Leadership for School Improvement: Cues from Organizational Learning and Renewal Efforts - by Robert Mai

Oct 15, 2026

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School improvement and reform are framed as processes of organizational learning and renewal. In effective renewal efforts, leaders assume two linked roles: critic/provocateur and learning advocate/innovation coach. Drawing on business corporations, the Army, and a college basketball team, the manuscript proposes a model for school improvement. It emphasizes building renewal cultures, balancing standardizing “best practices” with seeking better alternatives, and extending leadership responsibility beyond administrators to teachers.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages11

Reading Time28 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Organizational learning and renewal roles

Renewal culture and the paradox of best practices

Leadership responsibility for teachers and administrators

Role of critic/provocateur

Climate: making it safe to be a critic

After Action Review (Army)

Leadership for School Improvement: Cues from Organizational Learning and Renewal Efforts by Robert Mai Abstract School improvement and school reform are about organizational learning and renewal. In successful efforts at organizational renewal, especially in business, leaders often play two related roles: critic/provocateur and learning advocate/innovation coach. Using examples from business corporations, the Army, and a college basketball team, this manuscript attempts to describe a model for leaders of school improvement based upon these two roles. Creating and sustaining a culture of renewal is a challenge toleadersin all organizations. In education and business especially, organizational renewal has become a pressing concern for leaders who face mounting pressure to meet more demanding client expectations. In business management literature, there has been an increasingly distinct call for corporate leaders to attend to continuous improvement and innovation, and to operate more as a learning organization (Argyris and Schön 1978; Senge 1990) . Senge, Cambron-McCabe, Lucas, Kleiner, Dutton, and Smith (2000) and Michael Fullan (2001), among others, have echoed this theme for educational leaders; but ironically, the role of school leadership in building and supporting a learning organization has been much less defined. Over the past decade, studies of business organizations have revealed a number of leadership strategies and behaviors that contribute positively to organizational learning and renewal. One recent book (Mai and Akerson 2003) described several such strategies in terms of critical leadership roles: namely, the roles of critic and provocateur, and of learning advocate and innovation coach. These roles also might be used collectively to define a two-dimensional behavioral model for educational leaders as school renewal champions. The Educational Forum • Volume 68 • Spring 2004 • 211 Mai Leaders as Renewal Champions A learning organization is one that actively works to improve itself by casting present practices under critical scrutiny and by seeking new and better ways of doing things. Learning organizations are about constant self-evaluation and about developing new approaches and practices to deal with the challenges ofan ever-changing environment. This, in turn, invokes a paradox: successful organizations must strive both to standardize their operations around “best practices” and, atthe same time, to look constantly for more effective alternatives—better best practices, if you will—to achieve their goals. What this means for leaders in the field is equally paradoxical: support the methods that are getting results, while at the same time questioning them to seek better ways to accomplish objectives. This second charge is a difficult one, but a critical task for leaders of dynamic organizations that continuously assess present practice and invent new pathways to success. For education in particular, it is important to extend this leadership task to teachers as well as administrators (just as in business—and, as we’ll see, in the Army and on a college basketball team—the expectation of“thought leadership” is increasingly extended to people without supervisory responsibility) . In a growing number of organizations, including schools and districts, the need to challenge the status quo impels leaders to assume two related roles: critic/provocateur and learning advocate/innovation coach. The Role of Critic/Provocateur One of the hardest jobs to assume in an organization, particularly an organization that takes pride in the ways it presently accomplishes its goals, is to cast a critical eye specifically on those operating practices that define“the way we do things around here.”Many of the best practices currently in place have been around for a considerable period of time and were developed by respected professionals who might have enjoyed promotions because of them. Indeed, there are vested intere

FAQs

What two related leadership roles are emphasized for organizational renewal?

Successful renewal efforts rely on leaders acting as critic/provocateur and as learning advocate/innovation coach.

How does the model describe a learning organization’s approach to change?

A learning organization continually scrutinizes present practices, evaluates itself, and develops new approaches to adapt to a changing environment.

Why is the critic/provocateur role considered difficult, and what does the manuscript suggest about climate?

It is difficult because it challenges established ways of working and can conflict with maintaining the status quo. The manuscript argues that leaders must make it safe and easy for questions to be raised.

Oct 15, 2026

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