Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Change

Over Reunion Weekend, I spent much time exploring the campus of my old school and catching up with my classmates.  Since we've left, many changes have taken place at the school.

The Leadership changed.  When that happens, you know changes are in order, for good or for ill.    A new headmaster, who is an alum, came in and made sweeping changes to the Deans, the academics, the college process, and the school design in general. 

The "new" headmaster has now been there for seven years.  In those years, he has turned the design of the school we knew on its head.  Good thing, too.  The school we knew was a strange place.  The priorities were strange.  A disproportionate amount of energy and resources were spent on Athletics, while music and theater struggled.  Education, too, was strangely funded and cared for. 

For the students, we have had a hard time getting "over" the experiences we had with the Dean of Students that came in our Sophomore year.  That had been an extremely unwelcome change...and dealing with her was like dealing with a Dementor--she just sucked the life right out of you and the school in general. 

But now?  The students are happy!  They say hi to you and hold doors--something, I am ashamed to say, we never would have even considered doing.  The faculty, too, seem happy.  The interior of the school received a much needed update two years ago, and yet, still retains the classic feeling that the Main Building once had. 

Good Change at a place like that requires careful, thoughtful people who are invested in the school or the company they work for.  You have to change an entire culture, create a community where there was none, and turn a place of low expectations on everyone's part into a place of high expectations. 

So how does one do that?  The answers are both simple and complex.  You don't come in waving your agenda around as the cure-all.  You meet the people--the students, the faculty, the staff.  You listen to their concerns.  You take walks around the campus and become a presence in the life of the school.  You reach out to the alumni.  Above all, you remember that this is a process and takes a huge amount of work and time and energy.  You look at the faculty and the leadership and you may need to make a bunch of difficult decisions about who stays, who goes, and what you want the leadership to look like. 

But it all takes me back to a few simple questions:  How do you make Good Change happen at a company, school, or in general?  What are the steps that make it different from "bad" change?  Obviously, these are a bit subjective, so here's an example:  One could argue that the INTENTIONS behind No Child Left Behind were good ones.  The implementation, however, was poor.  What could have made it a good change rather than a bad one?  Is there anything? 

That's a lot of questions, I know, but I would love your thoughts on it all!

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