Taking Charge of Change (ASCD)

One of the most common and serious mistakes made by both the ministry years and leaders of a change process is to presume that once an innovation has been introduced an initial training has been completed the intended users will put the innovation into practice. A second serious mistake is to assume that all users of the implementation will react in similar ways. This book provides new insights and understandings about school change. It's powerful message brings a new understanding about the roles and personal needs of the people involved in a change process. It hits at the heart of the problem by providing strategies for the total management of a innovation destined for success. The first strategy presented provides the means to both introduce the change or innovation and monitor the anticipated variety and diversity of implementation... The second strategy focuses on the target of the change process, the teacher... The concept of the levels of use of the innovation provides the third strategy, which identifies the degree to which teachers are using the new practices... One of the major contentions of this book is that guesswork and intuition need not be the tool used by individuals responsible for the process of change. The specific role played by those individuals in the orchestration of their efforts is presented with six areas of action that support a change process. Taking Charge of Change provides diagnostic techniques for assessing individuals involved in a change in order to understand both them and their needs. Those techniques then provide the agents of the change process with information about how to use resources and provide support services. This book carries a powerful message for all success oriented agents of change. ---excerpts from book's Forward