Thomas Sergiovanni

Schools and school districts that are successful in bringing about change use a trust first approach. And conversely, in schools and school districts that are less effective in bringing about change trust is an afterthought—having been preceded by vision, strategy, and action. Trust gets attention later, once the school or school district gets into trouble. And this happens further down the line. Typically leaders wind up imposing visions and strategies and this imposition requires increased monitoring of performance.

David Hurst (1984), former executive vice-president of Russelsteel, Inc. in Canada, explains that building trust first and then moving on to vision, strategy, and action changed the way in which decisions were made in his organization. A trust-first approach forces emphasis on open communications focused on who we are and what we believe. This different way of sharing and this different way of working to incorporate the views of others changed the way in which decisions were made.

...in our previous existence the decisions we made were always backed up by hard information; management was decisive, and that was good. Unfortunately, too few of these 'good' decisions ever got implemented. The simple process of making the decision the way we did often set up resistance down the line. As the decision was handed down to consecutive organizational levels, it lost impetus until eventually it was unclear whether the decision was right in the first place.

Now we worry a good deal less about making decisions; they arise as fairly obvious conclusions drawn from a mass of shared assumptions. It's the assumptions that we spend our time working on [Hurst, 1984, p. 82].

A trust first approach to strategy development and implementation does not mean that it is necessary to get everybody on board before implementation. There is a "tipping point" that must be respected and one needs to at least cultivate enough support to trigger it. But in many cases reaching this tipping point does not require that a huge majority must favor the change. In all cases, however, the secret to change is to make sure that everyone has the support and the capacity they need to implement the change successfully. Once a person is successful, and with trust in place, then she or he is likely to accept the change and even to like it. As Fullan tells us, "In many cases, changes in behavior precede rather than follow changes in belief" (1991, p. 91). Trust plays an important role in this process. All of us are vulnerable when trying something new and we need to be assured that mistakes will be accepted and that support will be there.

Bryk and Schneider (2003) found that principals played key roles in developing trust. "Principals establish both respect and personal regard when they acknowledge the vulnerabilities of others, actively listen to their concerns, and eschew arbitrary actions. Effective principals couple these behaviors with a compelling school vision and behavior that clearly seeks to advance the vision. This consistency between words and actions affirms their personal integrity. Then, if the principal competently manages basic day to day school affairs, an overall ethos conducive to the formation of trust will emerge" (p. 43). By paying attention from the start to personal integrity and other dimensions of trust, linking this trust to purposes, providing competent management support, and emphasizing capacity building, conditions for change are created and people feel more willing to give change a try. These conditions are created when principals work on trust first and then link the trust they create to vision, strategy, and action. Their less effective counterparts, it seems, get around to trust after they encounter resistance and by then it is usually too late.

References:

Bryk, A. S., and Schneider, B. "Trust in Schools: A Core Resource for School Reform." Educational Leadership , 2003, 60 (6), 40-44.
Fullan, M. with S. Stiegelbauer. The New Meaning of Educational Change , 2E. New York: Teachers College Press, 1991.
Hurst, D. K. "Of Boxes, Bubbles, and Effective Management." Harvard Business Review , 1984, 62 (3), 78-88