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Dean Fink

Sustainable Leadership

Welcome to

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Human kind has the ability to achieve sustainable development –

to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability

of future generations to mee their own needs.

Brundtland Commission 1987

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Sustainable leadership

Sustainable leadership matters, spreads and lasts. It is a shared responsibility that does not unduly deplete human or financial resources, and that cares for and avoids exerting damage on the surrounding educational and community environment.

Hargreaves & Fink 2003

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Educational Lessons of Environmental Sustainability• Rich diversity, not soulless

standardization• Taking the long view• Act urgently for change, wait patiently

for results• Prudence about conserving and

renewing human and financial resources• Examine the impact of our improvement

efforts on others• All of us can be activists and make a

difference

Hargreaves & Fink 2006

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Seven principles of sustainable leadership

1 Depth

2 Endurance

3 Breadth

4 Justice

It matters

It lasts

It spreads

It does not harm the surrounding environment

Continued…

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of sustainable leadership

5 Diversity

6 Resourcefulness

7 Conservation

It promotes diversity & cohesion

It conserves expenditures(human/material)

It honours the past in creating the future

Seven principles

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Principle 1: Depth

Sustainable leadership matters. Itpreserves,protects andpromotes deepand broadlearning for all inrelationship ofcare for others.

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Do you know whatbusiness you‘re in?

PETER DRUCKER

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Commitment to what?

• Test scores?• Short term achievement targets ?• Reputation ?• Customer satisfaction?• ‘Adequate yearly progress’?

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Educational leadershipis about a passionate, steadfast, obstinate commitment to the enhancement of ‘deep’ learning for all students – learning for life, learning for understanding, learning for an increasingly fluid, messy and risky world.

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DEEP LEARNING

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The two hungersIn Africa, they say there are two hungers, the lesser hunger and the greater hunger. The lesser hunger is for the things that sustain life, the goods, and services, and the money to pay for them, which we all need.

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Left Brain Thinking

Any job that depends on routines - that can be reduced to a set of rules, or broken down into a set of repeatable steps –is at risk.

Daniel Pink - A Whole New Mind

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We need• Creativity• Imagination • Diversity • Innovation • Agility• Passion

• Entrepreneurialism• Failure (to try)• Questions• Nonconformity• Trust

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Present education delivers• Predictability • Control • Compliance • Conformity• Stability

• Order • Answers• Apathy• Distrust• Standardization

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•What does the focus on standardized outcomes determined by external (to schools) testing actually stand for and thus do they represent valid, worthwhile or meaningful outputs?

•Does increased emphasis on preparation for the tests and the adaptation of teaching and curriculum to the requirements of test performance constitute worthwhile effects of ‘improvement’?

•In terms of economic competitiveness, is what is measured here what is needed?

What Matters ?

Stephen Ball, The Education Debate

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Do we evaluate what we value or

do we value what we evaluate?

The Accountability Question

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Going deeperThe greater hunger is for the answer to the question ‘why’, for some understanding of what life is for.

Handy, C. (1997). The Hungry Spirit. London: Hutchison, p.13.

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Deep learning• Our educational system does its best to ignore and

suppress the creative spirit of children. • It teaches them to listen unquestioningly to authority. • It insists that education is just knowledge contained

in subjects and the purpose of education is to get a job.

• What’s left out is sensitivity to others, non-violent behaviour, respect, intuition, imagination, and a sense of awe and wonderment.

The Body Shop

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Five pillars of learning• Learning to know*• Learning to do*• Learning to live together*• Learning to be*• Learning to live sustainably

*UNESCO Learning: The Treasure Within, 1996.

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Broad Learning

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Breadth (Queensland)

Old basics• Numeracy• Literacy• Obedience• Punctuality

New basics• Multiliteracy• Creativity• Communication• Info.Technology• Teamwork• Lifelong Learning• Adaptation &

Change• Environmental

Responsibility

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SLOW KNOWING

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Slow Knowing

The unconscious realms of the human mind will successfully accomplish a number of important tasks if they are given the time. They will learn patterns of a degree of subtlety which normal consciousness cannot even see; make sense out of situations that are too complex to analyze; and get to the bottom of certain difficult issues much more successfully than the questing intellect.

Claxton 1997

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Slow forms of knowing• are tolerant of the faint, fleeting, marginal and

ambiguous• like to dwell on details that do not fit or

immediately make sense• are relaxed, leisurely and playful• are willing to explore without knowing what they

are looking for• see ignorance and confusion as the ground from

which understanding may spring• are receptive rather than proactive• are happy to relinquish the sense of control over

the directions the mind spontaneously takes• treat seriously ideas that come ‘out of the blue’

Claxton, 1997

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Does this policy, practice, custom, structure, or decision contribute to ‘deep’, wide and slow learning for all students?

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Principle 2: EnduranceSustainable leadership lasts. It preserves and advances the most valuable aspects of learning and life over time, year upon year, from one leader to the next.

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Leadership Succession

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Succession Issues

Supply

Demands(the nature of the job)

Diversity

Generations

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The Vets

Pre -1928Margaret Thatcher, George H.W. Bush, Queen Elizabeth II, Jimmy Carter

Shaped By the depression and World War II

Thrifty, corporate structure and chain of command

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The Silents

1928-1945 (demographic trough)

Jean Cretien, Paul Martin, Woody Allen, Gloria Steinem, John McCain, Ralph Klein

Influenced by vets and indirectly by depression and W.W. II

Conformist, play the game, delayed gratification, intact families

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The Boomers

First stage 1946-1953Tony Blair, Bill &Hilary Clinton, Bill Gates,

George W. Bush, Prince Charles, Michael Ignatieff

Numbers (competitive), good times (optimism), television ( informed), Dr. Spock ( indulged), self absorbed (me generation), live to work (never really retire)

Second stage 1953-1963Steven Harper, Steve Jobs, Barack Obama (cusper)

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Generation ‘X’

1963 -1978

Michelle Obama, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Michael Dell, Wayne Gretzky

Economic downturn, latch-key kids, Skeptical (work to live), life-work balance, technological literacy (solitary)

(Demographic trough)

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The Millennials

1978 - 2000

Prince William, Prince Harry, , Lebron James, Sidney Crosby,Daniel Radcliffe, Britney Spears, Avril Lavigne,

Wired, (facebook, My Space, You Tube), collaborators, Customizers, freedom ( entitlement), speed, shopping

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EVERYONE IS ENTITLED TO MY OPINION

ASK NOT WHAT I CAN DO FOR THE SCHOOL

BUT WHAT THE SCHOOL CAN DO FOR ME

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The Generations

Silent – Loyal

Boomers – Optimistic, competitive

Millennials - Realistic

‘Xers’ – Sceptical, self reliant

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Leadership Style

• Silent – chain of command

• Boomers – change the command

• Xers – self command

• Millen’ls - Don’t command -collaborate

Lancaster & Stillman, 2002

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Grow your Own

or

Hire and Hope

(Succession management)

(Replacement Planning)

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Succession management

POTENTIAL

NOT

PROFICIENCIES

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Succession Management

identifyrecruit

develop

selectinduct

appraisal

support

celebrate

transitions

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Successful Succession Management

• Distributes leadership effectively• Builds strong professional communities• Deepens and broadens the pools of leadership talent• Establishes leadership development schools• Stresses future leadership competencies• Supports and sponsors aspiring school leaders• Replaces charismatic leadership with inspirational

leadership• Plans early for the incumbent leader’s exit• Moderates and monitors leadership succession

frequency

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Do our schools and/or districts have a

succession management policy built around

leadership potential or do we continue to just ‘hire

and hope?

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Principle 3: BreadthSustainable leadership spreads. It sustains as well as depends on the leadership of others

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LOW HIGH

HIGH

DESIGN

EMERGENCE

Anarchy

Autocracy ?

?

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Raising the temperature of distributed leadership

Anarchy

Assertive distribution

Emergent distribution

Guided distribution

Progressive delegation

Traditional delegation

Autocracy

Too hot

Too cold

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Assessing your School District

• Where do you think your school/district fits?

• Where would you like it to be?

• What steps are necessary to get there?

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Principle 4: Justice

Sustainable leadership does no harm to and actively improves the surrounding environment by finding ways to share knowledge and resources with neighboring schools and the local communities.

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Sustainability and Social Justice

do not steal your neighbor’s capacityuse multiple indicators of accountabilityemphasize collective accountabilitycoach a less successful partner districtmake a definable contribution to the communitypair with a district in a different social or natural environmentcollaborate with your competitors

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Principle 5: Diversity

Sustainable leadership promotes cohesive diversity and avoids aligned standardization of policy, curriculum, assessment, and staff development and training in teaching and learning. It fosters and learns from diversity and creates cohesion and networking among its richly varying components.

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Effective organizations are characterized by:

• A framework of common and enduring values, goals and purposes

• Possession and development of variability or diversity in skills, talents and identities

• Processes that promote interaction and cross-pollination of ideas and influences across this variability

• Permeability to outside influences• Emergence of new ideas, structures, and

processes as diverse elements interconnect and new ones intrude from the outside

• Flexibility and adaptability in response to environmental change

• Resilience in the face of and in response to threats and adversity

5. Diversity

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Principle 6: Conservation

Sustainable leadership respects and builds on the past in its quest to create a better future.

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Principle 7: Resourcefulness

Sustainable leadership develops and does not deplete material and human resources. It renews people’s energy. Sustainable leadership is prudent and resourceful leadership that wastes neither its money nor its people.

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Sustainable educational leaders promote and practice sustaining learning.

Sustainable leaders sustain others as they pursue this cause together. Sustainable

leaders also sustain themselves – attending to their own renewal, and not over-

sacrificing themselves as they serve their community around them. Sustainable

leaders stay the course, stay together, stay around and stay alive.

THE LAST WORD

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Depth – How do we promote and protect deep and broad learning that lasts in a climate that insists on immediate, tested results?

Length – How do we remain steadfastly committed to the long-term goals for authentic improvement while attending properly to the urgent needs of underachieving children right now?

Breadth – How do we distribute leadership more widely and more wisely and also retain a sense of the distinctive leadership gifts that we contribute ourselves?

Justice – How do we help other people’s schools and children without sacrificing and short-changing our own?

MORAL DILEMMAS

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Diversity – How do we accommodate, include and connect the rich diversity of our students’ learning and teachers’ teaching, and also retain focus, direction and cohesion in our efforts to improve?

Conservation – How do we innovate for a better future by building on the firm foundations of the past without staying stuck in the past or wallowing in nostalgic memories of it?

Resourcefulness – How do we engage people’s energy and motivation for urgent improvement without wearing them out?

MORAL DILEMMAS

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Learning from Noah’s Ark1 Don’t miss the boat

2 Remember we’re all in the same boat

3 Plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the Ark

4 Stay fit. When you’re 600 years old, someone may ask you to do somethingreally big

5 Don’t listen to critics; just get on with the job that has to be done

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Learning from Noah’s Ark

6 Build your future on high ground

7 For safety’s sake, travel in pairs8 Speed isn’t always an advantage;

the snails were on board with the cheetahs

9 When you’re stressed, float awhile

10 Remember the Ark was built by amateurs,the Titanic by professionals

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11 No matter the storm, there’s always a rainbow waiting

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The woodpeckers may have to go

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Fink D. (2005).Leadership for Mortals:Developing and Sustaining Leaders of learningLondon: Paul Chapman/Corwin.

Hargreaves A. & Fink, D. (2005) Sustainable Leadership. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Stoll, L, Fink, D. & Earl, L (2003). It’s about Learning and It’s about Time. London: Taylor Francis.

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