Transcript:
Michael Fullan (2008) wrote a book entitled “Six Secrets of
Change”. He lists the six secrets as 1. Love your employees. 2. Connect Peers
with Purpose. 3. Capacity building prevails. 4. Learning is Work. 5. Transparency
Rules. And 6. Systems Learn. Love your employees should focus on enabling staff
to learn continuously. Encourage staff to develop professionally and provide
opportunities to do so. Connecting Peers with Purpose should focus on working
in learning communities. For instance, using twitter as a professional learning
network. Capacity building prevails means link data on learning to
instructional practice. This means to use student data to modify, create, or
eliminate certain forms of instruction. Learning is the work goes back to
loving your employees and allowing them to learn constantly. Learning is the
work supports day-to-day learning of teachers. Leaders should always seek ways
and opportunities that allow their staff to better themselves professionally.
Transparency Rules is about observing and being observed. Allow staff to shadow
you as a leader too. When observing make sure that feedback is research based
and not opinion based. Systems Learn is about developing many leaders in the
school. That is why colleges have deans as well as heads of departments. People
in these role are leaders, but they also learn from each other.
I would like to focus this discussion on how learning is the
work and how it means you love your employees. A very simple example is
teaching my son new things, because I love him enough to encourage him to learn
new things. Leaders should encourage their staff to learn, learn, learn. 2nd
Timothy 2:15 teaches us to “Study to show thyself approved…” (KJ21). We must continue
to learn to enhance our knowledge. At my institution we are offered many
opportunities for professional development. Some opportunities are institution
wide, while others are department specific. Every evaluation I’ve had; I was
required to indicate what I did during that year to develop professionally. As
staff we are required, when attending professional development conferences to
provide staff members that were unable to attend the information that was
presented at the conference. This can be done by a presentation at an on-campus
workshop, a video, or even a course set-up in our knowledge base system. I
enjoy and look forward to professional development workshops. I come
anticipating and eager to learn new skills and gaining additional information.
I know that the information I learn I would more than likely never learn if it
was not for the conferences and workshops I attended. Educators should be just
as excited to learn as they are to teach. Educational leaders should encourage
and provide incentives to promote professional development. My institution is
creating a professional academy for staff, that will allow them to earn
continuing education credits. I am happy to report that I will be instructing a
few of these courses. Not sure which ones yet, but being an effective leader
will definitely be a topic.
Reference
Fullan, M. (2008). Six
secrets of change. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Tiffani,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your thoughts on Fullan’s Six Secrets of Change. Change in education is difficult, as any change has to overcome the control structures, bureaucratic momentum, and hierarchical accountability mechanisms that have evolved over the decades (Mason, 2016). Sheninger (2014) states that sustainable change relies on accurately defining problems, developing plans to address those problems, and anticipating future changes. He presents Fullan’s Six Secrets to change as a roadmap to successful and sustainable change.
I also chose this topic to discuss on my blog, and I had a difficult time deciding on which one of the secrets to elaborate. I ultimately chose to discuss loving your employees, as love is foundational to Christian service. Christ charged us to focus on love by saying, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34, English Standard Version). I also could have easily chosen to discuss capacity building, learning is work, and transparency to discuss.
I appreciate that you chose to discuss that learning is the work in addition to loving your employees. If we are in the business of encouraging our students to engage in authentic learning, then we should model learning. I try to avoid indicating to students that they should do as I say and not as I do. In many ways, I find that modeling is much more effective that instruction. I have found that, while I learn from professional development, it is the students that really teach me lessons that last. By watching the way they react to the way I speak to them and to my mannerisms, I have improved both my communication skills and my relational resilience. These lessons have led me to my current role working with student discipline.
References
Sheninger, E. (2014). Digital Leadership: Changing Paradigms for
Changing Times. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Mason, M. (2016). Is thorough implementation of policy change in
education actually possible? What complexity theory tells us
about initiating and sustaining change. European Journal of
Education, 51(4), 437-440.
Hello, Tiffani
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post. The institution where you work sounds like a great place to work. I am very interested in the book that you spoke about by Michael Fullan entitled “Six Secrets of Change”. That seems like a very interested perspective of how the work place should be. It’s funny, because I was talking about this with a few of my coworkers a few months ago. Within the past few months I have had a few co-workers leave for other jobs. For the most part they left for pay raises. But all of them stated that they did not feel that their work was appreciated by our supervisors as a whole. They also would talk about how they felt that our supervisors were not supportive when it came to employee’s professional development. You mentioned in your post that leaders should provide opportunities for their staff to grow professionally. This all sounds great, but what happens when you have leaders who do not wish for their staff members to grow. I have experienced leaders finding ways to sabotage staff members moving on to higher positions in the company. It is really sad but unfortunately everyone is your life do not wish for your success. I have many friends who work in the educational field. They talk about how their schools provide them with opportunities for professional development. Honestly, this was one of the reasons that made me decide to change my profession. I really appreciate that many educational system provide opportunities for their employees to grow professionally. I have many friends who are always talking about degrees and certification opportunities that they are able to receive because of their profession. Continuous professional development is extremely import in today’s world. This generation that we are teaching are always learning new things. They are continuously progressing. In my opinion, how can we truly teach these students to our best ability if we are not open to learning new things ourselves? Good Luck in your professional academy courses that you will be instructing. I am sure the staff members will appreciate that you took the time to educate and grow in their profession.
Chasity