Leading in a Culture of Change

Michael Fullan introduced Leading in a Culture of Change with commentary on the fast pace of change in society—particularly in the areas of business and education—and the need for leaders to be able to know how and when to act . . . or perish. Luckily, he highlighted many examples of large-scale successful reforms in organizations and believed that current (and future) leaders can learn from critically evaluating these initiatives. The author organized this book into seven chapters that cover “key change themes” for effective leadership, how to develop leaders, and how to “produce more ‘leaders of leaders’” (Fullan, 2001, p. vi). The first chapter of Fullan’s book presented an illustration and brief description of his framework for leadership. It included five components: possessing moral purpose, understanding change, building better relationships, creating and sharing knowledge, and coherence making. They stem from the demand of leaders to collectively mobilize people to adopt internal commitment for change, confront new and challenging problems, and to balance on the edge of creativity and chaos. Leaders looking to guide people through change would benefit from Fullan's ideas, supported by the examples of successful organizations worldwide.

In an educational world that is changing at a rapid rate it is refreshing to read a book with guidelines for shifting paradigms in a positive, moral, and productive manner. This book is a must read for any new or veteran educational administrator looking for a way to make sustainable changes. "Leading in a culture of change means creating a culture (not just a structure) of change. It does not mean adopting innovations, one after another; it does mean producing the capacity to seek, critically assess, and selectively incorporate new ideas and practices - all the time, inside the organization as well as outside it." (Fullan, p.44). Throughout the book Fullan effectively utilizes research theories and practices to enhance the overarching themes for practical leadership. Real life examples breathe authenticity into difficult decision making experiences. Thus giving the reader a well rounded view and positive approaches to crucial decision making processes.

If you are starting a change project or you are in the middle of one and need some good tips on how to get the train back on the tracks, skip this one. Pick it back up when you have the time to lay new tracks. Building an organization and developing leaders this way will take time. However, if you are looking to grow as a leader or to grow new leaders, this may be a great read for you. The author, Michael Fullan, whose expertise is in educational reform, suggests that his book is equally applicable to the for-profit business and non-profit environment. There are no winning formulas to achieving success with your change project. Actually, Dr. Fullan declares that there are no effective do-this-then-that roadmaps for managing change. Many authors have five step, eight-step, xx-step processes for change and he lists a few of them in chapter three. This author states that following a linear process will not work and explains why, from his perspective. To be successful, Fullan suggests, we should follow his "Framework for Leadership" which coincidentally, also has five steps: 1) Moral Purpose, 2) Understanding Change, 3) Relationship Building, 4) Knowledge Creation and Sharing, 5) Coherence Making. This is the bulk of the book, explaining the five steps. Michael suggests we are to slowly develop our specific core leadership skills, including: Adaptive leadership, emotional intelligence, patience, great listening skills, mentoring others, fostering caring relationships, model the behavior you want to see throughout your business, mobilize the collective capacity, tapping into tacit knowledge, to name a few. Whew! There are many skills to acquire. Get great at these, and you could be a master at change leadership. Perhaps one way of summarizing the book is that Fullan has combed through the ideas of fifty-or-so experts, threshed out the best ideas, and combined it into a practice for becoming an adaptive leader in a complex world. It's a good book. Start here gain one perspective on leading in complex organizations. If any specific idea draws your interest, find the specific author in the reference list and read their book(s) as a next step. What I liked most about Dr. Fullan's book is his emphasis on growing leaders at every level of the business. He stresses collaboration and sharing tacit knowledge, and offers suggestions on how to build trust and encourage the behaviors that produce these results. From my perspective he got this right - people matter, collaboration is key, and capitalizing on tacit knowledge is critical. Now we just need to find some businesses willing to do the hard work to get there.

The book was delivered in a timely matter. I love the book. The information and the way it was presented is awesome. The author is presented the knowledge is a simple and yet a plentiful manner.

Trusting my professors... I bought this book. It lays out a succinct perspective on the various, most important points in org theory. If you have an need for org theory for school or work, this book is a quick, informational, trust-worthy read

Great book that takes a positive approach to being a principal and changing as needed. Easy to read and lots of helpful information included.

Satisfied customer

This book is very informative, but it is also extremely dry.