February Leadership: Making Coherence

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February LeadershipMaking Coherence
MTL Meeting February 2010
Pandora Bedford Astrid Fossum Laura Maly Cynthia Rodriguez
This material is based upon work supported by the
National Science Foundation under Grant No.
0314898. Any opinions, findings and conclusions
or recommendations expressed in this material are
those of the authors and do not necessarily
reflect the views of the National Science
Foundation (NSF).
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Learning Intentions

• To understand the benefits of creating productive
  disturbances
• To recognize that effective leaders bring
  coherence with the strategies being implemented

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Success Criteria

• By the end of this session, you will be able
  to design a professional development experience
  that aligns the math strategies that
  appropriately creates disturbance or makes
  coherence.

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Creating Disturbance

• Equilibrium is a precursor to death. When a
  living system is in a state of equilibrium, it is
  less responsive to changes occurring around it.
  This places it at maximum risk. (Fullan p.160)

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Creating Disturbance

• Living systems cannot be directed along a linear
  path. Unforeseen consequences are inevitable. The
  challenge is to disturb them in a manner that
  approximates the desired outcome. (Fullan p.160)

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Creating Disturbance

• Productive disturbance is likely to happen when
  it is guided by moral purpose and when the
  process creates and channels new tensions while
  working on a complex problem. (Fullan p.161)

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Creating Disturbance

• You cant get there from here without
  amplifying and working through the discomfort of
  disturbances. With change there will be
  disturbance, and this means that there will be
  differences of opinion that must be reconciled.
  Effective leadership is guiding people through
  the differences in fact, it is enabling
  differences to surface. (Fullan p.164)

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Key Points About Creating Disturbance

• Read page 170.
• In your notebook, record your reactions to the
  key points in relation to your role as MTL.

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Making Connections

• Think/Pair/Share
• Is any part of your school culture in a state of
  equilibrium or complacency?
• If so, what might be done to disturb the system
  toward a desired outcome? What would this entail?

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Making Coherence

• Saying that disturbance is a good thing does
  not mean that coherence is not. Just the opposite
  is the case unsettling processes provide the
  best route to greater all-around coherence.
  (Fullan p.167)

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Making Coherence

• Making coherence includes aligning policies
  and coordinating strategies for changing
  directions, assessment, professional development,
  and so on. (Fullan p.166)

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Making Coherence

• Everyone knows that the job of making
  coherence is never ending and is everyones
  responsibility. If people are not contributing to
  solutions, their inaction is more likely to stand
  out. (Fullan p.168)

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Key Points About Making Coherence

• Read pages 174-175.
• In your notebook, record your reactions to the
  key points in relation to your role as MTL.

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Making Connections

• Think/Pair/Share
• Is there shared commitment to selected ideas
  and paths of action in your department or
  organization?
• If so, how was it generated?
• If not, what is the problem, and how might it be
  corrected?

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Assignment Review

• You were asked to bring back a written
  description of a meeting or professional
  development session that you facilitated at your
  school to encourage the creation and sharing of
  both explicit and tacit knowledge.

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Assignment Review cont.

• With a partner, discuss your responses to the
  following questions
• How did you encourage the creation and sharing of
  both explicit and tacit knowledge?
• What was the moral purpose guiding the session?
• Did you either create disturbance or make
  coherence? Why or why not?

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• This moral purpose-outcome combination wont
  work if we dont respect the messiness of the
  process required to identify best solutions and
  generate internal commitment from the majority of
  organizational members.
• (Fullan p.168)

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• Living with change means simultaneously
  letting go and reining in. (Fullan p.159)

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• Complexity keeps people on the edge of chaos.
  It is important to be on that edge because that
  is where creativity resides, but anarchy lurks
  there too.
• (Fullan p.166)

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A Framework for Leadership
Michael Fullan, Leading in a Culture of Change,
2004
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March Assignment

• Continue to work on your personal leadership
  goal.
• On the framework provided, record one action step
  that you will take in the next month (in the
  center circle).
• In every other section of the framework, reflect
  on how your action step supports that specific
  component.

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Learning Intentions

• To understand the benefits of creating productive
  disturbances
• To recognize that effective leaders bring
  coherence with the strategies being implemented

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Success Criteria

• By the end of this session, you will be able
  to design a professional development experience
  that aligns the math strategies that
  appropriately creates disturbance or makes
  coherence.

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Feedback Question

• What are the challenges and concerns that you
  are facing as you make connections with the
  components of Fullans Framework in your role as
  MTL?