Understanding and Facilitating Systems Change Cardinal Stritch University EDU 575: Leading Organizational Development Dr. Jack Parker Dr. Robert Davidovich Copyright (Robert Davidovich, Jack Parker, 2010) This work is the intellectual property of the authors. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for noncommercial, educational purposes, provided that the copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that copying is by permission of the authors. To disseminate otherwise or to be republished requires written permission of the author.

Systems Change When is it time to help our education systems become better? and When is it time to help our education systems become different?

Two Responsibilities of Leadership Get better Improve to get the most out of what is already present. Become different Innovate to bring forth what is not present.

Improvement is not Enough The important challenge facing school leaders, at all levels, is to realize that improving and innovating are both necessary and that both need to be a part of their leadership repertoire. Source: Davidovich, Nikolay, Laugerman, Commodore (2010),“Beyond School Improvement: The Journey to Innovative Leadership”, Corwin Press

Becoming Different Becoming different goes beyond continuously getting better. It involves concepts such as: Transformation Adaptive challenges Innovation

Much of what we have learned about managing improvement, won’t help us innovate. We must learn how to lead for “becoming different.”

Innovation What it is Why it is important Designing an environment that is a seedbed for visionary thinking and adaptive action.

Egg Video

Although we try, transformation cannot be externally mandated or directed. It can only be provoked. Change in internal meaning, not change by external mandate, is the source and catalyst for living system transformation. - Stephanie Pace Marshall

Becoming Different Becoming different is not just doing something new; it is building capacity for doing things in a new way – to build capacity for ongoing change.

S-curve: reveals what is involved in ongoing change.

S-curve Life Cycle

What ideas in education are at the mature stage of the S-curve life cycle? What ideas are at the growth stage? What ideas are at the introduction stage?

S-curve Life Cycle In innovative systems, the need for transformation is provoked here not here

Leaping to a New Life Cycle

Beyond Improvement To maintain relevancy with the external environment, we all must get better at addressing problems where current know-how won’t create the answers. This is leading for innovation.

Technical problems Adaptive challenges those problems where people apply current know-how to develop solutions (“best practices”) challenges where a new way must be learned in order to solve the problem (“new, untested, and uncertain”) Heifetz and Linsky (2002), Leadership on the Line, Harvard Business School Press

Technical problem (Improvement) a solution is already known the knowledge and capacity exist to solve the problem a proven procedure exists to gradually teach someone how to do it Adaptive challenge (Innovation) the necessary knowledge to solve the problem does not yet exist requires creating the knowledge and the tools to solve the problem in the act of working on it Wagner, et al (2006), Change Leadership: A Practical guide to Transforming Our Schools, Jossey-Bass.

Adaptive Challenges Adaptive challenges are addressed through new discoveries and new learning and they require adjustments in attitudes, values, and behaviors before they can be successful. Heifetz and Linsky (2002), Leadership on the Line, Harvard Business School Press

Leadership Dynamic What’s the work? Who does the work? Technical Create solutions Formally identified Adaptive Create meaning Everyone

Leadership Challenge “Indeed, the single most common source of leadership failure we’ve been able to identify – in politics, community life, business, or the non- profit sector – is that people, especially those in positions of authority, treat adaptive challenges like technical problems.” Heifetz and Linsky (2002), Leadership on the Line, Harvard Business School Press

Leaping to a New Life Cycle What it takes to lead hereand what it takes to lead here are two very different things. IMPROVEMENT INNOVATION

Important Distinction Leading for improvement and leading for innovation require very different leadership attributes. Improvement values: Quantitative measurement Regulating Stabilizing Controlling variables, and Standardization Innovation at the other, less familiar/comfortable end of the leadership continuum values: Ambiguity Uncertainty Letting disturbances create imbalance so that old ways can break apart – creating the space for renewal and adaptation

Dilemma The principles on the innovative side of the leadership spectrum are counter to what we have learned about leading change in traditional, command-and- control organizations. This creates a dilemma both for leadership and for what employees expect from leadership.

Source: Davidovich, Nikolay, Laugerman, Commodore (2010), “Beyond School Improvement: The Journey to Innovative Leadership”, Corwin Press American Heritage Dictionary Equilibrium. 1. A condition in which all acting influences are canceled by others resulting in a stable, balanced, or unchanging system. 2. Physics. The condition of a system in which the resultant of all acting forces is zero …. Leader-centeredIdea-centered

Leader’s role Create stability Use instability to create meaning and relationships Leader’s role Important Mindset Certainty and predictability Uncertainty and ambiguity Important Mindset Overarching value ControlTrust Overarching value

Command-and-Control Expectations Reduce uncertainty Eliminate disturbances Analyze carefully Correct deviations Specify in detail Coordinate carefully Eliminate overlap Power emanates from the top

Technical problem a solution is already known a proven procedure exists to gradually teach someone how to do it Adaptive challenge the necessary knowledge to solve the problem does not yet exist requires creating the knowledge and the tools to solve the problem in the act of working on it

Key Elements: Identity Information Relationships

It Starts with Common Purpose “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

Leadership Paradox “Great organizations keep clear the difference between their core values (which never change) and operating strategies and cultural practices (which endlessly adapt to a changing world).” As a leader, your real work is to help your organization: Never change, while helping it endlessly adapt. Jim Collins, (2005). Good to great and the social sectors: Why business thinking is not the answer. (Monograph). San Francisco: Elements Design Group

Leading Organizational Change Getting Better Becoming Different Improvement-orientation: seeking solutions from within current capacities Purpose: Manage for results Strategy: Define preferred state Goals/objectives Delineate action Success – progress toward goal Innovation-orientation: seeking solutions from outside of current capacities Purpose: Designing an environment that is a seedbed for visionary thinking and adaptive action Strategy: Create context Disturb the system Connect the system to itself Success – a high performing, adaptive culture Technical ProblemsAdaptive Challenges

What improvement do you think would help make progress toward your goal by solving a major problem, and what innovation might address the major challenge?

Leading Toward the Future As you look to your district’s future, do you see what lies ahead as technical problems or as adaptive challenges? Are you hoping to help your organization get better or become different?

Your SIP Challenge: Technical or Adaptive? Examining the main challenges and problems identified in your SIP, are you dealing more with technical problems or adaptive challenges?