Bassett Leadership Change Agency V 13 New

Change Agency Leadership
Patrick F. Bassett, NAIS President

bassett@nais.org
Required Reading
for the
Admin Team
Creating the Conditions for Success
What is (or should be) on your leadership/change agenda?

Message to Parents: “We’re preparing children for their future, not your past.”
Message to Faculty: “Don’t bother with the ‘The colleges (or secondary schools)
won’t like it’ excuse: The colleges (or secondary schools) will like it.” (Ask them.)
1.Leading from the Middle
2.Managing Difficult Conversations
3.Cultivating the First Followers
4.Dan Pink on the “Science of Motivation.”
5.Dan & Chip Heath on Orchestrating Change: Switch: “How To Change
Things When Change Is Hard”
6.IDEO on Design.
Creating a Movement ~ Derek Sivers, Ted Talk
PFB: Of the first three dancing guys, how many
are really good dancers?
Creating a Movement – 4 Principles
1. A lone nut does something great...

(PFB: Leaders don’t have to be talented, just a bit crazy.)
2. …but no movement without the first follower.

(PFB: You can’t care about the risk of looking crazy.)
3. Cultivate and celebrate the first follower…

(PFB: Show the way, then honor the first followers: e.g., Joe Biden in
catechism class)
4. …or have the courage to be the first follower.

(PFB: Moral courage the 1st virtue: Be the John Hancock to Thomas
Jefferson or the Reverend Abernathy to Martin Luther King, Jr.)
Return
Play Return See 11:00 – 13:07
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.htm
Drivers:
•Autonomy
•Mastery
•Purpose
Dan Pink’s Drive: The Surprising Truth
about What Motivates Us
 Extrinsic Motivators (carrot & stick) for Faculty?
– Carrot (“pay for performance”); and
– Stick (“probation and firing”).
– How are these motivators going in school?
– What are the equivalent extrinsic motivators for students?
 Intrinsic Motivators for Faculty?
– Autonomy
– Mastery
– Purpose
– What are the equivalent intrinsic motivators for students? Where do
we see these at work for kids?
 Case Study: Name a school change agenda item we’re not making much
progress on: How could we motivate a la Pink?
The Best Way To Pay
“How Gen Y & Boomers Will Reshape Your Agenda” HBR Jul-Aug 2009
What employees value “at least as much as compensation”

Boomers Gen Y/Millenials
1. High quality colleagues
2. Intellectually stimulating
environment
3. Autonomy regarding work tasks Pink’s first principle, autonomy
4. Flexible work arrangements
5. Access to new Pink’s second principle, mastery

experiences/challenges
6. Giving back to world through Pink’s third principle, purpose
work
7. Recognition from one’s employer
The Best Way To Pay

1. High quality colleagues
2. Flexible work arrangements
3. Prospects for advancement
5. A steady rate of
advancement/promotion
6. Access to new
experiences/challenges
The Best Way To Pay

1. High quality colleagues 1. High quality colleagues
2. Intellectually stimulating 2. Flexible work arrangements

environment
3. Autonomy regarding work tasks 3. Prospects for advancement
4. Flexible work arrangements 4. Recognition from one’s employer
5. Access to new 5. A steady rate of

experiences/challenges advancement/promotion
6. Giving back to world through 6. Access to new
work experiences/challenges
Which motivator can be counter-
productive to organizational goals?
Professional Development in Independent Schools:

 “Here’s $2000 per year to spend as you like: go grow.”
 As opposed to, “Here’s $2000 each, join or form an online

PLC -professional learning community- on one of the
following topics, and design your professional development
program around that topic, reporting out to the faculty at the
end of the year: 1.) differentiated instruction; 2.) brain-
based learning; 3.) blended high-tech/high touch classroom
environments; 4.) formative testing.”
Return
Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is
Hard ~Chip and Dan Heath (Sticky Messages)
The Rider vs. the Elephant

(e.g., adoption of new technology)
1. Direct the Rider (mind)

Find the bright spots
Script the first critical moves
Send a postcard of the destination
2. Motivate the Elephant (heart)

Find the feeling
Shrink the change (limit the choices
– cf. Sheena Ivenger)
Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is
Hard ~Chip and Dan Heath (Sticky Messages)
Return
3. Shape the Path (path)
Tweak the environment
 Build the habits
 Rally the herd
 Example:
– Crystal Jones, TFA first-grade teacher in an inner city school in
Atlanta where there was no kindergarten. “By the end of this school
year, you are going to be third graders.”
– Geoffrey Canada: “If you child attends this school, he or she will go
to college.”
 Case Study: Name a school change agenda item we’re not making
Robert Kegan’s Immunity to Change
Intentions and Actions: The Gap
----------- Well-Intentioned
Goals:
PFB Case Study 1:

Quitting Smoking
Well-Intentioned Behaviors I
Goals: Do/Don’t Do that
Undermine Goal
Quitting Smoking
Well- Behaviors I
Intentioned Do/Don’t Do
Goals: that Undermine
Goal
Quitting Smoking Sneaking an

occasional smoke
Rewarding
myself with a
smoke.
Well- Behaviors I Invisible

Intentioned Do/Don’t Do Competing
Goals: that Drivers
Undermine
Goal
Quitting Sneaking an
Smoking occasional
smoke
Rewarding
myself with a
smoke.
Well-Intentioned Behaviors I Invisible Competing

Goals: Do/Don’t Do that Drivers
Undermine Goal
Quitting Smoking Sneaking an Smoking as
occasional smoke pleasurable pastime
Rewarding myself Smoking as anxiety

with a smoke. reliever
Smoking as oral
fixation preferable to
eating/weight gain
Foot on gas……………………and on brake

Well- Behaviors I Invisible Big, Untested
Intentioned Do/Don’t Do that Competing Assumptions
Goals: Undermine Goal Drivers Behind Col 3
Drivers
Quitting Sneaking an Smoking as

Smoking occasional smoke pleasurable
pastime
Rewarding myself Smoking as
with a smoke. anxiety reliever
Smoking as oral
fixation
preferable to
eating/weight
gain
Intentioned Do/Don’t Do that Competing Assumptions
Goals: Undermine Goal Drivers Behind Col 3
Drivers
Quitting Sneaking an Smoking as I can’t find
Smoking occasional smoke pleasurable equally
pastime pleasurable
alternatives
Rewarding myself Smoking as I might
with a smoke. anxiety reliever become
someone who
is not me
Smoking
preferable to
eating/weight
Change: Identify drivers and assumptions. Test the assumptions.
gain
Well-Intentioned
Goals:
Case Study 2:
Be an Innovator
Lead the Change

Agenda
Undermine Goal
PFB Case Study 2:

Be a Change Agent
Lead the Change

Agenda
Undermine Goal
Case Study 2: Fail to align

Be a Change Agent resources and
incentives
Lead the Change Make the case for
Agenda the rider but not the
elephant
Well-Intentioned Behaviors I Invisible

Goals: Do/Don’t Do that Competing
Undermine Goal Drivers
Case Study 2: Fail to align

Be a Change resources and
Agent incentives
Lead the Change Make the case for

Agenda the rider but not
the elephant
Well-Intentioned Behaviors I Invisible
Goals: Do/Don’t Do that Competing Drivers
Undermine Goal
Be a Change Agent Fail to align Keeping peace more

resources and important than
incentives effecting change
Lead the Change Make the case for Fear that you won’t
Agenda the rider but not the have followers; that
elephant the change won’t
work - seen as a
failure
Intentioned Do/Don’t Do Competing Assumptions
Goals: that Drivers Behind Col 3
Undermine Drivers
Goal
Be a Change Fail to align Keeping peace
Agent resources and more important
incentives than effecting
change
Lead the Make the case Fear that the
Change for the rider but change won’t
Agenda not the work - seen as
elephant a failure; fear
change agent
punished
Intentioned Do/Don’t Do Competing Assumptions
Goals: that Drivers Behind Col 3
Undermine Drivers
Goal
Be a Change Fail to align Keeping peace No one wants
Agent resources and more important change
incentives than effecting
change
Lead the Make the case Fear that the Failure will be
Change for the rider but change won’t punished
Agenda not the work - seen as instead of
elephant a failure; fear trying being
change agent rewarded
punished Return
PFB on the Seven Stages of the Change Cycle
Source: Center for Ethical Leadership (Bill Grace, Pat Hughes, & Pat Turner), Kellogg National Leadership Program Seminar,
Snoqualine, WA, 7/10/97. Reference: William Bridges, Transitions; Kurt Lewin, Field Theory in Social Science; Virginia Satir, The
Satir Model; George David, Compressed Experience Workplace Simulation; Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, On Death & Dying; Tom Peters,
In Search of Excellence.
 The research on change indicates that there are

predictable stages individuals experience whenever a
major change event appears. What are they?
 Exercise:
 Identify 2 major change events in your life
 Indicate the stages you went through as the change
occurred.
 As a small group determine what stages you had in
common despite differences in the change events you
were thinking of.
The Seven Stages of the Change Cycle
Source: Center for Ethical Leadership (Bill Grace, Pat Hughes, & Pat Turner), Kellogg National Leadership Program Seminar,
Snoqualine, WA, 7/10/97. Reference: William Bridges, Transitions; Kurt Lewin, Field Theory in Social Science; Virginia Satir, The
Satir Model; George David, Compressed Experience Workplace Simulation; Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, On Death & Dying; Tom Peters,
In Search of Excellence.
1. Business as Usual: the routine; the frozen state; the

status quo
2. External Threat: potential disaster; propitious change
event; an ending; a “death in the family”; an unfreezing via
the introduction of a foreign element; disequilibrium;
dissatisfaction with the status quo.
3. Denial: refusal to read the Richter scale; anger and rage;
chaos.
The Seven Stages of the Change Cycle
4. Mourning: confusion; depression.
5. Acceptance: letting go.
6. Renewal: creativity; the incubation state of new

ideas and epiphanies; new beginnings; movement;
vision of what “better” might look like;
reintegration; first practical steps; practice of new
routines.
7. New Structure: sustainable change; the new status
quo; new “frozen” state of restored equilibrium;
spiritual integration; internalization and
transformation of self.
Overcoming Resistance to Change
Conventional Wisdom: Raise the Volume…

 Declare war, demonize the enemy, mobilize the
public
Problems with Raising the Volume in School

Culture…
 Skepticism: Teachers are intellectuals--declarations
of imminent collapse are met with suspicion.
 Good is the enemy of great: Jim Collins’ Good to

Great. Absence of provoking crisis makes avoidance
easy.
Problems with Raising the Volume in School Culture…

 Success: Track record of independent schools the
greatest impediment to change: We can’t declare war
when schools are enjoying decades of peace and
prosperity. So why advocate change????
 Increasingly the public identifies high quality schools with
innovativeness, and least identifies innovativeness with
independent schools.
 The independent school model may not be financially
sustainable in it current incarnation of skyrocketing tuitions.
 What’s best for kids needs to be reasserted as institutions
almost always over time gravitate towards doing what’s best for
adults.
Effecting Change
Developing Followership for Change:
 Coercive model works (“We’re about to close unless all

faculty including department chairs teach five classes
instead of four with 20-25 kids in each class”)…
…but it works at a high cost to morale.
 Appeal to idealism works (“We have an opportunity to

create a new model here and become pioneers”)…
…but it works only if you have a highly committed
“band of brothers” and strong, visionary, and
inspirational leadership.
Effecting Change
Developing Buy-in for Change:
 Mutual benefit (“What’s in it for me?”) model works

(“Beyond supporting this direction because ‘it’s the right
thing to do,’ we are designing a new framework that is
mutually beneficial to the school and its staff”)…
…but it works only if you build in significant
incentives.
Alternative to Conventional Wisdom (Raise

the Volume)…
Lower the Noise…
By…
 Talking about/Personalizing Change:
Anticipating the Seven Stages
 Betting on the Fastest Horses
Acknowledging Denial & Mourning
Stages of Change
All change begins not with a beginning but an
ending.
• Example: Getting married = end of…

being single
unconditional love
having your own bathroom (and towels)
the sports car
Effecting Change
Abstracting and Personalizing Change
Faculty exercise: What are your own major change events? A

move? Marriage? Admin job? Can we predict & prepare for stages?
Change Agency: Bet on the Fast Horses
 Main Impediment to Change:

Consensus model of decision making.
(“My biggest challenge is convincing my faculty
members that they are not self-employed.”) ~Lou Salza
 Coalition-building Model: Betting on the Fastest Horses: targeted

buy-in via modeling. Ride the “tipping point” horses. (Malcolm
Gladwell’s mavens, connectors, and salespeople).
 Recruiting “the coalition of the willing.” Margaret Mead Dictum:

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the
world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
Case Studies
 Professionalizing the
Profession
 Student and School Outcomes
for the 21 C:
st
Demonstrations of Learning
Change Agency Case Study #1
Professionalizing the
Profession at your School
Strategic Issue: Professionalizing the Profession
Source: Katherine Boles, HGSE/NAIS Seminar, Nov. 2006
Characteristic Not a Profession A Profession

Career Path Egalitarianism — no career Recognition for achievement
ladder — clearly defined career path
Professional Relationships Isolation — practice is a Teaming — practices
freelance craft characterized by teamwork
and collaboration
Entry and Training Poor preparation — "anyone Rigor — High entry
can do it" requirements: standards,
skills, testing
Induction Little or no mentoring Mentoring is the expectation
& the norm
Professional Development Weak or nonexistent Integral to the career
Research Practice unrelated to research Research informs practice
Accountability Outcomes unrelated to Accountability across the
promotion and salary board
Power Structure Little impact on institutional Shared decision making
decisions
Return
The End!
“So what’s it gonna be, eh?”
A Clockwork Orange
NAIS Strategic Planning: Breakout Groups
(partnerships; school of future;
sustainability, etc.)
Return
Why doesn’t anyone want to sit at the innovation table?

Design Thinking by IDEO (Fred Dust)
 Know the threats to your value proposition. For Higher Ed? For independent
schools?
– Fred Dust: The moment Google starts hiring smart self-educated people who
submit digital portfolios of what they can do instead of college transcripts of
what they know, the higher ed value proposition is in jeopardy.
– PFB: High Tech High.
 Think people first, not business or technology first.

– Segway vs. Zip cars & bikes
– PFB: Hardware before peopleware?
 Question assumptions about your users. Look but don't ask, because you'll
get misinformation: What kind of music do you listen to when alone in your
car? Watch people in context. (IDEO design teams include psychologists and
anthropologists.)
– What assumptions do we make about our students? Colleagues?
– How do we punish those who don’t conform to cultural norms?
Design Thinking by IDEO (Fred Dust)
 Expand your comparative set. For schools?

– Grad schools. Military. Museums. Summer Camp.
 Expand your Ecosystem. School 2.0. Do you really need a new

building?
– New School in NYC & Lighthouse School in Nantucket (and
all the Semester Schools).
– Dartmouth quarter plan. Blended learning ½ time.
 Build your own metrics.

– PFB: Demonstrations of Learning. Digital portfolios.
 Undertake small scale experiments. Figure out what do you

immediately.
– PFB: Challenge 20/20
Return
RSAnimate’s 21st C. Enlightenment
Play
Demonstrations of Learning:
“What you do, not what you know, the ultimate
test of education.” ~PFB Tweet
1. Conduct a fluent conversation in a foreign language about of
piece of writing in that language.
2. Write a cogent and persuasive opinion piece on a matter of

public importance.
3. Declaim with passion and from memory a passage that is

meaningful, of one’s own or from the culture’s literature or
history.
4. Demonstrate a commitment to creating a more sustainable and

global future with means that are scalable
5. Invent a machine or program a robot capable of performing a

difficult physical task.
6. Exercise leadership in arena which you have passion

and expertise.
7. Using statistics, assess if a statement by a public figure

is demonstrably true.
8. Assess media coverage of a global event from various

cultural/national perspectives.
9. Describe a breakthrough for a project-based team on

which you participated in which you contributed to
overcoming a human-created obstacle.
10. Produce or perform or interpret a work of art.

Return
Return
Tiananmen Square
Lessons in Leadership from Montpelier
How Do You Lead without Positional Power?
(How does positional power work?)
 James Madison arrived at the Philadelphia

Convention in 1787 with no positional power but a big
idea.
 Instead of reforming the Articles of Confederation,
abandon them.
 No one else except Alexander Hamilton came thinking
the Federalist Papers were right.
 Everyone left proposing a new constitution. How?
Three Sources of non-Positional Power
 Informational/Expertise Power: What are the facts?
 Interpersonal/Relational Power: High EQ trumps

all.
 Associative Power: Networking. Malcolm Gladwell’s
“tipping point” leadership: maven, connector, salesperson.
------------------------------
The Slavery Paradox of the Founding Fathers: Leadership is

the art of the messy possible within the long view context of
the ideal potential. What made abolition of slavery possible
100 years later and the election of Obama 200 years later.
Takeaways from Montpelier
How Do You Lead without Positional Power?
 Positional Power: Since it’s rooted in the

“willingness of the governed” to accept the dicta of
people in power or in coercion by force, outcomes
often compromised.
 Leaders in the Middle have real power: learn to
develop it and cultivate it.
 Leaders in the middle can and do change the world.
Remember Margaret Meade’s observation: “Never
underestimate the power of a handful of people to
change the world. After all, it’s the only thing that
Return
ever does.”
Title
1. Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What
Matters Most by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen
You’re You’re a jerk.

How’s the I hate you.
holding project
me up. coming?
Fine,
thanks.
Levels: Stated vs. Implied. Business at hand vs. Threats to my image.

Title
Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What
Matters Most by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen
The Spouse/Partner Version

She doesn’t
get what my You think you’re only
work busy one?
. it wait?
Can
demands.. You don’t love me.
I’m busy
Fine.
Return
Puzzle: Mishandled conversations create the very outcomes we dread.
Demonstrations of Learning:
“What you do, not what you know, the ultimate test of
education.” ~PFB Tweet
1. Conduct a fluent conversation in a foreign language about of

piece of writing in that language. (Stanford University requirement)
2. Write a cogent and persuasive opinion piece on a matter of
public importance.
3. Declaim with passion and from memory a passage that is

meaningful, of one’s own or from the culture’s literature or
history.
4. Demonstrate a commitment to creating a more sustainable and

global future with means that are scalable
5. Invent a machine or program a robot capable of performing a

difficult physical task.
6. Exercise leadership in arena which you have passion and

expertise.
7. Using statistics, assess if a statement by a public figure is

demonstrably true.
8. Assess media coverage of a global event from various

cultural/national perspectives. (“Arab Spring” vs. 6th grade US
history unit on “causes of the revolution”)
9. Describe a breakthrough for a project-based team on which you

participated in which you contributed to overcoming a human-
created obstacle.
10. Produce or perform or stage or interpret a work of art.

Grant Wood’s Victorian Survival
Smithsonian Podcast
interpretation by Katy
Waldman, Holton
Arms School
Return
The Five Cs Plus One
 Character
 Creativity
 Communication
 Collaboration
 Critical Thinking
-----------------------------------------------
 Cosmopolitanism – Cross Cultural Competency
Ten (more) Trends for School Leaders to Ponder
(see Top Ten Trends 2010-11 PPT for First Ten)
1. Boards Become Focused on the Strategic: Trendbook 2012-13

2. Disruptions in K-12 Sector Will Provide Challenges & Opportunities
3. Disruptions in Higher Ed Will Produce New Expectations
4. The Future of Mobile is the Future of Everything
5. Market Segmentation as the New Marketing Imperative
6. Cosmopolitanism Emerging as the “Sixth Competency” Schools of the
Future
7. Hyper-Parenting and Under-Parenting Exerting a Heavy Toll on Kids
8. Beyond the 3 R’s of Recruitment, Reward, & Retention: Managing
Talent a Priority
9. Design Thinking Migrating to Schools…and Ideas
10. Schools will be more Flexible, Accommodating, and Innovative
Are We Ready for the Big Shifts?
(cf. MacArthur Foundation, 21st. C. Learning)
The Big Shifts

 Knowing…………….. Doing
 Teacher-centered…… Student-centered
 The Individual………. The Team
 Consumption of Info….Construction of Meaning
 Schools………………..Networks (online peers & experts)
 Single Sourcing……… Crowd Sourcing
---------------------------------------------------------------------
 High Stakes Testing….. High Value Demonstration
(robotics; oral video histories; vignettes; inventions;
scholarship; etc. –all captured in a student’s digital portfolio)
Return

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Change Agency Leadership

Patrick F. Bassett, NAIS President

What is (or should be) on your leadership/change agenda?

1. A lone nut does something great...

2. …but no movement without the first follower.

3. Cultivate and celebrate the first follower…

4. …or have the courage to be the first follower.

What employees value “at least as much as compensation”

1. High quality colleagues

5. Access to new Pink’s second principle, mastery

What employees value “at least as much as compensation”

1. High quality colleagues

2. Flexible work arrangements

3. Prospects for advancement

4. Recognition from one’s employer

What employees value “at least as much as compensation”

1. High quality colleagues 1. High quality colleagues

2. Intellectually stimulating 2. Flexible work arrangements

4. Flexible work arrangements 4. Recognition from one’s employer

5. Access to new 5. A steady rate of

Professional Development in Independent Schools:

 As opposed to, “Here’s $2000 each, join or form an online

The Rider vs. the Elephant

1. Direct the Rider (mind)

2. Motivate the Elephant (heart)

PFB Case Study 1:

Quitting Smoking Sneaking an

Well- Behaviors I Invisible

Well-Intentioned Behaviors I Invisible Competing

Rewarding myself Smoking as anxiety

Foot on gas……………………and on brake

Quitting Sneaking an Smoking as

Lead the Change

PFB Case Study 2:

Lead the Change

Case Study 2: Fail to align

Well-Intentioned Behaviors I Invisible

Case Study 2: Fail to align

Lead the Change Make the case for

Be a Change Agent Fail to align Keeping peace more

 The research on change indicates that there are

1. Business as Usual: the routine; the frozen state; the

4. Mourning: confusion; depression.

5. Acceptance: letting go.

6. Renewal: creativity; the incubation state of new

Conventional Wisdom: Raise the Volume…

Problems with Raising the Volume in School

 Good is the enemy of great: Jim Collins’ Good to

Problems with Raising the Volume in School Culture…

Developing Followership for Change:

 Coercive model works (“We’re about to close unless all

 Appeal to idealism works (“We have an opportunity to

Developing Buy-in for Change:

 Mutual benefit (“What’s in it for me?”) model works

Alternative to Conventional Wisdom (Raise

• Example: Getting married = end of…

Abstracting and Personalizing Change

Faculty exercise: What are your own major change events? A

 Main Impediment to Change:

 Coalition-building Model: Betting on the Fastest Horses: targeted

 Recruiting “the coalition of the willing.” Margaret Mead Dictum:

Characteristic Not a Profession A Profession

Why doesn’t anyone want to sit at the innovation table?