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Leading in a Culture of Change Personal Action Guide and Workbook
Leading in a Culture of Change: Personal Action Guide and Workbook is an essential companion to Michael Fullan's bestselling book, Leading in a Culture of Change . This practical guide is designed to help leaders in all sectors (corporate, education, public, and nonprofit) manage and drive productive change within their organizations. The workbook is filled with illustrative case examples, exercises, and resources that you can use with individuals or groups. It will help you (and any change agent) integrate the five core competencies―attending to a broader moral purpose, keeping on top of the change process, cultivating relationships, sharing knowledge, and setting a vision and context for creating coherence in organizations―and empower you to deal with the issues of complex change.
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First published January 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
July 11, 2016
I read this book for a course I'm taking in my school district. Had the requirement not been there, I wouldn't have finished it. There wasn't much groundbreaking information (perhaps because the book is now 15 years old) and I disliked the writing style. The author spent a lot of time saying "Later I'll be telling you about xyz." or "Remember when I told you about xyz a couple chapters ago?" instead of just getting to the point.
April 16, 2019
Fullan offers a solid, research-based framework for sustainable leadership in all (or any) level of an organisation. Like other Fullan books, some of his ideas and research are recycled here. But his strength, as always, is in providing strong examples of the principles he advocates for. There is much, therefore, to take from this book on both a macro or a micro scale, wherever you might be in your leadership journey. This is a good, short reference book to keep on your shelf and come back to when necessary.
January 24, 2018
For such a small book, there is much to learn here. Fullan offers five qualities that effective leaders need to have/engage in:
Moral purpose
understanding change
relationships, relationships, relationships
knowledge building
coherence making
Ah, but there is no checklist to follow because leadership is complex. We need to focus on problems that have not already been solved. This sounds simple, but we tend to fall into the trap of resolving what does not need to be. Fullan cites many reports and studies and uses this data to offer practices that comprise good leadership.
So, what about that moral purpose?
Fullan says it doesn't matter what motivates us, but we need to create a vested interest in the status quo. We are diverse, but we must agree as well. Interestingly enough, Fullan states that having a moral purpose does not automatically motivate people to do good things. The leader needs to guide the group to focus on the good. Of the five concepts, this is the one that affects all others. I must admit that I found Fullan's example of Monsanto bothersome given their history. I appreciate he was using the company as an example of rebranding because of their moral purpose, but after all that I have learned about the company, their moral purpose is about money! The book was published in 2001, so Monsanto might have had truly good intentions then. a
What do we mean by change?
We know that it happens at great rapidity and is not linear, but messiness comes with transformation. We need to learn to embrace this instead of fighting it. It can be top-down or bottom-up, but it cannot be changed. It can be led and understood, but Fullan maintains that it cannot be managed. He offers goals to help with this change:
1. don't innovate the most (don't choose everything, make too many changes)
2. it's not enough to have best ideas; need to know how to lead
3. appreciate the implementation dip; stakeholders will feel anxious, confused, fearful, overwhelmed (because they have a moral purpose); we need to be sensitive to this
4. redefine resistance; we learn more from those who don't agree with us than from those who do; be a good listener; deliberately build in differences
5. reculturing is the name of the game; transform the culture (not just the structure!); don't adopt innovations one after the other; seek out, assess, and adopt selective ideas and practices
How do we establish relationships?
We need to remember that people are individuals and treat them as such, but we also need to focus on the whole group - PLCs! Oh, my goodness. Say that again. PLCs! True PLCs!
Here is where emotional intelligence comes into play. Emotional Intelligence consists of personal competence, self awareness, self regulation, social competence, motivation, empathy, and social skills or another way to look at it is intrapersonal, interpersonal, adaptability, stress management, and general mood. What is really exciting about this is that IT CAN BE LEARNED!
Most importantly we need to understand (and accept) that with change comes high emotions; we should work toward harnessing this as a positive rather than a negative.
How important is knowledge building?
I love the point that Fullan makes (he credits others). Information is machines; knowledge is people; it's valuable only in a social context
As a school we must reinforce habits that share knowledge; we need to build a process that works for us and not try to control it, just trust in this process. PLCs again?!
As a community we need to learn to engage in this and value it. We teachers are good at teaching others and helping them to learn, but we are not always so good at learning from each other!
What is coherence making?
It's about self organizing and strange attractors (strange because they are not predictable) that prompt commitment. I'm reminded of Gladwell's book The Tipping Point and Heath's book Made to Switch. Fullan maintains that disturbance can be a good thing (Read the book Disrupting Class for more info on this).
I've written a lot here, but that's to help me remember these points. With my school's move to CBE, this book is certainly helpful. It may be 17 years old, but it's still relevant today.
I really like the idea of us participating in a learning fair to showcase what we have learned!
Moral purpose
understanding change
relationships, relationships, relationships
knowledge building
coherence making
Ah, but there is no checklist to follow because leadership is complex. We need to focus on problems that have not already been solved. This sounds simple, but we tend to fall into the trap of resolving what does not need to be. Fullan cites many reports and studies and uses this data to offer practices that comprise good leadership.
So, what about that moral purpose?
Fullan says it doesn't matter what motivates us, but we need to create a vested interest in the status quo. We are diverse, but we must agree as well. Interestingly enough, Fullan states that having a moral purpose does not automatically motivate people to do good things. The leader needs to guide the group to focus on the good. Of the five concepts, this is the one that affects all others. I must admit that I found Fullan's example of Monsanto bothersome given their history. I appreciate he was using the company as an example of rebranding because of their moral purpose, but after all that I have learned about the company, their moral purpose is about money! The book was published in 2001, so Monsanto might have had truly good intentions then. a
What do we mean by change?
We know that it happens at great rapidity and is not linear, but messiness comes with transformation. We need to learn to embrace this instead of fighting it. It can be top-down or bottom-up, but it cannot be changed. It can be led and understood, but Fullan maintains that it cannot be managed. He offers goals to help with this change:
1. don't innovate the most (don't choose everything, make too many changes)
2. it's not enough to have best ideas; need to know how to lead
3. appreciate the implementation dip; stakeholders will feel anxious, confused, fearful, overwhelmed (because they have a moral purpose); we need to be sensitive to this
4. redefine resistance; we learn more from those who don't agree with us than from those who do; be a good listener; deliberately build in differences
5. reculturing is the name of the game; transform the culture (not just the structure!); don't adopt innovations one after the other; seek out, assess, and adopt selective ideas and practices
How do we establish relationships?
We need to remember that people are individuals and treat them as such, but we also need to focus on the whole group - PLCs! Oh, my goodness. Say that again. PLCs! True PLCs!
Here is where emotional intelligence comes into play. Emotional Intelligence consists of personal competence, self awareness, self regulation, social competence, motivation, empathy, and social skills or another way to look at it is intrapersonal, interpersonal, adaptability, stress management, and general mood. What is really exciting about this is that IT CAN BE LEARNED!
Most importantly we need to understand (and accept) that with change comes high emotions; we should work toward harnessing this as a positive rather than a negative.
How important is knowledge building?
I love the point that Fullan makes (he credits others). Information is machines; knowledge is people; it's valuable only in a social context
As a school we must reinforce habits that share knowledge; we need to build a process that works for us and not try to control it, just trust in this process. PLCs again?!
As a community we need to learn to engage in this and value it. We teachers are good at teaching others and helping them to learn, but we are not always so good at learning from each other!
What is coherence making?
It's about self organizing and strange attractors (strange because they are not predictable) that prompt commitment. I'm reminded of Gladwell's book The Tipping Point and Heath's book Made to Switch. Fullan maintains that disturbance can be a good thing (Read the book Disrupting Class for more info on this).
I've written a lot here, but that's to help me remember these points. With my school's move to CBE, this book is certainly helpful. It may be 17 years old, but it's still relevant today.
I really like the idea of us participating in a learning fair to showcase what we have learned!
August 30, 2013
Not fond of the way the author composed this book. I think the ideas are good, but I feel the author was too dependent upon short-term research and not long-term. Had he looked at some long-term successful leaders, I think he would have made some different conclusions. Also, he tends to quote in length from other people's research instead of developing his own ideas. I think that the book was good, but not great. I would recommend it just as another book in the leadership culture, but not as a major development.
August 17, 2009
Even though this book was written only a few years ago, it felt older. As an educator, I didn't learn very much that was new since whole brain thinking is already embraced throughout the school districts with which I work. I did like the exercises and references and plan to explore many of these.
October 28, 2018
Had to read for master's level courses. Had several good rationals but not really the most exciting book in the world.
April 7, 2020
I found this book very difficult to follow. There were some good examples used to demonstrate his points, but I felt Fullan was constantly trying to sell me his other books by always referring to ‘in my other book...’
Given the period I have read this book (Covid19 lockdown) perhaps my mind just isn’t in the right place to read a book like this? I note the range of positive reviews, and will continue to reflect on this for now.
Given the period I have read this book (Covid19 lockdown) perhaps my mind just isn’t in the right place to read a book like this? I note the range of positive reviews, and will continue to reflect on this for now.
June 2, 2021
There was great potential for this and a few nuggets of interest; however, I found the flow hard to follow and kind of lost the purpose in the midst of the style that seemed to promote the book and not the thesis.
March 4, 2023
Admittedly an older book, but the material is definitely a bit stale. I listened to this book and the audio was awful by reading each reference by author, title and page. Nothing in this book you likely haven’t read/learned
August 15, 2023
Read this for a leadership course and got an A+ on my critique of it. The writing style was often infuriating and I really believe that if people want to talk about educational leadership then they should have to have experience working in an actual school as a teacher.
January 25, 2011
Seemed like a business book...not an educational one.
October 28, 2021
Find a Different Book
Are there some valuable things here? Yeah. But there are more clear books reading leadership out there. This one…wasn’t the best.
Are there some valuable things here? Yeah. But there are more clear books reading leadership out there. This one…wasn’t the best.
September 24, 2024
Read because I had to for a class and couldn’t stand it. It will be the first book I’ve read for a class that is donated.
September 26, 2020
Philosophically, Fullan touts recognizable maxims such a "change is in all" (the I Ching and the Dao, Christianity), reciprocity (Confucianism, the major religions), people are not intrinsically good (stoicism), and people are capable of good only the leader and the time need to be right (major religions, Aristotle - Nicomachean Ethics).
What Fullan makes mindful in the reader over all is similar to what Plato wrote in the Republic as "making kings into philosophers and philosophers into kings", that is, a leader needs to be a learner.
There were particular sections that were of great value, such as about people's (employees' and leaders') 5 common fears., and the parallel lists between outcomes of schools that are serious about reform and those that are not.
The book also has the answers to questions such as "When do we see the signs of change? What are they? How does a leader prepare employees for change? How to ensure employees keep abreast of change a leader has initiated to keep the goal in focus? How are we sure the goal in the planning stage for change is reasonable? When is training most effective on the community morale?
The diagrams and research stories throughout the book help to clarify most of Fullan's ideas toward a more harmonious workplace.
One criticism that comes with motivational books of this sort are the made up phrases which take time to decode into simpler language--and in the end are not a revelatory as they first seem.
Ideal for teachers who need ideas to effectively principal or superintend or direct districts of schools.
What Fullan makes mindful in the reader over all is similar to what Plato wrote in the Republic as "making kings into philosophers and philosophers into kings", that is, a leader needs to be a learner.
There were particular sections that were of great value, such as about people's (employees' and leaders') 5 common fears., and the parallel lists between outcomes of schools that are serious about reform and those that are not.
The book also has the answers to questions such as "When do we see the signs of change? What are they? How does a leader prepare employees for change? How to ensure employees keep abreast of change a leader has initiated to keep the goal in focus? How are we sure the goal in the planning stage for change is reasonable? When is training most effective on the community morale?
The diagrams and research stories throughout the book help to clarify most of Fullan's ideas toward a more harmonious workplace.
One criticism that comes with motivational books of this sort are the made up phrases which take time to decode into simpler language--and in the end are not a revelatory as they first seem.
Ideal for teachers who need ideas to effectively principal or superintend or direct districts of schools.
May 19, 2020
It’s been almost two years since I borrowed this book from my boss. He had just finished reading it and felt it really resonated, so encouraged me to give it a read. It joined my TBR shelf, which consistently holds more than 300 books and there it sat, month in and month out. These past few weeks, I have had to adapt to a very different style of leadership as we teach in (sorry for the cliche, but it’s just too accurate) unprecedented times.
Fullan explores the complexities of leading in a school where change is no longer an occasional challenge but has instead become a rotational routine. He explores the different styles of leadership, and their strengths and weaknesses, before making the case that moral purpose, developing relationships, building knowledge and actually understanding the why and how of change is all crucial to success.
I get why this type of book is appealing to school leaders. I spent a lot of the time nodding and agreeing with the content. Mostly, books like these reassure us about what we do well and confirm what we think other people do badly. I did make some notes. I don’t regret reading it. But this is a twenty year old book with a pretty basic and obvious message so, overall, it’s a meh from me.
Fullan explores the complexities of leading in a school where change is no longer an occasional challenge but has instead become a rotational routine. He explores the different styles of leadership, and their strengths and weaknesses, before making the case that moral purpose, developing relationships, building knowledge and actually understanding the why and how of change is all crucial to success.
I get why this type of book is appealing to school leaders. I spent a lot of the time nodding and agreeing with the content. Mostly, books like these reassure us about what we do well and confirm what we think other people do badly. I did make some notes. I don’t regret reading it. But this is a twenty year old book with a pretty basic and obvious message so, overall, it’s a meh from me.
February 16, 2025
I had many issues with this one but had to read it for grad classes. So many typos it felt like student or self-published work, self-promoting and circular style referring to what he’d previously said and written in his other books, overly conversational tone which felt like reader-pandering (to make him seem accessible), and while he glosses over a couple of case studies, there was a lack of sufficient current research (in education- not business) to back up his claims. He talks around topics and tries to be cutesy and it just doesn’t land. And, most of all, someone trying to write to change the American educational system should have a background in education in America!
Likely the worst lines I’ve ever read in academic texts I’ve read (to say nothing of the inconsistency of his use of quotation marks here): “To make matters more complicated, it is not that the ‘rational proposers’ are correct and the ‘emotional’ responders are wrong. We know that the former can be dead wrong and the latter alive right,” (51).
Likely the worst lines I’ve ever read in academic texts I’ve read (to say nothing of the inconsistency of his use of quotation marks here): “To make matters more complicated, it is not that the ‘rational proposers’ are correct and the ‘emotional’ responders are wrong. We know that the former can be dead wrong and the latter alive right,” (51).
July 9, 2017
This book delves into 5 components of effective leadership, including moral purpose, understanding the change process, improving relationships, creating and sharing knowledge, and coherence making (community building). It promotes the idea of a leader as someone who is grounded in a vision and who works on empowering others. Successful change arises from this empowerment by encouraging everyone in an organization to work together towards a common vision. The book distinguishes between leaders and managers, with leaders being those who can rally others to be leaders too.
December 20, 2017
I had to read and reread this for school. I have sections of it memorized. It's cited in at least 85% of my papers from this semester. For those reasons, I both hate and love this.
I love it because I finally "get" Fullan. I heard him speak about a year ago and I have to say, he was a bit underwhelming. Smart, knowledgable, but a bit over the head. Not an engaging speaker. This finally boiled his philosophy down into a digestible tome that was practical and useful.
I foresee this won't be the last of this book in my grad school career.
I love it because I finally "get" Fullan. I heard him speak about a year ago and I have to say, he was a bit underwhelming. Smart, knowledgable, but a bit over the head. Not an engaging speaker. This finally boiled his philosophy down into a digestible tome that was practical and useful.
I foresee this won't be the last of this book in my grad school career.
February 19, 2017
This book really made me want to dive into leadership. I felt very motivated to shake things up where I work and in my current capacity, but it also made me feel like I maybe am ready to move into a different form of leadership. Fullan lays out five clear components to leading in a culture of change. They were descriptive enough that I understood them, but not so prescriptive that you have to follow a certain formula to be successful. A good read, especially being so short.
March 24, 2023
As I am not a teacher, this was not written for me in mind. It does provide some insights into leading in business and organizations. They are linked together in that both need people to work together in a coordinated manner to achieve success. Strategic vision and implementation was one topic that hit close to home, sometimes less is more.
January 24, 2024
There are still some great nuggets in here that speak to the challenges of leading change. I wish Fullan spent a little more time developing these, and plugged his other books a little less. At times this reads more like reflective ruminations on change, perhaps fitting for a book published nearer the culmination of a remarkable career than the start. Still very much worth reading.
July 5, 2023
So many typos/grammar errors. Lots of vague ideas without great, concrete examples to help me understand them. Some good nuggets, but like others have said, nothing new or that I couldn’t learn better elsewhere. Also wants to transform education without talking about race? At all?
October 4, 2018
This was a very interesting read. I learned a lot from the case study examples and it was quite inspiring from an educational perspective.
December 28, 2018
This book certainly made me think about change management again. A good book to help any professional focus on the importance of change and I found it especially useful as a librarian.
January 15, 2021
Insightful and pragmatic
May 26, 2021
Great frame work and solid rules to follow. Its not flashy but with his experience it holds functional truths.
May 26, 2022
Got some good ideas. The emphasis on moral leadership in business helps to explain why so many ceo's go woke and are surprised it made them broke.
January 4, 2023
3.5***
January 2, 2024
3.5 stars.
December 12, 2024
It was good, but nothing that really stood out or made me think of things in a new light. Just good reminders of things I already had read or knew.
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