Shifting: How School Leaders Can Create a Culture of Change could be a breakthrough book on change management in education. The authors have done a masterful job of combining theory and practice for the reader. The special sauce is the quotes and stories of the practitioners throughout each chapter. The book comes alive to the point that it feels like you are in conversation and learning from the authors and the leaders that are sharing their knowledge. Every leader needs to read this book before they embark on change to choose the best strategies and to understand their role in the change process.

-- Lyle Kirtman --

CEO, Future Management Systems, Author of Coherent School Leadership: Forging Clarity from Complexity with Michael Fullan

At last, a book on how to lead productive change that embodies the premise that educational leaders should model what we want to see in the classroom. We can trust "Shifting: How School Leaders Can Create a Culture of Change" because it is filled with case studies about working educators from a variety of backgrounds. Reflective prompts guide teachers and administrators to adapt these insights to their unique school settings. Shifting speaks with an authentic voice and delivers the strategies that help us consider the changes we want so as to develop the schools we need.

-- Peter Pappas --

Developer of the "Taxonomy of Reflection", University of Portland, School of Education

Books on change tend to be either slickly glib and useless, or hopelessly complex and useless. Shifting offers a path that weaves together theory and stories from the front line, models and a practical call to action. It's an essential primer for change, whether you work in education or not.

-- Michael Bungay Stanier --

Author of WSJ bestseller The Coaching Habit

As someone who knows first-hand how challenging it is to lead and sustain long-term, transformational change, I am especially grateful for this book. The authors condense insights from decades of research and dozens of frontline change leaders to extend a supportive hand to every educator who wants and needs to lead change, but doesn’t don’t know where to begin. My advice to every educator: keep this book close. If you don’t have the answers now, this book gives you the right questions and invaluable “real world” gold nugget guidance – and that will be enough.

-- April Armstrong --

CEO, AHA Insight

A must-read for aspiring or current education practitioners, and highly recommended for leaders of organizations experiencing a culture of constant flux and change. In a time when “self” seems to eclipse “team,” the authors remind us that people are at the center of any effective change, and leaders who demonstrate integrity, vulnerability, intentionality and mindfulness are far more likely to achieve organizational outcomes that have a lasting impact on all children.

-- Lynne B. Pierson, Ed.D. --

Former Connecticut Superintendent of Schools

We love Shifting because the authors are candid about what schools need to do to "shift" toward excellence. Too many change initiatives fail because of surface level actions and a focus on what we're doing instead of actually getting results. This book confronts that reality in an honest way, but also provides a call-to-action with exactly what leaders need to do next. The "Try This" sections are perfect--providing both a platform for reflection and the critical steps forward.

-- Joseph Jones & T.J. Vari --

Authors of Candid and Compassionate Feedback: Transforming Everyday Practice in Schools

I like just about everything in Shifting: How School Leaders Can Create a Culture of Change. The ideas are clear and powerful — a very hard feat when working with change. Its power lies in shifting the center of gravity FROM ad hoc reactions, mechanics, and attempts to rationally control change TO sustained, proactive relationships to the why and how with those leading and implementing the change. I love the fact that the authors weave in examples of practitioners who illustrate and explain the approach they are using. By the end of the book, almost everything about leading change has been covered. In short, this is one of the best practical and deep books on educational change that you will find."

-- Michael Fullan --

Emeritus Professor, OISE/University of Toronto