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Web Sites (all sites will open in a new window)
Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration Program from North Central Regional Educational Laboratory focuses on reorganizing and revitalizing entire schools, rather than on implementing programs. It uses well-researched and well-documented models for schoolwide change that are supported by expert trainers and facilitators. Challenging academic standards, strong professional development components, and meaningful parent and community support are all part of most comprehensive reform models.
Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration in the Field: An Early Report from Department of Education is "designed to provide financial incentives for schools to implement comprehensive reform programs that are based on reliable research and effective practices, and include an emphasis on academics and parental involvement." The report discusses the preliminary results observed in the schools that received grants for implementing reforms. It notes the great variety in the models selected by schools, in the process schools used to research and develop staff support for reform, and in how models are being integrated into a vision of entire-school change.
The Eisenhower Regional Alliance for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education Reform coordinated by TERC & funded by the US Department of Education. The Regional Alliance provides professional development opportunities, technical assistance, and resources to schools seeking to improve their K-12 math, science, and technology (MST) programs. The Regional Alliance Hub houses a growing collection of articles, curriculum, and project reports organized by key topics in education reform. You can also find information on grants and funding sources and links to national organizations that support education, such as the US Department of Education and the Eisenhower National Clearinghouse.
Learning for a Change is an interview, Peter Senge in which he says that for big companies to change, leaders need to stop thinking like mechanics and to start acting like gardeners. We need to stop our top-down attempts to mechanically change "the machine" which are almost universally doomed to failure. Instead, we need to think of our organizations as natural organisms which need understanding and nurturing.
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Books
Blur: The Speed of Change in the Connected Economy by Stan Davis & Christopher Meyer, 1998. The authors define "Blur" as the accelerating pace of change of our postmodern economy. Comparing companies with living organisms, they say the ideal company of the future will not resemble the dinosaurs of the industrial age or even the hot-blooded mammals of today's technology scene. Instead, the most successful companies of the next 10 to 100 years will resemble the lowly bacteria: minimal infrastructure, reproducing at will and continually evolving to meet whatever challenges are thrown their way.
Boom, Bust, & Echo: How to Profit from the Coming Demographic Shift by David K. Foot & Daniel Stoffman, 1997. Demographics is a highly potent but strangely under-used tool for understanding the past and foretelling the future. In this book, economist David Foot and journalist Daniel Stoffman take a look at the importance of demographics in predicting what's ahead for baby boomers, "baby busters," the "echo generation," and other groups in the coming years.
The Death of Distance: How the Communications Revolution Will Change Our Lives by Frances Cairncross, 1997. The growing ease and speed of communication is creating a world where the miles have little to do with our ability to work or interact. Cairncross predicts that it won't be long before people organize globally on the basis of language and three basic time shifts--one for the Americas, one for Europe, and one for East Asia and Australia. Much work that can be done on a computer can be done from anywhere. Workers can code software in one part of the world and pass it to a company hundreds of miles away that will assemble the code for marketing. Cairncross discusses about 30 major changes likely to result from these trends.
The Digital Economy: Promise and Peril in the Age of Networked Intelligence by Don Tapscott, 1997. Information technology expert Tapscott takes readers to the epicenter of the Digital Economy transformation where essential information is sent racing at the speed of light across networks and success depends on transforming businesses and inventing new business processes--not rearranging old ones.
Future Edge: Discovering the New Paradigms of Success by Joel Arthur Barker, 1992. Dr. Paradigm gets you to step back and consider how we look at the world and how we can break out of our existing paradigms for life.
Global Paradox by John Naisbitt, 1993. The premier futurist and trends analyst returns with a penetrating follow-up to his bestsellers Megatrends and Megatrends 2000. Naisbitt argues that as the global economy continues to grow at an unheralded rate, small and agile companies rather than big business will meet the needs of the "bigger world economy." He does a great job of standing back from the tyranny of the urgent and explaining several trends that will shape our futures.
If It Ain't Broke, Break It: And Other Unconventional Wisdom for a Changing Business World by Robert J. Kriegel & Louis Patler, 1992. The authors show readers how to turn our view of the world upside down. A wonderful complement to Barker's Future Edge
Sacred Cows Make the Best Burgers: Developing Change-Ready People and Organizations by Robert Kriegel & David Brandt, 1997. Shows business managers how to eliminate outdated business beliefs and routines that drain time and money, redesign the rules of their corporation, and instill a capacity for change in their employees and teams.
Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal With Change in Your Work and in Your Life by Spencer Johnson & Kenneth Blanchard; 1999. The authors realize the need for finding the language and tools to deal with change--an issue that makes all of us uncomfortable. They show us what matters most is the attitude we have about change. This deceptively simple story has a dramatically important message that can radically alter the way we cope with change. Who Moved My Cheese? takes the anxiety out of managing the future and shows people a simple way to successfully deal with the changing times, providing them with a method for moving ahead with their work and lives safely and effectively.
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