I have always been someone that paid a great deal of attention to detail and was once told by a colleague that I was one of the most reflective people they knew, so it probably wasn’t surprising that I became a fan of change management frameworks.

I have seen many people bring about change in educational settings. Some of these changes have been exciting, innovative and of great educational worth. On the other hand I have seen change undertaken for change sake and whilst these might be executed well, they are not sustainable because they do not bring about the improved outcomes required for the school. In other words they get the “wrong” thing right. I have been very lucky in gaining training in two change management frameworks: David Langford’s, PDSA (Plan, Do, Study, Act) and Dame Pat Collarbone’s Change2 (Why, Who, Where, What, How, When).

Both these frameworks and my experience in change manage have taught me that there are some key elements in bringing about effective, sustainable change:

I do believe though, that many do forget to look at the root causes and risk getting the “Wrong” thing right, rather than the “right” thing right. I have found that once people have been introduced to these processes they never go back. The challenge is convincing leaders that they need it because, of course, you don’t become a leader in a school unless you go through a fair bit of change. To combat this, I have focused on my “sphere of influence”, e.g. my classroom, my PLT, Leadership team, etc. In this way I am gaining some success and modelling the processes to others.

For more information about –

PDSA: Langfordlearning.com or www.qla.com.au

Change2: http://www.creatingtomorrow.org.uk/products-the-process