The Six Secrets of Change: Good Advice for Educational Leaders

I just completed The Six Secrets of Change by Michael Fullan and I must recommend this for all educational leaders in a position to affect change at his or her school. This research-based book by Fullan, who is Professor Emeritus at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, was written for business leaders and leaders of organizations. However, the book contains a wealth of information for those in educational leadership positions. The Six Secrets are outlined and summarized for you below.

1. Love Your Employees - "If you build your organization by focusing on your customers without making the same careful commitment to your employees, you won't succeed for long."

2. Connect Peers with Purpose - Leaders must "foster continuous and purposeful peer interaction." "Your employees must fall in love with their peers."

3. Capacity Building Prevails - You can accomplish significant improvements only when you build capacity (i.e. new competencies, new motivation) in your employees.

4. Learning is the Work - Learning outside the workplace will result in no change unless the learning is "in balance and concert" with the work.

5. Transparency Rules - There must be a "clear and continuous display of results and clear and continuous display of of what is being done to get the results."

6. Systems Learn - "The synergetic result of the previous five secrets in action is tantamount to a system that learns from itself."

I believe these secrets carry a great deal of weight when educational leaders seek to affect change with and through the faculty. After all, at the risk of sounding adult-centered rather than student-centered, faculty make or break a school. One of the things lending credibility to this book for educators is its examination of the McKinsey report, How the World's Best School Systems Come Out on Top, which says "the quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers." Change can be a powerful tool but change must be managed and implemented appropriately. Fullan's Six Secrets of Change provides a framework for business leaders and educational leaders alike to make change and to make a difference within an organization or school. I've only scratched the surface of the wealth of information in Fullan's book so add this one to your library.