Leading change is one of the key roles of leaders as we constantly look to implement school improvement strategies in our school. Our ability to lead a change process has a significant impact on our effectiveness as a leader, the stress levels of our staff and the likelihood that the change will be successful.

Try to avoid the following 7 Sins of Leading Change.

Announcing the change is NOT the same as implementing the change
Politicians do it all of the time. Don’t make their mistake. Just announcing something doesn’t necessarily change anything.

No compelling reason to change
Identifying and understanding why the change is necessary is important for buy-in. It is easy to understand the compelling reason if it is a change that you have initiated.
However, this can be challenging, especially if the change is imposed ‘top-down’ eg by the government or a curriculum authority. Try to understand what problem they are trying to address through this change initiative. Classroom teachers also complain about ‘top-down’ imposed change from leaders in their school, if they don’t understand the compelling reason.

People’s concerns are not surfaced and addressed
Whenever a change is announced people will have their concerns. Fundamentally people want to know information about the change, why it is necessary and what difference it will make. They will then move to their personal concerns. What will this change mean for me? Am I still going to have a job? Will my hours be cut? Will I need retraining? Will I still be able to use the resources I have collected and the plans I have developed?
Until these fundamental concerns are surfaced and addressed, they are not ready to talk about implementation.

People changing are not involved in planning the roll out
The best implementation plans involve key people in planning the roll out. Often this is efficiently done by a working party utilizing key people who are going to be impacted by the change.

Poor planning of change
Successful implementation of any change process requires 5 key elements. If these elements are not adequately addressed the implementation will not be optimized.

• Compelling reason to change – what is the problem that is being addressed?
• Clear vision – what it will look like after the change if it is successful?
• Realistic plan – is the initiative being rolled out across the whole school or staged?
• Professional development provided – what training do staff need?
• Resourcing considered – what resources need to be purchased or developed

Failure to prioritise
Often schools have many change initiatives underway at any time. Change is far more likely to be successful if we have a small number of priorities in any given year.
You are far more likely to be successful if you only have three priorities rather than trying to juggle 57 things and doing none of them well.

People are not held accountable for actually changing
Once the change plan has been implemented, the compelling reason communicated, the programs developed, the training provided and the resources purchased, then staff should be expected to be aligned and delivering the NEW way. At times, some staff give what is known as a “Dirty Yes”. They say that they have implemented the NEW process or teaching strategy or approach but close their door and keep doing what they have always done. If staff are happy to receive their pay each fortnight then they have ‘signed up’ to the school’s approach. Staff need to be expected to deliver the programs that the school has identified as “the way things are done around here”. This means difficult conversations need to happen with staff who have given a Dirty Yes and choose to do things the way they choose rather than being aligned with the school agreed practices.

Which of these 7 sins needs to be your focus in successfully implementing school improvement strategies at your school?