CARDINAL STRITCH UNIVERSITYEDU 575: LEADING ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE

Dr. Jackson ParkerDr. Robert Davidovich

Dr. Kris Hipp

The Nature of Organizations and the

Creation of Order

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Organizations are About Creating Order

What do I believe about how order in human organizations is formed?

Have you ever taken the time to consider:

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Order: Two Choices

Order is inherently not present. Therefore it must be imposed by some outside authority.

OR Order is implicit. It emerges naturally through

relationships and interactions.

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Order

Order is inherently not present.

This view of order is rooted in classic, Newtonian science.

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Newtonian Science

Newton’s laws helped create an image of an orderly universe pieced together like cogs in a giant

machine. “It was a world in which chance played no part.”

(Toffler, 1984, p. xiii)

The Newtonian paradigm of science is referred to as a mechanistic model.

In this model, understanding something requires one to reduce it to its basic parts, with the belief that when the parts are understood, then put back together, one is able to understand the whole, and predict its behavior with certainty.

The reductionist approach has worked remarkably well to create understanding for three centuries and is deeply imbedded not only in our science, but also in our culture, as well as our thinking about organizations; our mental model of “the way the world works”.

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It Works Just Like Clockwork

Kepler, Descartes, Newton. The clock as themodel of the universe.

Horace Mann and The King of Prussia. (compulsory ed, graded schools, teacher training and certification, national testing, national curriculum, mandatory kindergarten). Why? To sort and indoctrinate!

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The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.

—Alvin Toffler

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Roots of Our Learning

Command-and-control (supported by Newtonian Science) has been

the basis of organization for three hundred years.

The world (from this perspective) would be considered to be governed by linear,

mechanical, cause-and-effect relations, with all things being predictable and controllable.

1999, Barab, Cherkes-Julkowski,Swenson, Garrett, Shaw, and Young, Principles of Self-organization: Learning as Participation in Autocatakinetic Systems, The Journal of Learning Sciences

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Predictable and Controllable

We manage by separating things into parts,

We believe that influence occurs as a direct result of force exerted from one person to another,

We engage in complex planning for a world that we keep expecting to be predictable, and

We search continually for better methods of objectively perceiving the world.

Source: Margaret Wheatley Finding Our Way

Creating Order: Old Perspective

Patrick Dolan’s “System in Place”.

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Command-and-control

Hierarchy and lines of authority are the “load-bearing” structures

Those above are supposed to know more than those below

Fate of the organization rests on the shoulders of a few key leaders

To maximize control, organization is viewed in isolation of environment

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Command-and-control Paradigm

Good for:ProductivityConsistencyProcedures, rules and

regulations

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Strengths; works well with:Straightforward tasksStable environmentSame product time after time

Command-and-control Paradigm

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Weaknesses:Difficulty adaptingBureaucracyHigher dissatisfaction

Command-and-control Paradigm

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UnlearningEach of us works in organizations

designed from Newtonian images of the universe.

We need to stop seeking after the universe of the seventeenth century and begin to explore what has become known to us in the twentieth century.

We need to expand our search for the principles of organization to include what is presently known about the universe.

Source: Margaret Wheatley, Finding Our Way

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LIGHT & MATTER: WAVE OR PARTICLE?

Ilya Prigogine: A (Very) Brief History of Certainty

“The Fundamental Laws of Science” … A creation of humans so we could feel more secure in a troubled and untidy world?

If the systems of the world (universe) are evolving, shouldn’t the “laws of science” be evolving too?

Time is real (Newtonian Physics says it is an illusion peculiar to humans), predictability is an illusion.

LISA RANDALL: HOW MANY DIMENSIONS?

Three, plus time?Five, Up, Up, and Away?10 or 12, but we aren’t built to perceive them?Think about Flatland; read the book, see the

movie.Edwin Abbott Abbott, 1884

OrTry the movie

1965, 1982, 2007Or

Really challenge yourself with the movieWhat The Bleep Do We Know?

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Trend: Away From Command-and-Control

Continuum of Organizational Structure

Tightly controlled

•Command-and-

control

Self-organizing

•Start-ups•Open-source•Social networks

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Directions of Educational Change

From:Hierarchical structures

Centralized controlSolving discrete

problemsUbiquitous, monolithic

infrastructureOne size fits allDesign for average

usersSource: “Drivers of Change 2006-2016”, Knowledge Works Foundation, Spring 2008

To:● Hybrid networks and

hierarchies● Empowered periphery● Managing ongoing

dilemmas● Lightweight, smart, ad

hoc infrastructure● Custom fit● Design with expert users

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This is different than the kinds of change we have tried to manage in the past …these changes involve problems with complex dynamics – not linear, direct cause/effect relationships.

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Changes of this nature require strategies that go beyond “either-or” thinking.

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Peter Senge

“Schools are not ‘broken’ and in need of fixing.

They are a social institution under stress that needs to

evolve.”

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Peter Senge

What will cause the diverse innovations needed to lead to a coherent overall pattern of

deep change? I believe that the emerging

understanding of living systems can guide thinking

for the future. (Schools That Learn, p.52)

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Order

Order is implicit.This view of order is rooted in the

understandings developed in the New Sciences

(Quantum Physics, Evolutionary Biology, Chaos Theory, Complexity Theory, Neuroscience,

Thermodynamics)

Relearning

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One of the most important impacts of New Science understandings is

that systems are:

Self-organizing

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Self-organization

Purpose and principles commonly shared and articulated

Freedom to act within that purposeInformation flowSelf-referencing (new information and

feedback referenced against purpose)Relationships

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Self-organization

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Self-organization

Someone notices something and chooses to be

disturbed – referencing that disturbance against why the

organization exists.

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Self-organization

The disturbance created is circulated through the

networks of relationships.

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Self-organization

Meaning is created as the disturbance is referenced

against the common purpose. The meaning

changes as each individual interacts with it. Eventually

the meaning either amplifies or diminishes.

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Self-organization

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Self-organizationIf the meaning grows

to where the organization cannot

ignore it, then adaptive action is

possible.

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“Purpose and principle, clearly understood and articulated, and

commonly shared, are the genetic code of any healthy

organization. To the degree that you hold purpose and principles in common among you, you can dispense with command-and-

control.”Dee Hock, founder and former CEO of VISA

Common Purpose

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Wheatley

Three conditions of self-organizing Organizations:

IdentityInformation

Relationships

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Wheatley

Identity: The sense-making capacity of the organization

In deciding what to do, a system will refer back to its sense of self.

Every organizing effort needs to begin by exploring and clarifying the intentions and desires of its members.

In a chaotic world, organizational identity needs to be the most stable aspect of the endeavor. Structures and programs come and go, but an organization with a coherent center is able to sustain itself through turbulence because of its clarity about who it is.

Source: Finding Our Way

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Wheatley

Information: The medium of the organization

Complex, living systems thrive in a zone of exquisitely sensitive information processing, on a constantly changing edge between stability and chaos that has been dubbed “the edge of chaos.” In this dynamic region, new information can enter, but the organization retains its identity. Contradicting most efforts to keep organizations at equilibrium, living systems seem to seek this far-from-equilibrium condition to stay alive.

When information is available everywhere, different people see different things. There is a need for many more ears and eyes.

It is information – unplanned, uncontrolled, abundant, superfluous – that creates the conditions for the emergence of fast, well-integrated, effective responses.

Source: Finding Our Way

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Wheatley

Relationships: The pathways of organization

Relationships are the pathway to the intelligence of the organization

Organizations held at equilibrium by well-designed organizational charts die. In self-organizing systems, people need access to everyone; they need to be free to reach anywhere in the organization to accomplish work.

People need opportunities to “bump up” against others in the system, making the unplanned connections that spawn new ventures or better-integrated responses.

Source: Finding Our Way

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Self-organization

Good for:Close relationship with customerValue-driven actionsAutonomy and entrepreneurship

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Self-organization

Strengths:AdaptiveMore open and trustingMore productive and satisfied work

force

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Self-organization

Weaknesses:Tactical leadership more difficultImplementation of tactics;

programs, projects, improvement (vs. innovation), can be slower and less uniform.

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Professional Learning Communities

Where does an important form of school

improvement fit into this discussion of order?

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Building Learning Communities

Shift in Scientific World View:Old View: Reality is solid, separate,

static, objectively measurable.New View: Reality is emergent,

potential, relationships (everything is connected); what you measure, you alter.

Teams are too dysfunctional:Collective lowered IQ (Group think).“I’ll tell you what I really think in

the parking lot after the meeting.”

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Building Learning Communities

Creative Organization, Creative Communities-Build bridges between scientific and

artistic thinking and communities.-Fissure or split between art and science is

both unscientific and inartistic.Both science and art are committed to both:

-Vision: Imagining the Dream; to see truths; to grasp the right; to help; to

care and love; to understand; to create; to cherish the existence and inevitability of mystery.

-Reality: Unrelenting commitment to see/discover/depict reality as it is.

Peter Senge (last two slides, “Systems Thinking in Action”, 1995)

Dimensions of a PLC

Shared and Supportive Leadership

Shared Values and Vision

Collective Learning and Application

Shared Personal Practice

Supportive Conditions Relationships Structures

(Hord, 1997)

Shared and Supportive Leadership

• Nurturing leadership among staff

• Shared power, authority and responsibility

• Broad-based decision-making that reflects commitment and accountability

Administrators share power, authority, and decision-making, while promoting and nurturing leadership.

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“School Leadership needs to be a broad concept that is separated from person, role, and a discrete set of individual behaviors. It needs to be embedded in the school community as a whole. Such a broadening of the concept of leadership suggests shared responsibility for a shared purpose of community.” --Lambert, 1998, Building Leadership Capacity in Schools

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Parallel Leadership in Command & Control

Parallel Leadership assumes equivalence of teacher and administrator leadership in school improvement processes to enhance school capacity.

Principals Teachers Strategic Leaders Pedagogical Leaders

Grounded in the values of:• Mutual trust• Shared directionality • Individual expression

--Andrews & Crowther, 2002

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Parallel Leadership in a Self –Organizing School•Roles not so clearly assigned (i.e., Pedagogical-teachers v. Strategic-principals)

•More staff positions of the school community involved (i.e., aides, custodians, secretaries, clerks, bus drivers).

•External community significantly involved (parents, neighborhood, business, advocacy groups, government, etc).

Mutually shared values and vision are even more important

Shared Values and Vision

• Espoused values and norms

• Focus on student learning with high expectations

• Shared vision and “lived” values guide teaching and learning

The staff share visions that have an undeviating focus on student learning, and support norms of behavior that guide decisions about teaching and learning.

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Core Values …

“A central, bedrock belief deeply understood and shared by every member of the organization. Core values guide the actions of everyone in the organization; they focus its energy and are the anchor point for all its plans.”

--Jon Saphier & John D’AuriaHow to Bring Vision to School

Improvement

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Shared Vision

“The organization becomes a living entity, of which each member of the collective body is a guardian, engaged in bringing about the group’s purpose. Building shared understanding of the grand vision is a continuous process of endless dialogue.”

---Charlotte Roberts

Collective Learning and Application

• Sharing information and dialogue

• Collaboration and problem solving

• Application of knowledge, skills and strategies

The staff share information and work collaboratively to plan, solve problems, and improve learning opportunities.

Shared Personal Practice

• Peer observations to offer knowledge, skills and encouragement

• Sharing outcomes of instructional practices and feedback to improve these practices

• Analysis of student work and related practices

Peers meet and observe one another to provide feedback on instructional practices, to assist in student learning, and to increase human capacity.

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Reform must impact not merely communal cultures, but instructional cultures around teaching and learning where: Change in instructional practices results in

measurable improvements in student learning Educational leaders must provide structures,

strategies, and support for an exchange of practices

-- Supovitz & Christman, 2003

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• Structures • Communication systems • Facilities (space) • Resources (time, money, materials and people) that

enable staff to meet and examine practices and student outcomes

• Collegial relationships• Caring relationships• Trust and respect • Recognition and celebration• Risk-taking• Unified effort to embed change to develop norms of

inquiry and improvement…a caring culture across the entire system involving all stakeholders

Supportive Conditions

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Data; Now What?Or

Don’t Exchange Old Stupid for New Stupid

Don’t use data in stupid ways.Don’t use research in simple-minded ways.Do use management data as well as achievement

data.Focus on questions, not data. Use relevant data

to help raise, discuss, and answer the questions.Learn how to ask the right and essential

questions.Not all test scores are worth using. Not all

research is good. Get skilled at distinguishing the difference.

Pay attention to your district’s Data Quality, Data Capacity, and Data Culture.

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Avoiding Old Stupid to New Stupid, continued

Learn to distinguish between data that help instructional decisions and those that don’t.

Data are not information, knowledge, or wisdom (the latter three are only possible when data are thoughtfully processed by the human mind).

Learn more about stats, research design, and measurement.

Thoughtful and informed collaboration around what the data mean is more powerful than taking one person’s analysis as the truth.

Review David Bohm on The Incoherence of Thought…we create our own realities, and “the data” are one more creation of human thought and perception.

Being “driven by data” has a psychopathic sound to it.

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Yet More ways to avoid the Old and New Stupid

Consider cohort data, long term data (what and how are your graduates doing? For elementary, how are your kids doing in middle school; for 6th grade, how are your kids doing in 7th grade, etc.), and data other than achievement test data.

Can students help you gather and analyze data? Why not? The New Stupid: “If you can’t measure it, it doesn’t matter” The Old Stupid: “Test scores and data don’t matter, they don’t

tell us what’s important, they’ll only be used to stifle creative learning and punish (my) creative teaching…(and I don’t understand all that research gibberish anyway).

For insight on the last two bullets, refer yet again to Bohn and The Incoherence of Thought, in the first Power Point.

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More on avoiding Old Stupid to New Stupid

Everything the previous bullets said about data can also apply to the buzz phrase “research-based best practice”.

Read the entire December 08/January 09 issue of Education Leadership. This slide and the previous three are based on it, especially articles by Frederick Hess, David Ronka, Mary Ann Lachat, Rachel Slaughter, Julie Meltzer, Paul Barton, Richard Coley, Bill Preble, Larry Taylor, Roberta Buhle, Camille L.Z. Blacowicz, Jennifer L. Steele, Kathryn Parker Boudett, Elliot Washor, Karen Arnold, Charles Mojkowski, Mike Schmoker, and James Popham.

Jack Parker once lost a debate with Jim Popham. The debate question? “Resolved, standardized tests and testing should be eliminated from PK-12 education” Jack unwisely agreed to argue the affirmative.

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“Signs of health in community rest not in how interconnected and bonded the group feels, but how flexibly and responsively it moves from its existing reality toward the one it desires.”

--Gozdz, 2000

Better suited to PLCs?

Command-and-ControlCommand-and-Control Self-organizationSelf-organization

Foundation Newtonian Science New Science

Metaphor Sees the world as a machine Sees the world as a living system

OrderWithout human (leader) intervention,

there is no order

Self-organizing – the world naturally creates order through interconnected networks

Leaders role Create stability and control Create meaning and relationships

Important mindset certainty and predictability uncertainty and ambiguity

Emphasis on: separate parts/directives relationships

Problem/solution approach Reductive/ ReactiveEmergent/ Imaginative and

experimental

External environment Independent from In relationship with

Work is: Isolated and controlled Collective and referenced to purpose

Overarching value Control Trust

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What do you believe about how order is formed?What learning, unlearning, and relearning needs

to occur within you to be prepared for leading schools into the future?

Why do think PLCs have gained momentum as a means of organization in schools?

What works against this form of organization in schools?

What would you do as a leader to foster PLCs? Why?

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The PLCO is an organizer revealing attitudes and practices from study data that promote or hinder school efforts under each of the five PLC dimensions. Themes lie on a continuum of progress per dimension from initiation to institutionalization (Huffman & Hipp, 2003).

The PLCA assesses staff perceptions of schools as PLCs based on the five dimensions and themes found in the study (Olivier, Hipp & Huffman, 2003).

The PLCDR is used for school staff to reflect on their school culture and to delineate the progression of specific school level practices that reflect each dimension through each level of change (Hipp, 2003).

Module, pp. 142-148

Professional Learning Community ToolsDerived from SEDL Research Project

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PLCO and PLCDR both include:

Hord’s 5 Dimensions of a PLC: Shared and supportive leadership Shared values and vision Collective learning and application Shared personal practice Supportive Conditions – Relationships and

Structures

Fullan’s Phases of Change Initiation Implementation Institutionalization

External Relationships and Support

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Using tools as dialogue starters…

Complete the PLCA. Discuss responses to each item (Optional)

Complete the PLCDR. Rate your school on each dimension along the continuum.

Provide evidence for your ratings. Discuss at tables. Consider these tools and the implications

for your SIP goal. How can you engage staff in a related

dialogue around your goal? Report your thoughts in the total group.

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“My premise is that this culture, and we as members of it, have yielded too easily to what is doable and practical…In the process we have sacrificed the pursuit of what is in our hearts. We find ourselves giving in to our doubts, and settling for what we know how to do, or can learn to do, instead of pursuing what matters most to us and living with the adventure and anxiety that this requires.”

--Peter Block, 2002, The Answer to How is Yes

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“Ultimately, your leadership in a culture of change will be judged as

effective or ineffective not by who you are as a leader but by what

leadership you produce in others.”

-- Fullan, 2003

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What implications do command-and-control, self-

organization, and PLCs have for your SIP?