Leadership & Sustainability: System Thinkers in Action

As agencies have pushed for greater performance and public accountability over the past two decades, some incremental improvements have been seen. All too often experience reveals that these improvements are temporary. This book provides a comprehensive examination of what leaders at all levels of the educational system can do to pave the way for large-scale, sustainable reform. Building on ideas established in this publication, "The Moral Imperative of School Leadership," the author confronts a question that has never been addressed before: How does a greater number of system thinkers in action, or new theoreticians be developed and sustained? These proactive system leaders are at the heart of the issue of sustainability, for they are the ones to bring about deeper reform while simultaneously helping to produce other theoreticians working on the same issues. Linking abstract concepts to concrete examples, this work defines an agenda for the system thinker in action, including elements of sustainability that can be applied to any public service or corporate institution: (1) Public service with a moral purpose; (2) Commitment to changing context at all levels; (3) Lateral capacity-building through networks; (4) Intelligent accountability and vertical relationships; (5) Deep learning Dual commitment to short-term and long-term results; (6) Cyclical energizing; and (7) The long lever of leadership. Leadership & Sustainability is an engaging and powerful book from one of the world's leading authorities on school change. It provides clear ideas and strategies for achieving deep, sustainable reform in education. Following a preface and a dedication, this book contains seven chapters: (1) The Starting Point; (2) The Intriguing Nature of Sustainability; (3) Leadership to the Fore; (4) The New Work of Leaders; (5) Leadership at the School Level; (6) Leadership at the District Level; and (7) Leadership at the System Level. This book concludes with an epilogue, a list of references and an index.