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 Preface

The following is excerpted from a scene in the 2012 film Lincoln, featuring a
discussion between President Abraham Lincoln and Senator Thaddeus Stevens
over plans for passage of the proposed 13th Amendment:

LINCOLN: A compass, I learnt when I was surveying, it’ll—it’ll point you

True North from where you’re standing, but it’s got no advice about the
swamps and deserts and chasms that you’ll encounter along the way. If
in pursuit of your destination you plunge ahead, heedless of obstacles,
and achieve nothing more than to sink in a swamp, what’s the use of
knowing True North?
(Lincoln 2012)

I open this book with a line spoken by President Abraham Lincoln in the film
Lincoln to demonstrate the importance of understanding the complete change
process, not just the direction or vision. Most change agents believe that once they
have a vision or idea for change, the major work is done, that implementation is
nothing but an afterthought. This book is about the swamps, deserts, and chasms
that Lincoln refers to on the journey to change.
My goal for this book is to explain how change works in an engaging style. One of
the most read books on higher education is How Colleges Work by Robert Birnbaum
(1991). Through vivid case descriptions, a review of the literature on higher edu-
cation, and a systems framework, Birnbaum tries to capture the complex ways
that colleges make decisions within a professional bureaucracy with distributed
viii  Preface

power and a frequent sense of chaos. Many observers quip that higher education
decision-making is opaque and hard to understand or track. The descriptive arche-
type campuses Birnbaum reviewed help the reader to envision varying campus
cultures and the way that decision-making emerges differently based on the context.
This helps the reader to understand how context shapes the way higher education
operates. Good decision-making depends on the expectations and norms within
the setting. Birnbaum assists readers to see that decision-making is much more
complex than is often understood by connecting decision-making to politics, his-
tory, culture, external factors, stakeholder influences, and embedded structures
such as shared authority.
In a similar vein, this book examines another topic that is often difficult to
comprehend—how change occurs on college campuses. Like Birnbaum, I draw
on an extensive literature base to support my arguments, but also try to bring
vivid illustrations that make the issues more concrete and real for readers. I
share the assumption with Birnbaum that change in higher education, like
decision-making, requires an understanding of institutional and sectoral con-
text. Additionally, this book provides a systems view of change, recognizing that
complex processes require an understanding of the internal and external condi-
tions that shape and frame these processes. My hope is that this book will be
as inviting and informative as How Colleges Work, which helped to inform the
perspective of many higher education leaders today. This book attempts to cre-
ate praxis—joining theory and practical examples in harmony to create better
understanding. Few books are able to successfully join theory with practice and
make concepts accessible to policymakers and practitioners, yet still complex
enough for scholars. I hope this book achieves that level of blended theory and
practice. The book also presents a framework for change to make the ideas more
inviting for change agents.
While improving decision-making may have been a strong imperative in the
1980s, I argue that leaders in this century need to have a facility for being change
agents. Campus leaders today need to do more than just make sound decisions;
they need to re-examine the work that they do in order to be relevant in the future
and to maintain core functions and the integrity of higher education. Higher
education is at a crossroads for undergoing fundamental changes. Carnegie
Foundation President Vartan Gregorian has called for a presidential commission
to be formed to examine the future of higher education, noting several changes
that need to be implemented to align the system with the new economy, globali-
zation, and technological advances. Decision-making can support this goal of
change, but too often it has reinforced the status quo. The key question of the cur-
rent time is how to create the needed changes to support a new enterprise—one
that does not look like the past and hopefully looks better than the present state
of the enterprise, which many feel is in decline in terms of quality, learning, and
meeting changing needs (Slaughter and Rhoades 2004).
 Preface  ix

Defining Change
Before describing the approach to this book, its goals, and main contributions,
it is important to define change, the main topic of the book. Most scholars
of change have moved from the view that change is only an episodic event
(e.g. infrequent, discontinuous, and intentional) to the notion of continuous,
incremental change (e.g. ongoing, evolving, and cumulative) punctuated by
episodic, dramatic changes (Poole and Van de Ven 2004). Some have even
argued that we should alter the language from organizational change to organi-
zational becoming, because change suggests a static state that an organization
reaches while becoming suggests an ongoing notion of change that is more
authentic to organizational realities (Tsoukas and Chia 2002). Higher educa-
tion scholars like to emphasize that, as institutions, higher education should
maintain traditions and not shift continuously with whims, trends, or public
pressure (Birnbaum 1991; Kezar 2001). There is truth in that critique and view
of higher education, but it also masks the ongoing nature of changes that are
happening continuously.
Scholars use a variety of terms to describe change, and reviewing some of these
definitions can help make clear what I am referring to throughout this book.
When campuses respond to external forces, this is adaptation; when campuses
unintentionally switch from one practice to another, mimicking others in the
enterprise, this is called isomorphism; and when campuses implement a new
program or practice, this is called innovation. Or, scholars focus on organiza-
tional change—noted as bringing a positive outcome for the overall organization.
Leaders and change agents tend to focus on innovation—creating something new.
But leaders need to consider the external environment more—the sphere often
labeled adaptation or isomorphism. When leaders are more responsive, change is
seen as adaption; when they are more passive, such as when mission drift toward
research and away from teaching occurs, it is isomorphism.
I like to speak about change in the more general sense and have change agents
consider that they are responsible for watching out for isomorphism, leading as
thoughtfully as possible through adaptation processes, carefully choosing innova-
tions and reforms, and considering how all these various types of changes tax the
organization and its human and financial resources. Yet a general discussion of
change in past literature has masked these key variations of change. It is impor-
tant to note that the use of the umbrella term in this book includes all aspects.
So, change = isomorphism, adaptation, organizational change, and innovation or
reform. It is also important to consider that paradigms (i.e. underlying assump-
tions about change) and theories relate to different definitions of or ways to think
about change. Change is not a singular concept, but a multifaceted concept that
has evolved over time as scholars have sought to better understand it. Change is
also contested in terms of what it is—its very nature.
x  Preface

A Note about These Definitions and the Way I

Conceptualize Change
I tend to identify change as those intentional acts where a particular leader drives
or implements a new direction. In fact, people are drawn not only to intentional
changes, but innovative ones that draw upon new and creative ideas (Tierney and
Lanford 2016). Innovation, as noted above, is a particular type of change where
a new concept, program, or intervention is introduced and implemented on a
campus. But not all changes that leaders make or encounter are innovations.
While innovation is certainly helpful for organizations and we need more of it,
change agents need to be attentive to various kinds of changes that emerge within
organizations. Some will threaten their creative and innovative ideas. Campuses
can devolve, for example, which represents another type of change—they can lose
enrollments, experience declines in funding, poor relationships can form between
the faculty and the administration, the curriculum can lose cohesion, and poor
reputations can emerge. These are changes, but not the ones that we often focus
on—decline is another type of change that we need to aware of. Campuses are
constantly undergoing changes. The process is continuous—sometimes it is more
cumulative or less intentional. Yet change agents need to be aware of these types of
change as well. In Chapter 1, I will describe campuses responding to wartime con-
ditions (during World Wars I and II), which illustrates how sometimes campuses
are adapting to external changes. Change is an unavoidable part of organizational
life. The more we understand it, the better we can negotiate, resist, and facilitate it.

Main Arguments and Goals

In the rest of this preface, I will describe some of the major underlying assump-
tions and arguments developed within this book. I will also note the primary
audiences for which the book is intended. As I will describe in Chapter 1, major
changes will be required of higher education leaders, but there are several indi-
cators that suggest leaders will not be well prepared. What are some of the key
mistakes leaders make that lead to failed change efforts?

1. Ignoring the Change Process or Being Driven by

Implicit or Tacit Theories of Change
One of the most significant challenges is that leaders1 tend to focus on interven-
tions and programs (e.g. service learning or STEM reform), but ignore the change
process. Campus leaders are often trying to solve a specific problem or meet a need.
So, when they have concerns about how ethics is taught to students, for example,
they may decide that service learning will help address concerns. Change agents
typically think they are done acting once they have chosen a teaching strategy such
 Preface  xi

as service learning, and ignore how they will get faculty to teach in new ways. If
they pay attention to the change process at all, leaders often have implicit theo-
ries of change that are overly simplistic and not grounded in research on change.
For example, change agents believe that others will automatically accept a good
idea when presented with proof that it works. Another simplistic notion is that
changes can be mandated in higher education. The book highlights the problem of
an unrecognized implicit theory of change and the need for leaders to use research
to develop an explicit approach to change.

2. Ignoring Context
Another related challenge is that leaders often ignore the external and organiza-
tional contexts, as well as facilitators that could help with change implementation.
In general, there is a lack of analysis of the organization, its readiness for change,
an initiative’s fit or suitability, and alterations that may be necessary in order for
a plan to work well within a specific context. A focal point of the book is to help
change agents and leaders understand the importance of the external and organi-
zational contexts for successfully creating any type of change.
Another mistake related to ignoring context is that change agents often over-
look the ways in which culture and context shape their choice of tactics. While
this mistake relates to the second point about organizational context, this focuses
more on how change agents are more successful when they adopt strategies that
fit into the culture of the institution for which they are trying to make change. For
example, trying to develop an institution-wide policy is a change that is unlikely
to work well within the context of a campus with a highly decentralized culture.

3. Simplistic Change Models

If leaders and change agents articulate an explicit theory of change (and as they
operate off of implicit theories), they tend to adopt a single approach or strategy.
A dean might feel that planning is the most important tactic. A department chair
may feel that restructuring is always the best way to make change. However, suc-
cessful change agents use multiple approaches to create change that are matched
to the type of change desired and the context within which they are pursuing
it. Too often, books on change promise that a linear, four- or five-step process
will work, regardless of the context or type of change. Earlier books on change in
higher education do not serve leaders well because they are based on simplistic
strategic planning models of change—develop a vision, create a plan, assemble
an implementation team, garner resources, then evaluate (Kerr 1984; Lucas 2000;
Steeples 1990). Most characterizations of change processes are simple, linear, and
miss the importance of organizational context. Multiple strategies are needed
for change, which have been found to be essential within the multidisciplinary
xii  Preface

research base (Collins 1998). As a recent critique of the change literature noted,
even though most authors claim that they have a recipe for change, the process is
far too complex for any single approach to work within every situation and con-
text (Burnes 2011). Still, the literature keeps reinventing this myth. For example,
Kotter (1996) presents an eight-stage process for creating change that includes
creating a sense of urgency, developing coalitions, developing a vision, and iden-
tifying short-term wins. While the eight stages are helpful, they present a model
that is too simple, linear, and generalized to utilize in every change situation.
Instead of repeating this mistake, this book helps change agents to understand
how they can design customized approaches that fit their context and the type of
change they intend to make.
The book will highlight the need for change agents and leaders to be savvy in
applying multiple strategies and tactics for change. My research documents how
leaders often approach change in naive ways (e.g. by not grounding changes in
research or relying on simplistic approaches), as well as the value of being trained
to understand research-based principles of change. In large, national research
projects, I have documented how campus change projects are advanced when
leaders are instructed on more complex ways to approach change. In summary,
the book attempts to unmask some of the problematic assumptions that change
agents typically make.
The work presented here attempts to help leaders overcome common mistakes
by providing a research-based, macro framework for conceptualizing change as a
complex process and designing a change process that is customized to suit a par-
ticular organizational challenge and moment. The overarching perspective taken is
that change agents need to learn to be adaptable, creative, and have a host of strate-
gies and tools at their disposal. The situations surrounding change vary and are
dynamic, so a linear set of approaches is not going to work well in most situations.
Others have critiqued the change literature in similar ways for being overly simplis-
tic and linear, most notably Collins (1998). Most recently, a December 2011 special
edition of the Journal of Change Management focused on the 70 percent failure rate
of organizational change efforts historically. The special edition, titled Why Does
Change Fail and What Can We Do About It?, suggests that a significant reason
for the high failure rate is the overly simplistic models of change that have been
advocated over the years that declare there is the one best way to create change.
The various studies in this special edition demonstrate a much higher success rate
for change agents who use more complex approaches within change initiatives.
Furthermore, the edition also examines faulty assumptions around top-down
organizational change, demonstrating that power struggles and lack of empower-
ment also feed into the high failure rates, which is also a theme in this book.

4. Not Grounding Change in Research

Furthermore, books on change in higher education are not grounded in
research. Instead, they are often collections of practitioners’ stories about how
 Preface  xiii

they created change, distilling generalized principles from anecdotes and unique
situations. This book will review the latest research on key concepts that have
been identified as facilitating change, such as organizational learning, sense-
making, social network analysis, and organizational culture. In recent years, our
understanding of how change occurs has advanced in critical ways that help
us to understand perennial problems such as resistance, scalability, and high
failure rates for change initiatives. Many scholars have noted that the high fail-
ure rates (upward of 70 percent in most studies) of change initiatives should
be a caution for change agents and have them consider that they need greater
advice and insight. Change is too disruptive a process to engage in with these
high failure rates, and poor change efforts can lead to poor morale, disengage-
ment by employees, and wasted time and productivity. This book will be one of
the first research-based explorations into the topic. Leaders in higher education
will be much better served by a book on change that moves beyond untested
advice communicated in personal stories and anecdotes, and focuses instead on
research-based principles of change.
It is also important to note that studies of change agents who have undergone
formal study and then used theory and research to later guide their practice noted
several advantages over colleagues who did not have similar training:

1. They felt more comfortable because they could assess and understand the
drivers and contexts of change, as well as the reasons for resistance, which
helped them feel more empowered to move forward.
2. They felt better able to communicate their strategy to others and have others
join them in their change efforts.
3. They were better able to match change strategies to change situations with
greater confidence.
(Andrews et al. 2008)

Research suggests that change agents learn more from broad explanatory
theories about the larger story of how change unfolds as a unique human and
organizational dynamic than particular change techniques often emphasized in
training sessions in leadership or management courses. The participants in their
study rejected prescriptive models as helpful, and instead found that “theories
which enabled them to make sense of and contextualize change situations in
which they found themselves” were most helpful (Andrews et al. 2008: 311).
Experienced change agents learned that each change situation might require a
different response. Thus, a willingness to be flexible to contextual conditions was
key to change agents’ success. Additionally, knowing multiple theories of change
allowed leaders to respond to situations that differed and they were able to har-
ness ideas as needed to fit the situation. This approach to change sees theories
not as prescriptions to be enacted unreflectively, but ideas to be considered based
on contexts.
Based on a desire to help leaders overcome these mistakes and to provide better
information than previous publications, there are four main goals:
xiv  Preface

1. Present major insights into the change process based on the synthesis of theo-
ries of change.
2. Present an overarching framework for conceptualizing change based on these
theories/research.
3. Provide detail on special research topics that are very important to executing
change, such as organizational learning or social networks.
4. Review existing models of change that have been put into practice in higher
education, such as Project Kaleidoscope’s Leadership Institute, the Center
for Urban Education’s Equity Scorecard, Achieving the Dream, the Campus
Diversity Initiative, and the National Survey of Student Engagement’s bench-
marking efforts, and what can be learned from these initiatives.

Organization
The book is organized into three parts.
Part 1—“Thinking Differently About Change”—contains three chapters that
set the context for the rest of the book. Chapter 1 begins by explaining the reasons
for change in the current context, as well as how the current context shapes change
processes. Chapter 2 reviews ethics and how they can and should be engaged in
thinking about change processes right from the beginning. Chapter 3 outlines the
main concepts and theories about change that will be applied throughout the rest
of the book. Many of the later chapters build upon Chapter 3, so the book is best
read sequentially; however, the chapters in Part 3 are meant to stand alone, so they
may be read and are easily understood in isolation.
Part 2—“A Multifaceted Framework for Understanding Change”—contains
five chapters and reviews the reflective framework for analyzing change situa-
tions. Chapter 4 focuses on the type of change, as well as how an analysis of the
type of change can help leaders to design a strong strategy. Chapter 5 delves into
one important type of change—second-order or deep change—and examines two
theories from the social cognition school of thought, sensemaking and organi-
zational learning. Chapter 6 reviews various contexts—social/economic, external
organizations, institutional culture—that all shape change processes and may also
function as levers or barriers for change. Chapter 7 reviews the notions of agency
and leadership; it explores how different actors have different agency, which can
shape strategies or approaches to change. Chapter 8 summarizes how the type
of change, context, and agency can be analyzed together to generate creative
approaches to change situations. Five unique cases are presented and analyzed
using the elements of the framework.
Part 3—“Challenges for Change Agents in Our Time”—contains two chapters
exploring some of the perennial struggles of change agents, such as obstacles to
change and scaling up changes. Chapter 9 reviews common obstacles that emerge
as change processes unfold, as well as a three-stage model of the institutionalization
 Preface  xv

of changes. Chapter 10 reviews some promising vehicles to scale change, including

social movements, networks, communities of practice, and learning communities.
These chapters provide additional resources for addressing challenges that have
long vexed change agents.

Audience and Uses of the Book

I consider change not from the viewpoint of administration or management,
and I consciously use the term change agent throughout the book to signal that
anyone can create change. So much of the change literature comes from a man-
agerial perspective and assumes that guidance should only be intended to help
administrators put in place their vision or set of interests, providing a view of the
organization from the top down within the organizational hierarchy. This book
hopes to discourage change processes emerging from this top-down perspective,
and instead conceptualizes change as a multilevel leadership process with changes
emerging throughout the organization at different levels (Sturdy and Grey 2003).
Thus, the audience is broader than for many books on change, looking at the roles
of all organizational stakeholders.
As a result, the audience for this book is quite expansive, ranging from board
members and presidents, provosts, deans, and department chairs; to faculty; to
student affairs practitioners; to staff across all units and divisions on campus; to
graduate and undergraduate students and change agents across a host of areas in
higher education.
The book may be used as:

1. a guide for change agents and practitioners working in higher education

institutions;
2. a textbook for leadership and management courses in higher education and
student affairs; and
3. a scholarly book on change for the field.

This book will be a great resource for higher education leadership or admin-
istration courses where faculty and students are discussing the importance of
change and how to create it. Also, the student affairs curriculum often includes
a leadership or management course aimed at creating change. Almost all
graduate students register that they come back to obtain their doctoral or mas-
ter’s degrees because they want to create changes in higher education and are
frustrated with some aspect of their current role. Higher education programs
often teach sections of courses or whole courses on issues relating to change
because students have this strong desire to learn about how to be effective
change agents. Therefore, this text is important for consideration as a textbook
in higher education programs.
xvi  Preface

However, while this book could be used as a textbook, as it has theory to inform
students, it is meant to be a guide for practitioners. As noted throughout this
preface, change agents and leaders on campus too often rely on their own experi-
ence or peers’ perspectives for change strategies and approaches. This book can
be used in leadership institutes, academies, and professional development aimed
at change agents, such as directors of centers for teaching and learning, depart-
ment chairs, or staff with a vision for change. This book will offer guidance that
can help improve the success rate for change initiatives. I also hope the book will
encourage leaders to think about the types of changes being made and the ethics
behind their choices. As was noted earlier, the book will aim to achieve praxis by
bringing in solid research to support practical implications for change agents. It
will be squarely based on existing theories and includes a review of significant
research about change.
As a scholarly book on change, various change theories are summarized to intro-
duce scholars to this area of research. Also, this book offers several new insights
into change, such as the approach of grassroots leaders, the role of sensemaking
and organizational learning, the potential of social network analysis, ethics and
change, and information about the importance of context-based approaches to
change. However, readers who are purely interested in theories about change and
want a primer that reviews the multidisciplinary research base are encouraged to
access my prior work, Understanding and Facilitating Organizational Change in
the 21st Century (see Kezar 2001).
In this book, I offer a toolkit—a framework for analyzing change, a set of
lenses or perspectives through theory to apply to the framework and to custom-
design a change process. And this invitation to move away from simple, linear
theories of change (or no theories of change at all) and to engage in your own
analysis as a change agent may not be readily received by all. Over the years, I
have worked to identify research that captures the need for adopting the kind of
complexity described in this book that is necessary for being an effective change
agent. In Kegan and Lahey’s (2009) book Immunity to Change, they summarize
and provide a framework for understanding the necessity of rethinking one’s
approach to leadership and change. Kegan and Lahey distinguish three stages of
adult development: the socialized mind, the self-authoring mind, and the self-
transforming mind.

1. Socialized mind: People whose minds are shaped by those around them.
What they say and think is strongly influenced by outside sources. These are
people with “go with the flow” mindsets. They conform and are dependent on
others for direction and values.
2. Self-authoring mind: Those who develop their own internal compass to guide
them. Their sense of self is aligned with their beliefs, principles, and values.
People who are achievers and independent. The people who believe if you
stand for nothing, you’ll fall for anything.
 Preface  xvii

3. Self-transforming mind: The most developed and transformed minds are peo-
ple who have their own ideology but they are able to step back from their
own point of view and see how to connect with those of opposing views.
These people are more likely to form coalitions that can transform a fam-
ily, community, or nation. This ability requires humility and courage. They
identified that self-transforming minds are individuals who can be the best
change agents. Such individuals are more conscious and self-aware, better
problem-solvers, collaborators, and leaders. Research shows a strong cor-
relation between a person’s effectiveness as a leader and that person’s way
of processing mental complexities, such as different points of view, multiple
frameworks, and competing objectives, as well as those who can appreciate
their own values as well as those of others. This complexity is present in the
self-transforming mind.

But 75 percent of the general population have only developed to the socialized
mind. That means change agents typically seek external direction, are shaped by
definitions and expectations of their environment, like simplicity, and try to adhere
to existing schema and views around them. And while close to 17 percent of adults
reach the self-authoring mind, that mindset is limiting in that it becomes domi-
nated by a narrow set of values and is less open to multiple and competing values
and ideas. The advantage of this mindset is that it has explored multiple value sys-
tems and developed a perspective based on critical thinking and reflection.
What this book asks is that you move toward the self-transforming mind. That
you challenge yourself not to use easy or recognizable change frameworks that
can be pulled off the shelf. That you engage multiple perspectives and approaches
to change that is reflective of the self-transforming mind. That you not be drawn
to just change theories that reflect your own biases—some people resonate with
organizational learning but are turned off by politics, or like planning but feel
rituals and symbols are a waste of time. Given Kegan and Lahey’s research, what I
am asking is for change agents to push themselves to a new level of development.
This is the very task that will make you successful in your efforts going forward.

New to This Edition

While the main arguments of this book remain the same as the first edition, I have
made several additions that respond to feedback from readers and that include
information about my latest research on scaling changes in higher education. I
have also added some tools drawn from my consulting work with campuses to
help them in their change efforts.
These changes are based largely on work I have been engaged in during the
last few years. I have worked on several efforts examining scaled change efforts,
most notably the AAU STEM Initiative (2013–2017) (www.aau.edu/education-
service/undergraduate-education/undergraduate-stem-education-initiative),
xviii  Preface

which explored the role of AAU in scaling evidence-based teaching practices at

AAU institutions and to improve the quality of undergraduate STEM education.
The AAU Initiative allowed me to examine the way a national organization works
with other national organizations toward greater collective impact and networks
that infuse change broadly (https://pullias.usc.edu/scalingstemreform/about/).
The project also involved exploration of how campuses can work in groups and
networks to support scaled change. The Teagle Foundation (2012–2015) engaged
me to explore the role of consortia in facilitating changes in multi-campus efforts.
The project also explored factors that facilitated institutional change and learn-
ing among groups of campuses. This project and its results can be found at
www.teaglefoundation.org/Impacts-Outcomes/Evaluator/Reports/Scaling-and-
Sustaining-Change-and-Innovation.
In addition, I evaluated a multi-campus change project, the CSU STEM
Collaboratives (2014–2017), which involved eight CSU campuses working
together and learning to better support students in STEM (https://pullias.usc.
edu/csustemcollab/creating-a-unified-community-of-support-increasing-
success-for-underrepresented-students-in-stem/). This project allowed me to
examine organizational learning practices, networks, and institutional change
processes. Lastly, I studied four large-scale, national STEM reform communities
that are helping faculty in STEM improve the learning environment. This project,
Achieving Scale in STEM Reform (2012–2015), and its final report (https://pullias.
usc.edu/achievingscale/dissemination/) highlight the importance of professional
learning communities for scaling change. And my ongoing work on the Delphi
Project on the Changing Faculty and Student Success (www.thechangingfaculty.
org/) has had me constantly thinking about scaling changes. The project aims to
help every non-tenure track faculty member in the country be better supported
and to help change agents at every institution develop faculty models that support
faculty so they can support student success. The goal is to impact every campus
in the country, and by many measures we know the project has impacted change
on hundreds of campuses, perhaps even thousands. This work has involved many
different change strategies, ranging from the creation of a vast network, to action-
based research, to advocacy/policy changes, to tool and resource development,
to the development of a national award. I have also served on dozens of advisory
boards for projects and institutional change efforts. For example, a study of the
ADVANCE program offers important tools and cases that align with the princi-
ples offered in this book (www.colorado.edu/eer/research/strategic.html).
Together, these five projects are some of the first studies to explore scaled
efforts at change. In fact, developing the first edition of How Colleges Change
prompted this work as I reflected on the dearth of literature on scaled change in
higher education. This propelled me to work on these four projects and to help
develop knowledge about mechanisms for scaling change.
While institutional-level changes will always be central and the site where
many change agents feel they have the most agency, increasingly foundations,
 Preface  xix

government agencies, and policymakers are asking for leaders to expand their
reach and consider mechanisms for change that involve much larger reach than
a single institution. Change agents will benefit from considering networks and
communities of practice that were highlighted in the first edition, but also addi-
tional tools showcased in this edition, such as consortium and multi-campus
projects, meta-networks, media and public relations, coalitions, and other scaled
efforts that increase the reach of important practices we hope become more com-
mon practice in higher education.
This volume also includes practical tools for change agents. One of the major
projects I was involved with that included tool development was the PKAL-
Keck STEM Education Effectiveness Framework project, which resulted in
the Increasing Student Success in STEM guide published by the Association of
Colleges and Universities (2016) (www.aacu.org/publications-research/publi
cations/increasing-student-success-stem-guide-systemic-institutional) (Kezar
and Holcombe 2017a). This project involved drawing on change agents’ experi-
ence with implementation to help develop tools that supported their efforts at
institutional change. This study also illustrated the barrier implicit theories of
change can play in implementation. The empirical evidence about ways leaders
are hampered by their own unarticulated views of change is a very important
cautionary story.
My research has expanded to focus more on scale and tool development, but my
main lessons learned about change are much the same, grounded in the impor-
tance of ethics to guide leaders, the importance of considering change process
explicitly, intentionality and engagement, being guided by the change framework
that provides areas for change agents to focus their analysis and custom-design
their approach, embracing complexity, and grounding change in proven research
strategies. Some tools, such as how to gauge readiness for change, are now
included in the appendices. Also, several reviewers of the book felt that teaching
case studies left unresolved for individuals to process and work through the con-
cepts would be helpful, and they are included in the appendices as well. A few new
charts summarizing materials have also been added.
I decided to move up the chapter on the ethics of change to Chapter 2 to
reflect the fact that in this political era, ethics are increasingly important, and
leaders need to center ethical considerations and processes in change. There are
increasingly attacks on college campuses from alt-right groups and conservative
legislators. They are demanding changes to tenure, reorganizing and closing aca-
demic departments, limiting academic freedom, and creating competing pressures
between free speech and campus safety. And with these pressures com threats to
funding. It is unclear what policy changes may be mandated in the coming years,
but it is clear to me that change agents will be best served by foregrounded ethics
and ethical change processes moving forward in this coming era.
I hope that change agents benefit from this revised edition, and I welcome feed-
back to support a third edition, assuming there is one. Most important is the work
xx  Preface

that you do as a change agent, and please do send in any comments that would
help other leaders in their effort to be efficacious change agents.
Before I start describing how change works, it is important to understand why
change is important in the academy, and the particular context for change in
today’s unique environment, which is the focus of Chapter 1 and 2.

Note
1 Throughout the book, I will use change agent and leader interchangeably as individuals
that move changes forward.
 Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers who provided helpful feedback to
revise the first edition and Heather Jarrow at Routledge for inviting me to revise
the volume.
I would like to thank the change agents willing to take a risk and care enough to
face the sometimes difficult processes involved in change. Without change agents’
passion, commitment, vision, and persistence, change would be impossible.
 Part 1
Thinking
Differently
about Change

The first part of the book focuses readers on understanding why change is neces-
sary and encourages them to think differently about the change process through
an exploration of theories of change that emphasize aspects that are often not
visible to change agents. Part 1 also establishes the main assumptions and theories
that undergird the framework presented in the second part of the book.
Chapter 1 explains why change is needed in higher education, as well as how
today’s context is unique. Chapter 2 explores ethics in relationship to change.
This chapter refers back to ideas presented in Chapter 1 on the current context
of change and how it presents ethical dilemmas. This chapter challenges change
agents to consider the ethical underpinnings of all change initiatives and provides
critical areas for reflection. I foreground ethics as without considering the “why”
and “what” of change first, no matter how strongly you implement a change pro-
cess, if it is wrongheaded, all the effort is for naught.
Chapter 3 reviews six theories of change that can help leaders to think differ-
ently and expand their ideas about change. These six theories will also inform the
framework presented in Part 2 of the book. Appendix 1 includes teaching case
studies that allow the reader to apply the concepts presented throughout Parts 1
and 2.
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