Michael Fullan - Nuance: Why Some Leaders Succeed and Others Fail

What Your Colleagues Are Saying

Nuance is Fullan at his impressive bestenabling leaders to see what was under their nose with sharp action-oriented clarity. Contextsof people, time, and placeare such key factors in managing change and here he uncovers the subtlety of nuance, which is the essential bedfellow of judgment without which disaster will threaten any leader. Wise system leaders will buy a copy for all their school leaders and keep a copy for themselves.

Tim Brighouse, England

Discover the subtle power of nuance leadership and get dramatic new results. A courageous and timely book that goes to the heart of our complex leadership times. Why do some leaders get extraordinary results while others, ostensibly doing the same things, simply replicate existing patterns? Blending experience and uncommon intellectual acuity, Fullan explains both the key connected dimensions and the exceptional leverage of nuance.

Brendan Spillane, Leadership Consultant in Sports, Business and Education

I continue to be in awe that Michael Fullan is able to describe and explain so clearly the kind of leadership I am intuitively trying to do. Nobody else I have ever read can do this as well as he does. Fullan, more than anyone else, has given me the language for my leadership over the years.

Steve Munby, Former CEO of National College for School Leadership, England

Nuance is a powerful call for a different type of leadershipone that rejects the quick fixes, oppositional thinking, and superficial innovations that make no lasting impact on our most pressing and complex educational problems. In Nuance, Fullan provides a richly illustrated account of how nuanced leadership embraces complexity and integrates competing forces in ways that foster deep understanding, collaborative learning and accountability, and sustainable rather than superficial solutions. Its not a recipe; its an inspiration and a call to action.

Viviane Robinson, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of Auckland, New Zealand

If you have been waiting to have your thinking on leadership provoked once again, Michael Fullans latest book will not disappoint you. Nuance raises the bar and challenges thinking about leadership while providing those willing to work for it the concrete examples, actions, and steps necessary to do so. As followers of his work have come to expect, in Nuance, Fullan leads from what he has learned and artfully weaves together complex ideas into a pattern that accomplishes the simplexity that makes the seemingly impossible become possible.

Laura Schwalm, California Education Partners

I have to say that reading this manuscript was like looking in the mirror and seeing something of myself that I hadnt noticed before, or valued before, or even been able to put language to. I feel simultaneously comforted by what [Fullan has] written in that I feel validated and understood and even a bit more hopeful about myself, but it has also left me hungry for more.

Marie-Claire Bretherton, Executive Head Teacher, Kyra Teaching School, England

I get what [Fullan is] saying about nuance. I mean there are 5, 10, 15 different ways to do something; depending on a particular context, its going to have a different result. I think [Fullans] on to something really important. [This work] actually helped me get my head around what I have been doing with everyone in the Toronto District School Board.

John Malloy, Director, Toronto District School Board

why some leaders succeed and others fail