Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #54287 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

Review
"...offers valuable insights into the dynamics of change...full of illustrative case examples, exercises and resources..." (Long Range Planning, Number 38, 2005)

"...easy to read and understand..." (Personnel Today, 2nd October 2001)

"This is a book for all would–be heads of department and deputy heads. Every serving head should buy a copy. I shall buy at least 50 and enjoy giving them away to those at the start of their careers in the confident knowledge that the next generation will be more successful as leaders than the present one." (Times Education Supplement, 7 September 2001)

Review
"...offers valuable insights into the dynamics of change...full of illustrative case examples, exercises and resources..." (Long Range Planning, Number 38, 2005)

"...easy to read and understand..." (Personnel Today, 2nd October 2001)

Anthony Alvarado, chancellor of instruction, San Diego City Schools
"Michael Fullan's work is remarkable. He masterfully captures how leaders can significantly improve their learning and performance, even in the uncontrollable, chaotic circumstances in which they practice. A tour de force."

Customer Reviews

OK for an introduction to the area of leading change
This book could have been more rigorous and practical. It's concepts are fine but it says in 137 pages what could be said in 70. For someone writing about leading in a culture of change I found the chapter on understanding change to be very weak - a list of 6, at times random points, are neither helpful or well explained. There are plenty of references throughout the book to other researchers but they often feel like a scattergun approach i.e. throw in a few and let the reader try and make sense of them. If you want to learn in a practical and much better researched way about leading change then I would suggest you invest in Peter Senge's 'The Dance of Change'

We all make mistakes - Fullan helps us to understand why.
Headteachers, heads of departments - in fact, anyone in a leadership role should find time to read this book.

Those of us already leading schools will probably have a better understanding of why we made all those mistakes - and those just starting will probably be better equipped to avoid them!

Fullan highlights five aspects involved in leadership: "moral purpose", "an understanding of change", "coherence making", "relationship building" and "knowledge creation and sharing".

Much of what Fullan discusses seems self-evident, but how many of us are capable of such clarity of expression.

Above all, the book is a good read, unlike so many others of its type.

Buy it, read it - recommend it!

Useful and realistic take on leadership
This book by a prominent educator is readable. That may sound like faint praise, but it isn't at all. Michael Fullan is a university dean, and as such is a full-fledged member of the fraternity of educators. Yet he has not written in educator-ese, that impenetrable, opaque jargon familiar to anyone who has trudged through books on education. His approach to leadership is useful and realistic, with sections on moral purpose, relationships, knowledge sharing and change. Fullan does not set out to break new ground. Instead, he includes a good deal of information he has gathered from other researchers. Occasionally his compendium of useful ideas feels a tad disjointed, but generally, he presents his selections in a logical sequence that leads you to his main conclusion: business leaders have a lot to learn from pioneering school system managers. We recommend this book to school administrators, business executives and managers who are looking for guidance during organizational transitions.