Jacobs is correct when he points to the need for the development of formal and informal postsecondary leaders, practitioners and administrators, who work with vocational education and workforce systems from within the community college system. However, he dismisses too quickly their development potential, though it is this innate potential, combined with substantive experience, that can make these leaders visionary change agents. He ignores the potential of personnel within community colleges and reveals his corporate bias by favoring vocational administrator models drawn from the ranks of human resources departments (HRD) in large companies and corporate entities.

Jacob's proposal to bring individuals in from the outside will no doubt foster a slowly evolving cancer that will, at first, consume workforce development programs, and then, the community college system itself. Survivors will be left wondering what happened to the community college rather than marveling over its potential and seeking to understand how to make it better and more responsive to community needs. Unless there are comprehensive, practical development programs to create leadership teams that can deal with organizational change, community college leaders will lose their ability to change and will, instead, feel threatened by change.

Change, however, need not be threatening. A simple yet stimulating book on change is Who Moved My Cheese? (Johnson, 1998). This book is a quick, easy read, and I recommend it as a catalyst to begin a discussion on change. It is the story of four rodents, Sniff, Scurry, Hem, and Haw, who experience the struggles, emotions, and fears related to change.

Sniff and Scurry possess simple rodent brains, but good instincts. Hem and Haw, use their brains, filled with many beliefs and emotions. When their cheese starts to disappear, Sniff and Scurry leave their comfortable place in search of new cheese. Hem and Haw, afraid to leave the comfortable place, stay put, waiting for the cheese to return. Needless to say, the cheese does not return. At one point in the story, Haw realizes that he is learning some very valuable lessons about moving on from his friends, Sniff and Scurry: movement in a new direction helps you find new cheese, realizing you have old cheese and letting go of it will help you find the new cheese faster, holding on to old beliefs does not lead you to new cheese. Vocational education leaders can learn a valuable lesson from Sniff and Scurry.

The desire of postsecondary vocational educators and administrators to mimic four-year institutions for the sake of a sense of academic respectability is an example of holding on to "old cheese." Holding on to this belief will leave these educators and administrators in a "cheeseless" situation. The lesson here is that community colleges must move past the fear that they will become something less than what they are if traditional vocational Associate-degree programs become too closely associated with short-term job training.

Community college leadership - presidents, vice presidents, deans, department chairs, faculty, support staff, and students - must have a shared vision of the community college of the 21st century including workforce systems. To implement a 21st century vision for workforce development, these leaders must become change agents or risk gaining practical experience in the unemployment line. As the writer of Proverbs put it, "people without a vision shall perish."

If we believe that leadership is the property of culture and therefore reflects the stated and operating values of a specific institution, then we must look through that institution's lens to discover how the group identifies itself, who and what matters to the group, how things are done, and what stories will be told about outcomes. When an institution is able to understand itself in these ways, it can begin to use its own leadership in an active quest for a desired change.

In order for leaders to be truly prepared to take on leadership roles that shape the future of the community college, it is imperative that they become engaged in educational programs and seminars that specialize in community college leadership. Understanding the origins and evolution of the community college, as well as the basis for criticisms, are key to understanding where the community college is going and how it is going to get there. The corporate model offers limited relevance for the community college and workforce development systems because it is does not reflect these values and mission. In order to respond to the workforce needs of the communities they serve, personnel from within the community college must become actively engaged in leadership development to further the mission and determine its destiny.

Reference

Johnson, S. (1998). Who moved my cheese? An amazing way to deal with change in your work and in your life. New York: Putnum Publishing.