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Coherence: The Right Drivers in Action for Schools, Districts, and Systems
Complex times call for streamlined solutions―and leaders to pull them together. If initiative overload and fragmentation are keeping your best plans from becoming reality, it’s time to lead with coherence. Using the right drivers as your foundation, you’ll bring people and ideas together―and implement the kind of lasting change that maximizes results. The key to success is the Coherence Framework, a dynamic, customizable road map with four essential
168 pages, Paperback
First published August 4, 2015
107 people are currently reading
226 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
July 16, 2024
"Coherence: The Right Drivers in Action" is a remedy for the wrong drivers in education. The ways in which we have tried to "take things off teachers' plates, but ended up causing high levels of burnout.
This text really gets into the importance of aligning the key drivers for change in educational systems to achieve meaningful and sustainable transformation. The key drivers are outlined as capacity building, collaboration, pedagogy, and systemness (coordinated policies). The text hits home the significance of focusing on one aligned goal, cultivating collaborative cultures (not PLCs as most are currently functioning), and fostering deep learning for all stakeholders. It argues that by ensuring coherence among these drivers, schools, districts, and systems can effectively navigate complex challenges (the wrong drivers) and drive continuous improvement. The argument was effectively made through the use of case studies (some cases in Canada) research findings, and real world examples.
The reason I gave this text 4 stars rather than 5 was because a "simple approach" seemed to be the goal of the text, but within each 4 part frame work lived another 4 step approach with the 6 Cs and a 3 step solution within a breakdown of these 5 steps. All of that to say, it could be a bit difficult to follow and redundant at times. Overall, this was a good read and I would recommend it to other educational leaders.
This text really gets into the importance of aligning the key drivers for change in educational systems to achieve meaningful and sustainable transformation. The key drivers are outlined as capacity building, collaboration, pedagogy, and systemness (coordinated policies). The text hits home the significance of focusing on one aligned goal, cultivating collaborative cultures (not PLCs as most are currently functioning), and fostering deep learning for all stakeholders. It argues that by ensuring coherence among these drivers, schools, districts, and systems can effectively navigate complex challenges (the wrong drivers) and drive continuous improvement. The argument was effectively made through the use of case studies (some cases in Canada) research findings, and real world examples.
The reason I gave this text 4 stars rather than 5 was because a "simple approach" seemed to be the goal of the text, but within each 4 part frame work lived another 4 step approach with the 6 Cs and a 3 step solution within a breakdown of these 5 steps. All of that to say, it could be a bit difficult to follow and redundant at times. Overall, this was a good read and I would recommend it to other educational leaders.
December 13, 2015
This book is so compelling I read it in two sittings, and read the middle section twice. Fullan lays out a very coherent way of thinking about bringing a system into focus using the right drivers. He contrasts the wrong drivers from previous articles with the right drivers that will really make a difference for changing the education system for the benefit of children. The writing is very clear and is further enhanced with graphic organizers at the end of every chapter. Now, I just need to figure out how I'm going to put this book into action, because I will.
July 17, 2022
I read this for Grad school, but I didn’t agree with everything in it. Some good concepts but overall I have read way better.
March 8, 2025
This book is highly recommended if you seek to increase learning through data analysis and student engagement. Michael Fullan offers academic strategies to those who truly want to activate and support all students and teachers in the learning process.
January 25, 2016
In the opening chapter of Coherence, authors Michael Fullan and Joanne Quinn define coherence as follows: “the shared depth of understanding about the purpose and nature of the work”. (1) When everyone in the school or district can “talk the walk”, that is, when everyone can articulate the key ideas and actions that define an organization, then coherence is achieved. (2)
In Chapter 1, they also identify the 4 elements of their Coherence Framework: focusing direction, cultivating collaborative cultures, deepening learning, and securing accountability. Their “big message” pertaining to these drivers though is that “they go together and must be addressed simultaneously and continuously”. (11)
The first component of the Coherence Framework, focusing direction, is the topic of Chapter 2. It has 4 dimensions. First, there must be moral purpose, “a deep, relentless purpose”. (18) Secondly, the goals must have impact. The main threat to impactful goals is “the presence of too many … ad hoc, unconnected, and ever-changing” goals and initiatives. (19) The authors recommend a 4-step approach to avoid such initiativitis. School district leaders must be transparent by acknowledging and gaining clarity on the issues at hand. Next, they need to build a common language and use a collaborative approach. They also should employ a reduce, reframe, and remove strategy:
• Reduce the clutter and overload of initiatives by identifying 2 or 3 key goals or an “umbrella
focus” (22);
• Reframe the connections between goals to avoid fragmentation;
• Remove distractors – by identifying “time wasters and inefficiencies”, giving principals and
leaders permission to say no, and avoiding “shiny objects and alluring possibilities” (23).
Lastly, district leaders should cultivate engagement by communicating often and listening even more often.
The third aspect of focusing direction is clarity of the strategy. When explicitness of the ideas is lacking, the result will be inertia or superficial activity; however, if there is clarity about the plan, effective action and innovation are possible.
The last element of focusing direction is change leadership. Fullan and Quinn use a metaphor of 2 fishbowls to describe the challenges of moving districts, schools, and individual teachers in the direction of innovation. To successfully jump from one bowl to the other, a fish requires both competence and confidence. Likewise, district leaders need to build the capacity of principals and teachers to take the leap in the direction of innovation, and they should celebrate the successful leaps forward by early adopters in order to encourage less confident and more reluctant staff to also move forward. The authors recommend that leaders consider the following research-informed practices for successful change initiatives:
• Participate as a co-learner;
• Encourage leadership from the middle, and recognize that “shifting practices” can come from
all levels of the organization (30);
• Balance push and pull strategies;
• Create “safe places for risk taking” (31); and,
• Build capacity in every way possible.
In Chapter 3, Fullan and Quinn explain 4 elements of cultivating collaborative cultures, the second coherence factor. The first element is a growth mindset that is reflected both in policy decisions and strategy. For instance, rather than recruiting talent and looking for solutions from outside the organization, school district leaders should concentrate on “… leadership development strategies that grow internal capacity.” (50) The second element is learning leadership that models a culture of continuous learning through direct participation in professional learning and creates and supports learning situations that promote “… inquiry habits of mind throughout the school.” (55)
The authors refer to the findings of John Hattie in support of the 3rd aspect they identify – collaborative capacity building. According to Hattie, “collective efficacy” has the highest effect size (1.57) on student learning of any single factor. The authors elaborate by noting that “The key to a capacity building approach lies in developing a common knowledge and skill base across all leaders and educators in the system.” (57) The 3 key features of collaborative capacity building are learning partnerships within schools and across the system, sustained focus over multiple sessions, and iterative learning cycles.
The final element is quality collaborative work. The following important caution is given by the authors: “Groups are powerful, which means they can be powerfully wrong.” (13) Their meaning is that frustration, and at the best, only surface learning will result from PLCs and other team work unless there is effective learning design. (ie. clear and measurable goals, well established group norms, and effective protocols, such as critical friends, for inquiry)
For the 3rd driver for achieving coherence, deepening learning, Fullan and Quinn identify 3 elements. Clarity of deep learning goals is the first element. School district leaders should ask the following question to determine what the goals should be: “What are the two or three things that will most improve student learning?” (80-81) The authors add that, in determining goals, district leaders should be wary of confusing strategies with purposes. When it comes to digital technologies, they need to recognize that “pedagogy is the driver and digital is the accelerator to go faster and deeper into learning.” (81) The authors then identify the 6 Cs as the key to deep learning goals:
• Communication – multimodal and designed for different audiences;
• Critical Thinking – including making connections, problem solving, and evaluating
information and arguments;
• Collaboration – interpersonal and team dynamics skills;
• Creativity – entrepreneurialism and pursuing novel ideas and solutions;
• Character – grit, resiliency, tenacity, responsibility, and empathy; and,
• Citizenship – interest in human and environmental sustainability.
The 2nd element for deepening learning is precision in pedagogy, which is achieved across a school district by constructing a common language and knowledge base, identifying research-informed learning strategies, targeting capacity building, and establishing clear links between learning and assessment.
As a part of the focus on pedagogy, Fullan and Quinn introduce 3 strands of the New Pedagogies for Deep Learning (NPDL) model. The first of these is pedagogical partnerships. Although they also advocate for partnerships with families, the authors stress, in particular, a student learning model that represents a more intimate partnership between teachers and students such that students are agents who co-design learning and assessment tasks. In this model, student aspirations and interests help shape instruction, and positive student expectations are constantly reinforced. The second strand is a highly engaging learning environment that fosters risk taking, innovation, differentiation, and authentic inquiry learning. The last aspect is effective leveraging of digital technologies such that they augment and transform learning rather than just serve as expensive substitutions (“$1,000 pencils”) for traditional technologies. (98)
The 3rd and final element for deepening learning is shifting teacher practices through capacity building. The process for this involves assessing current teacher capacity and planning professional learning accordingly.
The final driver to bring about coherence is securing accountability. However, Fullan and Quinn do not believe that external accountability is the answer. For one thing, they note that external accountability systems simply don’t get results. Furthermore, although such systems “tell us that the system is not performing …[they] do not give a clue about how to fix the situation.” (112) Worst of all, because of the pressure they cause, external accountability systems have sometimes resulted in cheating.
Instead, school districts need to focus on building internal accountability and then reinforcing it with external accountability. In support of the emphasis they place on internal accountability, they note that research on school effectiveness and improvement “…suggests that internal accountability must precede external accountability.” (111) For the authors, internal accountability in a school system means that individuals and groups of educators willingly agree to take personal, professional, and collective responsibility for success for all students.
The authors stress that school and district leaders need to establish the conditions for cultures of internal accountability to thrive. The good news on this point is that if they “work diligently” on the first 3 elements of the Coherence Framework, then the conditions for internal accountability will inevitably follow. (124) At the same time that district leaders build cultures in which individuals and groups are accountable to themselves, they should also “… engage the external policy and accountability system.” (124) By doing so, they will achieve 2 important purposes: They will both protect the system from distractions and interference and project their goals and beliefs on the larger educational community, with the hope of influencing it for the better.
In Chapter 1, they also identify the 4 elements of their Coherence Framework: focusing direction, cultivating collaborative cultures, deepening learning, and securing accountability. Their “big message” pertaining to these drivers though is that “they go together and must be addressed simultaneously and continuously”. (11)
The first component of the Coherence Framework, focusing direction, is the topic of Chapter 2. It has 4 dimensions. First, there must be moral purpose, “a deep, relentless purpose”. (18) Secondly, the goals must have impact. The main threat to impactful goals is “the presence of too many … ad hoc, unconnected, and ever-changing” goals and initiatives. (19) The authors recommend a 4-step approach to avoid such initiativitis. School district leaders must be transparent by acknowledging and gaining clarity on the issues at hand. Next, they need to build a common language and use a collaborative approach. They also should employ a reduce, reframe, and remove strategy:
• Reduce the clutter and overload of initiatives by identifying 2 or 3 key goals or an “umbrella
focus” (22);
• Reframe the connections between goals to avoid fragmentation;
• Remove distractors – by identifying “time wasters and inefficiencies”, giving principals and
leaders permission to say no, and avoiding “shiny objects and alluring possibilities” (23).
Lastly, district leaders should cultivate engagement by communicating often and listening even more often.
The third aspect of focusing direction is clarity of the strategy. When explicitness of the ideas is lacking, the result will be inertia or superficial activity; however, if there is clarity about the plan, effective action and innovation are possible.
The last element of focusing direction is change leadership. Fullan and Quinn use a metaphor of 2 fishbowls to describe the challenges of moving districts, schools, and individual teachers in the direction of innovation. To successfully jump from one bowl to the other, a fish requires both competence and confidence. Likewise, district leaders need to build the capacity of principals and teachers to take the leap in the direction of innovation, and they should celebrate the successful leaps forward by early adopters in order to encourage less confident and more reluctant staff to also move forward. The authors recommend that leaders consider the following research-informed practices for successful change initiatives:
• Participate as a co-learner;
• Encourage leadership from the middle, and recognize that “shifting practices” can come from
all levels of the organization (30);
• Balance push and pull strategies;
• Create “safe places for risk taking” (31); and,
• Build capacity in every way possible.
In Chapter 3, Fullan and Quinn explain 4 elements of cultivating collaborative cultures, the second coherence factor. The first element is a growth mindset that is reflected both in policy decisions and strategy. For instance, rather than recruiting talent and looking for solutions from outside the organization, school district leaders should concentrate on “… leadership development strategies that grow internal capacity.” (50) The second element is learning leadership that models a culture of continuous learning through direct participation in professional learning and creates and supports learning situations that promote “… inquiry habits of mind throughout the school.” (55)
The authors refer to the findings of John Hattie in support of the 3rd aspect they identify – collaborative capacity building. According to Hattie, “collective efficacy” has the highest effect size (1.57) on student learning of any single factor. The authors elaborate by noting that “The key to a capacity building approach lies in developing a common knowledge and skill base across all leaders and educators in the system.” (57) The 3 key features of collaborative capacity building are learning partnerships within schools and across the system, sustained focus over multiple sessions, and iterative learning cycles.
The final element is quality collaborative work. The following important caution is given by the authors: “Groups are powerful, which means they can be powerfully wrong.” (13) Their meaning is that frustration, and at the best, only surface learning will result from PLCs and other team work unless there is effective learning design. (ie. clear and measurable goals, well established group norms, and effective protocols, such as critical friends, for inquiry)
For the 3rd driver for achieving coherence, deepening learning, Fullan and Quinn identify 3 elements. Clarity of deep learning goals is the first element. School district leaders should ask the following question to determine what the goals should be: “What are the two or three things that will most improve student learning?” (80-81) The authors add that, in determining goals, district leaders should be wary of confusing strategies with purposes. When it comes to digital technologies, they need to recognize that “pedagogy is the driver and digital is the accelerator to go faster and deeper into learning.” (81) The authors then identify the 6 Cs as the key to deep learning goals:
• Communication – multimodal and designed for different audiences;
• Critical Thinking – including making connections, problem solving, and evaluating
information and arguments;
• Collaboration – interpersonal and team dynamics skills;
• Creativity – entrepreneurialism and pursuing novel ideas and solutions;
• Character – grit, resiliency, tenacity, responsibility, and empathy; and,
• Citizenship – interest in human and environmental sustainability.
The 2nd element for deepening learning is precision in pedagogy, which is achieved across a school district by constructing a common language and knowledge base, identifying research-informed learning strategies, targeting capacity building, and establishing clear links between learning and assessment.
As a part of the focus on pedagogy, Fullan and Quinn introduce 3 strands of the New Pedagogies for Deep Learning (NPDL) model. The first of these is pedagogical partnerships. Although they also advocate for partnerships with families, the authors stress, in particular, a student learning model that represents a more intimate partnership between teachers and students such that students are agents who co-design learning and assessment tasks. In this model, student aspirations and interests help shape instruction, and positive student expectations are constantly reinforced. The second strand is a highly engaging learning environment that fosters risk taking, innovation, differentiation, and authentic inquiry learning. The last aspect is effective leveraging of digital technologies such that they augment and transform learning rather than just serve as expensive substitutions (“$1,000 pencils”) for traditional technologies. (98)
The 3rd and final element for deepening learning is shifting teacher practices through capacity building. The process for this involves assessing current teacher capacity and planning professional learning accordingly.
The final driver to bring about coherence is securing accountability. However, Fullan and Quinn do not believe that external accountability is the answer. For one thing, they note that external accountability systems simply don’t get results. Furthermore, although such systems “tell us that the system is not performing …[they] do not give a clue about how to fix the situation.” (112) Worst of all, because of the pressure they cause, external accountability systems have sometimes resulted in cheating.
Instead, school districts need to focus on building internal accountability and then reinforcing it with external accountability. In support of the emphasis they place on internal accountability, they note that research on school effectiveness and improvement “…suggests that internal accountability must precede external accountability.” (111) For the authors, internal accountability in a school system means that individuals and groups of educators willingly agree to take personal, professional, and collective responsibility for success for all students.
The authors stress that school and district leaders need to establish the conditions for cultures of internal accountability to thrive. The good news on this point is that if they “work diligently” on the first 3 elements of the Coherence Framework, then the conditions for internal accountability will inevitably follow. (124) At the same time that district leaders build cultures in which individuals and groups are accountable to themselves, they should also “… engage the external policy and accountability system.” (124) By doing so, they will achieve 2 important purposes: They will both protect the system from distractions and interference and project their goals and beliefs on the larger educational community, with the hope of influencing it for the better.
October 9, 2022
We are reading this as a guided book study for district leaders. The ideas in this book are excellent, and honestly, while our district has created initiatives on three of the four strategies at one time or another, we’ve never really had a “coherent” plan that included all of them. The four strategies being focused direction, collaborative cultures, deepening learning, and securing accountability.
I think the most troubling is securing accountability. I agree with the research that external punitive accountability is nearly never the tool that propels organizations forward despite being necessary on an individual basis at times. That said, we’ve never really created organizational accountability in our district, but it is nice to see things moving in that direction.
I rate this book a three of five stars simply because while the information, research, and stories are great, there are very few action item take-aways. This is my struggle with the book study. We are doing a lot of theoretical discussion but not a lot of discussion about how to apply this information in our district. That said, maybe just starting with this information and the recognition of where we need to go is the work we need to be doing now.
I think the most troubling is securing accountability. I agree with the research that external punitive accountability is nearly never the tool that propels organizations forward despite being necessary on an individual basis at times. That said, we’ve never really created organizational accountability in our district, but it is nice to see things moving in that direction.
I rate this book a three of five stars simply because while the information, research, and stories are great, there are very few action item take-aways. This is my struggle with the book study. We are doing a lot of theoretical discussion but not a lot of discussion about how to apply this information in our district. That said, maybe just starting with this information and the recognition of where we need to go is the work we need to be doing now.
July 19, 2021
For me, this book has strong concepts and ideas, but there is a lot of jargon (as another person mentioned) and supporting the theoretical ideas with explicit examples of practical application would be helpful. The example of Ontario schools that is frequently used in the text is not as similar to many of our schools (my district, state, perhaps U.S. overall) because the population of EL/multilingual learners in Ontario have strong literacy skills in their first language, and socioeconomic status is not as much of a pervasive issue as in the U.S. For this reason, the glowing examples of how Ontario has done things were not quite as valuable to me, although the ideas do still have merit. The comparisons were not as similar as they may have seemed.
June 15, 2017
Very easy read with many ideas in how to bring coherence to an educational system. I read this book for my college class and really appreciated the insight on the coherence framework provided to help school systems improve student achievement while working together as a team. The info graphics throughout the book were brilliant and helped put all the great ideas into "doable" chunks. This book should be read by all instructional leaders and then put into practice to help bring positive change in a school system.
November 6, 2019
Coherence is key!
This is a great book and resource for educational leadership. This would be great as a whole staff read and how leaders can collaboratively work with those they are trying to lead. Accountability is also key, and this book nails it spot on! I’m so glad I read this book as it brought to light how to be a more impactful educational leader!
This is a great book and resource for educational leadership. This would be great as a whole staff read and how leaders can collaboratively work with those they are trying to lead. Accountability is also key, and this book nails it spot on! I’m so glad I read this book as it brought to light how to be a more impactful educational leader!
January 25, 2021
Coherence provides a big-picture approach to school leadership. Not for the teacher leader, this book blends concepts from PLC, Learning Leadership, and others to create a strategy system for being a change agent, developing a learning framework, and deepening real, internal accountability in a building or district.
August 21, 2018
There is a lot of good information here but sometimes it's buried in jargon.
February 7, 2020
Lots of good leadership development nuggets that ironically are buried in rather poor, incoherent writing.
December 28, 2020
Good ideas. Presented in a digestible way. Nothing extremely new in the way of ideas but thoughtful framing and a relevant toolkit (liked the visuals) to help in changing educational systems.
Read
June 25, 2021Concepts turned into narratives through case studies.
June 24, 2023
Read for grad school. It does a good job, and the infographics are great, of making sense of coherence and how to drive change within schools and systems.
January 14, 2022
A really useful book - I am not sure I wholly agree with every aspect - e.g. neologisms like 'simplicity', but as with so much of Fullan's work, there is a concrete attempt to help school teachers and leaders grapple with a demanding political framework while bringing genuine learning and development to their students. Also, some very useful questions and reflective infographics/exercises.
February 23, 2016
A terrific guide to helping school administrators organize their efforts in the face of increasingly complex challenges.
November 23, 2016
A great read. Confirmed our current direction.
April 4, 2017
Read this book if you want to build better schools.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews