LIT2T Leadership Guide

57 TO: TABLE OF CONTENTS Surry references, “The Theory of Perceived Attributes (Rogers, 1995) and asserts that potential adopters judge an innovation on their perceptions in regard to five attributes of innovation” (SURRY, P. 4). Any implementation strategy can address these key attributes by: allowing trials by users/clients on a limited basis, offering observable results, presenting an advantage over alternatives, and being compatible with how language training is currently carried out. Beyond the question of influencers, additional factors affect the uptake of innovation (FAHY, P. 161) : The nature of the innovation itself and its perceived worth The time demanded to master and implement the innovation The character of the communication between and among the practitioners The social system in which the innovation occurs In fact, going beyond individuals, the whole development and implementation plan has to built on what Bates describes as a Collegial model of educational innovation (Bates, 2005, pp. 171- 74). The service provider organization must support an organizational culture that favours innovation and constant improvement. Senge popularized the idea of the learning organization by asserting that a team can collectively bring more skill and intelligence than an individual, and he advocated practices that cultivate team learning. (FAHY, P. 55) Farmer has a lot to say about the change process and the implications for role players in a 2012 article: “Educational leaders have to help the organization overcome these fears by personally building pressure for change, lowering resistance, and redirecting human forces. Both task and social aspects of change must be addressed: people must first be aware of their current status and potentiality for change, be interested in changing, self-assess and try to change, and only then adopt the change. Thorough planning, including planning to compensate for a negative change, such as budget reduction, is vital for organizational change that is sustainable and beneficial.” (FARMER, 2012, P. 17) “Instead, the term “entropy” or disorder better describes complex systems in that the tendency is towards a random state where insufficient energy exists to change the entire system (Amagoh, 2008). For a complex system to change, it has to become unstable enough that it reaches a threshold point where it either breaks down or a new relationship between internal and external factors exists. At that edge of chaos, innovative and creative behaviors are more likely to occur, which give the system as a whole that extra push to change (PRICE, 2004(FARMER, P. 17) “In educational institutions, leaders need to start the change process by pulling parts together to agree on overarching missions and goals, with the intent of each part identifying its potential changing role and impact. These parts need to feel they have “agency” (that is, authority) to make changes, and upper level administrators have to accept that the exercise of such agency might result in changes that were not predicted. Those departures from “plan A” are usually tolerable if done in a thoughtful and informed way (PRIESTLEY, 2011(IBID. P. 18) “The elements of the idealized change model are: (1) a seminal breakthrough idea that begins from the perspective of a societal context, (2) the principle of participation in which the process is more important than the plan itself, (3) the principle of continuity in which planning and implementation occur in parallel and inform each other, and (4) the principle of holism in which all units at the same level should work interdependently. The process goes from ideal to concrete. Ackoff (1979) identified a five-step process for implementing such idealized design:” (P. 18)