Source: World Business
Date: May 2007
Author: Leaders as lead learners - a case example of facilitating collaborative leadership learning for school leaders by Kim Turnbull James, Jasbir Mann & Jane Creasy, Management Learning, Vol 38 No 1, February 2007

It is widely accepted that modern organisations need what is known as 'distributed leadership' (flatter structures with leaders at all levels) rather than the traditional hierarchical system.

This is supposed to create more nimble, reactive, creative and efficient organisations. However, it is not easy to make the transition from the top-down system to a more collaborative one. In the former, leaders were expected to know where to take a company and be able to do so.

In the distributed leadership model, it is recognised that they depend on the knowledge and actions of people throughout all levels of the organisation and that their job is to provide general strategic direction. They must also learn to lead in a more collaborative fashion.

This study examined how the National College for School Leadership in England went about teaching collaborative leadership to head teachers in a new training programme established in 2001. The training mirrored the realities of leading in a more collaborative environment where information is not always clear and direct.