The Six Secrets of Change by Michael Fullan

Michael Fullan is an academician from Ontario whose specialty is education. This book does not limit itself to school districts; instead it describes his theoretical framework for organizational change. It's a quick read- six 15 page chapters- one chapter for each "secret". But it is not a quick fix. Fullan enjoys nuance and paradox and reasons that leaders who manage positive systemic organizational change must be able to hold opposing ideas in tandem and allow the tensions between them to clash until a creative innovative compromise emerges. My favorite line from the book is: "Paradoxes must be finessed." My second favorite line is: "Riddle: When is a revealed secret still a secret? Answer: When it is heavily nuanced." His recipe for large scale organizational change involves caring for all the constituents well; motivating peer driven mentoring and friendly competition; building capacity; tracking, sharing and systematizing the learning that occurs on the job; a culture of transparency; and what he calls the "metasecret": the system "learns" or incorporates the best results. I will be thinking about this book for a long time. It probably is one to buy and revisit as the ideas percolate past the little grey matter into the place where true understanding happens.

Michael Fullan, The Six Secrets of Change, c. 2008, Jossey-Bass