"All the dilemmas in education reform are coming home to roost: top-down versus bottom-up; short-term versus long-term results; centralization versus decentralization; informed prescription versus informed professional judgment; transactional versus transformative leadership; excellence versus equity. And how does one achieve large-scale reform, anyway; reform that is characterized by serious accountability and ownership?

As it turns out, "sustainability" is at the heart of these dilemmas. It's definition is not straightforward. It is not how to maintain good programs beyond implementation. It is not how to keep going in a linear, sustained fashion. It is not how to keep up relentless energy. For the moment, let's be satisfied with a general definition: Sustainability is the capacity of a system to engage in the complexities of continuous improvement consistent with deep values of human purpose."

- Michael Fullan, Leadership and Sustainability: System Thinkers in Action