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5. Circulating the chart
Having developed the chart, the group then tests it out with any actors not
present at the meeting (indeed no major actor should have been absent) and
circulates it to colleagues as a vehicle for communicating operating practice.
6. Using the chart
The actors use the chart to check what their appropriate behaviour is and to
call the attention of other actors to behaviour that is out of line with what was
agreed.
The usefulness of responsibility-charting lies not only in the end product
of an agreed chart but also in developing understanding of people’s different
roles, and a better appreciation of different feelings and attitudes towards the
operation.
PERSONAL APPLICATION
With the help of one or two colleagues with whom you have to work on some
operation, draw up a responsibility chart following these guidelines. Afterwards, review
how the process worked and in what other contexts it could be applied with
advantage.
MONITORING AND EVALUATING CHANGE
One of the problems with change is ensuring that it is followed through. With
something as discrete as the amalgamation of two schools, it is relatively easy
to know when the change is complete. However, some changes, such as
‘improving school leadership’ are ill-defined. To move from the present to the
future state, the system has to be unfrozen, changed and fully stabilized in
the new state. We need, therefore, to have yardsticks by which we can recognize
when the organization has got to where it wants to be, and which we can use
to set a ratchet to prevent backsliding. The last thing we want is a façade of
change, followed by the system gradually sinking back into its old ways of
TRANSITION MANAGEMENT
285
working. As Sir John Harvey-Jones has observed (2003, p. 114):
Ultimately change is only anchored firmly when individuals have changed
their perceptions and values, and it is important to be realistic about the time
that this may take. Five years is absolute par for the course of changing attitudes
and even that is only achievable if one is moving well within the establishment
grain of thinking.
To help stabilize the system in the new state, we need to develop success
criteria or measures that will tell us that the change has been effective and has
become truly assimilated. The ‘future scenario’ description may yield some
useful clues to the measures that might be adopted, if it is specific enough.
Some means of gathering reliable information and analysing it should be set
up as part of the overall plan for change (not as an afterthought), and may
have to extend beyond the point when the change can be said to be complete,
so as to make sure that it endures. The means of measuring success might
take the form of a checklist of procedures, a questionnaire about role respon-
sibilities, an analysis of exam results or an attitude survey to be completed by
those most likely to know if the change has been successful – perhaps the
pupils. It will focus on the actual outcomes of the change.
It is necessary to assign responsibility to named individuals for moni-
toring the critical factors that measure success and for managing the pro-
cesses needed to take corrective action in case of a shortfall. Responsibility-
charting is useful for this. Processes that influence several of the success
criteria and are known to have been inadequate in the past merit particular
attention.
The existence and purpose of the evaluation or review plan, and the
intention to use it for correcting any tendency for the system to regress,
should be communicated to those involved, because this will help in the
process of stabilization of the change. It will signal the completion of the
transition stage and the arrival of the ‘future state’. Success makes obsolete
the behaviour that led to success: new behaviour is now needed, appropriate
to the future state having been attained.
A further reason for this review is to check on unforeseen consequences of
the change, so that any new problems thrown up are properly managed, and
new opportunities made the subject of further change.
The results of the review should be carefully studied so that the
management knows and celebrates what activities have been successful.
Organizations can consciously learn how to manage change more effectively,
but only if they review the process, consolidate the successful practices and
plan to overcome any difficulties next time round.
The whole organization is entitled to receive some kind of report from
management about the success of the change, and this may well be linked
with expressions of thanks for their co-operation. This is all part of the
attempt to mould the reward system so that change efforts and development
are valued and recognized as much as operational work.
286
EFFECTIVE SCHOOL MANAGEMENT
Finally, there is the possibility that other schools will be able to benefit
from your experience, e.g. through your contributing a paper to a conference
or to the technical press.
DISCUSSION TOPIC
Assuming that you are involved in some major change within your school,
arising from a school development plan, an Ofsted inspection or
implementing the requirements of new legislation, consider the extent to
which there is evidence of the approaches outlined in the last two chapters
being applied, explicitly or implicitly. Can you, with colleagues, open up
opportunities to contribute to implementing the change by using the
knowledge you have picked up in this book? If not, how else do you propose
to demonstrate that you have gained in competence by having read Part III
of the book?
FURTHER READING
Aspinwall, K., Simkins, T., Wilkinson, J.F. and McAuley, M.J. (1992) Managing Evaluation
in Education, Routledge, London.
Fullan, M. (2003) Change Forces with a Vengeance, RoutledgeFalmer, London.
Senge, P., Kleiner, A., Roberts, C., Ross, R., Roth, G. and Smith, B. (1999) The Dance of
Change: The Challenge to Sustaining Momentum in Learning Organisations, Doubleday
Currency, New York.
GLOSSARY
287
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