" Schools are cautious and confusing cages where teachers, principals, and students try to create pockets of safety and sanity for themselves, reluctant to leave these safe quarters for parts unknown. Schools are also reluctant to leave these safe quarters for parts unknown. Schools are also storehouses of our memories. To radically transform them is not simply risky; doing so can feel like institutional homicide."
The main item indicated by this statement is that it's difficult to change culture in an organization, whether it is a school or university. Schools and universities alike have histories, traditions, and ways of performing tasks that are ingrained by habit. Also, at times when things start getting too hectic or confusing, individuals like to retreat to a comfortable place of sanity for themselves.
As an example, I was on a training committee for a university I worked at previously. A charge of the committee was to find some new ways of doing training, however certain elements or "sacred items" of the previous training needed to be preserved. This is fine since all organizations need those elements in training programs, but I found it ironic that the changes made went back to the original schedule a year later.
Transforming the culture of an institution is difficult, however if change is needed, leaders at all levels of the institution need to find ways to bring everyone on board in order to get traction and make things happen. Also, changing too much at once can lead to overload and the feeling of needing to retreat to a more secure place. Those are just some of my thoughts on the quote.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Dena -
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean when it comes to the difficulties of changing an organization. Doesn't it make you say "why bother" sometimes, when getting people to think outside of those 'sacred elements?' Or is that just me falling out of my ability to participate in transformation?
It is interesting that change feels so often like , as this author put it, "institutional homicide." In my readings on authentic leadership, I found that many people were concerned about how unwilling most folks are to change, no matter how much the change is needed. It is often the comfort of the known that people are seeking; good leaders must help folks become more comfortable with the unknown.
ReplyDelete