The Knowledge

The ‘constant dance’ of leading a values-driven trust

Our new report shows that providing a ‘whole education’ requires trust leaders to embrace a ‘constant dance’ of shifting and competing priorities

Our new report shows that providing a ‘whole education’ requires trust leaders to embrace a ‘constant dance’ of shifting and competing priorities

27 Jan 2025, 5:00

Our new research into values-based leadership in multi-academy trusts (MATs) is called ‘A constant dance’. It’s a phrase we took from one of the CEOs we interviewed, who used it to describe how they work to balance and address different (and sometimes competing) priorities.

As Whole Education CEO, Shonogh Pilgrim says in her foreword to the report, in any group dance “there are times when all dancers know their part and have the skill to perform it, they are aligned, moving as one”. But dancing with others is complex, takes hours of practice, and is always at risk of disequilibrium.

In sum, the phrase is apt to describe the experience of leadership in complex, multi-site organisations.

Our research involved case studies of five trusts – Anglian, LiFE, Meridian, Pioneer and White Woods – ranging in size from four to 30 schools.

We explored how leaders in these trusts are working to develop their organisations in ways which enhance their ability to deliver a ‘whole education’ for both staff and students.

We focussed on four ‘knotty’ areas for trust organisational development, which we had identified through a series of workshops involving members of Whole Education’s trust leadership network:

Sensemaking and leadership

To what extent do trust leaders acknowledge ambiguity in complex areas, such as attendance, SEND, or overcoming disadvantage? How do they bring diverse stakeholders together to reflect on evidence and experience and engage in collective decision-making?

Structural integration

Where and how far should trusts seek integration across both back office and school improvement functions?

Knowledge mobilisation and boundary spanning

How are knowledge and expertise developed, identified and shared across trusts? Who are the key people across trusts who bridge organisational and attitudinal silos, helping to move knowledge around?   

Navigating agency, autonomy and prescription

Where and why do trusts align practices? How do they ensure flexibility and adaptiveness? Do staff feel trusted and empowered to adapt approaches when needed?  

Our report draws out various examples of how the five trusts are working to address these areas, showing clearly that there is not ‘one best way’ to lead a trust.

Effective trusts embrace being reliably adaptive

In part this is because each trust has its own history, context, values and priorities, leading to distinctive challenges and approaches.

For example, in the section on ‘navigating agency, autonomy and prescription’ we focus on two trusts – Anglian and Meridian – both of which were established by successful secondary schools, but which have evolved in different ways.  

Anglian was founded on a commitment to school autonomy. It has gone through a “hard-won” process of alignment on many areas of school improvement. However, it remains a relatively decentralised trust, with no executive heads or curriculum leads in its central team.  

Meridian, on the other hand, has been “quite prescriptive” since it first formed. The trust’s values provide a bedrock for decision-making and practice, overseen by a core team of executive heads and subject leads. Established leaders describe a process of convergence in policy and practice over a 10-year period, as the trust has learned “what works”.

Our key conclusion is that values-based leadership which accepts that trusts will never be perfect (not least because the world is continually changing around them) is essential.

Of course, this is not unique to MATs. Organisational theorist Karl Weick rejected the noun organisation in favour of the more active organising. His point was that “the world – including both organisations and their environments – are being constantly enacted by individuals and groups”.

This is not to say that MATs are never unified or that they cannot add value. However, it raises questions about whether they should seek to become tightly coupled machines or should embrace the ‘constant dance’ in ways which allow them to become reliably adaptive.

Our findings suggest the latter. More than that, they point the way to achieving it, which requires three key foci: common values (evident in these trusts as a commitment to ‘whole education’), co-construction as a continuing process, and leadership skilled at articulating shared theories, language and tools.

No choreography will ever be perfect, but these findings show it can be sustained, engaging and successful.

Read the full report here

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