Authentic and Aligned: Leading Contemporary
School Strategy
or …
A true story about your past, present and future
Dr Phil Cummins
Teaching and working in and with schools since 1988
Presenter, Thought Leader, Consultant, Author, Textbook Writer, Syllabus Writer, PhD in Australian History
[email protected] www.circle.org.au
Authentic and Aligned: Leading Contemporary School Strategy
Guiding Question: What strategic imperatives should sustain and drive our schools
into the future?
Setting some big picture context
“To make human civilization work well [with 21C] technologies and exist at peace with Gaia, we need another revolution, putting into place the desirable management, laws, controls, protocols, methodologies and means of governance. This is a complex and absolutely necessary transition – the 21st Century Revolution...
Whether the revolution happens smoothly depends on the education that is put in place and how widely it is acted upon.”
- Martin J (2003) The meaning of the 21st century
Authentic Leadership
Building authentic leadership in teams through values and relationships:
transformation, sustainability and servanthood
In your school …
Who is the leader? Who is the strategic thinker?
The Principal and executive teachers?
The Board?
You?
If not you, then who else?
A model for contemporary school leadership
Leadership that motivates, influences and directs others to achieve the team’s goals willingly: • Authenticity:
acknowledging truth – “For real”
• Transformation: enabling change – “For change”
• Sustainability: nurturing the team and protecting resources – “For life”
• Service: serving others first – “For others”
Excellence in values,
rela/onships, learning and
leadership at all levels in your
school
Authen/city
Transforma/on
Sustainability
Service
Contemporary Leadership 101
Leadership begins with identifying and understanding our values.
We construct our identities as individuals and as members of our community by negotiating the relevance of our values in our daily lives.
We should try to answer some penetrating questions: • Who am I? • Where do I fit in? • How might I serve others?
Strategic thinking • ‘Seeing ahead’ • ‘Seeing behind’ • ‘Seeing above’ • ‘Seeing below’ • ‘Seeing beside’ • ‘Seeing beyond’ • ‘Seeing it through’
- Mintzberg H (1995) ‘Strategic Thinking as Seeing’, in B Garratt (ed) Developing Strategic Thought, pp 67–70
Your role? Seeing where others do not
Strategic competency
“The ability to articulate guiding values, develop and communicate a shared vision, develop a strategy, and motivate others to move forward in a common direction”
- Hallinger P and Snidvongs K (2008) ‘Educating Leaders: Is There Anything to Learn from Business Management?’ p 19
Your role? Strategic agency
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein
Getting lost in the detail?
Getting lost in the detail?
Strategic architecture is “not a detailed plan. It identifies the major capabilities to be built, but doesn’t specify exactly how they are to be built. It shows the relative position of the major load-bearing structures, but not the placement of every electrical outlet and doorknob.”
- Hamel G and Prahalad CK (1994) Competing for the Future, pp118-9
Strategic focus
Why? 90%
How? 10%
Strategic foundation
“How groups and organizations engage in strategic conversations and the quality of those conversations is the foundation of strategic thinking”
- Davies B (2003) `Rethinking Strategy and Strategic Leadership in Schools', Educational Management Administration & Leadership 31 (3) p 297
Your role? Promoting conversations
Today’s Conversation
1. Thinking about strategy 2. Strategic imperatives for schools:
1. Being strategically envisioned and structured 2. Being mission-aligned 3. Being contextually driven and future-oriented
3. Questions from here
Thinking about strategy
1. An essential part of your story that connects your past, present and future
2. Your plan to go in the right direction to ensure your story continues in the way that you want
3. Comprises critical directional ideas supported by detailed planning
4. Structures, resources and finances are means to achieving strategy, not strategy in themselves
5. Work best when they are simply expressed and few in number – the “business card test”
Strategic imperatives for our schools
1. Being strategically envisioned and structured
2. Being mission-aligned 3. Being contextually driven and future-
oriented
Being strategically envisioned and structured
Strategically envisioned
and structured
Acting strategically
Building culture
Defining aspirations
Extending boundaries
1. What works? What might be retained and nurtured?
2. What doesn’t work? What might be done differently?
Being mission-aligned
Heart Head Shoulders Hands
Heart
• Culture • People • Commitment • Networks • Communications • Growth • Professional development
Head
• Rationale • Mission alignment • Vision • Values • Brand • Philosophy
Shoulders
• Expectations • Systems • Structure • Plans • Policies • Processes • Protocols
Hands
• Research and development • Programs and initiatives • Accountability and review
Being mission-aligned
1. What works? What might be retained and nurtured?
2. What doesn’t work? What might be done differently?
Heart Head Shoulders Hands
Being contextually-driven and future-oriented
Guiding philosophy
The past
The present
The future
Guiding philosophy
• Explicit • Embedded • Our map to help us move through change
The past
• History • Tradition • Legacy • Honour
The present
• Expectations of culture • Realised through context – People – Place
The future
An approach to building new culture: • Future-oriented • Learning-focused • “Evolve and capture”
Being contextually-driven and future-oriented
1. What works? What might be retained and nurtured?
2. What doesn’t work? What might be done differently?
Guiding philosophy
The past
The present
The future
Questions for our future
• How do students in our school learn, think and feel?
• How should students in our school learn, think and feel?
Questions for our future
• What aspirations could our students have for their futures?
• What aspirations should our students have for their futures?
Questions for our future
• How might we do things in our school to allow our students to become the adults they should become? – Curriculum and co-curriculum – Learning and teaching – Pastoral care and social-emotional development – Spiritual development
Questions for our future
• What enduring values and honourable traditions do we have that will help us to achieve our mission?
Questions for our future
• How can our systems sustain and nurture the culture, educational programs, reputation and business viability of our school? – Brand development and maintenance – School development
Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that you have received…only what you have given: a full heart enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice, and courage.
Francis of Assisi
About Us
Dr Philip SA Cummins
Managing Director
CIRCLE – The Centre for Innovation, Research, Creativity and Leadership in Education
– Consult + Solve – Research + Publish – Train + Develop – Track + Perform – Catalyst – Communities
[email protected] www.circle.org.au