Education Innovation

Boss, Leader, Builder

Change happens.

As current models become outdated, misaligned with current needs, and in some cases broken, current leaders can only continue to adjust, repair, and re-align the old model the best they can.

But, according to Umair Haque, author of a post on the Harvard Business Review blog entitled “The Builders’ Manifesto” it is not leaders that we need, but “builders.”

“What leaders ‘lead’ are yesterday’s organizations. But yesterday’s organizations… are broken.”

 “Today’s biggest human challenge isn’t leading broken organizations slightly better. It’s building better organizations in the first place. It isn’t about leadership: it’s about “buildership”, or what I often refer to as Constructivism.

“Leadership is the art of becoming, well, a leader. Constructivism, in contrast, is the art of becoming a builder — of new institutions. Like artistic Constructivism rejected “art for art’s sake,” so economic Constructivism rejects leadership for the organization’s sake — instead of for society’s.”

If what is desired is to build a new organization, what will be needed are builders.

Umaik Haque contrasts the boss, the leader, and the builder

 

 

For it is the “builder” that includes us all. The builder watches and learns, for the builder is both teacher and student. Most importantly, the builder harnesses the love. For it is the love, the love of God, Jesus, the World, and people that drives us all forward to build the organization and church of tomorrow. The builder harnesses that love.

Grungy Leadership

"If a would be leader wants glamour, he should try acting in the movies. However, if he in fact want to make a consequential impact on a cause or an organization, he needs to roll up his sleeves and be prepared to perform a series of grungy chores which are putatively beneath him, and for which he'll never receive recognition or credit, but by virtue of which his lieutenants will be inspired and enabled to achieve great things." 

Steven Sample

 

 

 

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No Leaders Left Behind

No Leaders Left Behind

If the Church is to reach the world, we are going to need thousands of new churches. In the United States alone, reports suggest that we will need 2500-3000 new churches a year to keep up with population growth. 

This creates a resulting need for thousands of new leaders who can lead these churches and the ministries that serve them. But, are we limiting our leadership search to a small leadership pool? With the demand for new leaders so clear, can we afford to leave any leaders behind? 

Typically, the approach is to look for seminary graduates and those with high leadership experience and high ministerial training. 

What Saddleback Church has realized is that this approach limits the potential pool of leadership talent. 

What about all the rest? Could not effective church and ministry leaders be found in these other pools?

We are ignoring sea of potential leaders, who, with the right training, mentoring, and experiences, could be developed into strong ministry leaders. 

With such a high need for future leaders, we cannot afford to ignore this vast pool of potential leaders. 

With this in mind, Saddleback Church created the Saddleback Church Leadership Academy to reach out to those with a calling, heart, and potential to lead ministries and churches.  Their goal is to expand the potential pool of leadership talent by creating unique leadership development paths that equip, encourage, and mentor these future leaders. 

Their method is to provide an opportunity for participants to engage and learn in the context of “doing the work”, not more classes. Tacit learning in context.

So many future church and ministry leaders have a mistaken perception that they are not qualified for ministry and do not pursue their calling. But this is a mistaken perception and one that is limiting the potential pool of future leaders to those who attended certain colleges, received degrees in certain majors, or who have been working in ministry.

By expanding the view of who has the potential to become a church planter or ministry leader, what Saddleback Church has found is that students of all majors and degrees bring unique leadership skills, insight, energy, and knowledge that is invaluable to ministries and churches.

For instance, current Leadership Academy participants have backgrounds or majors in:

Communications	Music	Psychology
Art	Finance	Public Relations
English Literature	Culinary Arts	Biology
Business	Physical Education	Accounting
Political Science	Graphic Design	Film
Liberal Studies	Journalism	Education

It’s not about having a certain degree or even graduating from a certain college. It’s about calling. 

Future leaders need a calling to lead a ministry at an existing church, plant a church, or a new campus of an existing church.

If one wants to learn how to lead a church or a ministry, the best way to accomplish that is to be in residency or as an apprentice with current church or ministry leaders. Learning in context and in community with other learners.

Over the course of a year, using a “gradual release” method, “Leadership-Mentor Faculty” walk alongside residents and apprentices; gradually releasing them to greater leadership roles, responsibilities, and opportunities. Embedded in this experience is a weekly gathering where students get "nuts-and-bolts" strategies, methods, and systems instruction.

While not discounting the role of seminary, in fact they encourage it, they don’t see it as a pre-requisite to leadership.  The goal is to open the opportunity to become a church or ministry leader to a greater pool of potential leaders to meet the leadership needs for thousands of new churches. 

Some recent lifewayresearch.com seems to support the view that experience is viewed as more important than seminary education in hiring decisions of churches. 

 
The Saddleback Church Leadership Academy believes they can harness the gifts, talents, and abilities of these future leaders through a very intentional and practical “hands-on” ministry leader apprenticeship experience. 

Their apprenticeship utilizes a “Leading-Learning-Mentoring” paradigm. 

• Developing leadership skills while learning to lead one of Saddleback Church’s ministries. 
• Learning methods and strategies directly from Saddleback pastors and staff while “doing the work.” 
• Mentoring by Saddleback pastors.
• Avenue and opportunities to get hands-on ministry leadership training and development in context. 
• Blending their explicit learning with contextual tacit learning. 
• Growing in a community of fellow future leaders. 

The Saddleback Church Leadership Academy seeks to equip, empower, and encourage individuals to pursue their ministry leadership calling. 

The Saddleback Church Leadership Academy believes that when people combine their education, experience, and God given potential with the practicum and mentoring that their ACCELERATE Ministry Leadership Apprenticeship or ELEVATE Church Planter/Multi-Site Residency provides, they will be uniquely equipped and empowered to take on leadership roles as church planters, multi-site campus leaders, or ministry leaders. 

The Saddleback Church Leadership Academy intends to...Leave No Leaders Behind. 

Also See: Saddleback Church Harnesses Social Learning

Leaders are Learners

Leaders are learners. Great leadership is demonstrated by leaders who display and model learning behaviors. One of the easiest ways to model learning behavior is asking questions. Ask yourself...

How can I personally demonstrate that "asking for and seeking help from others" is a sign of effective learning and a strength rather than a sing of weakness? 

When I am thinking about and looking at various projects, proposals, and ideas, have I ensured that knowledge from other projects, proposals, ideas, and departments have been brought to bear on this?

When I encounter a problem, how can I reinforce and model the importance of learning from others rather than providing the answers? 

How do I react to the failure of those around me. Is it a just chalked up as a loss or as an opportunity for valuable learning? 

How often do I ask, "What have you learned from others recently?" 

Am I curious about who is teaching others and who is seeking new learning in my organization? 

^{(Adopted from the book Learning To Fly by Chris Collison and Geoff Parcell)}

A simple set of questions for a leader to use to model learning behaviors as a leader. 

Your School's Secret Change Agents

School change is a challenging, necessary, and sticky business. Too often though, it begins with the search for the negative. Putting on, as thinking expert Edward de Bono would say, our “Black Hat.”

It’s a story that has been told a thousand times. A school needs to improve, to “fix what is broken” and it is up to the principal to identify what isn’t working, develop a plan to improve or repair the issues, and maybe hires a few consultants along the way to help.

What if, we started with de Bono’s “Yellow Hat?” Might the search for solutions began with finding those people at the school who are already succeeding and thriving in spite of the challenges and obstacles they face?

Because, as Harvard Business Review authors Richard Tanner Pascale and Jerry Sternin in their article “Your Company’s Secret Change Agents” point out….

“Somewhere in your organization, groups of people are already doing things differently and better. To create lasting change, find areas of positive deviance and fan their flames.”

Here is an “uncommon sense” approach to school change adapted from their article.

 

Traditional Approach To School Change	Positive Deviance Approach To School Change
Principal or Administrator as Path Breaker Primary ownership and momentum for the school change comes from the principal's office. Teachers and staff leave it up to principal to discover what isn't working and fix it.	Leadership as Inquiry Principal or administrator facilitates search; the school staff takes ownership of the quest for change. The teachers look around for positive deviance, those teachers, departments, or grade levels that are doing it differently and better.
Outside In Outside consultants are hired to identify and share best practices.	Inside Out School staff looks for and identifies preexisting solutions (what is working) and amplifies them across the school.
Deficit Based Principal deconstructs common practices and recommends best-practice solutions. The implication to teachers is "Why aren't you as good as your peers?"	Asset Based Teachers and staff leverage preexisting solutions practiced by those teachers who succeed against the odds.
Logic Driven Teachers "think" into new ways of teaching and instructing.	Learning Driven Teachers teach and instruct into new ways of "thinking."
Vulnerable To Transplant Rejection Resistance arises from ideas imported or imposed from outside consultants and or district office.	Open To Self-Replication Latent wisdom and knowledge of teachers and staff on site is tapped within the school walls to circumvent the school's culture/social reaction to outsiders.
Flows From Problem Solving To Solution Identification Best practices are applied to problems defined within the context of existing parameters.	Flows From Solution Identification To Problem Solving Possible source of solutions is expanded through discovery of new parameters.
Focused On The Protagonist Engages school stakeholders who would be conventionally associated with the problem.	Focused On Enlarging The Network Identifies school stakeholders beyond those directly involved with the problem.

The Strategy of Imagination

Umair Haque shares these thought on Harvard Business School blog.

"Today’s economics are in shock – numerous shocks are rolling across the global economic landscape.

"As economics changes, so must strategy. What was “strategic” yesterday is less and less strategic today.

"And that requires us to have strategic imagination: to be able to imagine fundamentally new possibilities for truly strategic behaviour.

"Now, that’s hard work. Very few companies are able to tap – let alone master – strategic imagination.

"Why not? Strategic imagination is tremendously difficult because it requires us to put aside yesterday’s tired assumptions and orthodoxies, and begin to actively rethink from scratch the way value can be, should be, must be, will be created.

"The surest, most lethal killer of strategic imagination is being reined in by orthodoxy: thinking that tomorrow must be like yesterday."

One of my favorite blogs is Principled Innovation by Jeff De Cagna. Jeff discusses Strategic Planning vs. Strategic Imagination.

Jeff says, "This is the definitive explanation of what is wrong with strategic planning in any form:  it is grounded in the belief that tomorrow must be like yesterday. Above all else, it is this deep-seated assumption that has made strategic planning an enduring feature of the association landscape. The vast majority of leaders in our community are terrified by the prospect of imagining a future that looks radically different from a past many still revere and a present they find disquieting but familiar. Associations have always been more comfortable with incrementalism, despite the fact that it is a total mismatch with the times, and thus threatens our community’s future prospects."

Jeff address a common problem for any organization. Education is no different. But we should be. We spend all day with students who have amazing imaginations. Who better than the kids we teach each day to come up with the most wild and fantastic stories. Who better than our kids to imagine some of the most outlandish ideas, machines, inventions, and situations.

We spend all day teaching students, but the time has come to take a lesson from our students.

It is the educator, who above all, should be able to imagine a new future, a new tomorrow. It is the educator, the one who encourages the imagination of students everyday, who should encourage the imaginations of each other to embrace a new strategy. It is we who teach students how to think, who should be able to think about what it is we will have to do in the future to be successful for our students.

Maybe we aren't experts at strategic planning, but we should be the experts of strategic imagination.

Conventional Leadership vs. Lateral Leadership

Is this the sort of leadership that your school or district needs? More from from Paul Sloane’s list of Conventional Leaders vs. Lateral Leaders found in his book The Leader’s Guide To Lateral Thinking Skills.

and

See more of these traits here (Do You Need Better or Different? )

Howard Gardner calls for "indirect leadership."

"A leader is an individual (or, rarely, a set of individuals) who significantly affects the thoughts, feelings, and/or behaviors of a significant number of individuals. Most acknowledged leaders are "direct." They address their public face-to-face. But I have called attention to an unrecognized phenomenon: indirect leadership. In this variety of leading, individuals exert impact through the works that they create.

Whether direct or indirect, leaders fashion stories: principally stories of identity. It is important that a leader be a good storyteller, but equally crucial that the leader embody that story in his or her life. When a leader tells stories to experts, the stories can be quite sophisticated; but when the leader is dealing with a diverse, heterogeneous group, the story must be sufficiently elemental to be understood by the untutored, or 'unschooled,' mind."

Which does your school or district need?

Catalytic Questions:

In what ways is your communication style growing to meet the needs of your school or district?  Will the way you communicate change in the future or remain the same?

What problems are you working on that would benefit from empowering someone else to solve it?

Are you current hiring practices bringing in the most talented candidates? Are there alternatives to you current hiring practices that might improve your results?

How might you look to the past to find new approaches to your current issues?

In what ways might you combine ideas from outside of education to develop new and innovative ideas in education?

How might you encourage and empower your staff to share their ideas?

Which sort of leadership will help you reach your goals, more of the same or lateral or indirect leadership?

Six Elements of a Good Decision In A PLC

Professional Learning Communities make decisions everyday. But are they good decisions? How do you know? What makes a good decision?

Here are 6 Elements of a Good Decision from Carl Spetzler, director of the Strategic Decision and Risk Management program at Stanford University and CEO of the Strategic Decisions Group. (Via Kim Girard of Bnet)

1. The right frame — making sure you’re solving the right problem in the first place.

2. Clarity about what you want.

3. Creative alternatives.

4. Gathering the right information, including information about uncertainty, which is essential if you want to choose the best alternative.

5. Reasoning, which includes what you know and what you don’t.

6. A commitment to make it happen, since a decision is no stronger than its weakest link.

The Builder- Designing The Future of Educational Leadership

If we are to create "tomorrow's" educational organization and model, are the leaders of "yesterday's" model the leaders we will need to build "tomorrow's" model?

If education is to be transformed, should we not transform its leaders? If we are to create a new educational organization, then does it follow, we would need a new style of educational leader?

Current educational leaders are skilled at leading in yesterday's model. Today's educational leaders are attempting to fit the needs of "tomorrow" into the organization and model of "yesterday." The educational organization has created leaders who are skilled at operating within that model. But as the model becomes outdated, misaligned with current needs, and in some cases broken, current leaders can only continue to adjust, repair, and re-align the old model the best they can. What they are not able to do is build a new organization. For, according to Umair Haque, author of a post on the Harvard Business Review blog entitled "The Builders' Manifesto" it is not leaders that we need, but "builders."

"What leaders 'lead' are yesterday's organizations. But yesterday's organizations... are broken."

"Today's biggest human challenge isn't leading broken organizations slightly better. It's building better organizations in the first place. It isn't about leadership: it's about "buildership", or what I often refer to as Constructivism.

"Leadership is the art of becoming, well, a leader. Constructivism, in contrast, is the art of becoming a builder — of new institutions. Like artistic Constructivism rejected "art for art's sake," so economic Constructivism rejects leadership for the organization's sake — instead of for society's."

Educational leaders are formed by the needs of the organization of the past. They were developed within a broken organization, to meet the leadership needs of a broken organization, and are skilled at leading a broken organization. But, if what is desired is to build a new organization, what will be needed are educational builders.

Umaik Haque contrasts the boss, the leader, and the builder in piece on

The Boss	The Leader	The Builder
drives group members	coaches them	learns from them
depends upon authority	depends on good will	depends on good
inspires fear	inspires enthusiasm	is inspired — by changing the world
says "I"	says "we"	says "all" — people, communities, and society
assigns the task	leader sets the pace	sees the outcome
says, "Get there on time."	gets there ahead of time	makes sure "getting there" matters.
fixes the blame for the breakdown	fixes the breakdown	prevents the breakdown.
knows how	shows how	shows why
makes work a drudgery	makes work a game	organizes love, not work.
says, "Go."	says, "Let's go."	says: "come."

For it is the "builder" that includes us all, student, teacher, parent, communities, and society, in the design. The builder watches and learns from both teacher and student. Most importantly, the builder harnesses the love. For it is the love, the love of learning, the love of students, and the love of teaching that drives us all forward to build the education organization of tomorrow. The builder harnesses that love.

Philosopher Emile Chartier said, "Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it is the only one we have." Might it be time to build a new idea of what educational leadership should be for the future?

Catalytic Questions:

When was the last time you revisited your view of leadership in education? Would you benefit from a fresh look at what education leadership is or needs to be?

Can we continue to rearrange our existing resources, methods, and strategies or is it time that we build an entirely new model of what education is?

Should construction start with demolition before building?

In what ways can you become a builder? How might that impact your school?

Suggested Reading:

What if your school blew up?: The Little Becky approach to school reform

Education Needs To Take A Trip

Trust. We all want it, but do we all give it? It is a crucial issue for teachers and administrators.

Chapter 3 of the book The Collaborative Administrator is titled “Trust: The Secret Ingredient to Successful Shared Leadership.”

Trust is a key to school success.
“What then should a principal do to lay a foundation of trust in a school?”

 DWYSYWD- Do What You Say You Will Do

Further the authors believe the administrator should…

• Operate with honesty and integrity
• Make yourself available
• Demonstrate a caring attitude
• Listen
• Encourage risk-taking
• Share decision-making
• Value dissent
• Don’t allow accountability to consume teachers
• Make certain that teachers have what they need to teach
• Be prepared to confront ineffective teachers

Trust is the first step on a journey to successful schools, the first step of a TRIP that all schools and Professional Learning Communities must make. 

Dov Seidman, author of HOW: Why HOW We Do Anything Means Everything...in Business (and in Life) came up with the acronym T.R.I.P. 

Trust

“Trusting in a sense, means giving something away and ceding power to others, an essential step in achieving the outward focus needed in a hyperconnected world. Trust empowers others, but because it is a virtue.” 

In the classroom that means taking the first step to give away our perception of control and to trust the students and teachers. As an administrator, you must give power away to others to develop trust in them and their trust in you.

Risk
If there is no trust, “We drive slower, act cautiously, shrink our circle of friends and associates, and generally default more conservative impulses. When there is trust in the room, however, all of these tendencies are reversed. We are secure and so can act boldly. We feel free to invent new process…”

We experiment and try new things. Imagine how a student would feel if he or she was secure enough to try new things, stretch themselves, and take a risk without fear of failure. Imagine if your teachers felt they could take risks that might need to new ways of better meeting the needs of students. Teachers who feel trusted will be more likely to innovate and create and share better ideas and practices.

Innovation

“In a trusting environment, everyone feels emboldened to take more risks. They challenge the system more, they solve problems, and they don’t stay in small boxes afraid to venture into new territory for fear of criticism (by bosses or colleagues). Innovation flows from this creative spirit.” 

In a trusting environment teachers would be more open to teaching a new grade or teaching a new class. With trust, a teacher will be more open to sharing new ideas and insight with colleagues. Administrators, if you felt more trust, you would be more willing to experiment with bold programs.  Teachers and administrators innovating new ideas without fear of criticism could generate great benefits for students.

Progress
“What happens when you innovate? You create progress.” 

Progress is not just limited to higher test scores. Progress extends to personal progress.

“We go on TRIPs because we want to accomplish big things. We go on TRIPs because we want to solve real problems and because we want to create lasting value.”

We go on TRIPs because helping build minds and making a difference is why we got into education in the first place. We go on TRIPs to make an impact.

But there is more to TRIP

T “The T stands for transparency, which creates trust. Interpersonal transparency is a necessary power to thrive in a connected world, and not coincidentally, it creates trust."

When the teachers you work with can see that you are being open and transparent with your ideas, lessons, plans, etc. then they develop trust in you. For a department or grade level to be successful, a condition of transparency must exist. If others think you are hiding something, then they are not going to share what they know. We have all seen or know teachers who are hoarders of ideas. We have all seen and know teachers who are territorial about ideas, or committees, or duties, etc. When these teachers are not transparent, then the others they work begin to feel they need to close up and keep their ideas or territories. We become little islands or silos, each trying to keep their ideas to themselves in hope that they will be perceived as a, “great teacher.”  Meanwhile all the kids at the school suffer from this lack of transparency. We must open up and share our best practices and ideas. All of the students deserve the best, not just the ones in my class.

R The R stands for Reputation

Do you know what your reputation is?  It may not be what you think. Perception is reality, as they say, so your reputation is largely going to be determined by the perception of those you teach and work with. It may not be what you intended it to be, but it is what others think it is.

I  The I stands for Instinct

When there is trust, this can unleash you instinct. “When you are in a trust-filled situation, these synapses are strong. The various centers of your brain communicate seamlessly and rapidly, and you can then make split-second decisions that often pay off.” 

Wouldn’t it be easier if you worked and taught in a situation that allowed you to make quick decision without second-guessing yourself due to lack of trust in your students, your co-workers, or your principal. To work in an environment of trust will allow you to make decision in the best interest of the students each and every time without going through all the machinations that those who work where there is no trust will likely go through.

However, I took the liberty of adding another meaning to the I. I The I can also stand for Individual.

We in education are being told exactly what to teach, when to teach, and how to teach. There must be room for the individual talents and ideas of each teacher or administrator. In an environment of trust, each individual teacher or administrator can offer his or her unique ideas and viewpoints.

P  The P stands for perennial prosperity.

Prosperity can mean performance. Prosperity can be translated to mean results. Trust brings results. Results from the teachers and administrators, which, in the end, translates to results from the students and the school. Performance increases steadily in the direction of great results.

Trust is key. We need to have trust. I get so tired of people who want to just talk about what has to be done without ever spending to reflect on the HOW it will be done. If we don’t figure out the HOWs then the “whats” won’t be accomplished. Is it worth our time as teachers and administrators to take some time to get our HOWs right?

So how do we get a TRIP going? You figure out where you are, where you want to go, and most importantly, you listen to each other. Our students are counting on us to get going on this TRIP.