The Six Secrets of Change and the Six Principles in Failure is not an Option have a lot in common because both sets are based in examples of large scale successful school reform. Both are based on actual practice. The Secrets---love your employees, connect peers with purpose, capacity building, learning is the work, transparency rules, and systems learn are all found in the operational work of the six principles.

In our work In Ontario, Canada and around the world we have been trying to bring about significant improvements in schools and school systems. We have aligned this effort with the best of research and practice around the world, and tested our theories and findings with the evidence in the business literature.

Our goal is large-scale improvement, that is, how to change the entire system whether it be a whole district, province or state. We started this work in earnest in 1997 when Tony Blair launched his nationwide literacy and numeracy initiative in England, and commissioned a group of us in Toronto to evaluate the strategy, which we did from 1998 to 2002. We learned a lot about what to do (focus on a small number of priorities, invest in capacity building, monitor results and intervene when necessary); and about what not to do (over emphasize targets, use punitive accountability, and drive the strategy from the center without building corresponding bottom-up ownership).

In 2003 with a new government in Ontario we had the opportunity to build on the  English strategy as the Premier, Dalton McGuinty , appointed me as his chief adviser in education. We then set out to transform Ontario’s public education system that  had been stagnant from 1998-2003. The public system has 4000 elementary schools, 900 high schools, 72 districts with 2 million students and over 100,000 teachers. Since 2003 we have had considerable success. literacy and numeracy scores have increased by 12%, high school graduation rates have gone from 68 to 77%, morale of teachers and principals improved considerably and so forth.

In many ways the six secrets get at the underpinnings of our successful Ontario strategy but connect them to the wider business literature.  The most successful business, enduring organizations also embed these six secrets—Toyota, Southwest Airlines, the Mayo clinic to name just three. Even though these organizations have been studied and written about, and even though I have written a book about the secrets they still remain elusive because you have to get inside them to understand the nuances and use their power. For example if you are a leader with an organization that has problems and have a sense of urgency it is very difficult to get the balance right about investing in capacity building and not becoming judgmental in a way that de-motivates employees. The secret of the secrets boils down to one word—motivation. What strategies can you use that will motivate individuals and especially groups to take the kind of action that will move the system forward?

My colleagues and I have continued to get beneath the surface in order to help leaders accelerate the rate and depth of positive change. In a new initiative called Motion Leadership we are attempting to get at the essence of what kind of leadership causes movement forward. We are doing this in two ways. One is through a book we call Motion Leadership: The Skinny about becoming change savvy (Corwin Publishers); and the other is through a multi-media product that we pretentiously call Motion Leadership: the Movie. In this case we are filming school principals, schools districts etc that have had good movement and success. We are trying to get at not just the product but how they got there—the struggles, the breakthroughs, the lessons learned.

In recent related work we have applied this thinking to the problem of improving schools in the U.S. facing President Obama, and Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan. Speaking of movement, the U.S. was number one in education for most of the 20th century until 1980 as measured by the percentage of the population completing high school ,and those completing university. They have slipped over the past 30 years and are now about  22nd in the world behind, Finland, Singapore, South Korea, Canada , Australia, England etc. etc. In a book published called All System Go (Corwin) I give advice to Obama/Duncan and other politicians with respect to getting positive movement/improvement on a large scale. There are five interrelated pieces to this advice : resolute leadership, intelligent accountability (which gets people and groups to internalize responsibility), collective capacity building. Individual capacity building-with all four of the latter intensely devote to "the moral purpose of raising the bar and closing the gap for all children in meeting high standards of education suitable for the 21st century.  The advice along these lines is illustrated with examples from specific named individuals and organizations that are using these approaches to get results.

In the second edition of Failure is not An Option Alan Blankstein confirms and deepens the validity of the principles in action. With the experience of others using the six principles several other contributions are now apparent. In new cases we see the synergy of the principles in action within schools, within districts, and across districts. There is more precision in peer-to-peer observation in coaching, and assessment for learning that show how the principles get operationalized up close. We see how the ideas play out in diverse settings. And the critical question of how to sustain the focus on success is tackled. On top of this the second edition has many more practical, rich resources to assist the readers in applying the ideas in their own context.

In short, the knowledge and practice base for bringing about large-scale or whole system reform is becoming more and more valid and accessible. The fact that this set of ideas applies equally in various public and private sector organizations is encouraging. There are secrets to successful change but they are not deliberately being withheld. It is just that they are difficult to master. This is the challenge of change for all of us.

Michael Fullan is Professor Emeritus, OISE/University of Toronto.
Special Adviser to the Premier of Education in Ontario.
Article for the Hope Foundation, Jan 2010