Six Secrets of Change - 1

Instructional designers are frequently hired on to companies or agencies with the intent to train employees on some sort of systematic change taking place within the company or agency. The best instructional designers in the world, however, cannot be effective if the audience has not bought into the need for change. The Six Secrets of Change by Michael Fullan is a guideline for leaders to help their organizations survive and thrive by successfully bringing about change when necessary. The six secrets are not meant to be hidden, but rather, are often difficult for leaders to access because they are simple and profound. The first two secrets are:

1. Love Your Employees
2. Connect Peers with Purpose

Secret One: Love Your Employees:
A report by McKinsey and Company that focused on the world’s top-performing schools confirmed that, “the quality of the education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers,” (Barber et. al. 2007). Though Michael Fullan is a Canadian education official, he ironically chose to address an example from my school district, San Diego Unified (SDUSD), to discuss a non-example for Secret One. To address the low performance scores of teachers with SDUSD, superintendent Alan Bersin and chancellor of instruction, Tony Alvarado pushed for change from the top without figuring out how to love staff by involving them in the improvement drive. Inevitably, they were pushed out of the district by 2005.

On the other hand, so-called “Firms of Endearment (FoEs)” such as Trader Joes and REI take a much different approach to change. These FoEs’ apply Secret One, which decreases employee turnover and increases employee loyalty. With the love of employees in mind, designers implement reform with less resistance because the employees desire the continued growth of the company for their own sake, and analysts often receive the best information from employees who work directly with consumers. Between 1996-2006, public FoEs yielded a 1,026% return compared with the 122% return by S&P 500 companies.

Secret Two: Connect Peers with Purpose
Secret Two requires not less, but more leadership, however, rather than tight accountability, drift and inertia are gained by decentralizing the creativity. For instance, public schools in England public schools had experienced rising literacy scores from 1997-2001. Then, for three year, no growth ensued. Instructional leaders employed a strategy that grouped six schools together. 1500 groups of six schools each collaborated with one another to learn from each other. It turns out there were some terrific strategies that were being kept and once the collaboration occurred, literacy rates once again improved. The reason Secret Two requires more leadership is to organize such group collaboration. If instructional designers approach the design of learning activities with the need for peer collaboration in mind, then employees develop an “our” attitude rather than a “me” attitude. English teachers in the above example replace a “my classroom” attitude with an “our district” one and positive results ensue.