Building a professional learning community (PLC) is not a journey taken alone. That's where the guiding coalition comes in. With clear, practical guidance, this resource examines every aspect of how to create, develop, and sustain this essential leadership team. Each chapter includes next steps, FAQs, and reflections carefully designed to help you overcome common roadblocks as you move from current practice to best practice. Define a guiding coalition and understand its importance. Learn basic PLC concepts and principles to inform guiding coalition processes. Understand the three basic school structures to ensure a proper PLC foundation. Form and maintain strong relationships that strengthen leadership. Implement levers to improve school culture and create effective, efficient leadership. Contents: Introduction Chapter 1: Creating a Powerful Guiding Coalition Chapter 2: Leading the PLC Basics Chapter 3: Building a Solid PLC Foundation Chapter 4: Building Powerful Relationships Chapter 5: Promoting Collaborative Leadership Chapter 6: Leveraging Your Leadership Epilogue References and Resources

From the ill-fated dot-com bubble to unprecedented merger and acquisition activity to scandal, greed, and, ultimately, recession -- we've learned that widespread and difficult change is no longer the exception. By outlining the process organizations have used to achieve transformational goals and by identifying where and how even top performers derail during the change process, Kotter provides a practical resource for leaders and managers charged with making change initiatives work.

The labor movement sees coalitions as a key tool for union revitalization and social change, but there is little analysis of what makes them successful or the factors that make them fail. Amanda Tattersall—an organizer and labor scholar—addresses this gap in the first internationally comparative study of coalitions between unions and community organizations. She argues that coalition success must be measured by two criteria: whether campaigns produce social change and whether they sustain organizational strength over time. The book contributes new, practical frameworks and insights that will help guide union and community organizers across the globe. The book throws down the gauntlet to industrial relations scholars and labor organizers, making a compelling case for unions to build coalitions that wield "power with" community organizations. Tattersall presents three detailed case studies: the public education coalition in Sydney, the Ontario Health Coalition in Toronto, and the living wage campaign run by the Grassroots Collaborative in Chicago. Together they enable Tattersall to explore when and how coalition unionism is the best and most appropriate strategy for social change, organizational development, and union renewal. Power in Coalition presents clear lessons. She suggests that "less is more," because it is often easier to build stronger coalitions with fewer organizations making decisions and sharing resources. The role of the individual, she finds, is traditionally underestimated, even though a coalition's success depends on a leader's ability to broker relationships between organizations while developing the campaign's strategy. The crafting of goals that combine organizational interest and the public interest and take into account electoral politics are crucial elements of coalition success.

The significance of business-led corporate responsibility coalitions is indisputable. The WBCSD has 200 member companies with combined annual revenues of US$7 _trillion_; the UN Global Compact has almost 8,000 corporate members, over two-thirds of them from developing countries. It is estimated that there are more than 110 national and international generalist business-led CR coalitions. But there is now urgent need for informed and balanced analysis of their achievements, their progress and their potential. Why did these coalitions start and grow? What have been their impacts? Where are they heading now? Where should they be going? What is the future? In a period of austerity, the business and public sector must decide whether funding these coalitions is a priority. To meet current crises, there will have to be a great deal more business involvement; but efforts of individual corporations will not be sufficient. There is also a need for far more collective action among companies and more collaborative action between different sectors of society. Business-led CR coalitions with their decades of convening experience could play an important role in this process - if they are fit for purpose going forward. Authors David Grayson and Jane Nelson have been actively involved in such coalitions for decades. In Corporate Responsibility Coalitions they first explore the past, present and future of these coalitions: the emergence of new models of collective corporate action over the past four decades; the current state of play, and the increasing number, diversity and complexity in terms of how they not only network with each other but also engage in a much broader universe of institutions that are promoting responsible business practices. In addition, the book provides in-depth profiles of the most strategic, effective and long-standing coalitions, including: Business for Social Responsibility; Business in the Community; CSR Europe; Instituto Ethos; International Business Leaders Forum; the UN Global Compact; and the WBCSD. This book will be required reading for key supporters and potential partners of such coalitions in companies, governments, international development agencies, foundations, non-governmental organizations, academic institutions and think-tanks. It also aims to inspire a future generation of leaders to be more aware of the role of business as a partner in driving more inclusive, green and responsible growth, and to help them develop new types of leadership skills so that they can be effective in finding multi-stakeholder solutions to complex and systemic challenges.

This book places everyday talk and role-modelling interactions at the forefront of an alternative change-leadership agenda, and introduces a number of practical approaches to help line managers and organizational specialists deliver this agenda more successfully. It is essential reading for organizational practitioners at all levels.

Having led change successfully at three sprawling, monumental organizations—the CIA, Texas A&M University, and the Department of Defense—Robert M. Gates offers the ultimate insider's look at how leaders can transform large organizations and companies. For many Americans, bureaucracy and corporate structure are code words for inertia. Gates knows that it doesn't have to be that way. With stunning clarity, he shares how simple plans, faithfully executed, can cut through the mire of bureaucracy to reform organizational culture. And he shows that great leaders listen and respond to their teams and embrace the power of compromise. Using the full weight of his wisdom, candor, and devotion to duty, he empowers leaders at any level to effectively implement his leadership strategies.

"Parent engagement with schools is known to be key to student achievement, but building such involvement can be a challenge, especially in economically disadvantaged schools that need it the most. In Community connections and your PLC at Work®: A guide to engaging families, author Nathaniel Provencio guides readers to build this vital engagement by broadening a school's professional learning community (PLC) so it includes parents, families and other community members in a productive collaboration toward success for all students. Drawing on his own experience as a principal who used the PLC process to transform a struggling school into an award-winning one, Provencio demonstrates how F-12 schools can use the focus on learning, collaboration and results at the heart of the PLC process to not merely enhance family engagement but also create a collaborative culture in which all stakeholders become educators." -- back cover.