Community: Looking outside
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Fresh ideas for us can be harvested from other fields
By Rick DuFour
Journal of Staff Development, Spring 2001 (Vol. 22, No. 2)
Copyright, National Staff Development Council, 2001. All rights reserved.
For most of his life, Charles Garfield has investigated high performance in a number of different fields to identify the attributes of extraordinarily high achievers, or as he refers to them, "peak performers."
One of the attributes of a peak performer is self-mastery, which Garfield defines as a sustained commitment to personal growth and professional development. A peak performer moves beyond the admonition to "know thyself" and conducts a personal inventory. "What are my strengths?" "What am I really good at?" "What are the key activities of my work?" "What do I need to learn in order to be successful in fulfilling my responsibilities?" Another characteristic of these high achievers is a willingness to look outside of their field for new thinking and fresh perspectives (Kanter, 1997).
I cannot cite any scientific study to support me, but I have a hypothesis that educators most successful in facilitating sustained, substantive school improvement are those willing to explore ideas from diverse, non-traditional sources. My own exploration of school improvement issues has been greatly influenced by the writings of educational authors such as Ron Edmonds, Larry Lezotte, Michael Fullan, Linda Darling-Hammond, and Phil Schlechty. I am deeply indebted to them and many others who have set out to make a direct contribution to our profession. But there are powerful ideas outside of education that also have made a major impact on both the conceptual framework from which I approach my responsibilities as a school administrator and the specific methods I use to carry out those responsibilities. Here are some of the books I recommend to educators who are willing to look outside our field for a fresh perspective and compelling ideas.
Personal Mastery
Like Garfield’s peak performers, The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People, by Stephen Covey and Emotional Intelligence, by Daniel Goleman attempt to explain the attributes and qualities of successful people. All three authors suggest that their ideas can be extended to organizations as well as individuals.
Leadership
John William Gardner has condensed his extensive exploration of the topic of leadership in his volume, On Leadership. This former Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare and founder of Common Cause identifies the essential tasks of leadership in words that can stir the emotions.
James McGregor Burns introduced the concept of "transformational leadership" in his classic, Pulitzer Prize-winning book titled, simply, Leadership.
Sustaining Change
John Kotter identifies eight critical mistakes that doom efforts to improve organizations in Leading Change. Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Kotter’s colleague at the Harvard Business School, distinguishes between successful and unsuccessful initiatives in The Change Masters: Innovation and Entrepreunership in the American Corporation. Peter Senge, et al, discuss the barriers to becoming a learning organization and strategies for overcoming those barriers in The Dance of Change.
Organizational Effectiveness
Tom Peters and Robert Waterman identify the characteristics of highly effective organizations in their work, In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies, which has been cited as one of the most influential business management books of the 20th century. Waterman’s The Renewal Factor discusses how organizations create cultures that foster continuous improvement.
Powerful Teams
The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-Performance Organization, by Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith, draws important distinctions between teams and work groups and offers specific ideas for helping develop the capacity of teams. One of the most useful tools for helping teams develop the critical skills of inquiry and advocacy is found in a chapter of Senge’s Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization.
Motivation
James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner make a compelling case for addressing the fundamental needs and yearnings of those with whom we work in Encouraging the Heart: A Leader’s Guide to Rewarding and Recognizing Others. Lee G. Bolman and Terrence E. Deal’s Leading with Soul: An Uncommon Journey of Spirit, and John C. Maxwell’s Developing the Leaders Around You: How to Help Others Reach their Full Potential also address this topic.
Most of these works are more likely to be found in the "business" section of your local bookstore than in the "education" section. Some in our profession object to any suggestion that schools could benefit from lessons learned in the private sector. After all, we have no control over selecting our "customers." While the private sector can focus on finding its market niche or enhancing the quality of its processes, schools must take all comers regardless of their ability or levels of support from parents or the community. Children are not products and educators are not assembly line workers.
There are many differences between schools and industry, and those differences need not be minimized. But one characteristic of a learning organization is a willingness to learn from its external environment. If we truly believe diversity can enrich an organization, then we should be willing to explore diverse fields of study to help us develop schools that function as learning communities.
References
Garfield, C. (1986). Peak performers: The new heroes of American business. New York: Avon Books.
Kanter, R. Moss (1997). Leading the change-adept organization with concepts, competence, and connections. Keynote address. Lessons in Leadership Conference. Boston, Mass., Oct. 23.
Reading list
• The Change Masters: Innovation and Entrepreunership in the American Corporation, by Rosabeth Moss Kanter (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983).
• The Dance of Change: The Challenges of Sustaining Momentum in Learning Organizations, by Peter Senge, et. al. (New York: Currency/Doubleday, 1999).
• Developing the Leaders Around You: How to Help Others Reach their Full Potential, by John C. Maxwell. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1995).
• Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, by Daniel Goleman. (New York: Bantam Books, 1995).
• Encouraging the Heart: A Leader’s Guide to Rewarding and Recognizing Others, by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc., 1999).
• The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization, by Peter Senge, et. al (New York: Doubleday, 1994).
• In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies, by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman. (New York: Harper and Row, 1982).
• Leadership, by James McGregor Burns. (New York: Harper and Row, 1978).
• Leading Change, by John Kotter. (Boston: Harvard Business School, 1996).
• Leading with Soul: An Uncommon Journey of Spirit, by Lee G. Bolman and Terrence E. Deal. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc., 1995).
• On Leadership, by John William Gardner. (New York: Free Press, 1990).
• The Renewal Factor, by Robert Waterman. (New York: Bantam Books, 1987).
• The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change, by Stephen Covey. (New York: Franklin Press, 1990).
• The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-Performance Organization, by Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith (New York: HarperBusiness, 1994).
About the author
Rick DuFour is superintendent of Adlai Stevenson High School District 125. You can contact him at Two Stevenson Drive, Lincolnshire, IL 60069, (847) 634-4000, ext. 268, fax (847) 634-0239, e-mail: dufour@district125.k12.il.us.
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