ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a case study examining how a new approach to delivering a large-scale change project, the Academic Journey, required relinquishing the certainty of a desired outcome. Letting go of the notion of heroic leadership, leaders at all levels sought to develop their capability to act in reflexive ways and embody dialogic leadership qualities. The chapter explores the pressures and tensions catalysed by the anxiety of ‘not knowing’ and the role of senior leaders in that space. It challenges prevailing views that delivering change in higher education has to be slow and hindered by formal governance structures. Proactively using structures of governance to provide crucial points of intersection, allowing planned and emergent change to intertwine, is presented as critical to achieving progress, as is developing a principles-based framework to ground discussions. Rather than project management as the driving force, the academic governance process and principles emerging from the learning and teaching strategy enabled momentum to be maintained, while also ensuring sufficient space for dialogue and reflection. While the role of planned change is acknowledged, the case study demonstrates that an emergent change approach, incorporating dialogic leadership, is capable of delivering responsive change to challenging deadlines.
