Leading Change in Your School

How to Conquer Myths, Build Commitment, and Get Results

Douglas B. Reeves (2009), ASCD.

Summarized & Presented by Takim Andriono

for MPBI students of Widya Mandala
2018

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 The Book Consists of Four Parts

Part 1: Creating Conditions for Change

Part 2: Planning Change
Part 3: Implementing Change
Part 4: Sustaining Change

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 We will only focus on:

Part 1: Creating Conditions for Change

Chapter 1: Pull The Weeds Before You Plant the Flowers

Chapter 2: The Personal Change Readiness Assessment
Chapter 3: The Organizational Change Readiness Assessment
Chapter 4: Cultural Change
Chapter 5: Confronting the Myths of Change Leadership

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Chapter 1: Pull the Weeds Before You Plant the Flowers (1)

Pull the weeds. Then, and only then, plant the flowers.

Every education system has weeds, no matter how small they are. As
the growing academic growing season continues, we should not be
surprised when some of the new flowers are choked by the
omnipresent weeds.
Some school principals have a simple rule - they will introduce no
new program until they remove at least one or two existing activities,
plans, units, or other time-consumers. Don’t let the weeds rob the
students and teachers’ most precious resources - TIME.
Many schools steadfastly refuse to discard anything. Find your
current school practices which you find difficult to give up ...
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Chapter 1: Pull the Weeds Before You Plant the Flowers (2)

Three ideas to start the weeding process in your school:

1. Use dialogues to find the essentials. It is hard to give up our habits of
doing things or our teaching materials. We tend to say “Everything I do is
important!”; “These materials are needed for facing the national exam”,
“The parents keep forcing us to teach their kids these skills or those
ways”, “We don’t have time to implement this new teaching method”, ...
2. Sweat the small stuffs. Find your “trim-tab” to begin the “change
process”. We can recover hours of valuable instruction time when
teachers share their best time-saving tips.
3. Set the standard for a weed-free garden. If leaders will not pull the
school-wide weeds in meetings, decision making processes, interruptions,
they can hardly ask teachers to weed the classroom gardens.

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Chapter 2: The Personal Change Readiness Assessment (1)

Consider several personal changes that you have made in the past
five years. These changes could represent a strategic or behavioral
change at work, or a change in your personal life, such as
improvement in your diet, exercise routine, or personal relationships.
You will be asked to evaluate each change on various criteria, using
a scale of 1 to 10.
Scale 1 represents no evidence of the characteristics described, and
Scale 10 represents an exceptional reflection of those characteristics
(planning, sense of urgency, personal support, personal focus, effect
on results).

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Chapter 2: The Personal Change Readiness Assessment (2)

1.Think of several changes you’ve made.

• Change #1: ................................................................................

• Change #2: .................................................................................

• Change #3: .................................................................................

• Change #4: .................................................................................

• Change #5: .................................................................................

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Chapter 2: The Personal Change Readiness Assessment (3)

Think of the change for which you exercised the greatest

degree of planning. This means that you identified the steps
that you would take and knew clearly how to make change
Identify just one change and list some of the most important
steps in the planning process.
Change: ...........................................................................
• Step #1: ..............................................................................................

• Step #2: ..............................................................................................

• Step #3: ..............................................................................................

• Step #4: ..............................................................................................

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Chapter 2: The Personal Change Readiness Assessment (4)

Think the change for which you had the greatest sense
of urgency. Describe why the price of failure was high
- much higher than the price of change.
Change: ..................................................................
• If I failed to make this change, then ...
____________________________________
• If I succeeded in making this change, then ...
____________________________________

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Chapter 2: The Personal Change Readiness Assessment (5)

Think of the change for which you had the greatest

personal support from your family and friends.
Change: ......................................................................
• How my family supported me:
________________________________
• How my friends supported me:
________________________________

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Chapter 2: The Personal Change Readiness Assessment (6)

Think of the change for which you had the greatest

personal focus. Describe how you devoted your time to
initiating and maintaining the change despite your
busy schedule.
Change: ..................................................................
___________________________________________
___________________________________________

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Chapter 2: The Personal Change Readiness Assessment (7)

Think of the change that had the greatest effect on

results for you and your organization. Describe these
specific and measurable results in as much detail as you
can remember.
Change: .................................................................
____________________________________
____________________________________

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 Personal Change Readiness Assessment
Score 1 - 10 in each column, with 1 represents no evidence of the characteristic describes, and 10
representing an exceptional reflection of that characteristic.

Personal Planning Sense of Personal Personal Effect on

Change Urgency Support Focus Results

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Finally, complete your personal change score

Total for Change #1: _______ (max 50)

Total for Change #2: _______ (max 50)
Total for Change #3: _______ (max 50)
Total for the two highest changes _____

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Figure 2.1 Personal Change Readiness Assessment
Directions: For each change, enter a score of 1 to 10 in each column, with 1 representing no evidence of the characteristic described, and 10 representing an exceptional
reflection of that characteristic.

Planning Sense of Urgency Personal Support Personal Focus Effect on Results

I planned in advance I knew that the price of My family and friends I devoted time to initiat- I can measure the
Personal Change the steps I would take failing to change was knew I was making a ing and maintaining the results of the change,
and knew clearly how to much greater than the change and supported change despite my busy and they are clear and
make the change. price of changing. me. schedule. significant.
1.

2.

3.

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Chapter 3: The Organizational Change Readiness Assessment

Consider several organizational changes that you have experienced

in the past five years. These changes could represent change in a
single team or for the entire organization. Perhaps it involved a
strategic plan, a quality improvement, a technology implementation,
or other systemic changes.
You will be asked to evaluate each change on various criteria, using
a scale of 1 to 10.
Scale 1 represents no evidence of the characteristics described, and
Scale 10 represents an exceptional reflection of those characteristics
(planning, sense of urgency, stakeholder support, leadership focus,
effect on results).

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 Organizational Change Readiness Assessment
Score 1 - 10 in each column, with 1 represents no evidence of the characteristic describes, and 10
representing an exceptional reflection of that characteristic.

Organizational Planning Sense of Stakeholder Leadership Effect on

Change Urgency Support Focus Results

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Finally, complete your organizational change score

Total for Change #1: _______ (max 50)

Total for Change #2: _______ (max 50)
Total for Change #3: _______ (max 50)
Total for the two highest changes _____

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Figure 3.1 Organizational Change Readiness Assessment
Directions: For each change, enter a score of 1 to 10 in each column, with 1 representing no evidence of the characteristic described, and 10 representing an exceptional
reflection of that characteristic.

Planning Sense of Urgency Stakeholder Support Leadership Focus Effect on Results

Plans were clear, Widespread sense of Employees, clients, and Senior leadership made The change had a mea-
Organizational Change detailed, and effectively the immediate need for the community under- the change their clear surable and significant
communicated. change was apparent. stood and supported the and consistent focus effect on results.
change. long after initiation.
1.

2.

3. 19
0 Personal Change Capacity 100
Change Readiness Matrix

Ready for Learning Ready for Change

The leader demonstrates a history of successful Both the leader and the organization have exceptional
change, with a strong capacity for planning and change capacity, and the organization is a model of
executing change. The organization can learn from the resilience. It can adapt to change strategies, and create
leader’s personal & professional example. an atmosphere of excitement & engagement.

Ready for Resistance Ready for Frustration

Neither the leader nor the the organization has a The organization has a strong history of change but it
history of successful change, then the most likely result is led by someone who either is reluctant to engage in
of any new change initiative will be resistance, anger, systemic change or lacks of personal capacity to do so.
undermining, or simply ignoring the effort. Change fails to be supported by senior leadership.

0 Organizational Change Capacity 100

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 Chapter 4 Cultural Change

Kotter & Rathgeber (1995): “90% of organizations were either

ignoring relevant changes or were trying to adjust in ways that were
not meeting their aspirations. Too much time and money was being
spent to achieve too little, with too much pain and frustration all
around”.
Policy change without cultural change is an exercise of futility and
frustration. Meaningful change must begin with cultural change.
Culture is reflected in the behavior, attitudes, and beliefs of
individuals and groups.

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 Four imperatives of cultural change

1.Leaders must define what will not change. They must articulate
the values, practices, traditions, and relationships that will not be
lost.
2.Organizational culture will change with leadership actions,
speeches and announcements are not enough.
3.Use the right change tools for your system. Culture tools: rituals &
traditions, Power tools: threats & coercion; Management tools: training,
procedures, measurement systems; Leadership tools: role modeling, vision.

4.Change in culture requires relentless personal attention and

“scan work” by the leader.

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Chapter 5: Confronting the Myths of Change Leadership

Myths #1: Plan your way to greatness

Myths #2: Just a little bit better is good enough
Myths #3: We want you to change us ... really
Myths #4: People love to collaborate
Myths #5: Hierarchy changes systems
Myths #6: Volume equals VOLUME
Myths #7: The leader is the perfect composite of every trait

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