically changing world like the one I experience every day. Change is not only constant but it is becoming more and more complex. Leading this change requires a new type of leader. The question is, what does this new leader look like? In order to find answers, researchers and writers have directed their focus to studying as Fullan (2001) puts it “leadership in times of change and complexity”.
Leaders that I respect have embraced change. A cornerstone of their approach has been collaboration. Someone once said “It is easy to get people to do what they don’t want to do. The art of leadership is to get them to do what they don’t want to do AND LIKE IT!” I have been impressed with a leader I currently work with who understands the power of collaboration and uses it effectively to operationalize and institutionalize meaningful change.
Alberta Distance Learning Centre (formerly the Correspondence School) is transforming itself from a print organization to a provider of digital age programming to almost 30,000 students in the province. In addition, we are experiencing rapid growth. Like all teachers in the province, we are also dealing with what seems to be never ending curriculum changes. Having people that can cope with change is not a luxury, it is a necessity.
The leader in charge of Program Development for ADLC is responsible both for the allocation of resources and providing a vision that leads both course development and course evergreening. He recognizes what Fullan (2001) stated identifying that “good ideas come from talented people working together “. Digging deeper and looking at more detailed descriptors, again from Fullan (2001) but quoted by Hollingsworth and Mrazek (2004), where he described an effective change leader is described as
“a) leading with a sense of moral purpose, b) understanding, c) knowledge of building relationships, d) knowledge creation and sharing as a social process, and e) coherence making. “
I have seen lip service paid to collaboration too many times by ineffective leaders. Failure occurs because of lack of attention paid to relationship building and the importance of action plans that rely on accountable, selective and committed ownership of the implementation of the solution. His style of leadership is Participative Leadership as described by Leithwood and Duke (1999) and he relies on the model as referenced below to address these issues and get positive results.
“authority and influence are available potentially to any legitimate stakeholder in the school based on their expert knowledge, their democratic right to choose, and/or their critical role in implementing decisions”
We have meetings that are focused and productive. Dialogue precedes discussion and consensus is sought. Action plans then flow and outcomes become the willing responsibility of committed participants. When I am involved in collaborative discussions I take ownership of the problem but when I have a role in implementation I take ownership of the solution. I believe that the sense of ownership cultivated by our Program Coordinator is key to the success of the collaborative approach. The collaborative approach is key to making him a successful leader and it allows him to build greater capacity in the organization and thereby improve student learning.
REFERENCES
Fullan, M. (2001). Leading in a Culture of Change. San Francisco: Wiley & Sons. p. 1-
135.
Hollingsworth, M., Mrazek, R., Steed, M., Spence, G., Balding, P., Percevault, J. (2004).
Information Technology Leadership in Education: An Alberta Needs Assessment.
An Alberta Learning funded research project. pp. 1-52. Retrieved April 28, 2009
from http://people.uleth.ca/~m.hollingsworth/itl/itleadership.htm
Leithwood, K. & Duke, D. (1999). Chapter 3: A Century’s Quest to Understand School
Leadership. In Murphy, J. & Louis, K (Eds). Handbook of Research on Educational
Administration. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco, CA. pp. 45-72.
