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Greeting
Hey everyone, good evening. I hope you are doing well.
Introduction
Tonight, I want to discuss Fuller’s 6 secrets of change. I
found them to be encouraging, inspiring, and very practical mindsets or
approaches to school leadership.
Overview
Fuller’s 6 secrets of change are a cyclical set of
approaches to staff dynamics and staff culture that set the tone for a safe and
positive environment. The different
secrets all seem to draw on a common source of love, mutual respect, and trust. The outputs of these secrets are positive
staff culture, a culture of learning and modeling, and a sustainable model of
leadership; in that, systems are devised that overwork employees or present a
hierarchical dictatorship in the leadership strata.
Change 1: Love
your employees
Fuller says that the first change is to love your
employees. For me, this was the most
revolutionary and inspiring of all the secrets.
Revolutionary because so few companies and non-profits do it well and
inspiring because it looks forward to the promise of something so much better
within organization and leadership. So
this is where I want to spend most of time.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 13: out of faith, hope, and
love – love is the greatest”. In education, we tend to put faith in so many
best practices and educational fads that even tend not to have any research
supporting them; we hope that our kids will do well on their tests based off of
the endless hours we’ve put in. But do
we the greatest and most foundational of these things in education? Love?
This doesn’t necessarily look like giving hugs and flowers
to staff and kids. Rather, love that is
“patient with employees, kind when things are going well or poorly, humble in
conversation and approach – not dictatorship; that tells the truth and gives
constructive and sometimes difficult feedback, love that hopes, yes – but that
trusts. What an empowering concept!
The biggest obstacles to overcome at my school come in the
form of leadership. I was told on day
one that we were equals and we were a collaborative school. That’s well-wishing. Our school is very
hierarchical, you collaborate if you’re in
and you better do what you’re told. This
would be a difficult, near impossible change at our school as the current
leadership team stands. I don’t believe
they can see the benefits of such a change.
In the mean time, I’m doing my part to show them love and
support and all those things I just mentioned.
Maybe I can get the ball rolling! Thanks for listening.
