In this book writer has shared some of his views which he has deliberately examined an equal number of cases in the business and in the education literature to see what could be learned.His own six secrets have been gleaned from his work understanding and bringing about large scale,subtaintial change through education reform in England and Ontario as well as in engaging in major change initiatives around the world.
Michael points out ways to take advantage of deep and enduring change to increase opportunities, and shows how risky it sometimes is to take advice from seemingly successfulorganizations.
The author states that the secrets are not secret in the sense that they are hidden from public view. Rather, they are secret because they’re complex, hard to grasp in their deep meaning. Before starting to talk about the secrets, Fullan spends some pages warning readers of the folly of believing in everything they read. “The world has become too complex for any theory to have certainty.
The six secrets of change according to Michael Fullan are:
1. Love Your Employees
2. Connect Peers with Purpose
3. Capacity Building Prevails
4. Learning is Work
5. Transparency Rules
6. Systems Learn
SECRET ONE:LOVE YOUR EMPLOYEES
In secret one, the author addresses the important point that leaders should love all of their stakeholders equally—employees, customers, investors or shareholders, partners, and society .This is also a heart paradox of most of his secrets. He states that it’s critical for organizations to invest in their employees so that they can not only improve their skills, find meaning in their work, and achieve personal satisfaction.
He also suggests that leaders can obtain a good result by integrating two contrasting theories of human motivation Theory X and Theory Y to motivate employees.There’s no doubt that when managers encounter situations human nature may influence their motivation. Aligning Theory X and Y could be an aid in choosing how they motivate people.
SECRET TWO:CONNECT PEERS WITH PURPOSE
Fullan points out that large-scale reform often faces a “too tight-too loose” dilemma, in situation which leaders on the top focus and tighten the requirements while people under such actions feel constrained and tend to rebel .To solve this, he believes that leaders should foster continuous and purposeful peer interaction .By getting people to work together toward a higher purpose and making them share information and knowledge with each other, leaders can help them pursue and continuously learn what works best. Ideally, people will identify with an entity larger than themselves, which enables large organizations to cohere .This idea can be combined with the first secret to work better: as organizations invest in their employees, their individual and collaborative commitment to their work increases, hence the organizations become more effective .
SECRET THREE:CAPACITY BUILDING PREVAILS
To build capacity, leaders need to concern competencies, resources, and motivation. He writes, “Individuals and groups are high in capacity if they possess and continue to develop knowledge and skills, if they attract and use resources (time, ideas, expertise, money) wisely, and if they are committed to putting in the energy to get important things done collectively and continuously (ever learning) .
He believes that people do not function well when they fear. In addition, fear and it’s consequences directly breach secret two connect peers with purpose in the way that they decrease the power and connectivity of positive peer interaction.He suggests, leaders should hold a strong moral position and avoid self-righteousness and moral condemnation at the same time .The author highlights the importance of individuals and groups focusing on continuous knowledge and skills improvement to develop the ability to grow and adapt in new and complex environments, which I think is a very critical issue.
SECRET FOUR:LEARNING IS THE WORK
In this chapter, the author maintains a point that learning from outside workshops and courses can be a useful input; however, if it is not balanced with learning at work, the learning will be superficial. Toyota Motor Corporation is provided as an example to demonstrate what it takes to use the job itself as a subject of employee training .The author, including ideas from Liker and Meyer’s book Toyota Talent (2007), indicates that Toyota retains its high performance by “spending five times as much time dealing work methods and developing talent in employees as any other company .The company defines the best methods of practices, identifies the few key practices that are crucial to success, and takes special care that employees do those tasks well using the best methods of doing so. By adopting such approach, Toyota realizes “learning is the job.
SECRET FIVE:TRANSPARENCY RULES
Organizations need to provide a continuously and clear display of results as well as what has been done to obtain those results, to maintain continuous improvement. When they keep doing this, an aura of “positive pressure” will be created—pressure that is reasonable, actionable, and inescapable. 0rganizations must embrace the transparency rules, four reasons are First, it is an inevitable trend that “the flat-world access to information and the appetite for transparent accountability on the part of the public and various stakeholders and shareholders simply can no longer be thwarted.” Second, it is a good thing to balance reporting data publicly and keeping information private. To achieve this balance, it’s important to identify which transparency can be used simultaneously for both improvement and accountability. Third, transparent information is used as a tool for achieving better results in any successful change. Organizations should develop a mechanism for employees to share open data collection. Finally, organizations sustain their credibility and long-term success by “external accountability There is no way that organizations can review their overtime progress in achieving important goals without clear transparency.
SECRET SIX:SYSTEM LEARNS
In secret six, the authors states that when the first five secrets are implemented, the system (organization) can learn .However, even in the best system, continuous learning cannot be guaranteed. He argues that organizations cannot sustain learning because they focus on individual leaders: when individual leaders come and go, organizations go through ups and downs.The author also talks about humility in this secret by saying that “the world is uncertain and, no matter what you do, you cannot guarantee a successful future.” Leaders should combine humility and confidence when they explore environmental complexity .In addition, leaders should have an “opposable mind” which allows for “integrative thinking .
CONCLUSION
Finally, the author provides six guidelines for keeping the secrets: 1) Seize the synergy; 2) Define your own traveling theory; 3) Share a secret, keep a secret; 4) The world is the only oyster you have; 5) Stay on the far side of complexity; 6) Happiness is not what some of us think. Keeping these guidelines in mind can help different types of leaders maintain the six secrets.
In conclusion, this book provides six great secrets for leaders to help their organizations survive and thrive in today’s complex environment. It contains a lot of practical examples from different industries, organizations and educational systems for readers to understand crucial concepts. Also, the author presents his theory using an easy-writing style, which allows readers to quickly and easily get the points that he intends to present. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to help his/her organization to grasp opportunities and succeed at change.Few things in life are more satisfying than the chance to share a good secret or six. Go for it.
By
Shweta Garg
MBA-Sem.II
IBS, Chandigarh
Contents: 1. National Culture and Cultural Effects. R.P. Gephart and J. Richardson
