The fourth shift school leaders must undertake is HOW THEY ORGANIZE THEIR OFFICES. Presently, main and central offices employ a command and control organizational structure. To best prepare our students for the digital world of work, school leaders “must beyond being directors that receive and give instructions up and down a vertical hierarchy to being CATALYST that empower and guide self-managing teams, fostering connection, dialogue, and cooperation across traditional organizational boundaries.”(McKinsey Quarterly, May 2023) .Students in today’s schools continue to sit silo like classrooms and departments in a private sector world organized around networks of autonomous teams working together. The following leadership practices can help drive the shift:
- Breaking up traditional silo like organizational structures—grade levels, subjects, departments, specialties—into self-regulating entrepreneurial teams based on themes, problems, fields of interest.
- Moving from a hierarchy of individual leaders to networks of leadership teams.
- Developing communication networks that share innovative approaches to teaching and learning.
Alan C. Jones 