I've just finished reading Michael Fullan's new book Nuance. Here are three connections I made.
First:
"Joshua Cooper Ramo's (2016) Seventh Sense shows in detail how networks have become ubiquitous, shelter-skelter, impersonal and unpredictable....The "seventh sense" consists of the ability to connect with networks to see and feel 'forces that are invisible to most of us.'" p. 6
This reminds me of Margaret Wheatly’s description of the current time as VUCA: volatile, uncertain, chaotic and ambiguous. Nuanced leaders, Fullan says, have to be “experts in both networks and humanity.” I think this points to a need for all of us to practice using our intuition and emotional literacy in all of our human interactions.
Second:
Sticky Change Process (p. 79)
1. Use the group to change the group
2. Precision over prescription
3. Feedback: collaboration, candor, and autonomy
4. Trust and interact vs. trust and verify
5. See the forest and the trees
6. Accountability as culture
When you use the group to change the group, the principal “creates a climate for all to learn including him or herself.” Be a learner.
“Specificity matter.” Be a clarifier.
“”Autonomy and collaboration are not mutually exclusive.” Be a collaborative professional.
“You have to invest in trust before people have earned it.” Act as if.
Be on the balcony and the dance floor.
Be coherent.Coherence is “the shared understanding of the nature of the work. Collective efficacy.
Third:
“Empathy for context is an essential requirement for making change with the people who live the context every day.” p. 114
This make me think of Dylan Wiliam’s reminder: nothing works everywhere or all the time. Everything is contextual and in the messy, human work of schools’ we can learn all the “best practices”, but still need the adaptive expertise to create the conditions for student success, one student at a time.
