1

Andy Hargreaves

Sustainable Leadership

Welcome to

2

Sustainable development

Sustainable development,

democracy and peace are indivisible as an idea whose time has come.

Wangari Maathai

3

Development of the term “sustainability”1980 Term first coined by Lester Brown, founder of the World Watch Institute

1987 Sustainable development defined by Brundtland Report of

the World Commission on Environment and Development

1992 Agenda 21, United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Rio De Janeiro systematically addressed sustainable development

2002 United Nations Johannesburg Summit – developed practical goals for sustainable development

2005 Beginning of UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development

4

United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development 2005-2015

5

Sustainability

Sustainability does not simply mean whether something can last. It addresses how particular initiatives can be developed without compromising the development of others in the surrounding environment, now and in the future.

Hargreaves & Fink 2000

6

Sustainable leadership

Sustainable leadership matters, spreads and lasts. It is a shared responsibility that does not unduly deplete human or financial resources, and that cares for and avoids exerting damage on the surrounding educational and community environment.

Hargreaves & Fink 2003

7

Sustainability

Sustainability is the capacity of a system to engage in the complexities of continuous improvement consistent with deep values of human purpose.

Fullan 2004

8

Educational Lessons of Environmental Sustainability• Rich diversity, not soulless

standardization• Taking the long view• Act urgently for change, wait patiently

for results• Prudence about conserving and

renewing human and financial resources• Examine the impact of our improvement

efforts on others• All of us can be activists and make a

difference

Hargreaves & Fink 2006

9

Built to Last Companies• Put purpose before profit• Preserve long-standing purposes amid

the pursuit of change• Start slowly, advance persistently• Do not depend on a single, visionary

leader• Grow their own leadership, instead of

importing others• Learn from diverse experimentation

Collins & Porras 1994

10

Seven principles of sustainable leadership1 Depth

2 Endurance

3 Breadth

4 Justice

It matters It lasts It spreads It does not

harm the surrounding environment

Continued…

11

Seven principles of sustainable leadership5 Diversity

6 Resourcefulness

7 Conservation

It promotes diversity & cohesion

It conserves expenditure

It honours the

past in creating the future

12

Unsustainability

Repetitive change syndrome is

Initiative overload +

Change-related chaos

Abrahamson 2004

13

Initiative Overload

The tendency of organizations to launch more change initiatives than anyone could ever reasonably handle

Abrahamson 2004

14

Change-related Chaos

The continuous state of upheaval that results when so many waves of initiatives have worked through at the organization that hardly anyone knows which change they’re implementing or why

Abrahamson 2004

15

Unsustainability

Imposed, short-term targets (or adequate yearly progress) transgress every principle of sustainable leadership and learning

Hargreaves & Fink 2006

16

Principle 1: Depth

Sustainable leadership matters. It preserves,

protects, and promotes deep

and broad learning for all in relationships

of care for others.

17

Nelson Mandela The human body has

an enormous capacity for adjusting to trying circumstances. I have found that one can bear the unbearable if one can keep one’s spirits strong even when one’s body is being tested. Strong convictions are the secret of surviving deprivation: your spirit can be full even when your stomach is empty.

1. Depth

18

The Two Hungers In Africa, they say there are two

hungers, the lesser hunger and the greater hunger.

• The lesser hunger is for the things that

sustain life, the goods, and services, and the money to pay for them, which we all need.

• The greater hunger is for the answer to the question ‘why’, for some understanding of what life is for.

Handy 1997

1. Depth

19

Product IntegrityClif Bar’s Philosophy of Sustainability

Sustaining…• our brands• our company• our people• our community• our planet

1. Depth

20

Standards and Sustainability

Learning Achievement Testing

NOT

Testing Achievement Learning

Hargreaves & Fink, 2006

1. Depth

21

The four pillars of learning

1. Learning to know2. Learning to do3. Learning to be4. Learning to live togetherUNESCO 1996

1. Depth

22

The four pillars of learning

1. Learning to know2. Learning to do3. Learning to be4. Learning to live togetherUNESCO 19965. Learning to live sustainablyHargreaves & Fink, 2006

1. Depth

23

BasicsOld basics• Literacy• Numeracy• Obedience• Punctuality

New basics• Multiliteracy• Creativity• Communication• IT• Teamwork• Lifelong Learning• Adaptation &

Change• Environmental

Responsibility

1. Depth

24

Slow Knowing The unconscious realms of the human

mind will successfully accomplish a number of important tasks if they are given the time. They will learn patterns of a degree of subtlety which normal consciousness cannot even see; make sense out of situations that are too complex to analyze; and get to the bottom of certain difficult issues much more successfully than the questing intellect.

Claxton 1997

1. Depth

25

What does the doctor reply?

1. Depth

26

Activity

1. Depth

27

Slow forms of knowing• are tolerant of the faint, fleeting, marginal and

ambiguous• like to dwell on details that do not fit or

immediately make sense• are relaxed, leisurely and playful• are willing to explore without knowing what

they are looking for• see ignorance and confusion as the ground from

which understanding may spring• are receptive rather than proactive• are happy to relinquish the sense of control

over the directions the mind spontaneously takes

• treat seriously ideas that come ‘out of the blue’

Claxton, 1997

1. Depth

28

Slow schooling

• starts formal learning later• reduces testing• increases curriculum flexibility• emphasizes enjoyment• doesn’t hurry the child• rehabilitates play alongside

purpose

Honore, 2004

1. Depth

29

Leaders of Sustaining Learning• Passionately advocate and defend deep learning for

all students• Combine and commit to old and new basics• Put learning, before achievement, before testing• Make learning the paramount priority• Become more knowledgeable about learning• Make learning transparent• Be omnipresent witnesses to learning• Practise evidence-informed, inquiry-based leadership• Promote assessment for learning• Engage students in decisions about their learning• Involve parents in their children’s learning• Model effective adult learning• Create the emotional conditions for learning

Hargreaves & Fink, 2006

1. Depth

30

Principle 2: Endurance

Sustainable leadership lasts. It preserves and advances the most valuable aspects of learning and life over time, year upon year, from one leader to the next.

31

Endurance

• It is a common defect in men not to consider in good weather the possibility of a tempest

Machiavelli, 1532• All leaders, no matter how

charismatic or visionary, eventually die

Collins & Porras, 1994• Few things succeed less than

leadership successionHargreaves & Fink, 2006

2. Endurance

32

Approaches to succession

The public sector…

• Passively lets candidates emerge

• Focuses on the short term

• Handles succession informally

The private sector…

• Actively recruits and encourages potential leaders

• Takes the long view

• Manages succession more formally

Continued…2. Endurance

33

Approaches to successionThe public sector…

• Seeks replacement for existing roles

• Selects in relation to current competencies

• Views succession planning as a cost

The private sector…

• Defines future leadership skills and aptitudes

• Emphasises flexibility and lifelong learning in the face of changing needs

• Views succession planning as an asset

2. Endurance

34

Four Issues in Succession

1. Succession Planning2. Succession Management3. Succession Duration &

Frequency4. Succession and the Self

2. Endurance

35

Succession Planning Patterns

Planned(purposeful)

Unplanned(accidental/

unintentional)

Hargreaves & Fink

2006

Continuity Discontinuity

Planned PlannedContinuity

Discontinuity

Unplanned Unplanned

Continuity Discontinuity

2. Endurance

36

Good succession plans• Are prepared long before the leader’s

anticipated departure or even from the outset of their appointment

• Give other people proper time to prepare• Are incorporated in all school improvement

plans• Are the responsibility of many, rather than the

prerogative of lone leaders who tend to want to clone themselves

• Are based on a clear diagnosis of the school’s existing stage of development and future needs for improvement

• Are transparently linked to clearly defined leadership standards and competencies that are needed for the next phase of improvement

2. Endurance

37

Successful Succession Management• Distributes leadership effectively• Builds strong professional communities• Deepens and broadens the pools of

leadership talent• Establishes leadership development

schools• Stresses future leadership competencies• Supports and sponsors aspiring school

leaders• Replaces charismatic leadership with

inspirational leadership• Plans early for the incumbent leader’s exit• Moderates and monitors leadership

succession frequency

2. Endurance

38

Three Cultures of Teaching• Veteran dominated

– serves experienced teacher interests– feels exclusionary– offers few leadership opportunities

• Novice orientated– surrounded by fellow novices– feels inclusive– driven by enthusiasm rather than expertise

• Blended– provides mentoring– offers leadership– reciprocal learning

Johnson et al, 2004

2. Endurance

39

Sound succession, strong selves, through• Availability of counselling and coaching for

exiting leaders• Quick, clear and open communication of

reasons for departure• Acceptance of emotional confusion and

vulnerability• Celebration of the leader’s contributions• Recognition that succession is subject to the

four stages of grief – denial, awakening, reflection and execution

• Confrontation of the Messiah and Rebecca myths

• Prepares oneself and others early for the possibility of succession

Hargreaves & Fink, 2006

2. Endurance

40

Principle 3: Breadth

Sustainable leadership spreads. It sustains as well as depends on the leadership of others

41

Culture and Contract Regimes

PermissiveIndividualism

CollaborativeCultures

ContrivedCollegiality

CorrosiveIndividualism

Professional Learning CommunitiesPerformanceTraining Sects

C U

L T

U R

E

C O N T R A C T

-

=

+

+-

3. Breadth

42

Professional learning community Collaboration

Learning & teaching focus

Achievement and

Engagement

Learning,

reflection &

review

Use of evidence

3. Breadth

43

3. Breadth

44

Professional learning communities aren’t…X Merely convivial and congenial – they

are demanding and critical

X Just a collection of stilted teams looking at data together

X Obsessed with scores and results, instead of

depth of learning

X Forced and imposed, they are facilitated and

supported

X Ways to hijack teachers to carry out administrative agendas

3. Breadth

45

Communities and Sects

Professional learning

communities

• Transform knowledge

• Shared enquiry• Evidence

informed• Situated

certainty

Performance training

sects

• Transfer knowledge

• Imposed requirements

• Results driven• False certainty

Continued…3. Breadth

46

Communities and SectsProfessional learningcommunities

• Local solutions

• Joint responsibility

• Continuous learning

• Communities of practice

Performance training sects

• Standardised scripts

• Deference to authority

• Intensive training

• Sects of performance

3. Breadth

47

Relationships

It’s hard to eat something you’ve had a relationship with

Hargreaves & Fullan, 1998

3. Breadth

48

Distributed leadershipsees leadership practice as a product of theinteraction of school leaders, followers and

theirsituation.• Leadership practice involves multiple

individuals within and outside formal leadership positions

• Leadership practice is not done to followers. Followers are themselves part of leadership practice.

• It is not the actions of individuals, but the interactions among them that matter most in leadership practice.

Spillane, 2005

3. Breadth

49

Raising the temperature of distributed leadership

Anarchy

Assertive distribution

Emergent distribution

Guided distribution

Progressive delegation

Traditional delegation

Autocracy

Too hot

Too cold

3. Breadth

50

Principle 4: Justice

Sustainable leadership does no harm to and actively improves the surrounding environment by finding ways to share knowledge and resources with neighboring schools and the local communities.

51

Sustainability and Social Justice

do not steal your neighbour’s capacityuse multiple indicators of

accountabilityemphasize collective accountabilitycoach a less successful partner schoolmake a definable contribution to the

community your school is inpair with a school in a different social

or natural environmentcollaborate with your competitors

4. Justice

52

Responsible leadership

Mutual relationships among the domainsof ethical responsibility

Starratt, 2005

4. Justice

53

Principle 5: Diversity Sustainable

leadership promotes cohesive diversity and avoids aligned standardization of policy, curriculum, assessment, and staff development and training in teaching and learning. It fosters and learns from diversity and creates cohesion and networking among its richly varying components.

54

Differences

You learn more from people who are different from you, than ones who are the same

Hargreaves & Fullan, 1998

5. Diversity

55

Effective organizations are characterized by:• A framework of common and enduring values,

goals and purposes• Possession and development of variability or

diversity in skills, talents and identities• Processes that promote interaction and cross-

pollination of ideas and influences across this variability

• Permeability to outside influences• Emergence of new ideas, structures, and

processes as diverse elements interconnect and new ones intrude from the outside

• Flexibility and adaptability in response to environmental change

• Resilience in the face of and in response to threats and adversity

5. Diversity

56

Networked learning communities

• Enable and encourage schools to share and transfer the considerable knowledge already in existence that can help children learn better. Individual schools have limited knowledge, but collectively they have almost as much as they need.

• Stimulate the professional fulfilment and motivation that comes from learning and interacting with colleagues in ways that help teachers be more effective with their own students.

Continued…5. Diversity

57

Networked learning communities

• Capitalize on positive diversity across teachers and schools who serve different kinds of students, or who vary in how they respond to them, rather than maintaining the negative diversity of cut-throat competition that prevents mutual learning and assistance, or than denying diversity altogether through imposition of standardized solutions.

• Provide teachers and others with opportunities for lateral leadership of people, programs and problem-solving beyond one’s own school setting.

Continued…5. Diversity

58

Other advantages

• they provide opportunities to draw on and develop evidence-informed, research-derived practice

• they promote innovation and its dissemination across large groups of interested schools

• they give teachers more of a voice in professional and school-based decision-making

Continued…5. Diversity

59

Other advantages• they help personalize every school as a

learning community, enabling them to adopt emergent solutions to their own needs, that are diffused and made available throughout the network, instead of being subjected to overly prescribed programmes.

• they are flexible and resilient in the face of crises or misdirected system initiatives that turn out to be unsuccessful – allowing new learning and fresh solutions to emerge and fill the gap that the false starts and failures have left behind.

Jackson, 2006

5. Diversity

60

Network risks

• Restricted to enthusiasts• Shared delusions• Self-indulgent• Limited scale• Unaccountable• Over-regulation• Over-participation

5. Diversity

61

Strong networks have…

• Strong branding, definite products• Clear moral purpose• Clarity, focus, discipline• Evidence informed substance• Accessibility in real and chosen

time• Hacker ethic• Embedded in altered structures• Support from lateral leadership• PLCs as nodes

5. Diversity

62

Networking and interaction

• Paired schools• University-school

partnerships• Internet

communities• Families of

schools• Collaborative

accountability• Professional

networks

5. Diversity

63

Short-term strategies

• Exam strategies• Revision sessions• Tutoring• Recognition of achievements• Pupil-teacher conferences• Bananas and water

5. Diversity

64

Medium-term strategies

• Teacher mentor programs• SAM technology• Data-driven assessment for

targeted instruction• Training days

5. Diversity

65

Long-term strategies

• Restructuring• Student voice• Continuous improvement• Teaching and learning

5. Diversity

66

Principle 6: Resourcefulness Sustainable

leadership develops and does not deplete material and human resources. It renews people’s energy. Sustainable leadership is prudent and resourceful leadership that wastes neither its money nor its people.

67

Two theories of energy

Energy

Entropy

Restraint

Energy

Exchange

Renewal

6. Resourcefulness

68

Four Forms of Energy Renewal

1. Physical Renewal2. Emotional Renewal3. Intellectual Renewal4. Spiritual Renewal

Loehr & Schwartz

6. Resourcefulness

69

Energy restraint

• No achievement without investment

• Shared targets, not imposed ones

• Slow leading, slow learning• Time• Political continuity and

stability

6. Resourcefulness

70

Three Sources of Renewal

Trust

Confidence Positive emotion

6. Resourcefulness

71

Three forms of trust & betrayal

Communication

Contract Competence

Hargreaves, 2002

6. Resourcefulness

72

Trust involves

• reliability and predictability• reaching shared

understanding• assumptions of good faith• trusting yourself as well as

others• trusting processes as well as

people

6. Resourcefulness

73

Betrayal involves

• loss of trust or absence of trust

• spectacular breakdowns of trust

• small, accumulated breaches of trust

6. Resourcefulness

74

Contractual trust

meeting obligations completing contracts keeping promises

Page 76

6. Resourcefulness

75

…and Betrayal

Xnot pulling one’s weightXpoor work-rate or effortXteaching the same thingXclockwatchingXcomplaining without

commitmentXself-servingness

6. Resourcefulness

76

Competence Trust

trust own & others’ capabilityeffective delegationproviding professional growth

& development

6. Resourcefulness

77

…and Betrayal

X constant criticism/dissatisfactionwith others

X martyrdom/inability to delegateX abandon people when faults first

appearX recruitment and retention problemsX micromanagement, scripting,

standardization

6. Resourcefulness

78

Communication Trust

clear, high-quality, open and frequent communicationsharing information,

admitting mistakestelling the truth, keeping confidences

6. Resourcefulness

79

…and Betrayal

X malicious / mischievous gossipingX public shaming / humiliation in

front of:colleaguessuperiorsstudents

X miscommunication/misunderstanding

X self-servingness

6. Resourcefulness

80

Conclusion

Many problems that we treat as being a result of other people’s contract or competence betrayal, are actually a result of their or our communication

problems. In other words… Competence failures or contractual

failures are often really communication failures.

6. Resourcefulness

81

Principle 7: Conservation

Sustainable leadership respects and builds on the past in its quest to create a better future.

Page 83

82

Modes of organisational forgetting

New KnowledgeEstablished Knowledge

Accidental

Purposeful

Failure to consolidate DISSIPATIO

N

Failure to maintain

DEGRADATION

Abandoned innovation

SUSPENSION

Managed unlearning PURGING

DeHolan & Phillips, 2004

7. Conservation

83

The Past, Present & Future of Change Acknowledge the past. Preserve the best. Learn from the rest. Wildness, diversity and disorder have value. The past is not pure. Do not romanticize it. The past has no Golden Age to which we should return. We view the past differently. We must therefore interpret it together. When we dismiss or demean the past, we fuel defensive nostalgia among its bearers.

7. Conservation

84

Creative Recombination for RenewalFrom:Firing and rehiring

Developing new communications

Inventing new values

Re-engineering new processes

Complete restructuring

To:Redeploying the talent companies already have

Plugging into & reinventing

existing social networks

Reviving and renewing existing values

Salvaging existing good Processes

Reworking and rebuilding

existing structuresAbrahamson, 2004

7. Conservation

85

Stop, Start, Continue…

STOP

What is less valuable

START

What is more

valuable

CONTINUE

What remains highly

valuable

SUBVERT

What is formally required but

threatens what is valuable

7. Conservation

86

Conserving the past through…

• Retreats that renew the vision• Audits of the organization’s memories of

analogous change• Asset inventories of existing experience and

knowledge• Organizational abandonment meetings• Appointments made mid-term to cultivate

learning of the culture• Storytelling to pass on wisdom• Mentoring that runs in both directions• Good written records• Creation of blended professional cultures• Creative recombination, not repetitive change

7. Conservation

87

Thank you