Academic Leadership: Fundamental Building Blocks
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of staff who must own the process and the outcome. Change is usually resisted and
leadership requires that conflict and inaction are addressed and managed while
plotting and maintaining movement towards the ultimate change goal. The support
of the HOS is critical for the Academic Coordinator. It is also important to establish
and maintain a good communication and information flow with all stakeholders to
ensure everyone is aware of issues and progress.
- Create a safe haven: Space must be created to allow people with disparate
perspectives to be heard while minimising the impact on people’s working lives. You
can do this by acknowledging people for their ideas; celebrating progress; adopting a
high risk-low blame culture; applying problem solving tools to create safe spaces to
explore new ideas. Through all of this you, as manager of the change process, will
need to accept and manage risk. Remember that while you may have a high-level
commitment to improving the program, others may not. Teachers will need to have
the strategies which will make it happen if they are going to be willing to take the
necessary risks.
It is important to note that open and honest communication is critical throughout all
phases and to the success of the change process.
