Coherence making is critical in the face of change. According to Fullan (2001), it involves self-organizing and strange attractors to promote unity when presented with a disruption. Effective self-organizing creates new ways of establishing relationships. One way leaders can reorganize is by creating innovative situations where they are “on the ground,” so to speak, seeing the interactions from all aspects of an organization (Fullan, 2001, p. 115). Llopis (2013), says in regards to how the most effective leaders solve problems:
“Breaking down silos allows a leader to more easily engage their employees to get their hands dirty and solve problems together. It becomes less about corporate politicking and more about finding resolutions and making the organization stronger.” Fullan (2001) reiterates this over and over again in his text. Leaders who involve those who actually face the challenges in decision making will see much more success than top-down decision making. The second characteristic in coherence making are “strange attractors,” these include experiences that solidify the energy and commitment of employees. They “possess the magnetic luring power of exploring moral purpose through a series of change experiences, supported by collaborative relationships, that generate and sort out new knowledge” (Fullan, 2001, p. 116). With strong moral purpose and time to collaborate, teachers can create ways to improve because they know what they need (Sanford, 2013). When controlled disruption happens, or productive disturbances, to keep an organization growing and changing, a leader needs to focus on coherence making. Within a mentoring relationship, often the mentee is undergoing a controlled disruption. The mentee is not only facing change, but involved in the problem solving process. Within the mentorship that I participated in this semester, the technology was new to me and the mentee. We really needed to put our heads together to do what was best for the student. With what I knew about behavior and technology and her experience with speech pathology, we were able to do some beginning work with implementing the device. As a leader, “We need to communicate when we're taking a risk, asking for feedback, sharing any data that we gather, and then visibly self-assessing and reflecting on the results” (Tormala, 2016). Throughout the mentorship, though my role was a leader, the mentee and I were absolutely working together and taking the risk of learning a new technology. Coherence between my mentee and myself was critical in facing this challenge and we could both learn and grow from the disturbance. Fullan, M. (2001). Leading in a culture of change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Llopis, G. (2013, November 27). The 4 Most Effective Ways Leaders Solve Problems. Retrieved April 13, 2017, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2013/11/04/the-4-most-effective-ways-leaders-solve-problems/#3b14283e4f97 Sanford, H. (2013, October 11). Collaboration, Change and Innovation in Teaching and Learning. Retrieved April 13, 2017, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/collaboration-change-innovation-in-teaching-harriet-sanford Tormala, A. (2016, October 24). Discomfort, Growth, and Innovation. Retrieved April 13, 2017, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/discomfort-growth-and-innovation-alyssa-tormala
3 Comments
Natalie
4/15/2017 08:07:09 pm
I found that I learned so much about different types of technology during the mentor project as well. I agree with your statement that as a leader, we need to communicate when we're taking a risk, ask for feedback, share any data that we gather, and then visibly self-assess and reflect on the results. It reminded me of our work this semester with all of our essential questions, posting on our classmates blogs, and in our reflections. There is the potential for a lot of growth using this type of process in learning and in leadership.
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Sarah K
4/16/2017 06:57:03 pm
I like how you connected your mentorship to the topic this week. This actually helps me to see how I used controlled disruption with my mentee. I wasn't as much out of my comfort zone as she was, at least with regards to the technology, but I also see that the entire mentorship was a bit of a controlled disruption for me. I'm definitely not used to mentoring one of my peers, so that took some adjustment and coherence making on my part to be an effective mentor. Your post really clarified a lot for me this week!
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larissa
4/16/2017 09:59:56 pm
As a leader, “We need to communicate when we're taking a risk, asking for feedback, sharing any data that we gather, and then visibly self-assessing and reflecting on the results” (Tormala, 2016) This is so true and in order for effective leaders to accommodate coherence making they need to make sure that their team is on-board. Communication is such a critical part of being an effective leader and it really can "make" or "break" any type of relationship. At my school I feel like the admin and teachers have a positive relationship where feedback and differing perspectives are valued.
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