Michael Fullan

This workshop focuses on the new implementation work beyond the Six Secrets of Change . It introduces some of the key concepts from the book Motion Leadership: The Skinny on Becoming Change Savvy (Corwin, November, 2009). The idea of ‘the skinny’ is to boil down the essence of change into the smallest number of key, high yield factors that have high impact on student and teacher engagement and learning.

The goal is to a) increase the speed of quality change, and b) to achieve large-scale or whole system reform. In terms of the skinny we sometimes call this high yield set of factors ‘simplexity’ which is to identify the smallest number of powerful factors that make a difference—less than complex, but not overly simple.

Participants will Learn:

-What change savvy practitioners are doing to make whole system reform.

-How to make change less complex and more powerful in its impact.

-Key insights from other practitioners via video showing how motion leaders work to get substantial
improvement.

This workshop is based on our experiences with several large-scale reform initiatives either as trainers, critical friend consultants, or education researchers. It is also strongly grounded in the best research evidence available on the topic of change. I have tried to capture this growing knowledge base in several recent publications.

Before turning to the content of the session, a word about process. We try to model the training so that there are a variety of methods of learning, ranging from lecturettes, case studies, video clips, small group work and individual consolidation.

Participants will learn:
-How collegiality is deliberately cultivated

-How learning is the work

-How to turn accountability to your advantage

-How to tackle complexity with confidence and humility

-Which leadership qualities and strategies are crucial