ABSTRACT
Higher education itself is in a period of dramatic change, with different types of institutions responding differently based on their own traditions, missions, and cultures. This chapter suggests ways in which distance education leaders can gain insight into their institutions to better serve as change leaders. It presents a different set of literature to provide a new context within which eLearning professionals can understand their relationship to the broader institution in which they work and practice leadership as the unique institution of higher education goes through a period of radical change. Prudence is about the underlying moral duty of leadership—the virtue of shaping goals and making decisions that don't require perfection but instead result in sustainable decency. One critical responsibility of change leaders in this environment is to anticipate and minimize, to the extent possible, the negative impact of unintended consequences—the reminders of limited understanding that show up in any innovation of consequence.
