The Six Secrets of Change
Michael Fullan
Introduction: Have Theory, Will Travel
“A theory is merely a way of organizing ideas that seem to make sense of the world.” David Sloan Wilson
The best theories are at their core grounded in action
The question of effectiveness is not about how smart you are; it is about how grounded and insightful your theorizing is.
Example of Jack Welch and his 20-70-10 vitality curve which worked for GE. This theory rewards the top 20 handsomely, rewards adequately the 70 and the lower 10 (even if there are not 10 get no reward or are removed). This theory when borrowed by other businesses failed miserably. This is an example of someone with good leadership qualities without a theory that traveled. No one theory is perfect.
According to Mintzberg, “Learning is not doing; it is reflecting on doing.” P. 228
Be careful of generalizing practices. Collins, book Good to Great selected companies based on outcomes and then gathered retroactive data. You can get some information there but not the whole picture of what led a company to be great. You might get what Rosenzweig calls the glow from the halo effect.
Basically success in a complex world has many layers. To accept that few companies achieve lasting success and that those that do are best understood has having strung together several short term successes rather than having consciously pursued enduring greatness (2007, p.158)
A good theory that travels according to our author is Michael Barber’s (2007). His theory includes ambitious goals, sharp focus, clarity and transparency of data, and a relentless sense of urgency. (see p. 9 in text)
The Six Secrets
There are five underpinning assumptions:
1) The theory is meant to apply to large scale reform
2) The six are synergistic, each of the six feeds off of the other five
3) They are heavily nuanced in that it takes a lot of thought and application to appreciate their meaning and use
4) They are motivationally embedded
5) Each represents a tension or dilemma Which means you can err in one way or another (the good leaders holds them in dynamic tension)
The Six Secrets
1) Love your employees
2) Connect Peers with Purpose
3) Capacity Building Prevails
4) Learning is the Work
5) Transparency Rules
6) Systems Learn
Secret One
Love Your Employees
Theory X and Theory Y from Douglass McGregor are contrasted. Theory X is all focus on the task and not the person. It is about control. Theory Y is more about the worker and the creativity and ingenuity. Looking at an example of NCLB Secret 1 tells us it is incomplete because it only focuses on the child. The quality of the education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers (Barbour and Mourshed, 2007, p8). In other words we must value our employees (teachers) as much as our customers (Children and parents)
This is what is happening in my district right now, overtaxed and overworked teachers and principals that feel underappreciated.
Secret one is not just love your employees, it is more than that. It is realizing and taking action on the fact that one way of loving your employees is creating conditions for them to succeed.
Secret 1 in Action
In the book Firms of Endearment, (Sisodia, Wolfe, & Sheth, 2007), Fo’Es endear themselves to all stakeholders (customers, employees, investors, partners, and societies). No stakeholder in more important than any other. That is the core of Secret 1. They compared companies like Wal-Mart (not an FoE) to Target (an FoE). Customers are loyal in behavior to Wal-Mart only in that their prices are low. They are not loyal in attitude (they have no attachment) Target customers get both the low price and the pleasant experience. Wal-Mart’s stock has been stagnant for 5 years while Target’s has risen nearly 150%.
It is the culture of the entire organization that counts, shaped by the CEO but manifested by leaders at all levels of the organization.
A study by Sisoda and others compared the Good to Great companies to FoE’s. The FoE’s outperformed them all in return on investment. Additionally, none of the GTG companies met the humanistic performance criteria p.30
How do FoE’s provide higher wages and better compensation to employees while having lower overall labor costs? Answer: Less turnover (better financially and productivity wise)
How does Secret 1 work in school systems? For the past 4 years Ontario has implemented a program policy based on strong commitment to respect the teaching profession and invest in teachers’ development, with an equal focus on results.
Results: Strong growth in literacy and numeracy. Also the number of teachers leaving the profession in the first 3 years declined dramatically as well as the number of teachers taking the first offer of retirement.
Secret 1 in Perspective
It includes al stakeholder groups, it is highly nuanced, and it must not be seen in isolation from the other 5 secrets.
Secret Two
Connect Peers with Purpose
Systems must achieve a degree of cohesion and focus in a fragmented environment. The dilemma of too tight or too loose is a tough one. Too tight and you get the structure but no creativity. The key to achieving a simultaneously tight and loose organization lies more in purposeful peer interaction than top down management. The nuance is that connecting peers with purpose does not require less leadership from the top, just a different kind.
The Conditions and Value of Peer Interaction
Conditions in the social world are flat. Conditions in this flat world empower individuals and groups to collaborate and compete globally.
Thomas Freidman (2005) found 3 forces that have converged to create lateral conditions:
1) Technology (links us no matter where we are)
2) Managers and freelancers take advantage of flatter playing field to create “horizontal collaboration and value creation processes and habits.”
3) The increased participation of 3 billion people (Russia, China etc) that were not in the picture previously.
Though the world is really not flat and there are cultural differences our discussion will center more on peer interaction within a company.
It is groups that matter. Groups all the way down.
An experiment by William Muir with hens in a poultry farm. They tested two methods of production increase the one that was clearly superior kept the original groups together. In that these existed in harmony. Each had a role.
People obviously differ from hens, in that they can think and feel. People can choose either good values (striving to improve oneself and society) or bad (such as pushing to win at all costs, Enron)
CAVEAT: Working in groups in and of itself is not the answer because of the closed-mindedness of groupthink (the group is so focused on striving for unanimity that it overrides their motivation to realistically appraise alternate courses of action).
Positive purposeful peer interaction works under 3 conditions:
1) When the larger values of the organization and those of the individuals mesh
2) When information and knowledge of effective practices are widely and openly shared
3) When monitoring mechanisms are in place to detect and address ineffective actions while also identifying and consolidating effective practices.
Secret 2 is about how organizations engage peers in purposeful interaction where quality and experiences and results are central to the work.
It is much more than just collaboration. It is learning together (lateral capacity building schools learn from each other). Bad competition (you fail I win) is replaced with good competition (lets lean together). With purposeful peer interaction, people band together to outperform themselves relative to their own past performance.
The We-We Solution
Peer interaction must be purposeful and must be characterized by high-capacity knowledge and skills. Leaders have to provide direction, create the conditions for effective peer interaction, and intervene when things are not working well.
Three things are happening:
1) All stakeholders are rallying around a higher purpose
2) Knowledge flows as people pursue and continuously learn what works best
3) Identifying with an entity larger than oneself expands the self with powerful consequences
The We-We Commitment is fostered not because people fall in love with the hierarchy, but because people fall in love with their peers.
Research by Wilson (2007) identified PRO-social orientation in teenagers (high in self-support, self-esteem, and planning for the future) with low PRO’s. High PRO’s as expected reported that they were living up to expectations, concentrating better, etc. However these same high PRO’s were more stressed than low PRO’s when they encountered adverse events. The conclusion is clear: NO behavior is beneficial across all environments. High PRO is good if you are in a high PRO environment. The implications of Wilson’s experiment are that leaders should create pro-social environments populated by pro-social people.
Pro-social is committed to getting important things done
The key is stand for a high purpose, hire talented individuals along those lines, create mechanisms for purposeful peer interaction with a focus on results and stay involved but avoid micro-managing,
Once you establish the right conditions and set the process in motion, trust the process and the people in it.
Secret Three
Capacity Building Prevails
Another way to love your employees is select them well and invest in their continuous development.
Capacity building concerns competencies, resources, and motivation
Capacity building is inversely related to judgmentalism. Bullying is not a good way to motivate people.
Capacity Building Trumps Judgmentalism
Invest in capacity building while suspending short-term judgment. Intentions do not matter if people feel stigmatized.
Example of President Lincoln. Morally he knew slavery was wrong. However he also knew that combining a moral certitude with a hectoring change strategy would never work. Basically you have to hold a strong moral position without succumbing to moral superiority as your sole change strategy. In his annual message to Congress in 1862 he said about slavery, “we can only succeed in concert. It is not can any of us imagine better but can we all do better.”
Pfeffer and Sutton (2000) identified barriers to reducing what they called the “knowing – doing gap.” One is that fear prevents acting on knowledge. Risk taking based on knowledge and insight is critical to problem solving and risk taking will fail sometimes. People will not take risks in an environment of fear.
Additionally fear causes a focus on the short term (another weakness). You must base your management decisions on long term strategy.
Thirdly, fear creates a focus on the individual rather than the group. Managers take credit, blame others. In essence fear and its consequences directly contradict Secret 2- the power and connectivity of positive peer interaction.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OCED) which monitors the economic and social policies of the 32 richest nations ranked the U.S. 22 in literacy and numeracy compared to Finland, the Netherlands and Canada all of which rank in the top 5 and have nonpunitive assessment practices. For organizational change you must motivate hordes of people to do something, not scare them into it.
Capacity building not judgmentalism is the secret to climbing the hill. The formula is simple but difficult to implement. Take the stigma out of the picture and let the pressure do its work through the interactions of the 6 secret. When peers interact purposefully their expectations of one another create positive pressure to accomplish goals.
Hire and Cultivate Talented People
Toyota when selecting and developing managers and coaches look for:
· Willingness and ability to learn
· Adaptability and flexibility
· Genuine caring and concern for others
· Willingness to take responsibility
· Confidence
· Leadership
· A questioning nature
Intelligence is overrated. Individual stars do not make the sky; the system does.
Intelligence must be linked to other characteristics. The best performing companies also have a deep seated recruiting culture.
In an McKinsey study (2003) examined top performers on OECD’s PISA assessment in literacy and math. They found 3 strong interrelated sets of policies and practices in the top performers these systems:
1) Got more talented people to become teachers
2) Developed these teachers into better instructors (the same with principals)
3) More effectively ensured that instructor consistently the best possible instruction for every child in the system, including early and targeted interventions in the case of individual, school, or district underperformance.
Secret Four
Learning is the Work
Today we need to figure out and pursue precision. We need to strike a balance between consistency and innovation.
Jobs vary in their degree of routine versus non-routine. The key to secret four concerns how organizations address their core goals and tasks with relentless consistency, while at the same time learning continuously how to get better and better at what they are doing.
The secret behind “Learning is the Work” lies in our integration of the precision needed for consistent performance with the new learning required for continuous improvement.
What Consistency and Innovation Look Like
Successful organizations mobilize themselves to be “all over” the practices that are known to make a difference. (Like washing your hands in a hospital)
Toyota has made a science of improving performance in all areas of work. There are 3 components:
1) Identify critical knowledge
2) Transfer knowledge using job instruction
3) Verify learning and success
The kicker her is that it does not end there it is not a project but a process that will require continued, sustained effort forever.
The key message of secret four is that consistency and innovation can and must go together, and you can achieve them through organized learning in context. Learning is the work.
Example of a good golf swing. Nail down the common practices for consistency, but leave yourself open for working on innovative practices that get even greater results.
The intent of standardized work is not to make everything repetitive, but to define the best method for reducing variation in favor of practices that are known to be effective identifying the few key practices that are crucial to success.
According to Liker and Meier the critical aspects of any task equals about 15 – 20 percent of the total work. For those items there is not acceptable deviation from the best method (consistency).
In Breakthrough Fullan and others argued for a more systemic approach to getting breakthrough results. The core concept of Breakthrough is the critical learning instructional path (CLIP). CLIP identifies the route taken by the average learner in meeting a standard. CLIP involves a set of steps to guide teachers and students to the desired goal. The model incorporates monitoring where each student is at any point along the way and contains loops and detours so that instruction can be adjusted and focused on the learning needs of every child.
CLIP is the pursuit of precision. The teacher is constantly monitoring and making adjustments. The teacher has to be more not less creative.
Used CLIP in Toronto for 100% literacy in high school reform. A lot of sharing where successes are recognized; challenges are addressed. The whole approach is continuous and transparent to students, parents, teachers and admin. In this (Thornhill’s plan) the schools know the details of who is and is not making it. In unsuccessful ESL students 5 overlapping interventions were employed (p.84). Every program is continually evaluated and refined. Thornhill’s approach is not fancy; it is just systematic and thorough.
This level of attention is primarily because teachers sustain their willingness to improve with relentless consistency.
All the schools in the system are learning from one another and Learning is the Work
Learn in Context or Learn Superficially
Breakthrough results are not possible unless every teacher is learning how to improve every day.
In Toyota, they are highly successful because the most important job of any manager is to teach workers to become more effective; the biggest success of any manager is the success of the people they taught.
Liker & Meier, 2007 Learning is contextual. Under the supervisor the student performs the tasks while repeating the major steps, the trainer verifies understanding and key points, corrects errors, assesses capability and eventually gives the student the responsibility.
The objective is not to identify who to blame for a problem; it is to find where the system failed.
Having a learning culture and the capacity to operate effectively is much more important to organizational success than having the right strategy (Pfeffer & Sutton, 2006, p. 145).
Deep learning that is embedded in the culture of the workplace is the essence of Secret 4
Secret Five
Transparency Rules
What transparency is NOT
It is not trying to use the measurement tail to wag the performance dog
It is not causing teachers to become data driven to the point of distraction
Information overload breeds confusion and clutter, not clarity
Measurement should be guides helping to direct behavior, but not so powerful that they substitute for the judgment and wisdom that is necessary to acquire knowledge and turn it into action (Pfeffer & Sutton, 2000, p. 153).
What Effective Transparency Is
Transparency involves being open about results and practices and is essentially an exercise in pursuing and nailing down problems that recur and identifying evidence informed responses to them.
Transparency must be front and center but simply publishing results is more likely than not to have negative side effects.
The ground rules: (p.97)
1) Do not display rank and file all results without context instead:
a. Help schools compare themselves with themselves
b. Help schools compare themselves with statistical neighbors (apples to apples)
c. Help schools examine their results relative to an external standard such as how other schools are faring or how close to their goal they are
2) Set annual aspiration targets based on current starting point
3) Focus on capacity building, help the districts to identify and use effective instructional practices
4) Do not draw conclusions on one year’s data; look at trends over 3 years
5) For schools continuing to underperform; intervene with a program designed to improve performance but not stigmatize the school
There is quite a lot of pressure built into this process, but it is positive pressure based on constructive transparency. When the data are precise, presented in a nonjudgmental way, considered by peers, and used for improvement as well as for external accountability, they serve to balance pressure and support.
Toyota takes transparency a step further by opening up factories to all. Districts can learn the same way from each other. Transparency extended
Why Transparency Rules
1) The demand and access to information by the public makes it a done deal
2) It is a good thing on balance and essential to success. Although it can be misused, the alternative to keep information private or not collect it is neither acceptable or useful [to move beyond mere transparency we must address the conditions under which transparency can be used simultaneously for improvement and accountability…basically we need to work on creating a culture where it is normal to experience problems, acknowledge them and solve them as they come up]
3) In all cases of successful change transparent data are used as a tool for improvement
4) The credibility and long term survival of organizations are dependent on public confidence (external accountability)
As leaders get better at using transparent data two things happen
· The leaders start to positively value data and use it and demand it
· The leaders become more literate in assessment. They are more comfortable in talking about data and in holding their own when it comes to the interpretation or misinterpretation of data.
In the fable The Three Signs of a Miserable Job, Lencioni (2207). The first sign is “immeasurement” where employees need to be able to gauge their progress and level of contribution and the means must be tangible.
Basically people need to be able to compare themselves to themselves over time to assess their progress in achieving important personal and organizational goals.
When used correctly the positive power of transparency is enormous.
Transparency rules when it is combined with deep learning in context. Transparency and learning in context flourish when capacity building trumps judgmentalism, when peer interaction fosters coherence, and when employees and customers are equally valued (basically Secrets 1-5)
Secret Six
Systems Learn
Actually most organizations do not learn and those that do, do not sustain their learning.
Why?
They focus on individual leaders.
In education Andy Hargraves and Dean Fink (2006) found similar punctuated discontinuity in principal succession. When discontinuity was planned (to turn around a failing school) they found very often that it was effective in shaking things up, but in their study most of the changes did not stick.
So we know how a system does not learn how does a system learn?
1) By focusing on developing many leaders working in concert
2) By employing leaders that approach complexity with combination of humility and faith that effectiveness can be maximized under the circumstances
Focus on Many Leaders
Toyota has no “Leadership Effects” or changes from succession because leadership manifests itself at all levels of the organization.
The first half of Secret 6 is to build the culture in which leadership manifests itself at all levels of the organization.
How?
Follow the other 5 Secrets Value employees, connect them with purpose that generates knowledge and wisdom, build their capacity. Learn learn learn, be transparent. Your employees will have a broader systems perspective and should act with the larger context in mind.
The second half of Secret 6 is a little tougher. You must be humble and confident at the same time, and have the conceptual ideas and practical tools to operate in complex, unpredictable environments.
Navigating Complex Terrain
The second half of Secret 6 is humility because the world is confusing and you cannot guarantee success all of the time.
Thomas Homer-Dixon’s The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity and the Renewal of Civilization (2006) speaks of 5 tectonic stresses:
1) Population stress
2) Energy stress
3) Environmental stress
4) Climate stress
5) Economic Stress
The stressors and multipliers sharply boost the risk of collapse of the political, social, economic order…a synchronous failure that could happen at any time.
What has this to do with systems learning?
1) If the world is so complex and convoluted then leaders need to be aware of the global system’s impact on their businesses and on others
2) Leaders can learn to cope with uncertainty
Collier who has studied the poorest of the poor (58 poorest countries) warns that if we ignore the plight of the bottom billion it will be at our own peril or our childrens’.
Leaders that have an affinity for the 6 Secrets are more likely to realize that system learning means the entire global system.
Leaders need to know about their broader systems for business reasons and altruistic ones
Homer-Dixon’s tectonic stress and Collier’s bottom billion unite to make the future a matter of good preparation and luck
Leaders need to couple humility in good times with an insistence on learning from bad times.
The paradox of Secret 6
Followers expect leaders to know what they are doing on the other hand leaders cannot be too sure of themselves.
Leaders need to be confident that they have taken into account all possibilities and have made the right choice under he circumstances even though something may have gone wrong.
Pfeffer and Sutton (2206) recognize 4 paradoxes that come with four guidelines for action:
1) Act and talk as if you were in control and project confidence
2) Take credit and some blame
3) Talk about the future
4) Be specific about the few things that matter and keep repeating them
Basically be confident but not cocky. Do not ignore the realities. Engage other leaders.
Roger Martin’s (2007) The Opposable Mind one trait emerged that effective leaders had and that is:
They could hold two diametrically opposing ideas in their heads without panicking or settling for one or the other idea. They were then able to produce a synthesis that is superior to either opposing idea. That is what he called integrative thinking
Martin show how to cultivate integrative thinking through
1) Stance- who am I in the world and what am I trying to accomplish
2) Tools- With what tools and models do I organize my thinking
3) Experiences- With what experiences can I build my repertoire of sensitivities and skills?
Pursue the first 5 Secrets in concert, then add opposable learning to the mix. That is system learning.
Conclusion
Keeping the Secrets
Guidelines for Keeping the Secrets
· Seize the synergy
· Define your own traveling theory
· Share a secret, keep a secret
· The world is the only oyster you have
· Stay on the far side of complexity
· Happiness is not what some of us think
1) Seize the Synergy- love your employees as your customers, focus on facilitating purposeful peer interaction, which endears employees to the company, each other, and customers. Add capacity without judgmentalism and people will grow without resentment. Throw in Secret 4 that learning is the work and people will grow and get better at what they do. Add transparency for accountability and secret 6 and you expand both global and local contexts
2) Define your own traveling theory- a good theory doesn’t explain how you want the world to work, but rather how it actually works. Good theories are succinct. Action based ideas are better expressed in five pages rather than 50
3) Share a secret, keep a secret- another paradox the best way to keep the secrets is to share them. Implementing the six secrets and developing other leaders become one and the same. You cannot teach the 6 secrets by micromanaging them. Leaders that thrive and survive know that they do not know everything. In fact the knowledge of knowing that you don’t know is crucial for enabling others.
4) The world is the only oyster you have- the world is not for your taking but for your making. The needs of all must be addressed customers, employees, investors, partners, and society (secret 1). When people learn from each other, everyone can gain without taking away from the other Homer-Dixon’s said there are three broad categories of values: utilitarian which are likes and dislikes, moral values which concern fairness and justice, and existential values which give our lives meaning. According to him our values are out of whack because we do not pay attention to moral and existential values and use utilitarian values to fill the void. That is why consumerism has such a strong hold on us.
5) Stay on the far side of complexity- recognize complexity without succumbing to it. In using the secrets leaders reduce large chunks of uncertainty because they get at better and more complete evidence and understanding. Once they have stripped away the uncertainty they are better able to deal with the remaining complexity.
6) Happiness is not what some of us think- happiness requires combining meaningful work with regard for others. The book compares two explorers Robert Scott and Ernest Shackleton. Scott was only committed to the goal of getting somewhere. All of his men died. Shackleton combined meaningful challenge with a concern for his men. All of his men survived. Happiness is relational; it arises from our interactions with people and things in our environment. Happiness is a Sense of purpose not purpose itself.
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