Change Agency & Leadership
from the Middle
Patrick F. Bassett
Bassett@HeadsUpEd.com
202.746.5444
Management vs. Leadership
• Management vs. Leadership: What’s the
Difference?
• Forced To Choose, Most People Choose…?
• Why Do Most People Prefer Good
Management Over Strong Leadership?
• What are the School’s Key Management &
Leadership Opportunities & Challenges?
Creating the Conditions
for Success
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Leading from the Middle
Managing Difficult Conversations: High EQ needed.
Cultivating the First Followers
Dan Pink on the “Science of Motivation.”
Dan & Chip Heath on Orchestrating Change: Switch: “How To
Change Things When Change Is Hard”
IDEO on Design.
Robert Kegan on Immunity to Change
Pat Bassett on Seven Stages of the Change Cycle
What are the essential questions regarding change in schools?
Myers-Briggs Z-Decision-Making & Leadership Case Studies
Creating a Movement
~ Derek Sivers, Ted Talk
Of the first three dancing guys, how many are really good dancers?
Creating a Movement – 4 Principles
1.
A lone nut does something great...
(PFB: Leaders don’t have to be talented, just a bit crazy.)
2.
…but no movement without the first follower.
(PFB: You can’t care about the risk of looking crazy.)
3.
Cultivate and celebrate the first follower…
(PFB: Show the way, then honor the first followers: e.g., Joe Biden
in catechism class)
4.
…or have the courage to be the first follower.
(PFB: Moral courage the 1st virtue: Be the John Hancock to Thomas
Jefferson or the Reverend Abernathy to Martin Luther King, Jr.)
Return
What Motivates Adults?
Play
See 11:00 – 13:07
Dan Pink’s Drive: The Surprising
Truth about What Motivates Us
 Extrinsic Motivators (carrot & stick) for Faculty?
– Carrot (“pay for performance”); and
– Stick (“probation and firing”).
– How are these motivators going in school?
– What are the equivalent extrinsic motivators for students?
 Intrinsic Motivators for Faculty?
–
–
–
–
Autonomy
Mastery
Purpose
What are the equivalent intrinsic motivators for students?
Where do we see these at work for kids?
 Case Study: Name a school change agenda item we’re not
making much progress on: How could we motivate a la Pink?
The Best Way To Pay
“How Gen Y & Boomers Will Reshape Your Agenda” HBR Jul-Aug 2009
What employees value “at least as much as compensation”
Boomers
1. High quality colleagues
2. Intellectually stimulating
environment
3. Autonomy regarding work tasks
Pink’s first principle, autonomy
4. Flexible work arrangements
5. Access to new
experiences/challenges
6. Giving back to world through
work
7. Recognition from one’s employer
Pink’s second principle, mastery
Pink’s third principle, purpose
The Best Way To Pay
“How Gen Y & Boomers Will Reshape Your Agenda” HBR Jul-Aug 2009
What employees value “at least as much as compensation”
Gen Y/Millenials
1. High quality colleagues
2. Flexible work arrangements
3. Prospects for advancement
4. Recognition from one’s employer
5. A steady rate of
advancement/promotion
6. Access to new
experiences/challenges
The Best Way To Pay
“How Gen Y & Boomers Will Reshape Your Agenda” HBR Jul-Aug 2009
What employees value “at least as much as compensation”
Boomers
Gen Y/Millenials
1. High quality colleagues
1. High quality colleagues
2. Intellectually stimulating
environment
2. Flexible work arrangements
3. Autonomy regarding work tasks
3. Prospects for advancement
4. Flexible work arrangements
4. Recognition from one’s employer
5. Access to new
experiences/challenges
5. A steady rate of
advancement/promotion
6. Giving back to world through
work
6. Access to new
experiences/challenges
7. Recognition from one’s employer
Which motivator more aligned
with organizational goals?
Professional Development in Independent Schools:
 “Here’s $2000 per year to spend as you like: go grow.”

“Here’s $2000 each, join or form an online PLC professional learning community- on one of the following
topics, and design your professional development program
around that topic, reporting out to the faculty at the end of
the year: 1.) differentiated instruction; 2.) brain-based
learning; 3.) blended high-tech/high touch classroom
environments; 4.) formative testing.”
Return
The Rider vs. the Elephant
1. Direct the Rider (mind)
 Find the bright spots
 Script the first critical moves
 Send a postcard of the destination
2. Motivate the Elephant (heart) (= Drive’s “Purpose”)
 Find the feeling
 Shrink the change: Limit the choices – cf. Sheena Ivenger &
Jim Collin’s Great by Choice
 Teaching as relational vs. transactional
– Questions of a 5-year old boy beginning school?
– Is school hard? Will I be able to do it? Will you be here
everyday?
Switch: How To Change Things When
Change Is Hard ~Chip and Dan Heath
3. Shape the Path (path)
 Tweak the environment
 Build the habits
 Rally the herd
 Example:
– Crystal Jones, TFA first-grade teacher in an inner city
school in Atlanta where there was no kindergarten. “By the
end of this school year, you are going to be third graders.”
– Geoffrey Canada – “Harlem Children’s Zone” School: “If
you child attends this school, he or she will go to college.”
 Case Study: Name a school change agenda item we’re not
making much progress on: How could we motivate a la the
Heath brothers?
Return
Robert Kegan’s Immunity to Change
Intentions and Actions: The Gap
-----------
Well-Intentioned
Goals:
Case Study 1:
Quitting Smoking
Robert Kegan’s Immunity to Change
Well-Intentioned
Goals:
Quitting Smoking
Behaviors I
Do/Don’t Do that
Undermine Goal
Robert Kegan’s Immunity to Change
Well-Intentioned Behaviors I
Goals:
Do/Don’t Do
that Undermine
Goal
Quitting Smoking Sneaking an
occasional smoke
Rewarding
myself with a
smoke.
Robert Kegan’s Immunity to Change
WellIntentioned
Goals:
Behaviors I
Do/Don’t Do
that
Undermine
Goal
Quitting
Smoking
Sneaking an
occasional
smoke
Rewarding
myself with a
smoke.
Invisible
Competing
Drivers
Robert Kegan’s Immunity to Change
Well-Intentioned
Goals:
Behaviors I
Do/Don’t Do that
Undermine Goal
Invisible Competing
Drivers
Quitting Smoking
Sneaking an
occasional smoke
Smoking as
pleasurable pastime
Rewarding myself
with a smoke.
Smoking as anxiety
reliever
Smoking as oral
fixation preferable to
eating/weight gain
Foot on gas……………………and on brake
Robert Kegan’s Immunity to Change
WellIntentioned
Goals:
Behaviors I
Do/Don’t Do that
Undermine Goal
Invisible
Competing
Drivers
Quitting
Smoking
Sneaking an
occasional smoke
Smoking as
pleasurable
pastime
Rewarding myself
with a smoke.
Smoking as
anxiety reliever
Smoking as oral
fixation
preferable to
eating/weight
gain
Big, Untested
Assumptions
Behind Col 3
Drivers
Robert Kegan’s Immunity to Change
Well-Intentioned Behaviors I Do/Don’t Invisible
Goals:
Do that Undermine
Competing
Goal
Drivers
Big, Untested
Assumptions
Behind Col 3
Drivers
Quitting Smoking Sneaking an occasional Smoking as
smoke
pleasurable
pastime
I can’t find
equally
pleasurable
alternatives
Rewarding myself with Smoking as
a smoke.
anxiety reliever
I might become
someone who
is not me
Smoking
preferable to
Change: Identify drivers and assumptions.
Testgain
the assumptions.
eating/weight
Robert Kegan’s Immunity to Change
Well-Intentioned
Goals:
Case Study 2:
Be an Innovator
Lead the Change
Agenda
Robert Kegan’s Immunity to Change
Well-Intentioned
Goals:
PFB Case Study 2:
Be a Change Agent
Lead the Change
Agenda
Behaviors I
Do/Don’t Do that
Undermine Goal
Robert Kegan’s Immunity to Change
Well-Intentioned
Goals:
Behaviors I
Do/Don’t Do that
Undermine Goal
Case Study 2:
Be a Change Agent
Fail to align
resources and
incentives
Lead the Change
Agenda
Make the case for
the rider but not the
elephant
Robert Kegan’s Immunity to Change
Well-Intentioned
Goals:
Behaviors I
Invisible
Do/Don’t Do that Competing
Undermine Goal Drivers
Case Study 2:
Be a Change
Agent
Fail to align
resources and
incentives
Lead the Change
Agenda
Make the case for
the rider but not
the elephant
Robert Kegan’s Immunity to Change
Well-Intentioned
Goals:
Behaviors I
Do/Don’t Do that
Undermine Goal
Invisible
Competing Drivers
Be a Change Agent
Fail to align
resources and
incentives
Keeping peace more
important than
effecting change
Lead the Change
Agenda
Make the case for
the rider but not the
elephant
Fear that you won’t
have followers; that
the change won’t
work - seen as a
failure
Robert Kegan’s Immunity to Change
WellIntentioned
Goals:
Behaviors I
Do/Don’t Do
that
Undermine
Goal
Invisible
Competing
Drivers
Be a Change
Agent
Fail to align
resources and
incentives
Keeping peace
more important
than effecting
change
Lead the
Change Agenda
Make the case
for the rider but
not the elephant
Fear that the
change won’t
work - seen as a
failure; fear
change agent
punished
Big, Untested
Assumptions
Behind Col 3
Drivers
Robert Kegan’s Immunity to Change
Well-Intentioned
Goals:
Behaviors I
Invisible
Do/Don’t Do that Competing
Undermine Goal Drivers
Big, Untested
Assumptions
Behind Col 3
Drivers
Be a Change
Agent
Fail to align
resources and
incentives
Keeping peace
more important
than effecting
change
No one wants
change
Lead the Change
Agenda
Make the case for
the rider but not
the elephant
Fear that the
change won’t
work - seen as a
failure; fear
change agent
punished
Failure will be
punished instead
of trying being
rewarded
Return
Seven Stages of the Change Cycle
Source: Center for Ethical Leadership (Bill Grace, Pat Hughes, & Pat Turner), Kellogg National Leadership Program Seminar,
Snoqualine, WA, 7/10/97. Reference: William Bridges, Transitions; Kurt Lewin, Field Theory in Social Science; Virginia Satir, The
Satir Model; George David, Compressed Experience Workplace Simulation; Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, On Death & Dying; Tom Peters, In
Search of Excellence.
 The research on change indicates that there are
predictable stages individuals experience whenever a
major change event appears. What are they?
 Exercise:
 Identify 2 major change events in your life
 Indicate the stages you went through as the change
occurred.
 As a small group determine what stages you had in
common despite differences in the change events you
were thinking of.
The Seven Stages of the Change Cycle
Source: Center for Ethical Leadership (Bill Grace, Pat Hughes, & Pat Turner), Kellogg National Leadership Program Seminar,
Snoqualine, WA, 7/10/97. Reference: William Bridges, Transitions; Kurt Lewin, Field Theory in Social Science; Virginia Satir, The
Satir Model; George David, Compressed Experience Workplace Simulation; Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, On Death & Dying; Tom Peters, In
Search of Excellence.
1. Business as Usual: the routine; the frozen state; the
status quo
2. External Threat: potential disaster; propitious change
event; an ending; a “death in the family”; an unfreezing
via the introduction of a foreign element;
disequilibrium; dissatisfaction with the status quo.
3. Denial: refusal to read the Richter scale; anger and
rage; chaos.
The Seven Stages of the Change Cycle
4.
Mourning: confusion; depression.
5. Acceptance: letting go.
6. Renewal: creativity; the incubation state of new
ideas and epiphanies; new beginnings; movement;
vision of what “better” might look like;
reintegration; first practical steps; practice of new
routines.
7. New Structure: sustainable change; the new status
quo; new “frozen” state of restored equilibrium;
spiritual integration; internalization and
transformation of self.
Overcoming Resistance to Change
Conventional Wisdom: Raise the Volume…
 Declare war, demonize the enemy, mobilize the
public
Problems with Raising the Volume in School
Culture…
 Skepticism: Teachers are intellectuals--declarations
of imminent collapse are met with suspicion.
 Good is the enemy of great: Jim Collins’ Good to
Great. Absence of provoking crisis makes avoidance
easy.
Overcoming Resistance to Change
Problems with Raising the Volume in School Culture…
 Success: Track record of independent schools the
greatest impediment to change: We can’t declare war
when schools are enjoying decades of peace and
prosperity. So why advocate change????
 Increasingly the public identifies high quality schools with
innovativeness, and least identifies innovativeness with
independent schools.
 The independent school model may not be financially
sustainable in it current incarnation of skyrocketing tuitions.
 What’s best for kids needs to be reasserted as institutions
almost always over time gravitate towards doing what’s best for
adults.
Effecting Change
Developing Followership for Change:
 Coercive model works (“We’re about to close unless all
faculty including department chairs teach five classes
instead of four with 20-25 kids in each class”)…
…but it works at a high cost to morale.
 Appeal to idealism works (“We have an opportunity to
create a new model here and become pioneers”)…
…but it works only if you have a highly committed
“band of brothers” and strong, visionary, and
inspirational leadership.
Effecting Change
Developing Buy-in for Change:
 Mutual benefit (“What’s in it for me?”) model works
(“Beyond supporting this direction because ‘it’s the right
thing to do,’ we are designing a new framework that is
mutually beneficial to the school and its staff”)…
…but it works only if you build in significant
incentives.
Effecting Change
Alternative to Conventional Wisdom (Raise
the Volume)…
Lower the Noise…
By…
 Talking about/Personalizing Change:
Anticipating the Seven Stages
 Betting on the Fastest Horses
Acknowledging Denial & Mourning
All change begins not with a beginning but an
ending.
• Example: Getting married = end of…
being single
unconditional love
having your own bathroom (and towels)
the sports car
Effecting Change
Abstracting and Personalizing Change
Faculty exercise: What are your own major change events? A move?
Marriage? Admin job? Can we predict & prepare for stages?
Change Agency: Bet on the Fast Horses
 Main Impediment to Change:
Consensus model of decision making.
(“My biggest challenge is convincing my faculty
members that they are not self-employed.”)
~Lou Salza
 Coalition-building Model: Betting on the Fastest Horses: targeted
buy-in via modeling. Ride the “tipping point” horses. (Malcolm
Gladwell’s mavens, connectors, and salespeople).
 Recruiting “the coalition of the willing.” Margaret Mead Dictum:
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the
world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
Case Studies
 Our School’s Challenges &
Opportunities
 Student and School Outcomes
for the 21st C:
Demonstrations of Learning
 Professionalizing the
Profession
Change Agency Case
Study #1
Professionalizing the
Profession
Strategic Issue: Professionalizing the
Profession -Source: Katherine Boles,
HGSE/NAIS Seminar, Nov. 2006
Characteristic
Not a Profession
Career Path
Egalitarianism — no career
ladder
Professional Relationships
Entry and Training
Induction
Professional Development
Research
Accountability
Power Structure
A Profession
Recognition for achievement
— clearly defined career
path
Isolation — practice is a
Teaming — practices
freelance craft
characterized by teamwork
and collaboration
Poor preparation — "anyone Rigor — High entry
can do it"
requirements: standards,
skills, testing
Little or no mentoring
Mentoring is the expectation
& the norm
Weak or nonexistent
Integral to the career
Practice unrelated to
research
Outcomes unrelated to
promotion and salary
Little impact on institutional
decisions
Research informs practice
Accountability across the
board
Shared decision making
The End!
“So what’s it gonna be, eh?”
A Clockwork Orange
NAIS Strategic Planning: Breakout
Groups (partnerships; school of future;
sustainability, etc.)
Return 1
Return 2
Why doesn’t anyone want to sit at the innovation table?
Design Thinking by IDEO
(Fred Dust)

Know the threats to your value proposition. For Higher Ed?
For independent schools?
– Fred Dust: The moment Google starts hiring smart selfeducated people who submit digital portfolios of what they
can do instead of college transcripts of what they know, the
higher ed value proposition is in jeopardy.
– PFB: High Tech High. Denver & St. Louis Magnet Schools

Question assumptions about your users. Look, don’t just ask,
because you'll get misinformation: What kind of music do you
listen to when alone in your car? Watch people in context.
(IDEO design teams include psychologists and anthropologists.)
– What assumptions do we make about our students?
Colleagues?
– How do we punish those who don’t conform to cultural
norms?
Design Thinking by IDEO
(Fred Dust)
 Think people first, not business or technology first.
– Segway vs. Zip cars & bikes
 Expand your comparative set. For schools?
– Grad schools. Military. Museums. Summer Camp.
 Expand your Ecosystem. School 2.0.
– New School in NYC & Lighthouse School in Nantucket
(and all the Semester Schools).
– Dartmouth quarter plan. Blended learning ½ time.
 Build your own metrics.
– PFB: Demonstrations of Learning & Digital portfolios.
Return
RSAnimate’s 21st C. Enlightenment
Play
Demonstrations of Learning:
“What you do, not what you know, the
ultimate test of education.” ~PFB Tweet
1. Conduct a fluent conversation in a foreign language about
of piece of writing in that language.
2. Write a cogent and persuasive opinion piece on a matter
of public importance.
3. Declaim with passion and from memory a passage that is
meaningful, of one’s own or from the culture’s literature
or history.
4. Demonstrate a commitment to creating a more sustainable
and global future with means that are scalable
5. Invent a machine or program a robot capable of
performing a difficult physical task.
Demonstrations of Learning
6. Exercise leadership in arena which you have
passion and expertise.
7. Using statistics, assess if a statement by a public
figure is demonstrably true.
8. Assess media coverage of a global event from
various cultural/national perspectives.
9. Describe a breakthrough for a project-based team
on which you participated in which you
contributed to overcoming a human-created
obstacle.
10. Produce or perform or interpret a work of art.
Return
Tiananmen Square
Return
Return
How Do You Lead without
Positional Power?
 James Madison arrived at the Philadelphia
Convention in 1787 with no positional power but a
big idea.
 First Speaker: Instead of reforming the Articles of
Confederation, abandon them.
 Few except James Madison & Alexander Hamilton
came thinking the Federalist Papers were right.
 Everyone left proposing a new constitution. How?
Sources of Power
Sources of Positional Power:
 Vested Authority: Power via anointment
 Situational Authority: Danger
Sources of non-Positional Power
 Informational/Expertise Power: What are the facts?
 Interpersonal/Relational Power: High EQ trumps all.
 Associative Power: Networking. Malcolm Gladwell’s
“tipping point” leadership: maven, connector, salesperson.
(Does management know who the opinion leaders are?)
-----------------------------The Slavery Paradox of the Founding Fathers
Takeaways from Montpelier
How Do You Lead without Positional Power?
 Positional Power: Since it’s rooted in the
“willingness of the governed” to accept the dicta of
people in power or in coercion by force, outcomes
often compromised.
 Leaders in the Middle have real power: learn to
develop it and cultivate it.
 Leaders in the middle can and do change the world.
Remember Margaret Meade’s observation: “Never
underestimate the power of a handful of people to
change the world. After all, it’s the only thing that
ever does.”
Return
Demonstrations of Learning:
1. Conduct a fluent conversation in a foreign language about
of piece of writing in that language. (Stanford University
requirement)
2. Write a cogent and persuasive opinion piece on a matter of
public importance.
3. Declaim with passion and from memory a passage that is
meaningful, of one’s own or from the culture’s literature or
history.
4. Demonstrate a commitment to creating a more sustainable
and global future with means that are scalable
5. Invent a machine or program a robot capable of performing
a difficult physical task.
Demonstrations of Learning
6. Exercise leadership in arena which you have passion and
expertise.
7. Using statistics, assess if a statement by a public figure is
demonstrably true.
8. Assess media coverage of a global event from various
cultural/national perspectives. (“Arab Spring” vs. 6th grade
US history unit on “causes of the revolution”)
9. Describe a breakthrough for a project-based team on which
you participated in which you contributed to overcoming a
human-created obstacle.
10. Produce or perform or stage or interpret a work of art.
Return
Grant Wood’s Victorian Survival
Smithsonian Podcast
interpretation by Katy
Waldman, Holton
Arms School
Return
The Five Cs Plus One
 Character
 Creativity
 Communication
 Collaboration
 Critical Thinking
---------------------------------------------- Cosmopolitanism – Cross Cultural Competency
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Ten (more) Trends for School Leaders to
Ponder
(see Top Ten Trends 2010-11 PPT for First Ten)
Boards Become Focused on the Strategic: Trendbook 2012-13
Disruptions in K-12 Sector Will Provide Challenges &
Opportunities
Disruptions in Higher Ed Will Produce New Expectations
The Future of Mobile is the Future of Everything
Market Segmentation as the New Marketing Imperative
Cosmopolitanism Emerging as the “Sixth Competency” Schools of
the Future
Hyper-Parenting and Under-Parenting Exerting a Heavy Toll on
Kids
Beyond the 3 R’s of Recruitment, Reward, & Retention: Managing
Talent a Priority
Design Thinking Migrating to Schools…and Ideas
Schools will be more Flexible, Accommodating, and Innovative
Are We Ready for the Big Shifts?
(cf. MacArthur Foundation, 21st. C.
Learning)
The Big Shifts
 Knowing…………….. Doing
 Teacher-centered…… Student-centered
 The Individual………. The Team
 Consumption of Info….Construction of Meaning
 Schools………………..Networks (online peers & experts)
 Single Sourcing……… Crowd Sourcing
-------------------------------------------------------------------- High Stakes Testing….. High Value Demonstration
(robotics; oral video histories; vignettes; inventions;
scholarship; etc. –all captured in a student’s digital
portfolio)
Return
NAIS Film Vignettes
Download from: http://www.blueskybroadcast.com/Client/NAIS/Case/case.html
Process : What are the facts in play?
Decision-Making: IGE’s 4-way test - legal, front page, gut, role model.
•NAIS Case Study #1: Harsh Transitions in the Second Grade
(NAIS’s Take on the Issues)
• NAIS Case Study #2: Shock and Scandal
(NAIS’s Take on the Issues)
• NAIS Case Study #5: Clash of Styles of Leaders
(NAIS’s Take on the Issues)
• NAIS Case Study #9: Administrative Evaluations
(NAIS’s Take on the Issues)
• NAIS Case Study #11: Digging Deeper for the Campaign
(NAIS’s Take on the Issues)
• NAIS Case Study #13: Taking Charge…by a Trustee
(NAIS’s Take on the Issues)
NAIS Film Vignettes
Download from: http://www.blueskybroadcast.com/Client/NAIS/Case/case.html
• NAIS Case Study #15: Marriage of a Student
(NAIS’s Take on the Issues)
• NAIS Case Study #28: Peanuts Allergy
(NAIS’s Take on the Issues)
• NAIS Case Study #29: Anonymous Letter from the Faculty
(NAIS’s Take on the Issues)
• NAIS Case Study #30: Breaking the Rules…by the Adults
(NAIS’s Take on the Issues)
• NAIS Case Study #31: Admissions Package Deal
(NAIS’s Take on the Issues)
Return
Are you prepared
to face increasing
competition for a
decreasing number of
students?
Return
“St. Louis Magnet Schools
offer an EXCITING,
TUITION FREE alternative
for students of all ages
and abilities.”
Cosmopolitanism & Global
Cross-Cultural Competency
Cross-Cultural Intelligence
(Source: Steven Jones, Consultant)
One Traditional Norm Set
One Multicultural Norm Set
 Directness
 Respect, tact, diplomacy, avoid
 Ambition, aggressiveness, pride,
initiative
“losing face”
 Modesty
 Independence
 Interdependence
 Loyalty to job, institutions;
 Loyalty to individuals, extended
 Strong presentation skills
 Accents, body language
 Seriousness
 Relaxed, playful
 Monochromic
 Polychromic
 Timeliness
 Whenever
volunteerism
family
“The Cultural
Iceberg”
~Dr. Else Hamayan
TWO PHOTOS:
Assignment: “Create the most aesthetically pleasing shot.”
(Two Photos Source: http://gonzophotos.com/wordpress/?p=333)
Same subject, different photographers: Which photo is more
pleasing to you?
Which was photographed by an American and which by an East
Asian?
Culture’s aphorisms: US “squeaky wheel” vs. Japan’s “nail”
Cultural GPS (“There’s an App for that!”)
• iPhone App based on Geert Hofsted’s
research on national cultures, helps the user
“deal with the differences in thinking,
feeling, and acting of people around the
globe…”
• 98 countries
• 5 dimension model:
 Power Distance
 Individualism
 Masculinity
 Uncertainty Avoidance
 Long-Term Orientation
(PDI)
(IDV)
(MAS)
(UAI)
(LTO)
Cultural GPS
Power Distance : Level of acceptance of unequal
distribution of power
 Low: little hierarchy, accessible superiors, belief in
equity & justice, change by evolution.
 High: inequality accepted; hierarchy needed;
inaccessible superiors; privileged power holders;
change by revolution.
Individualism: Level of self-reliance vs. collective
reliance on clans and organizations
 Low: “we” orientation; relationships over tasks; duty
to family, group, society; penalty involves loss of face,
shame.
 High: “I” consciousness; private opinions valued;
fulfill obligations to self; penalty involves loss of selfrespect & guilt
Cultural GPS
Masculinity: Femininity values of caring, quality of life,
modesty, cooperation vs. masculinity values of achievement,
success, heroism, assertiveness, competition, material reward
for success.
 Low: quality of life, serving others, striving for consensus,
small and slow valued, intuition, empathy
 High: performance, ambition, excelling, polarizing, workorientation, big and fast valued, decisiveness, achievement.
Uncertainty Avoidance: Extent to which ambiguity and
uncertainty are threatening: seek to control or ride the wave
 Low: relaxed attitudes where practice more important than
principle; hard work not a virtue per se, emotions not
shown, dissent accepted, flexibility, fewer rules
 High: anxiety and stress high, work-driven, emotions
accepted, conflict is threatening, need for agreement, laws,
rules.
Cultural GPS
Long-Term Orientation: Future-oriented perspective
aligned with a society’s search for virtue vs.
conventional, historical, or short-term point of view,
normative thinking
 Low: conventional, seek stability & absolute truth,
need quick results
 High: see many truths, pragmatic, change-adept,
persevere
Cultural GPS: U.S. vs. Japan
PFB… in Japan: Tsunami Headlines. Department Chair Selection
…in China: Getting on the bus….
What Countries Like/Unlike US?
Cultural GPS: U.S. (GNP) vs. Bhutan (GNH)
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Myers-Briggs Z+2 Model
I/E (introvert/extrovert); S/N (sensing/intuition);
T/F (thinking/feeling); J/P (judging/perceiving)
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S (Sensing): What
problem are we trying
to solve?
What are the facts,
details, frequency?
Adapted from The Zig-Zag ™ Process for Problem Solving,
developed by Gordon D. Lawrence, Center for Applications
of Psychological Type, Inc., 2004.
How do you process info?
“Fact-gathering
Test”
T (Thinking): What
are the criteria by
which we should
make this decision?
What is the logical
way to address the
problem? The
ethical dimensions?
(IGE “Legal Test”)
How do you make decisions?
N (iNtuition): What are
the patterns and theories
for why this might be
happening? How do we
brainstorm solutions?
(IGE “Gut Test”)
F (Feeling): What is
the impact on people?
How can we deliver
this info in the best
way to get results?
(IGE “Front Page Test”
& “Role Model Test”)
See “slow thinking” process in the “Bassett Blog on the Horns of a
Dilemma” and video vignette case studies on the NAIS website
“Essential Questions” To Ask
about School Change?
 Today: Where is your division or school today on a scale of
1 – 10 on the education philosophy spectrum?
 1 = classical, traditional teacher-centered education (“the best of the
past & present”)
 10 = experimental, experiential, project-based, discovery-oriented,
student-centered, high-tech + high touch (“the best of the 21st C.”)
 Tomorrow: Where do you want it to be?
1-5 is improvement model for “We’re right where we
should be”
5-10 transformation model for “There’s work to do.”
(Change required for either end of the spectrum.)
 Appreciative Inquiry (AI): What are the advantages you
have that can “grease the wheels” of change? What are the
impediments to change in your school?
Essential Questions
 Given the “brush-fire” reality & chaos of daily
senior management in schools, how do you balance
your obligations to manage vs. your opportunity to
lead?
 What are the Messages We Should Send about
Change to Parents & Faculty?
Message to Parents: “We’re preparing children for their
future, not your past.”
Message to Faculty: “Don’t bother with the ‘The
colleges (or secondary schools) won’t like it’ excuse: The
colleges (or secondary schools) will like it.” (Ask them.)
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Small, Disciplined Experiments
Choose to be Great by Choice
• Roald Amundsen vs. Robert Falcon Scott,
in their efforts to lead their teams to be the
first to the South Pole in October 1911
• Adopt the discipline of “the 20 – mile
march”
• Empirical creativity vs. intuition
• First “shoot bullets, not missiles”
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Grant Wood’s Victorian Survival
Smithsonian Podcast
interpretation by Katy
Waldman, Holton
Arms School
Demonstration of Learning
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The End!
Patrick F. Bassett
Bassett@HeadsUpEd.com
202.746.5444
Difficult Conversations: How to
Discuss What Matters Most
by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen
You’re
holding
me up.
How’s the
project
coming?
You’re a jerk.
I hate you.
Fine,
thanks.
Levels: Stated vs. Implied. Business at hand vs. Threats to my image.
Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss
What Matters Most
by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen
She doesn’t
get what my
work
demands..
The Spouse/Partner Version
. it wait?
Can
I’m busy
You think you’re only
busy one?
You don’t love me.
Fine.
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Puzzle: Mishandled conversations create the very outcomes we dread.
Myers-Briggs Profiles
 Extraverted (E) - Introverted (I)
 Sensing (S)
- Intuition (N)
 Thinking (T)
- Feeling (F)
 Judging (J)
- Perceiving (P)
Our School Leaders:
ENTJ = 3
ENFP = 2
ENFJ = 3
INFJ = 4
INTJ = 1
ENTJ
ENTJ Description
• "I don't care to sit by the window on an airplane. If I can't
control it, why look?“
• Natural tendency to marshal and direct
• Bent to plan creatively and to make those plans reality
• ENTJs are often "larger than life"
• Salesmanship, story-telling facility
• TRADEMARK: -- "I'm really sorry you have to die."
• ENTJs are decisive. They see what needs to be done, and
frequently assign roles to their fellows.
• ENTJs may by reflex become argumentative: the ENTJ is
not one to be trifled with.
FAMOUS ENTJs
•
•
•
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•
•
•
•
•
•
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Richard M. Nixon
Lamar Alexander (US Senator)
Jim Carrey (Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask)
Rahm Emanuel, White House Chief of Staff
Harrison Ford
Steve Jobs
Dave Letterman
General Norman Schwarzkopf
Margaret Thatcher
ENFP
ENFP Description
• Both "idea"-people and "people"-people, who see everyone and
everything as part of a cosmic whole.
• Outgoing and warm, and genuinely like people
• Often have strong, if sometimes surprising, values and viewpoints
• Use their social skills and contacts to persuade others gently
(though enthusiastically) of the rightness of these views; this
sometimes results in the ENFP neglecting their nearest and dearest
while caught up their efforts to change the world.
• In the workplace, ENFPs interact in a positive and creative
manner with both their co-workers and the public.
• Major asset in brainstorming sessions; follow-through on
projects can be a problem, however.
• ENFPs do get distracted, especially if another interesting issue
comes along.
FAMOUS ENFPs
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Franz Joseph Haydn
Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
Will Rogers
Buster Keaton
Theodor "Dr." Seuss Geisel (The Cat in the Hat)
Paul Harvey
Elizabeth Montgomery (Bewitched)
Bill Cosby (Ghost Dad)
Dave Thomas, owner of Wendy's hamburger chain
Lewis Grizzard, newspaper columnist
ENFJ
ENFJ Description
• ENFJs are the benevolent 'pedagogues' of humanity.
• They have tremendous charisma
• Power to manipulate others with their phenomenal
interpersonal skills and unique salesmanship. But it's usually not
meant as manipulation -- ENFJs generally believe in their dreams,
and see themselves as helpers and enablers, which they usually are.
• ENFJs are global learners. They see the big picture.
• Focus is expansive. Some can juggle an amazing number of
responsibilities or projects simultaneously.
• Many ENFJs have tremendous entrepreneurial ability.
• ENFJs are, by definition, Js, with whom we associate
organization and decisiveness
• TRADEMARK: "The first shall be last"
FAMOUS ENFJs
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
David, King of Israel
Abraham Lincoln
Ronald Reagan
Barack Obama
Abraham Maslow, psychologist and proponent of self-actualization
Ross Perot
Sean Connery
Elizabeth Dole
Francois Mitterand
Diane Sawyer (Good Morning America)
Michael Jordan, NBA basketball player
Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean)
Oprah Winfrey
INFJ
INFJ Description
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Complexity of character and the unusual range and depth of their
talents.
Strongly humanitarian in outlook, INFJs tend to be idealists
Generally "doers" as well as dreamers.
INFJs are deeply concerned about their relations with
individuals as well as the state of humanity at large.
Alternation between detachment and involvement in the lives of the
people around them may give the clearest insights of all the types
into the motivations of others, for good and for evil.
Strong writing skills and personal charisma make INFJs
generally well-suited to the "inspirational" professions such as
teaching
"There's something rotten in Denmark." Accurately suspicious
about others' motives, and not easily led. These are the people that
you can rarely fool any of the time.
FAMOUS INFJs
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Nathan, prophet of Israel
Aristophanes
Chaucer
Goethe
Robert Burns, Scottish poet
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Martin Luther King, Jr., civil rights leader, martyr
James Reston, newspaper reporter
Carol Moseley-Braun (D-IL)
Nelson Mandela
INTJ
INTJ Description
• Project an aura of "definiteness" and self-confidence
• Perfectionists, with endless capacity for improving upon anything
• An unusual independence of mind, freeing the INTJ from the
constraints of authority, convention, or sentiment for its own sake
• Systems Builders" because they combine imagination and
reliability
• INTJs have also been known to take it upon themselves to
implement critical decisions without consulting their supervisors
or co-workers..
• INTJs can rise to management positions as they learn to simulate
some degree of surface conformism in order to mask their inherent
unconventionality.
• Tend to have little patience and less understanding of such things
as small talk as they are usually extremely private people, and can
often be naturally impassive
FAMOUS INTJs
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Susan B. Anthony
Augustus Caesar (Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus)
Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice)
William F. Buckley, Jr.
Katie Couric
Rudy Giuliani, former New York City mayor
Hannibal, Carthaginian military leader
Charles Everett Koop
C. S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia)
Martina Navratilova
Michelle Obama
General Colin Powell, former US Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State
Thomas Jefferson
John F. Kennedy
Woodrow Wilson
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Universal Strategy: Build
Leadership Capacity
 To ensure the team is high-functioning as a team –
Individual and team 360s + experiential leadership
training to build capacity and therefore confidence
among the constituencies in the school about its leadership
(faculty/staff; students; parents; board; alumni)
 To manage the disruptive elements of change in
leadership in school operations and of innovation in
programming
 To learn leadership/team strategies & rubrics to make
good, data-driven decisions
 To create rubrics for measuring our effectiveness by
outcomes not features. Balanced Scorecard: i.)
financial; ii.) customer satisfaction; iii.) operational
efficiencies; iv) innovation/staff growth)
Sample Local Key Management
and Leadership Opportunities &
Challenges
 Navigate and understand the culture: school;
sector; country; locale
 Adopt a growth (vs. fixed) mindset individually and
as a team
 Amplify leadership’s impact by cultivating first
followers
 Institutionalize a posture and approach to the
daily crises of schools: who is involved; who is
informed; who makes the decision; attitude toward team
dissent; how is it communicated; etc.
 Audit, review and assess policies & procedures &
risk management.
Our School’s Key Management
and Leadership Challenges
 Communicate strategically in general, internally
and externally. Clarity on path regarding operations
and program. Validating existing norms. Articulating what
won’t change. Identifying and affirming core values.
 Refine the story of the school, moving forward?
Identify our core pedagogy and philosophy. End
goal of our school’s education? How do we define
ourselves? Once done, how do we backward design
curriculum?
 Develop a new facilities master plan.
 Manage Disagreements with the Board and
Parents Occupies too much of the leadership teams’ time
and energy – micromanaging an issue? Transparency &
lack of information, distrust a cause?
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Five Dysfunctions of a Team
Manifest by…
Paranoia
Five Dysfunctions of a Team
Five Dysfunctions of a Team
Five Elements of Highly
Functional Teams
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Five Dysfunctions of a Team
3 = usually; 2 = sometimes; 1 = rarely
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Our Team’s Average Totals on Statements
(higher scores better)
0.0
5 Dysfunctions Survey ?s
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Team 360s
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