Book Review: Indelible Leadership
Michael
Fullan’s Indelible Leadership is
all about teaching and learning innovation that sticks . Specifically, it explores,
“six interlocking tensions” which, if educational leaders rigorously attended
to and balanced through a dialectic of sorts, will create innovative school and
school district cultures in which deep learning will flourish.
The first
theme is moral imperative and uplifting leadership, with the essential
tension being that “…moral imperative is sometimes uttered without mobilizing people
to enact it. Or people get active without firm goals.” (1) According to Fullan, the key is to mobilize
the collective “…concentration of the group on the moral task [or vision] at
hand’ while “reducing distracters”. (4)
The latter may involve reining in the unbridled enthusiasm of some
teachers and local educational leaders. Fullan
adds that “…the allure of the 6Cs [global competencies] of helping oneself and
humanity” is the moral imperative that will shake teachers out of the current
unfulfilling status quo. (5)
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| Fishbowl 'leap of faith' representing early adopter teachers who, driven by a moral imperative, embrace the 6 C's |
With respect
to balancing the second tension – mastering
content and process, Fullan writes, “Leaders have to be equally at home in
content and process and in their merging.” (9)
By “mastering content”, he means that leaders must engross themselves in
revising good ideas in order to develop even better ideas. These good ideas or refinements need not come
from the leader; in fact, Fullan argues that they should emerge from the
interaction of open-minded group members.
He quotes some great advice on this point from David Cote, the CEO of
Honeywell, “Your job as a leader is to be right at the end of the meeting, not
at the beginning of the meeting.” (11) In terms of process, the leader’s task is to
facilitate skilled participation by all stakeholders. The product of balanced and relentless focus
on content and process is change for the better.
In a statement
that will, no doubt, surprise (and even infuriate) some educators and leaders,
Fullan contends that the current theory that suggests that if a principal acts
as an instructional leader, student achievement will increase is “a dangerous
half-truth”. (12) Rather, in reference
to the research of Viviane Robinson (2011), he maintains that the role of the
principal should be to lead teaching and learning
development by personally
participating in network learning. In
other words, the principal is most effective when he/she is a lead learner.
Indeed, the
third aspect of indelible leadership is to lead and learn in equal measure. Fullan states, “In complex situations,
leaders listen and learn so that they can
lead better.” (17) He then
identifies, for leaders, three tensions within the leading and learning dynamic. The first is to both respect and reject the
status quo. The second is expertise and apprenticeship, which means that “…the
leader has expertise in some domains, but
she or he must also be a learner (apprentice to those who know more in other
respects). (24-25) Finally,
experimentation and commitment should be balanced such that leaders commit to learning
from and building on carefully designed experiments and “…consolidate
commitment to the good practices and ideas…” that emerge. (25)
Educators are
asked to view students as both change agents and “protégés”. (31) Regarding students as the latter – as
individuals requiring support or assistance - is the norm for most teachers;
however, Fullan maintains that students should also be viewed as enablers in
the learning process: “…Our secret ingredient for transforming the teaching
profession toward professional capital is the
student as change agent! (37) By professional capital, Fullan means the
ability for all stakeholders in education to “…make expert diagnoses and
identify corresponding solutions based on experience and expertise.” (35) According to the author, students represent
the “additional ‘tipping point’ that will serve as a catalyst for professional
capital.” (37) He further describes
students as “the saving grace” in innovation of teaching and learning because
they “…seem to have little trouble staring the status quo in the face.” (38)
Fullan identifies three specific areas in which students can be agents of change:
- In changing teacher pedagogical practice;
- In organizational changes in schools; and,
- In altruistic societal change.
In a confident
and hope-filled statement regarding the transforming power of student agency,
the author writes, “Students, deeply involved in meaningful and sophisticated
learning projects, represent the most powerful fuel for teachers and
administrators, individually and collectively, to radically shift their
practice and the conditions that surround it.” (40-41) His summary point on the
topic is prophetic: The notion that “…finding better teachers and having them
work together will save students …[is] misplaced. We need students to save students, liberated
by enabling teachers and administrators.” (44)
Indelible Leadership concludes with two strategies that focus on systemness.
The first strategy addresses the tension that exists between feeding
and being fed by the system. Fullan
believes the best strategy for balancing these tensions and creating system
coherence is leadership from the middle (LftM).
Indeed, he contends that “LftM has become the best and most promising
hope we have for system transformation.” (49)
With reference to Hargreaves and Ainscow (2015), he identifies the
following “virtues” of LftM:
·
Responds to local needs and diversities;
·
Takes collective responsibility for student and staff success;
·
Encourages initiative-taking;
·
Integrates local efforts with broader system priorities; and,
·
Creates transparency of practices and results. (51)
There are
several things system leaders in education can do to support LftM and maximize
its effectiveness. First, they should
permit local groups “…a degree of freedom from the top (like us but don’t run
us)…. (54) As well, they need to provide
opportunities for teachers and local leaders (ie. principals and
vice-principals) to connect both laterally and “upward to the next levels.”
(58) Most importantly of all, system
leaders must adopt the “revolutionary idea” that the “bottom feeders [teachers,
rank and file] are actually not bottom feeders …they are the source of
transformation.” (57)
The second
strategy for developing a system mindset involves “…leaders developing other leaders who focus on the work and on each
other.” (61) This approach, maintains
Fullan, will help leaders find the sweet spot between being essential and
becoming dispensable. Lamenting that
the pattern for many educators is that they “…get better in their first years
of experience and then stagnate”, and arguing that “…no amount of traditional
professional development” improves their performance, Fullan emphasizes the
importance of “…job-embedded practice over time, with a coach, mentor, and
critical, specific feedback…” that only an experienced leader can provide.
(65-66)
With a play on
words derived from the George M. Cohen song “Always Leave Them Laughing When
You Say Good-bye”, Fullan concludes this book with this great piece of advice
for indelible leaders: “Always leave them learning so that they, in turn, can
always leave others learning!” (69)
Although a
very short book, Indelible Leadership contains many key points and strategies that
will help leaders in education make long-lasting and profound changes that will
lead to a dramatic transformation of teaching and learning. The Action Step questions at the end of each
chapter provide great discussion topics for system and school leaders. Among my favourites are:
- Reflect on the question “Why should anyone work here?”
(7)
- Do you believe students are and can be agents of change?
(45)
- Name specific things you could do to “liberate” or give
more freedom to those immediately below you in the organizational
hierarchy. (59)
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| The 6 Tensions of Indelible Leadership |
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