Superintendents Leadership Network
Superintendent as Moral and Intellectual Leader:
Developing a Sense of Urgency and a Shared Understanding of the Need for Change
July 10–13, 2023
Districts and Organizations Represented
Districts and Organizations Represented
Districts and Organizations Represented
Districts and Organizations Represented
Platinum Sponsors
Gold Sponsors
Schlechty Center Staff and Special Guests
President and CEO
Director of Technology
Senior Associate
Director of Special Projects
Director of Strategic Initiatives
Superintendents Leadership Network Norms
Purpose and Focus
Building Trust and Cohesion
Providing for Productive Institutes
Communicating Between Institutes
Celebrations
Introduce yourself to your tablemates and share a district accomplishment you celebrated (or was worthy of celebration this past year).
The Thread Running Through the SLN Institute
The design of this conference begins with an emphasis on understanding demographics—which, according to Peter Drucker, “are the single most important factor that nobody pays attention to, and it’s going to change absolutely everything.” This is followed with a focus on attributes of organizations that are adept at supporting and sustaining change—not only change required by shifting demographics but by other forces. Finally, we know leadership is the key, so we are going to explore what leadership looks like in organizations that thrive, even in the midst of chaos. As we move toward the close of the institute, we will use our Schlechty Center microscopes to view what all of this means for superintendent and district level-leadership.
Quote from Peter Drucker
George Thompson Borrowed from ChatGPT
Desired Results
Given increasing global demographic diversity and heightened concerns about systemic societal inequities, business leaders that successfully manage and develop strategic responses to these demographic gale force winds will generate reputational equity—and by extension, profitability for their enterprises.
“Business Alert! Gale Force Demographic Wind Gusts Ahead”
James H. Johnson, Jr., Ph.D., Jeanne Milliken Bonds, MPA, and Allan M. Parnell, Ph.D.
August 2021, p. 1
Desired Results
If the rate of change on the outside exceeds the rate of change on the inside, the end is near.
Jack Welch
Desired Results
Bureaucratic cultures can smother those who want to respond to shifting conditions.
Leading Change
John P. Kotter, 2012, p. 30
Desired Results
Management makes a system work. It helps you do what you know how to do. Leadership builds systems or transforms old ones.
Leading Change
John P. Kotter, 2012, p. vi
Desired Results
We offer no cookie cutter pitches but rather unique strategies that translate confusing data and complicated issues into a story that connects and rallies your community.
Allerton Hill Communications: Our Story
Desired Results
Change threatens interests just as the status quo serves interests.
System Capacity Standard 1 Rationale
The Trailblazer Saga
Copyright 1993 Schlechty
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Pioneers . . .
Copyright 1993 Schlechty
Copyright 1993 Schlechty
Copyright 1993 Schlechty
Copyright 1993 Schlechty
a
When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.
Alexander Den Heijer
There is no comfort in the growth zone, but there is no growth in the comfort zone.
Trailblazer Saga Discussion
a
When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.
Alexander Den Heijer
There is no comfort in the growth zone,
but there is no growth in the comfort zone.
Dr. Roland Chevalier Moral and Intellectual Leadership Award
Schlechty Center
Senior Associate
2001–2016
You know you can look at the same thing through a telescope or a microscope and see two different universes. What is common is that you are looking at the same thing, but what you see is completely different. Those most comfortable using the microscope are concerned with detail. They want to get in the weeds. Those most comfortable using the telescope want to plan stuff long range. Schlechty Center frameworks bring them all into the same room so we can get them to agree on what they see.
Tuesday
Wednesday
The Thread Running Through the SLN Institute
The design of this conference begins with an emphasis on understanding demographics—which, according to Peter Drucker, “are the single most important factor that nobody pays attention to, and it’s going to change absolutely everything.” This is followed with a focus on attributes of organizations that are adept at supporting and sustaining change—not only change required by shifting demographics but by other forces. Finally, we know leadership is the key, so we are going to explore what leadership looks like in organizations that thrive, even in the midst of chaos. As we move toward the close of the institute, we will use our Schlechty Center microscopes to view what all of this means for superintendent and district level-leadership.
Quote from Peter Drucker
George Thompson Borrowed from ChatGPT
Developing a shared understanding of the need
for change
Developing shared beliefs and vision
Developing a focus on students and on the quality of work provided to students
Developing structures for participatory leadership
Developing structures for results-oriented decision making
Developing structures for continuity
Providing ongoing support
Fostering innovation and flexibility
Employing technology
Fostering collaboration
Engagement
A Future Orientation
Direction and Focus
Strategic Action
System Capacity Standard 1 (page 16)
DEVELOPING A SHARED UNDERSTANDING OF THE NEED FOR CHANGE
The members of the board of education, the superintendent, central office staff, principals, teacher leaders, leaders of parent organizations, and key community leaders (e.g., civic leaders, business leaders) have a common understanding of the nature of the problems and opportunities that confront the school district and base their discussions of these issues on a common body of fact and information.
Board of Education
Superintendent
Central Office
Principals
Teacher Leaders
Leaders of Parent Organizations
Key Community Leaders
Add specific names in each box
Board of Education
Superintendent
Central Office
Principal
Teacher Leaders
Leaders of Parent Organizations
Key Community Leaders
have a common understanding of the nature of the problems and opportunities
Your key audiences base their discussions of these issues on a common body of fact and information.
An Assessment of
System Capacity Standard 1
(page 18 - 19)
Not
Understood
Well
Understood
Not In Place
In Place
The result is in place but not yet fully understood. | The result is in place and well understood. |
The result is not yet understood and not yet in place. | 13 The result is understood but not yet in place. |
Page 19
A more rapid and complex changing environment, including what is now called disruptive change, may be not just one factor but the central force shaping the challenges that organizations and people face nowadays.
Change: How Organizations Achieve Hard-to-Imagine Results in Uncertain and Volatile Times
John P. Kotter, Vanessa Akhtar, and Gaurav Gupta, 2021, p. xii
Neither human nature, nor the most common form of the modern organization, are designed to handle anything close to this degree of change. Instead, the strongest built-in emphasis is on stability, efficiency, reliability, quick threat elimination, and most of all short-term survival.
Change: How Organizations Achieve Hard-to-Imagine Results in Uncertain and Volatile Times
John P. Kotter, Vanessa Akhtar, and Gaurav Gupta, 2021, p. xii
There is a growing gap between the rate, amount, and complexity of change outside organizations and the ability of the hardwired enterprise and our human capacity to keep up. This gap presents both a danger and an opportunity as organizations work to agilely adjust, adapt, and get ahead of these contextual realities.
Change: How Organizations Achieve Hard-to-Imagine Results in Uncertain and Volatile Times
John P. Kotter, Vanessa Akhtar, and Gaurav Gupta, 2021, p. xii
Change: How Organizations Achieve Hard-to-Imagine Results in Uncertain and Volatile Times
John P. Kotter, Vanessa Akhtar, and Gaurav Gupta, 2021, p. 9
Occurrence of Change
Pace
Outside the Organization
Inside the Organization
If the rate of change on the outside exceeds the rate of change on the inside, the end is near.
Jack Welch
Change: How Organizations Achieve Hard-to-Imagine Results in Uncertain and Volatile Times
John P. Kotter, Vanessa Akhtar, and Gaurav Gupta, 2021, p. 11
Survive Channel
In particular, the vast majority of people tend to seriously underestimate the power of our built-in survival instinct and how it can inadvertently overwhelm our capacity to swiftly see opportunities, innovate, adapt, lead, and change for the better.
It has the biological equivalent of a radar system that is constantly on the lookout for threats.
Change: How Organizations Achieve Hard-to-Imagine Results in Uncertain and Volatile Times
John P. Kotter, Vanessa Akhtar, and Gaurav Gupta, 2021, pp. 18–19
Thrive Channel
The Thrive Channel also has a radar system, but instead of looking for threats, it seeks opportunities. When Thrive spots possibilities, an internal mechanism is activated … . In the Thrive response, our energy goes up but does not spike. … Our field of focus does not shrink; it often does the opposite, expanding as curiosity about the opportunity broadens one’s field of vision.
Change: How Organizations Achieve Hard-to-Imagine Results in Uncertain and Volatile Times
John P. Kotter, Vanessa Akhtar, and Gaurav Gupta, 2021, p. 23
John Kotter on Reconstructing the Modern Organization: Dual Operating Systems
The answer … is an organizational structure and operating system that is built upon both a robust hierarchy and a changing, evolving network.
Change: How Organizations
Achieve Hard-to-Imagine Results in Uncertain and Volatile Times
John P. Kotter, Vanessa Akhtar, Gaurav Gupta, 2012, p. 203
… a well-functioning Survive greatly aides Thrive activation.
p. 26
Survive Channel vs. Thrive Channel
It’s Not Either Or
Genius of the AND—the ability to embrace both extremes of a number of dimensions at the same time.
Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies
Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras, 1994, p. 44
Change: How Organizations Achieve Hard-to-Imagine Results in Uncertain and Volatile Times
John P. Kotter, Vanessa Akhtar, and Gaurav Gupta, p. 24, 2021
“Is Your Organization Surviving Change—or Thriving In It?”
Key Points
“Is Your Organization Surviving Change—or Thriving In It?”
Leaders who can both calm an overheated Survive Channel and amplify Thrive for themselves and others
Modulate Survive
Activate Thrive
Discussion Questions to Consider
System Capacity Standard 2
DEVELOPING SHARED BELIEFS AND VISION
The school district and its community develop within the local context a compelling vision of what schools can be and how schools should be related to the community—a vision capable of earning wide support in the school district and in the community and consistent with a set of well-articulated beliefs regarding the nature of schools and the schooling enterprise.
Impact on Organizations with a Schlechty Lens
“Beat It To Fit;
Paint It To Match.”
Worker,
Ingalls Shipbuilding
Pascagoula, MS
Phillip Schlechty on Instrumental and Expressive Organizations
… I have found it useful to categorize organizations according to the values served and
the type of functions fulfilled.
Expressive Organizations are organizations in which the primary intent is to satisfy the needs
of members.
Instrumental Organizations are organizations in which the intent is to pursue some set of rationalized goals, produce products, or provide services valued by persons and groups external to the organization.
A Matter of Emphasis
All organizations, whether predominantly expressive or predominantly instrumental, must fulfill both expressive and instrumental functions, so there is in reality no pure “type.”
Creating Great Schools: Six Critical Systems at the Heart of Educational Innovation
Phillip C. Schlechty, 2005, pp. 199–201
Students
Develop
Negative
Attitudes
Toward
Disciplined
Learning
Hearing
Officers
&
Parole Board
Distrusted
Visitor
Bureau Chief &
Department
Directors,
Hearing
Officers, and
Parole Officers
Warden
Containment,
Monitoring,
Corrective Action,
& Punishment
Guard
Inmate
Conflict
Habituated
Prison
Safety
Inspectors
&
Fire Marshals
Primary
Shipper &
Receiver
Property
Manager &
Directors of
Maintenance,
Shipping, and
Personnel
Midlevel
Bureaucrat
& Keeper
of the Keys
Labeling,
Categorizing,
Placement,
& Recording
Clerk &
Keeper
of Records
Excess
Inventory
Threatened
Learn Little
Warehouse
Board of
Directors
Guarantor
&
Questionable
Ally
CEO &
Technicians
and Support
Staff
Chief of
Staff
Diagnosis,
Prescription,
&
Treatment
Professional
Performer &
Presenter, or
Clinician &
Diagnostician
Client
Analyze,
Apply,
Understand,
& Sometimes
Remember
Long Term
Professional
Service
Delivery
Organization
Community
Builders &
Advocates
for Schools
Partner &
Member of
the School
Community
Moral and
Intellectual
Leader &
Capacity
Builders
Leader of
Leaders
Designing
Engaging
Academic Work
for Students &
Leading Them to Success
in That Work
Leader,
Designer, &
Guide to
Instruction
Volunteer &
Knowledge
Worker
Highly
Engaged
Create,
Evaluate,
Analyze,
Apply,
Understand,
Remember
Learning
Organization
Owners &
Advocates
Supply
Source &
Determinant
of Product
Quality
Plant
Manager &
Inspectors
and
Supervisors
Shop
Foreman
Testing,
Remediation,
&
Reporting
Skilled
Worker
Raw Material
& Product
Passive
Congenial
Understand,
but
Unlikely
to Remember
Long Term
Factory
Well
Managed
© 2005 Phillip C. Schlechty. All rights reserved.
Images of School
Parent
as:
Supt. &
CO
as:
Principal
as:
Core
Business
Teacher
as:
Student
as:
Likely
Classroom
Profiles
Level of
Student
Learning
Bloom’s
Taxonomy
Guiding
Metaphor
School
Board
as:
Boundary
Recruitment & Induction
Knowledge Development & Transmission
Directional
Power & Authority
Evaluation
Operational Systems
Social Systems
Technology Support
Instructional Support
Human Resources
Facility Maintenance
Financial Support
Relative Dominance of Systems
Boundary System
Recruitment & Induction System
Knowledge Development & Transmission System
Directional System
Power & Authority System
Evaluation System
Boundary System
Recruitment & Induction System
Knowledge Development & Transmission System
Directional System
Power & Authority System
Evaluation System
Phillip Schlechty, Leading for Learning, p. 46
Bureaucracy
Learning Organization
Survive Channel
Thrive Channel
Boundary System
Recruitment & Induction System
Knowledge Development & Transmission System
Directional System
Power & Authority System
Evaluation System
Boundary System
Recruitment & Induction System
Knowledge Development & Transmission System
Directional System
Power & Authority System
Evaluation System
Phillip Schlechty, Leading for Learning, p. 46
Bureaucracy
Learning Organization
Survive Channel
Thrive Channel
Boundary System
Recruitment & Induction System
Knowledge Development & Transmission System
Directional System
Power & Authority System
Evaluation System
Learning Organization
Where Are We?: A Tool for Reflection and Conversation
Bureaucracy
Learning Organization
Instrumental Organization
Expressive Organization
Hierarchy
Leadership from Everyone
Survive Channel
Thrive Channel
The context is changing, creating a need for change.
Understanding the changing context creates a sense of urgency.
A sense of urgency requires the capacity to develop a future orientation, maintain direction, and act strategically.
Capacity requires organizational telescopes and microscopes that can be used to assess capacity and determine a course of direction and action.
Determining a course of direction and action requires leadership from the hierarchy and from the many.
Developing leaders requires moral and intellectual leadership.
Moral and intellectual leadership is defined by the Pillars of Superintendent as Moral and Intellectual Leader.
Making Connections
Leadership as the Key According to Kotter
Burning Platform
It is becoming harder and harder to mobilize sustained action through a “burning platform.” The burning platform approach creates anxiety, anger, guilt, and stress, which can crush complacency but can too quickly wear us out or result in a sort of frozen, deer-in-the-headlights, Survive Channel panic.
Change: How Organizations Achieve Hard-to-Imagine Results in Uncertain and Volatile Times
John P. Kotter, Vanessa Akhtar, and Gaurav Gupta, pp. 30–31, 2021
Sense of Urgency Around Opportunity
Studies of larger-than-life leaders (Lincoln, Matsushita, Mandela) give us many clues as to how change can be handled well today. The very best of these people created a broadly embraced sense of urgency around opportunity. They communicated widely and got people to buy into the concept of capitalizing on that opportunity.
Change: How Organizations Achieve Hard-to-Imagine Results in Uncertain and Volatile Times
John P. Kotter, Vanessa Akhtar, and Gaurav Gupta, p. 31, 2021
Leading change successfully today shows that teams drive broad-based action by behaving according to a set of guiding principles.
They [leaders] also encourage and support leadership from many people, not just from a few of their peers at the top of an organization.
Change: How Organizations Achieve Hard-to-Imagine Results in Uncertain and Volatile Times
John P. Kotter, Vanessa Akhtar, and Gaurav Gupta, p. 32, 2021
Leadership as the Key According to Schlechty
Pillars of Superintendent as Moral and Intellectual Leader
Pillars of Superintendent as Moral and Intellectual Leader | Critical Social Systems |
| Directional |
| Knowledge Development and Transmission |
| Recruitment and Induction |
SURVIVE CHANNEL | | THRIVE CHANNEL |
School as Bureaucracy | | School as Learning Organization |
School Board as Board of Directors/Owners | | School Board as Community Builders and Advocates |
Superintendent as CEO/Plant Manager | | Superintendent as Moral and Intellectual Leader |
Central Office Staff as Technicians/Supervisors/Monitors | | Central Office Staff as Capacity Builders |
Principal as Chief of Staff/Shop Foreman | | Principal as Leader of Leaders |
Teacher as Performer and Clinician/Skilled Worker | | Teacher as Leader, Designer, and Guide to Instruction |
Student as Client/Raw Material and Product | | Student as Volunteer and Knowledge Worker |
From The New York Times, “In Business, ‘Flat’ Structures Rarely Work. Is There a Solution?,” July 5, 2023
Image by Andrew Rae
Thursday
Clear and Compelling Communication Q and A
Harvard Business Review Article:
“Is Your Organization Surviving Change—or Thriving In It?”
Change: How Organizations Achieve Hard-to-Imagine Results in Uncertain and Volatile Times
John P. Kotter, Vanessa Akhtar, and Gaurav Gupta, p. 33, 2021
HAVE TO + WANT TO Those who feel included in a compelling opportunity will help create change in addition to their normal responsibilities. Creating an emotionally positive experience will help mobilize meaningful action. |
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HEAD + HEART Building buy-in based purely on a rational and analytical business case is challenging. If you can engage people’s emotions and give greater meaning to your effort, extraordinary results are possible. |
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MANAGEMENT + LEADERSHIP In order to capitalize on windows of opportunity, leadership must be paramount—and not just from one executive. It’s about vision, action, innovation, and celebration, as well as essential managerial processes. |
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SELECT FEW + DIVERSE MANY More people need to be able to make change happen—not just carry out someone else’s objectives. Done right, this uncovers leaders at all levels of an organization, unleashing the power of the masses. |
CHANGE PRINCIPLES
Successful change teams now create a second system to facilitate the work, a system built not on formal hierarchy but on fluid networks.