Principal and Leadership Team Responsibilities and Actions Important for First-Order Change
Principal
Leadership Team
Optimizer
Believe that as a cohesive group the faculty can produce powerful
results (collective efficacy)
Identify tasks that capitalize on the strengths of the faculty
Affirmation
Acknowledge and celebrate the success of the school and
individuals publicly
Use data to illustrate progress of the innovation
Look for examples of success for the principal to recognize and
celebrate
Ideals/Beliefs
Operate from a well articulated set of ideals and beliefs regarding
teaching and learning
Share student successes with parents and the community
Forge shared agreements around the mission, vision, and purpose of
the school
Situational
Awareness
Visibility
Understand the factors that effect the day-to-day functioning of
the school and uses this awareness to forecast potential problems
Help transform beliefs into observable behaviors
Keep the principal informed of perceptions from within the school as
well as the community
Visit classrooms formally and informally
Support the principal in efforts to be visible
Interact with faculty, students, and community members in a
variety of settings
Foster and attend to personal relationships with faculty
Remain highly visible in the school with faculty and students
Relationships
Communication Operationalize effective communication within the school via daily
bulletins, web pages, professional sharing at faculty meetings, and
common planning time
Culture
Input
Build and maintain a culture where a common language is
employed, ideas are shared, and staff members use agreed upon
norms within the context of a shared purpose
Establish and foster procedures that ensure every faculty member
has input on important decisions and policies
Promote a culture of caring and procedures that support faculty in their
lives outside of school
Recognize, with the principal, personal and professional milestones and
accomplishments
Help operationalize effective communication within the school via daily
bulletins, web pages, professional sharing at faculty meetings, and
common planning time
Model constructive disagreement and problem solving skills as well as
positive communication
Shape the culture of the school by modeling and monitoring
cooperation and cohesion
Provide opportunities for faculty to dialogue around the purpose and
vision of the school
Ensure that all perspectives are addressed by modeling appropriate
ways to give feedback and ask questions
Ask strategic questions about whether decisions and actions are
aligned with school goals and vision
Principal and Leadership Team Responsibilities and Actions Important for Second-Order Change
Knowledge
Optimizer
Principal
Leadership Team
Learns about the innovation, helps others learn about it
Be the driving force behind the innovation
Learns about the innovation, helps others learn about it
Speaks positively about the innovation, provides examples
of successful implementation
Take a stand for its success
Stimulate the intellectual curiosity of faculty with research,
data, and visionary questions
Identify roadblocks and challenges to the innovation
Include research about the innovation in conversations,
lead discussions on innovation progress
Stimulate the intellectual reflection of faculty on their
implementation of the innovation
Inspire faculty to operate at the edge of their
competence
Ask questions that cause advisors to be reflective in their
practices related to the innovation
Raise issues, share data, compare where the school is and
where it needs to be
Monitoring/
Evaluating
Flexibility
Carefully monitor the effects of the innovation
Demonstrate “tolerance for ambiguity”
Look at formative and summative assessments; conduct
walk-throughs
Ideals/Beliefs
Keep the reasoning behind the innovation in the forefront
of discussions
Intellectual
Stimulation
Change Agent
Given the uncertainty inherent in second-order change,
adapt leadership to the current situation
Stay the course despite pressures and obstacles
Continually adjust plans in response to progress and tension
Use protocols that allow for efficient and usable input
Communicate ideals and beliefs formally and informally
Ask strategic questions to monitor and prompt actions to
align with goals and outcomes
Second-Order Change: Responsibilities That Suffer and Actions that Help
Culture
Communication
Order
Input
Provide opportunities for faculty members to discuss the advantages and implications of the innovation
Support faculty members based on their response to the innovation
Probe for questions and concerns so that they may be acknowledged or resolved by the Leadership Team
Convey a consistent and uniform message regarding the innovation and share the implementation plan with faculty
Communicate that the innovation may disrupt the usual routine of the school
Design effective procedures for communication, problem solving, and decision making to foster a sense of stability
Work to develop “ownership” rather than “buy-in” by offering multiple ways for faculty to share concerns, questions and input
Communicate the ways input informs decisions while being transparent about the difference between input and decisions
Adapted from Marzano, McNulty, and Waters, Effective School Leadership: From Research to Results, 2004 by ESR, Educators for Social Responsibility,
Poliner and Tissiere, November 2007 & PEBC, Public Education & Business Coalition, Jones & Tissiere, November 2007