By Michael Fullan. (2020). Leading in a culture of change, 2nd Edition. Jossey-Bass.
(笔记原文为英语，因为阅读的英文原著。中文版阅读笔记是由ChatGPT 4o根据我的英文稿翻译，英文原文在中文版之后。 我发现Chat GPT 4o的翻译水平远超过我的预期，而且只花了三分钟！）
Photo taken in Toronto in May 2024.
作者：迈克尔·富兰 (2020)。在变革文化中领导，第二版。乔西-巴斯。
写在前面： 自去年夏天以来很长时间没有写阅读笔记了。写阅读笔记是我消化所读书籍或文章的方式。我没有写笔记并不是因为我根本没有在阅读。实际上，自从去年来到多伦多后，我读了不少书。但是许多书是休闲阅读，不需要写笔记。 我记得去年只做了一次笔记，那本书是关于学校领导的。之后，我读了很多与我的工作完全无关的书。我记得我很快浏览了凯文·凯利写的著名书籍《失控》。然后，小说和传记吸引了我一段时间。我读的书包括埃隆·马斯克和史蒂夫·乔布斯的传记。一部关于量子物理史的书，重点讲述了阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦和尼尔斯·玻尔之间互动的故事，让我迷住了一段时间。顺便说一句，量子物理一直让我着迷，我想多读一些相关的书籍。另外，几个月前我读了《三体》的科幻故事。今天，我仍然想知道量子化的人类军队如何能够击败宇宙深处的敌人。
接着，我开始阅读《红楼梦》，这本书我以前从未完整读过，虽然通过其他渠道学过很多片段。另一部让我非常着迷的小说是中国诺贝尔奖得主莫言写的《丰乳肥臀》。接连读完这两本小说让我对人性、生活、家庭和爱情思考了很多。有段时间我甚至考虑过写一篇反思文章，记录阅读这两本书引发的思考。后来我放弃了这个想法，因为我意识到这个任务可能太复杂和劳累了。
我的儿子目前在多伦多大学学习经济学和数学。因此，家里经常讨论经济和投资。为了跟上他的知识，我读了一本关于投资的书，给我一些基本知识，以便能在他感兴趣的领域参与讨论。 今年，我决定参加安大略省校长资格认证课程，并发现《在变革文化中领导》这本书是课程的必读书目之一。我曾经在多伦多大学教育研究所（OISE）学习时为迈克尔·富兰教授工作。我在他的两个研究项目中与他见面——一个是加拿大安大略省的学区级项目，另一个是基于另一本书《专业资本》设计的调查项目。我还与一位在多伦多大学教育研究所工作的朋友合作翻译了他的两本书。这两本书分别是《极度空间：整合技术、教学法和变革知识》和《极富空间：新教学法如何找到深度学习》。这种与富兰教授的联系让我觉得自己与这本书的作者更亲近。
以下是我对《在变革文化中领导》这本书的阅读笔记。
富兰在第二版前言中提到，尽管距离第一版《在变革文化中领导》出版已有19年，但书中讨论的五个主题今天依然适用。在这些不变的主题下，他还在前言中提到，本书对领导力的讨论将更加具体，并会加入对变革和深度学习理解的新见解。
回顾过去20年左右，富兰感叹我们的世界变得更加复杂，实际上“越来越麻烦”，并且不幸的是，在面对日益复杂和麻烦的情况下，世界缺乏有效的领导力。尽管他主要引用了商业世界和教育领域的例子和见解，但富兰试图用自己的语言将讨论置于世界的背景或“更大的图景”中。
第一章“使复杂性发挥作用”为本书的讨论奠定了基础，并提供了一个领导力框架。这是一个“比以往更有力地思考和领导复杂变革”的框架（第8页）。框架的顶端是有效领导力的五个组成部分或主题，包括道德目的；对变革的理解；关系、关系、关系；知识建设和深度学习；以及一致性。此外，作者还添加了领导者的三个重要特征，即热情、希望和精力。
为了使领导力框架发挥作用或产生成果，富兰强调了组织成员以及外部社区成员的承诺。他用非常口语化的语言描述了结果，但对我来说完全有意义。结果应该是“好事更多发生；坏事更少发生”。
他总结第一章如下：“如果领导者不断努力实践领导力的五个组成部分——追求道德目的、理解变革过程、发展扎实的合作、促进深度知识建设并努力实现一致性——并以精力、勇气和坚持不懈以及一份怀疑和焦虑，那么他们将提高自己的领导效力。变革的文化召唤着。”（第17页）
第二章至第六章分别讨论了领导力的五个组成部分。
富兰认为，道德目的应该关注教育的两端。好的教育应改善儿童的生活，同时关注改进的过程。一个道德领导者不仅仅通过计划来实现，而是如果领导者有效地实践了书中列出的五个领导组成部分，那么作者断言，追求道德目的将自然而然地实现。
作者还讨论了在当前领导组织变革中拥有道德目的的紧迫性。他引用最新的神经科学研究观察到，由进化带来的善良的不可避免性现在变得值得怀疑。主要原因是“人类创造的文化力量已经与进化遗传学一起成为变革的潜在驱动因素”（第39页）。因此，强大的社会力量可能会失控。因此，道德目的在领导行动中的突出性就显现出来了。道德领导的目标应该是“在变革文化中领导，涉及与他人共同创造你从未知道自己想要的（积极的）变革”（第40页）。
在第二章中，作者强调，“理解变革意味着理解人——不仅是一般的人，而是具体的人（即你现在正在领导的人）”（第45页）。本质上，成功地领导变革应该基于领导者对参与变革过程的人的了解或能够了解的内容（第44页）。
富兰总结了理解变革的九种策略，他称之为“成为变革高手的精要”。1）在会议结束时做对；2）关系优先（太快，太慢）；3）承认实施的低谷；4）随着前进加速；5）注意肥厚的计划；6）行为优先于信念；7）实施期间的沟通至关重要；8）实施前的兴奋是脆弱的；9）成为一名首席学习者。（第46-60页）
在这九个策略中，几个容易理解，但还有一些需要进一步解释。第一个策略是指领导者必须明确，重要的不是开始时的想法，而是变革的结果。因此，领导者应始终意识到变革的复杂性，并将人们作为解决方案的一部分。为了在组织中领导变革，富兰建议至少需要6个月的时间来了解背景“实际情况及可能的情况”，同时考虑变革的其他方面。
在变革过程的开始阶段，难免会遇到一些初期的挫折。富兰称之为“实施的低谷”。
“低谷”可能比预期的更复杂、更长。尽管组织成员已经同意变革议程，但在早期阶段仍可能出现表面的实施。如果在变革中引入创新，“低谷”甚至是必要的，因为它为组织提供了了解变革性质的学习阶段。
富兰观察到，领导者往往“在纸上过度计划”，这种倾向可能是由于在领导者制定计划时没有与学校中的人互动。为应对这种潜在有害的倾向，他建议实施者相互提出意见，并向领导者提出意见。
关于第六个策略“行为优先于信念”，作者警告说，“如果你想杀死一个好主意，就强制它！”（第58页）更好的方法是让人们接触到好主意，并利用群体来改变群体。富兰强调，变革的道德是“让人们体验新的方式”（第58页）。领导者应该作为学习者参与，或者用作者的话说“首席学习者”。首席学习者的特征包括：参与学习；倾听、学习和领导的顺序；既是专家又是学徒；培养他人直到自己变得可有可无；坚持不懈地关注影响；关注变革的“如何”以及“什么”。（第60页）
富兰用三个重复的词“关系”作为第四章的标题，以强调其重要性。在本章中，学校被描绘成拥有集体思维的单位，在变革发生时应学习。这种学习，特别是当涉及到合作学习时，是缓慢的，因为学校中存在“规范性和实际性障碍”（第75页）。为了使合作在学校中真正发挥作用，他总结说“新的合作工作被融入日常文化中，更具体，既解决教学上的支持，又解决情感上的支持，并且直接与学生的学习相关”（第80页）。就变革的合作学习而言，它应该在具体情境中发生。这种情境中的学习更具针对性和社交性，它在发展领导力的同时也改进了组织，并且同时改变个人和环境。
第五章讨论了学校中的知识建设和深度学习。为了将信息转化为知识，它应该与人交织在一起。富兰直言不讳地说“知识就是人”（第92页）。为了使这一过程发生，“变革领导者致力于改变环境，帮助创建有利于学习和共享学习的新环境”（第93页）。
在本章中，富兰分享了一个他从最近的工作中获得的“深度学习”新模型。与深度学习相关的能力包括六个以字母C开头的元素。6C是品格、公民意识、合作、沟通、创造力和批判性思维。支持深度学习的框架包括四个部分：学习伙伴关系、教学实践、学习环境和数字化利用。
这种深度学习被认为具有终生伴随学习者、与激情相联系、与团队相关、对世界有重要意义以及涉及更高阶技能的特点（第111页）。
第六章讨论的“构建一致性”概念是关于如何整合领导力的前四个主题：道德目的、理解变革、发展团队合作关系和建设深厚的知识。
富兰非常明确地指出“一致性不是对齐”（第119页）。他强调，对齐是理性的，而一致性是情感的。组织中的对齐涉及愿景、目标、策略、财务、责任、培训等主要部分如何相互关联。对于一致性，作者将其定义为“对工作的目的和性质的共同深度理解”（第120页）。
富兰继续展示了一个完整的教育一致性框架（第121页）。该框架有四个“相互排斥”的组成部分，即聚焦方向、培养合作文化、深度学习和确保问责。聚焦方向是关于道德目的，本质上应该关注学生的学习、成就和福祉。
在第六章的结尾，作者总结说，领导者应该在“充满不确定性和混乱的世界”中直接进行一致性构建。同时，领导者应在变革过程中承认并面对“变革的性质和方向的差异”。富兰保证，这些看似混乱的过程将产生更大和更深的一致性。
本书的最后一部分，第七章，讨论了当前世界为什么迫切需要良好的变革领导以及有效领导者是如何发挥作用的。他首先提出了一个论点，即领导力是一团糟，良好的领导力在这个日益困扰的世界中稀缺。他设想在变革文化中的有效领导者，用他自己的话来说“细腻的领导者”（第148页），应该具备一系列特征。他们“看到更大的图景；在重大变革项目的早期阶段，事情出错时不会惊慌失措……他们知道需要时间来凝聚……他们建立变革的条件，并越来越坚持进展。”（第148页）
为什么在变革文化中成功领导如此重要？我认为富兰在书的结尾提出了三个主要原因。首先，我们看到在包括教育机构在内的大多数组织中，对工作、生活和学校的脱离感和不满情绪日益增加。在书的几部分中，他展示了这种观察的证据，并讨论了他对此的担忧。其次，人类生存本身面临风险。再次引用进化生物学家的最新研究发现，富兰指出“人类本质上并不是善良的”，“善良可以进化，但只有在满足特殊条件时才能实现”，“形成和谐群体变得越来越具挑战性”（第151-152页）。在变革文化中领导的另一个重要原因是关于人类的满足和繁荣，即创造“个人和集体超出我们想象的事物”（第153页）。
English Version of the reading notes
A small note before start:
Haven’t written any reading notes for long time since last summer. Writing reading notes is my way of digesting the books or articles that I studied. I didn’t write any notes not because I was not reading at all. Actually, I have been reading quite a few books after I came to Toronto last year. But many books are leisure readings, not notes is needed.
I remember I only did one note-taking last year, that book was about school leadership. After that, I read quite a few books that were not related to my work at all. I remember I quickly scanned the famous book Out of Control written by Kevin Kelly. Then, novels and biographies attracted me for a while. The books I read include the biographies of Elon Mask and Steven Jobs. One account of the history of quantum physics focusing on the story of the interactions between Albert Einstein and Neils Bohr fascinated me for some time. By the way, quantum physics always fascinates me, and I want to read more about it. Also, I read the science fiction stories of The Three Body Problem a few months ago. Today, I am still wondering how quantumized human army could defeat enemies in the deep universe.
I went on to reading Dream of Red Mansions (红楼梦) , which I had never read the whole story before although I had learned many episodes in it through other sources. Another novel that intrigued me tremendously was Big Breasts and Wide Hips (丰乳肥臀) written by the Chinese Nobel laureate Mo Yan. Having read the two novels one after another made me think a lot about humanity, life, family, and love. At a time, I even considered to write a reflection about the thoughts triggered by reading the two stories. I gave up this idea later because I realized that the undertaking could be too complex and tiring.
My son is currently studying in Economics and Mathematics in the University of Toronto. Therefore, there was much talking about economy and investment at home. To keep up with his knowledge, I read a book on investment that gave me some basics in this area, so that I can participate in the conversations with him in his interested area.
This year, I came to decide to take an Ontario Principal’s qualification program leading towards a Principal certification in Ontario Candaa in the second half of this year and found that the book Leading in a Culture of Change is one of the required readings in the course.
I used to work for Professor Michael Fullan when I studied at OISE of the University of Toronto. I met him in person when I worked for him in two of his research projects—one is a school district level project in Ontario Canada, the other one is a survey design project based on another book Professional Capital. I also translated two of his books in collaboration with one friend who was working in the same research project at OISE of the University of Toronto. The two books are Stratosphere: Integrating technology, pedagogy, and change knowledge and A rich seam: How new pedagogics find deep learning. I use translated the names of the two books to 极度空间and 极富空间. This connection with Professor Fullan makes me feel closer to the author of the book that I am asked to read.
The following is my reading notes for the book Leading in a culture of change.
Fullan claimed in the Preface to the Second Edition after 19 years ago when the first edition of Leading in a culture of change was published that the five themes discussed then in the book still hold true today. Given these unchanged themes, he also mentioned in the Preface that the discussion about leadership in this book will be more specific and will be fueled by new insights such as nuance in understanding change and deep learning.
Looking backwards into the past 20 years or so, Fullan laments that our world has become more complex and actually “ever more troubled” and that, unfortunately, in facing growing complexity and troubles the world lacks effective leadership. Although he mostly cited examples and insights from the business world and education, Fullan tries to put the discuss into context or “the bigger picture” of the world, using his own language.
Chapter 1 Making complexity work sets the stage of the discuss in the book and provides a framework for leadership. This is the framework for “thinking about and leading complex change more powerfully than ever before” (p. 8). At the top of the framework is the five components or themes of effective leadership, including moral purpose; nuance: understanding change; relationships, relationships, relationships; knowledge building and deep learning; and coherence making. In addition to the five components, the author also adds three important characteristics of leaders which are enthusiasm, hopes, and energy.
To make the leadership framework work or deliver results, Fullan highlights the commitment of the members of the organization as well as that of external community members. He describes the results using very colloquial language, but it makes sense to me perfectly. Results should be “more good things happen; fewer bad things happen”.
He summarizes the first chapter as follows,
“Leaders will increase their effectiveness if they continually work on the five components of leadership—if they pursue moral purpose, understand the change process, develop grounded collaboration, foster deep knowledge building, and strive for coherence—with energy, courage, and relentlessness, and a share of doubt and anxiety. The culture of change beckons”. (p. 17)
Chapter 2 to Chapter 6 discuss the five components of leadership respectively.
Fullan believes that moral purpose should concern both ends of means of education. Good education is supposed to improve children’s lives and also taking care of the process of the improvement. A moral leader does not only come by planning, instead, if the leader effectively acts out the five leadership components outlined in the book, then, the author asserts the pursuit of moral purpose will come naturally.
The author also discusses the urgency of having moral purpose in leading organizational change at present. He observes that, citing most recent research in neuroscience, the inevitability of goodness that has been brought about by evolution now becomes questionable. The main reason of this new trend is that “cultural forces created by humankind have joined evolutionary genetics as potential drivers of change” (p.39). Consequently, powerful societal forces may become badly out of control. Hence, there comes the prominence of moral purpose in leadership actions. The goal of moral leadership should be “leading in a culture of change involves creating with others the (positive) change that you never knew you wanted” (p. 40).
In the 2nd Chapter, the author emphasizes that “understanding change means understanding people—not people in general but people in specific (i.e. the ones you are leading right now)” (p. 45). Essentially leading change successfully should be based on what the leader “know or can come to know about the people that are part of the change process” (p. 44).
Fullan summarizes nine strategies of understanding change, which he called “the skinny on becoming change savvy”. 1) Be right at the end of the meeting; 2) Relationship first (too fast, too slow); 3) Acknowledge the implementation dip; 4) Accelerate as you go; 5) Beware of fat plans; 6) Behaviors before beliefs; 7) Communication during implementation is paramount; 8) Excitement prior to implementation is fragile; 9) Become a lead learner. (pp. 46-60)
While several among the nine strategies are easy to understand, a few others need a bit further clarification. The first strategy means the leader must be clear that it is not the idea at the beginning matters, rather, it will be the result of the change that makes the mark. Therefore, the leader should always be conscious of the complexity of change and involve the people as part of the solution. To leading change in an organization, Fullan advises that it takes at least 6 months to understand the context “as it is and as it could be” while considering other aspects of the change.
At the beginning of the change process, it is inevitable to experience some setbacks initially. Fullan calls it as “implementation dip”.
The “dip” could be more complicated and longer than expected. Although the members of the organization have agreed the change agenda, superficial implementation could still follow at the early stage. Also, if innovations are introduced to the change, the “dip” even becomes necessary as it provides the organization with the learning phase for the nature of the change.
Fullan observes that leaders tend to “over plan on paper” and that this tendency could be caused by the fact that there is no interaction with the people in the school when the leaders make the plan. The advice he gives to counter this potentially harmful tendency is to ask implementers to offer their opinions to each other and to the leaders.
In terms of the sixth strategy “ behavior before beliefs”, the author warns that “if you want to kill a good idea, mandate it!” (p. 58) The better approach is to expose people to the good idea and use the group to change the group. Fullan emphasizes that the change moral is, “Give people experience in the new way” (p.58). The leader should participate as a learner, or in the author’s words “a lead learner”. There are six characteristics of a lead learner, including participating as a learner; listen, learn, and lead, in that order; be an expert and an apprentice; develop others to the point that you become dispensable; be relentlessly persistent and courageous about impact; focus on the “how” as well as “what” of change. (p. 60)
Fullan uses three repeated words “relationships” as the title of Chapter 4 to emphasize the importance of it. In this chapter, the schools are depicted as having collective minds, which should learn as the change happens. This learning, especially when collaborative learning is concerned, is slow, as there are “both normative and practical obstacles to collaboration in schools” (p. 75) To make collaboration really work in schools, he summarizes that “the new collaborative work is built into the daily culture, is more specific, address both pedagogical and emotional support, and is linked directly to student learning” (p. 80) As far as collaborative learning for change is concerned, it should happen in context. This type of learning in context is more specific and social, it develops leadership and improves the organization at the same time, and it changes the individuals and the context simultaneously.
Chapter five discusses knowledge building and deep learning in schools. To convert information to knowledge, it should be intertwined with the people. Fullan put it bluntly “Knowledge is people” (p. 92). To make this process happen, “change leaders work on changing the context, helping create new settings conducive to learning and sharing that learning” (p. 93).
In the chapter, Fullan shares a new model of “deep learning” that was gleaned from his most recent work in this area. The competencies associated with deep learning include six elements that all begin with a letter C. The 6Cs are character, citizenship, collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking. The framework that supports deep learning involves four parts, including learning partnerships, pedagogical practices, learning environment, and leveraging digital.
This type of deep learning is believed to be characterized by sticking with the learner for the rest of life, connecting with passion, being team related, having significance for the world, and involving higher-order skills. (p. 111)
The idea of coherence making, which is discussed in Chapter six, is about how to integrate the first four themes of leadership, which are moral purpose, understanding change, developing team-based relationships, and building deep knowledge.
Fullan makes it very clear that “coherence is not alignment” (p. 119). He emphasizes that alignment is rational whereas coherence is emotional. Alignment in the organization concerns about how the main pieces including vision, goals, strategies, finances, accountabilities, training, etc. are related to each other. For coherence, the author defines it as, “the shared depth of understanding about the purpose and nature of the work” (p. 120)
Fullan goes on to present a full coherence framework for education (p. 121). The framework has four “mutually exclusive” components, which are focusing direction, cultivating collaborative cultures, deep learning, and securing accountability. Focusing direction is about moral purpose that should essentially concerns with students’ learning, achievements and wellbeing.
At the end of Chapter six, the author summarizes that leaders should work directly on coherence making in “a world loaded with uncertainty and confusion”. At the same time, leaders should acknowledge the “differences about the nature and direction of change to be identified and confronted” during the processes of change. Fullan assures that these seemly disoriented processes will produce greater and deeper coherence.
The last part of the book, Chapter seven, discusses why the current world is desperately in need of good leadership for change and how effective leaders function so well. He begins with the argument that leadership is a mess and good leadership is scarce in this increasingly troubled world. He envisions the effective leaders in a culture of change, in his own words “nuanced leaders” (p. 148), should possess a range of characters. They “see the bigger picture; they don’t panic when things go wrong in the early stages of a major change initiative…they know it takes time for things to gel…they establish the conditions for change and become increasingly persistent about progress.” (p. 148)
Why successfully leading in a culture of change is so crucial? I think Fullan presents three main reasons at the end of the book. First, we see increasing disengagement and dissatisfaction with work, life, and schooling in most organizations including educational institutions. In several parts of the book, he shows the evidence of this observation and discusses his concerns about it. Second, human survival itself is at risk. Again, citing most recent research findings of evolutionary biologists, Fullan shows that “humans are not intrinsically good”, “goodness can evolve, but only when special conditions are met”, and “forming harmonious group is becoming more challenging” (pp. 151-152) There is another important reason for leading in a culture of change. It is about human fulfillment and flourishing, that is to create things “individually and collectively beyond our imagination” (p. 153)
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