Eight basic lessons from Fullan

The best way to start this site on school leadership to get to know Michael Fullan better. In one of his books ; Change Forces; Probing the Depths of Educational Reform, Fullan list 8 basic lessons of the new paradigm of change :

1- You can’t mandate what matters
2- Change is a journey not a blueprint
3- Problems are our friends
4- Vision and strategic planning come later
5- Individualism and collectivism must have equal power
6- Neither centralisation nor decentralisation works
7- Connection with the wider environment is critical for success
8- Every person is a change agent

I will try in the weeks to come to give you my understanding for these lessons and how to apply them as a school principal. Last Monday, I had a chance to meet all of my school staff for a day. We discussed personality types and leadership qualities. We took time to read all of the 21 chapters of John Maxwell’s book ; The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader. To me, I think that all members of the organisation will at one point of another be a leader in is work. I was lucky to see that teachers, custodians, cafeteria workers and teachers aids were all interested to know more about leadership. They all in there own unique ways described each of Maxwell 21 necessary qualities of leaders.

I also took time to read to them the 8 lesson from Fullan’s book. Again, I happy to see that the staff responded well to some of my comments. What’s important is that we know that things will not always be easy but we also know that we can count of a team that can when times get tough, work together. As Daryl Conner stated:
“Today’s leader are operating their organisations at the speed of change”

We need to be kept well informed on the process and the researches that are out there. I’m sometimes appalled that often, this is left to each individual of the organisation. We need to take care of the information that we work with and to the one we want to use on the field. This is the purpose of this site. I welcome comments and links that will help me to design a better site.

Have a great day !!!

Am I crazy or what !!!

This is my first English post. My name is Roberto Gauvin and I’m a proud school principal in Clair, New-Brunswick. I’ve decided to start my own blog in English. My school is experimenting with blogging since last January. I also have a French blog and things are going very well. You will soon find out that for me writing in English is a challenge which will be for me, a great learning experience. I hope that I will be able to communicate to you my love of being a school principal and that you will find some neat ideas.

As this is the first post, you will notice that I need to spend more time to elaborate my site and to add all sorts of information on leadership the way I see it. The school I work is called “Le Centre d’apprentissage du Haut-Madawaska”. It’s a small rural school with a population of 265 pupils. We are the only Francophone School in Atlantic Canada to be able to join the Innovative School Network Program created by Industry Canada. This year, we are one of 6 New-Brunswick schools that will be piloting a laptop project with all of our grade seven students. More information will be posted later.