There are myriad factors potentially influencing educational leaders and
their potential effectiveness. Effective
leaders of sustainable
learning organizations recognize certain factors are more influential than
others for creating sustained success. Effective
leaders optimize the learning organization’s sustained success by:
· Sharing common values to guide
the organization’s collaborative vision (Lezotte & Snyder, 2011; Sheppard & Brown, 2009),
· Inspiring stakeholders’
emotions toward innovation and right action rather than triggering fear-based immovability
(Reason, 2010; Immordino-Yang & Damasio, 2007), and
· Using institutional memory and
symbolic language to influence cultural change (DuFour, et al.,2008; ).
Let’s examine and evaluate the influence of these factors upon the
creation of a sustainable learning organization. Effective Schools Research examines
sustainable learning organizations and consistently finds “effective schools
have strong and effective leadership” (Lezotte & Snyder, 2011, p. 51). A hallmark of effective leadership in schools
is the ability to communicate the mission to all stakeholders, understand the
principles and values needed to optimize learning, and possess the knowledge to
manage the organization’s programs. Therefore,
knowledge of key factors influencing the creation and sustainability of the
learning organization is essential.
An
effective school reaches clarity and consensus on the mission, core values, and
beliefs. It is then important to develop
ongoing processes to avoid mission drift. Effective schools strategically stave off
mission drift when it periodically reviews and renews “the organization’s
mission, values, and beliefs” (Lezotte & Snyder, 2011, p. 67). Educators benefit in many ways from working
to develop a clear,
shared vision (Dufour et al., 2008).
It
is effective practice for an organizational leader to assure the presence of a
clear mission, shared vision, and non-negotiable values. The purpose of this effective practice is to optimize
the collective commitment to reinforcing the foundation of the learning
organization’s culture. Approaches for
promoting this practice have been available to learning organizations for
decades. For instance, Anderson and
Pigford (1987) cited earlier work by Rutherford to explicate the following five
effective leadership qualities:
1. Have
a vision: Work toward a shared
understanding of the goals, progress toward their achievement and coordinate
curriculum, instruction, and assessment.
2.
Translate the vision into action: Work as a team, emphasize school wide goals
and expectations.
3. Create a supportive environment: Promote an academically-oriented, orderly,
and purposeful school climate.
4. Know what's going on in the school: Find out what teachers and students are doing
and how well.
5. Act on knowledge:
Intervene as necessary accommodating different teacher personalities,
styles, and teaching strategies (pp. 67-68).
A consistent exhibition of vision toward a clear
mission, commitment to learning for all, and shared responsibility for success
certainly appears to be the minimal ethos of an effective school. Citing Jenkins, Louis, Walberg, and Keefe
(1994, p. 72), Lezotte and Snyder (2011) posit the most significant feature
common to world-class schools is the ongoing effort to become “learning
organizations with a commitment to continuous problem-solving and a sense of
shared responsibility for improvement” (p. 67).
A learning
organization’s culture promotes collaboration, which is profound because
the ethos of a school either promotes or suppresses collaboration between
teachers and stakeholders.
Leaders must find a balance between motivating their
learners and minimizing negative emotions.
While self-destructive schools gravitate toward fear and stress, institutions
making a difference consistently exhibit love, courage, and hope (Reason,
2010). Therefore, this range of emotions
either positively or negatively affects organizational learning.
Diverse emotions can result in either ruminating or
sagging emotions. An effective leader
does not leave the emotional tenor of a school to chance. Rather, he or she promotes an emotional
climate that focuses attention to optimize conditions for learning.
Regardless if the perception is the need to accept or
the need to overcome, change will be the result. The greatest concern is the impact of such
change upon the learning organization. A
trusting relationship between a leader and her or his followers is often based
on how, when, where, and why the leader uses power (Bartram, 2007). The ability to influence others to do
something defines power. Often the
success or failure of a leader results from how and when she or he accesses and
utilizes power through various mechanisms of rewards or punishments.
Leadership behavior affects stakeholder perceptions
of trustworthiness. This is important to
researchers and managers interested in how leadership behaviors influence other
areas of the organization (Caldwell & Hayes, 2007). Key characteristics associated with most leadership
theories include the ability to quickly assess situations, move accordingly
for the benefit of the group, and to engender trust from followers (Burke,
Sims, Lazzara, & Salas, 2007).
Quickly assessing situations and moving accordingly for the benefit of
the group is what Roach et al (1999) called “wisdom in spontaneity” (p.
17). Emotional
Intelligence theorists call this social awareness and relationship
management (Bradberry
& Greaves, 2009).
Ceremony and other structured
memory construction activities exhibit the ability to form traditions
within learning organizations that provide thoughtful reconstruction of
historic events, thereby reinforcing particular values or beliefs. The understanding of organizational events culturally
frames the shared beliefs, values, and norms.
In this way, culture affects organizations at several levels. Just as within society as a whole, an organization
will also seek to preserve its own culture.
Thus, the creation of an effective learning organization requires the
establishment of an organizational culture open to possibilities of what the institution
can become.
Sustained
improvement results when leaders of learning organizations structure time so institutional
teams are empowered to meet regularly.
Effective leaders recognize goal achievement is necessary to sustain the
improvement effort. This commitment
embraces the truth that teams outperform individual efforts because
"learning not only occurs in teams but endures" (Schmoker,
1999, p. 12).
Derived from
personal experience and research, Reason
(2010) posits a nine-step protocol for creating an organizational vision, reinforced
by effective mental representations.
Step One: Evaluating
Personal Belief Systems
Step Two: Evaluating
Context
Step Three: Evaluating
Existing Mental Representations
Step Four: Evaluating
Current Degree of Intention
Step Five: Establishing
New Degrees of Intention
Step Six: Evaluating
Current Belief Systems
Step Seven: Establishing
New Actions to Support a New Vision
Step Eight: Reviewing
the Learning Context
Step Nine: Continuously
Reexamining the Vision (pp. 64-69)
For
instance; based on his or her own K-12 experience, virtually every adult
has a mental model or mindset of a real
school (Tyack & Cuban (1995).
This mental
representation becomes omnipresent for him or her. Such an internalized mental representation,
relative to schools, is typically associated with strict rules about how a school actually works. Therefore, to promote educational reform or
institutional change, the negative mental representations held by stakeholders require
reformation.
The quest to optimize learning at the highest levels
is contingent upon perception, memory, and learning. By rethinking or replacing older, less functional
traditions, metaphors, or symbols, a learning organization can identify and
promote new stories to create different mental representations capable of
moving the organization toward positive change.
Perceived relevance affects attention.
Attention affects how effectively and efficiently learning occurs. “The emotional tenor of a school is up to
those who work in it” (Reason, 2010, p. 5).
Emotional states can affect individuals as well as organizations.
As an organizational
change strategy, storytelling is an integral tool because stories have the
potential to create experiences; whereby a strategy is comprehended more diversely
and personally (Adamson, Pine, Tom & Kroupa, 2006). Therefore, “storytelling builds stronger
teams and a stronger sense of community” (p. 36). Images created through metaphorical
language influence thought processes.
For instance, Jung
(1964) wrote extensively on the instinctive nature of symbolic thought,
suggesting symbols transcend cultures.
Identifying existing metaphors
that are actually constructive and then replicating or expanding their scope
optimizes the relationship between the learning organization and the organization’s
culture. Collective efficacy allows
identification of the most positive aspects of an organization’s culture
(Goddard, Hoy, & Hoy, 2004).
Thereafter, developing and perpetuating these messages could create
effective, sustained change.
Effective leadership produces collective, energized,
collaborative commitment to the clear mission, shared vision, and
non-negotiable values of an organization.
This alignment will deepen sustained, trustworthy, and emotionally fulfilling
organizational learning. By contrast,
ineffective leadership exacerbates negative emotions and suppresses
collaboration among stakeholders, which hinders organizational learning.
To Cite:
Anderson,
C.J. (June 30, 2019) Sustaining organizational learning. [Web log post]
Retrieved from http://www.ucan-cja.blogspot.com/
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