Nuance: Why Some Leaders Succeed and Others Fail

Michael Fullan

Book cover for Nuance: Why Some Leaders Succeed and Others Fail
Book cover for Nuance: Why Some Leaders Succeed and Others Fail

Nuance: Why Some Leaders Succeed and Others Fail

Nuance: Why Some Leaders Succeed and Others Fail

Michael Fullan

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Description

Break the cycle of surface-level change and failure
How do leaders become clearer as complexity increases? We live in a world where decisions require judgment, getting people on board, drawing on local knowledge, ingenuity, and commitment. As leaders, how do you get beneath surface-level change to tackle complex challenges with depth and clarity. Nuance is the answer. Michael Fullan returns with an eminently readable, compelling and practical guide on the three habits of nuance: joint determination, adaptability, and culture-based accountability. Learn how you can:

  • Combine the power of networks and humanity to get to desired destinations
  • Embrace complexity and understand context to develop better judgmenChange the culture of your organization to harness the forces of nuance
  • Develop quality change that sticks

About the Author

Michael Fullan served as Premier Dalton McGuinty's Special Policy Adviser in Ontario from 2003-2013. He received the Order of Canada (OC) in December 2012 and holds five honorary doctorates from universities around the world. His 'interim autobiography', Surreal Change, covers his work to 2018. Michael and his colleagues are now working diligently on field-based comprehensive system change in several countries. This work operates under the umbrella of what they call the 'shared humanity paradigm' --Equity, Engagement, Excellence--Deep change that integrates local (school and community), middle (district/regional), and state (policy) entities.

Fullan's favorite method of learning is to partner with groups that are engaged with change; and to learn together with them. (And then to write another book about the experiences, and what was learned).

Michael Fullan's latest books are: Nuance (2019), Spirit Work and the Science of Collaboration (with Mark Edwards, 2022), The Principal 2.0 (2023), and The Drivers (with Joanne Quinn, 2023).

For more information on books, articles, videos, podcasts please go to: www.michaelfullan.ca



Critical Reviews

Discover the subtle power of nuance leadership and get dramatic new results. A courageous and timely book that goes to the heart of our complex leadership times. Why do some leaders get extraordinary results while others, ostensibly doing the same things, simply replicate existing patterns? Blending experience and uncommon intellectual acuity, Fullan explains both the key connected dimensions and the exceptional leverage of nuance.--Brendan Spillane, Leadership Consultant in Sports, Business, and Education

I continue to be in awe that Michael Fullan is able to describe and explain so clearly the kind of leadership I am intuitively trying to do. Nobody else I have ever read can do this as well as he does. Fullan, more than anyone else, has given me the language for my leadership over the years.--Steve Munby, Former CEO of National College for School Leadership, England

Nuance is a powerful call for a different type of leadership--one that rejects the quick fixes, oppositional thinking, and superficial innovations that make no lasting impact on our most pressing and complex educational problems. In Nuance, Fullan provides a richly illustrated account of how nuanced leadership embraces complexity and integrates competing forces in ways that foster deep understanding, collaborative learning and accountability, and sustainable rather than superficial solutions. It's not a recipe; it's an inspiration and a call to action.--Viviane Robinson, Distinguished Professor Emeritus

I have to say that reading this manuscript was like looking in the mirror and seeing something of myself that I hadn't noticed before, or valued before, or even been able to put language to. I feel simultaneously com-forted by what [Fullan has] written in that I feel validated and understood and even a bit more hopeful about myself, but it has also left me hungry for more.--Marie-Claire Bretherton, Executive Head Teacher

I get what [Fullan is] saying about nuance. I mean there are 5, 10, 15 different ways to do something; depending on a particular context, it's going to have a different result. I think [Fullan's] on to something really important. [This work] actually helped me get my head around what I have been doing with everyone in the Toronto District School Board.--John Malloy, Director

Nuance is Fullan at his impressive best--enabling leaders to see what was under their nose with sharp action-oriented clarity. Contexts--of people, time, and place--are such key factors in managing change and here he uncovers the subtlety of "nuance," which is the essential bedfellow of "judgment" without which disaster will threaten any leader. Wise system leaders will buy a copy for all their school leaders and keep a copy for themselves.--Tim Brighouse, England

If you have been waiting to have your thinking on leadership provoked once again, Michael Fullan's latest book will not disappoint you. Nuance raises the bar and challenges thinking about leadership while providing those willing to work for it the concrete examples, actions, and steps necessary to do so. As followers of his work have come to expect, in Nuance, Fullan "leads from what he has learned" and artfully weaves together complex ideas into a pattern that accomplishes the "simplexity" that makes the seemingly impossible become possible.--Laura Schwalm, Senior Partner

Publishing Information

Publisher: Corwin Publishers
Pub date: 2018-12-10
Length: 160 pages

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