SUPERINTENDENTS ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION:

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SUPERINTENDENTS ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION
Beyond the Looking Glass Where Do We Go From
Here to Sustain Our SMT Reforms
Daniel Garcia, Assistant Superintendent,
Brownsville ISD Bob Moore. Superintendent,
Oklahoma City PS

• Based on
• Leadership and SustainabilitySystem Thinkers in
  Action (Fullan, 2004)
• November 5, 2004

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Defining Sustainability and Capacity Building

• Sustainability is the capacity of a system to
  engage in the complexities of continuous
  improvement consistent with deep values of human
  purposeIt is not just the outcome of continuous
  improvement we need to observe, but we must also
  understand the key characteristics of systems
  that display dynamic sustainability. Fullan,
  2004
• Sustainability does not simply mean whether
  something will last. It addresses how particular
  initiatives can be developed without compromising
  the development of others in the surrounding
  environment now and in the future. Hargreaves
  and Fink, 2002
• Capacity building involves developing the
  collective ability dispositions,
  skills,knowledge, motivation, and resources to
  act together to bring about position
  change. Fullan, 2004

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Fullans Eight Elements of Sustainability

• Public Service with moral purpose
• Commitment to changing context at all levels
• Lateral capacity building through networks
• Intelligent accountability and vertical
  relationships (encompassing both capacity
  building and accountability)
• Deep learning
• Dual commitment to short-term and long-term
  results
• Cyclical energizing
• The long lever of leadership

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Fullans Eight Elements of Sustainability (cont.)

• Public Service with Moral Purpose
• Raising the bar / closing the achievement gap
• Treating people with respect by being supportive,
  responsive and demanding
• Altering the environment for the better
• Developing a central vision, mission and purpose
• Changing the Context at All Levels
• Increasing purposeful interaction between, among,
  and across all levels and systems
• Developing learning systems capable of continuous
  progress
• Changing the context to promote short term gains,
  high expectations and high performance throughout
  the system
• Creating a context in which new ideas and beliefs
  are expressed, nurtured and welcomed by schools
  and the school systems.

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Fullans Eight Elements of Sustainability (cont.)

• 3. Lateral Capacity Building
• Encouraging establishment of networks in schools
• Networking laterally across schools, districts,
  and school systems
• Sharing ideas and solving problems using networks
• 4. Intelligent Accountability Building
  Vertical Relationships
• Providing needed support systems and resources
• Providing accountability and self evaluation
  tools
• Engaging the whole system in these processes
• Supporting emerging accomplishments, and
  identifying and disseminating valuable ideas and
  emerging patterns
• Gathering, analyzing, distributing and utilizing
  quality data to improve teaching and learning
• Monitoring progress at all levels

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Fullans Eight Elements of Sustainability (cont.)

• 5. Deep Learning
• Learning from data and experience
• Promoting continuous improvement
• Collective problem solving of complex problems
• Emphasis on data-driven teaching and learning,
  including
• Permission to fail Some things dont work!
• Capacity to act on data in a timely fashion
• Capacity to sustain accomplishments and to break
  through plateaus
• 6. Dual Commitment to Both Long-Term and
  Short-Term Results
• Evidenced by actions to obtain desired results,
  including corrective actions taken and
  interventions undertaken, as needed
• Achieving short-term results to obtain needed
  fiscal and human resources and build system and
  community support
• Simultaneously working toward long-range goals
  and short-term objectives

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Fullans Eight Elements of Sustainability (cont.)

• 7. Cyclical Energizing
• Creating a balance which builds capacity to
  sustain high performance
• Building individual and collective energy
• Creating energy to deal successfully with
  periodic plateaus required for breakthroughs and
  progress, and to support new ideas
• Understanding the cyclical nature of progress
• Working with new ideas to build capacity,
  progress and sustainability
• 8. The Long Lever of Leadership
• Creative leaders use research as a guide to
  building capacity and sustainability.
• Skilled leaders not only energize but are energy
  creators.
• Give me a lever long enough and I can change the
  world. Archimedes
• To mobilize the system in the direction of
  sustainability, leadership at all levels must be
  the primary engine. Fullan

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Effective Guidelines for System Thinkers and
Leaders Summarizing Fullans Leadership and
Sustainability

• 1. The Reality Test put system thinking into
  practice
• 2. Moral Purpose raising the bar closing the
  gap in student achievement
• 3. Get the Basics Right focus on literacy and
  numeracy, including scientific/technology
  literacy
• 4. Design Every Policy, Whatever the Purpose, to
  Build Capacity
• 5. Provide Opportunities for People to Interact
  and Have Input in the Big Picture across all
  levels
• 6. Practice Intelligent Accountability use data
  and assessments as evidence for accountability at
  all levels
• 7. Provide Incentives for Lateral Capacity
  Building Collaboration build networks
• 8. Create Leaders at All Levels district,
  school, parent, IHE, community
• 9. Communicate the Big Picture Communicate!
  Communicate! Communicate!
• 10. Take Action to Increase Financial Resources
  for Education

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Discussion Session Challenges and Conundrums

• Fullans Eight Elements of Sustainability (Slide
  5)
• 1. How accurately does Fullans approach reflect
  your own perceptions and understanding of
  leadership development for sustainability?
  Whats missing, if anything or what does he fail
  to address?
• 2. How can districts integrate and sustain
  district priorities and still meet federal and
  state mandates (e.g., NCLB)? What are the other
  challenges in actualizing Fullans approach?
• 3. What steps must leadership take to structure
  the organization and energize the participants to
  achieve capacity building and sustainability for
  administrators, teachers, students, parents, and
  community groups?

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Ten Dimensions of Organizational Health

• Goal Focus is the ability to have clarity,
  acceptance, support,, and advocacy for goals and
  objectives.
• Communication Adequacy is open, honest two-way
  communication which travels both vertically and
  horizontally throughout the unit.
• Power Equalization is the ability to maintain a
  relatively equitable distribution of influence
  between team members and their leader.
• Resource Utilization is the degree to which the
  leader knows and is able to coordinate the
  talents of team members with minimal stress.
• Cohesiveness is the state when a person, group,
  or organization has a clear sense of identity.
• Based on the work of Organizational Health
  Diagnostic and Development Corporation,
  www.organizationalhealth.com

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Ten Dimensions of Organizational Health (cont.)

• Morale is the feeling of well-being,
  satisfaction, and pleasure for a person, group,
  or organization.
• Innovativeness is that ability to be and to allow
  others to be inventive, diverse, creative, and
  risk-taking.
• Autonomy is the state in which a person, group,
  or organization has the freedom to manage those
  things they believe should be within their sphere
  of influence.
• Adaptation is the ability to tolerate stress and
  maintain stability while coping with demands from
  the external environment.
• Problem Solving Adequacy is the organizations
  ability to perceive problems and to solve them
  with minimal energy.
• Based on the work of Organizational Health
  Diagnostic and Development Corporation,
  www.organizationalhealth.com