Although school improvement continues to present as an unresolved educational problem, the required changes are relatively straightforward. Essentially, schools need to be retooled with students' experiences and high-quality instruction at the center of the design. In this article, we present the findings of research into the leadership of high-capacity learning community schools, wherein the design features yielded school-wide improvement in teaching and learning. Specifically, educational leadership emerged organically throughout the school, and the school leaders took a collaborative, learning-oriented approach to regulating, coordinating, expanding and protecting professional practice. These leadership activities reflected the ontology of living systems, as different from managed systems, and enabled the leaders to create an environment within which authentic teaching and rich learning flourished.