Overview
Highlighting past achievements can motivate your team and provide a strong foundation for considering future changes. Acknowledging what your team has already achieved can equip them to implement new changes and form a powerful part of your change narrative.
Maintaining a change narrative is one of the 3 proven principles for leading change in early childhood education, along with having a strong vision and rationale and utilising the collective creativity of your team. Having a change narrative will assist you to explain what you are doing and why, and help your team stay motivated and connected to your vision.
It may also be helpful to encourage staff to focus on the ‘now’ aspect of your narrative, so that any future changes start from a strong sense of capability in the present. You can use a SWOT analysis template (PDF, 44.3KB) to help you assess where you are at.
You can also use this editable timeline wall chart (PDF, 61.8KB) to show where you are at with your implementation.
Recognising the strengths of your programs
As you develop your change narrative, you can also identify what will continue to stay the same. For example, Pre-Prep programs will continue to be play-based, led by qualified teachers and be guided by the VEYLDF.
Consider the collective strengths of your service team. As you discuss how your team plans to maintain the strengths of your service, stay alert to opportunities to build on these as you expand your programs.
Leadership potential of your team
The implementation of changes to your programs provides opportunities for developing leadership potential amongst your team.
The knowledge and expertise of your staff is a rich resource for you as a leader, for other teachers and educators, and for families and carers. For example, do your team members have:
- any insights to share based on experience in change processes in other services
- experience of the change you are planning (e.g., working with different program models)
- strengths in communicating with families and carers, or leading small teams to achieve specific changes?
Drawing on the leadership potential within your team is an important contributor to collective creativity.
Involving staff in the change process ensures they are fully informed, recognises their professional expertise, and provides them the opportunity to demonstrate leadership. By closely involving your teaching staff, including your Educational Leader and Room Leaders, you are also developing them as future service and sector leaders.
Support is available to develop Educational Leaders through the Early Learning Leadership Forums and early childhood education leadership training.
If you are a leader and feel that you would benefit from some additional support to lead through change, it may help to:
- seek formal professional development
- join a network of peers, such as a community of practice
- explore mentoring opportunities, for example, a service leader ahead of you in the Pre-Prep implementation schedule.
The Early Learning Leadership Forums are also a great way to connect with fellow leaders and learn about how others are delivering change in early childhood education.
Resources
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