Why improve?

/ mkessenburg

Improvement takes work. Real work. Disciplined effort. It’s not easy, and it takes time. So, why improve? As I reflect on my past motives for improving, I’d say they include:

  1. To have fun. (I really like learning!)
  2. To be successful.
  3. To reduce criticism.
  4. To get along better with others.
  5. To improve my reputation. 
  6. To attract more customers.
  7. To use best practice more effectively and efficiently.
  8. To demonstrate a commitment to excellence.
  9. To help those I serve achieve more.
  10. To love God and my neighbor more.

As I look back at the improvement efforts of my colleagues and the organizations I’ve served in, I’d say the above list of motives holds true. And now as I look forward for myself, my colleagues, and my organization, my response to “Why serve?” is to flourish as God intended. 

For my organization, improvement needs to fundamentally be about flourishing. Why? I want my organization to be a blessing to its staff and to those it serves. 

As Al Lopus, author of Road to Flourishing, puts it, “I have a dream of seeing Christian-led organizations set the standard as the best, most effective workplaces in the world. If we want to cooperate with God in drawing the world to himself, we have nothing better to offer the world than flourishing Christian workplaces. They stand as a witness that life in Christ is truly a flourishing one! They are the best evidence that Jesus really did come so that people could have life to the fullest (John 10:10)—even in their work” (loc 195).

Because I want my organization to flourish, I want my organization to grow, to improve. I’ve found things that help include:

  1. A continuous improvement mindset. Remember, if you’re not improving, you’re either stagnating or moving toward obsolescence. Not good.
  2. An order of operations that starts with the leader: Leaders improve to help staff improve in order to help the organization improve.
  3. A deep understanding of the mission and vision.
  4. Standards that you can use to assess your organization’s current reality.
  5. Perspective from those in the organization and from those outside the organization.
  6. An improvement process. One that includes internal and external input, an assessment of how we are doing against our organizational standards, the identification of strengths and growth areas, and the ongoing monitoring of how we’re doing as an organization.
  7. An improvement plan.
  8. Resources to carry out the plan—time, staffing, finances…
  9. Opportunities to learn how other organizations are working to improve.
  10. Accountability. Both internal (like board, leadership, and staff) and external (customers, auditors).
Source: ACSI

It’s possible to generate all 10 of these things on your own. You can do this, and if you want help, consider working with a consultant and/or pursuing accreditation. School accreditation, for example, will help you with #3-10 above—school accreditation agencies provide standards, require a plan and process, give you opportunities to visit other schools; and provide accountability through annual reporting and accreditation visits. 

Additional benefits for me personally have included building my network, having training opportunities, and getting additional resources. Overall, I’d say that accreditation has helped me flourish, helped my colleagues flourish, helped the organizations I’ve served in to flourish, and, consequently, helped those we served to flourish.

Bottom line: Get your organization improving! Get your organization flourishing!

What about you? Why improve? What helps you continuously improve? What role does/could accreditation play in your improvement efforts?

Here are some posts related to flourishing:

Here’s what I’m learning from Road to Flourishing: Eight Keys to Boost Employee Engagement and Well-Being:

  • “,,,if a flourishing culture engages workers, a culture that isn’t flourishing disengages them” (loc 317).
  • “…for leaders to improve their culture they have to be able to identify what drives their organization to flourish and measure for it” (loc 354).
  • “…life-giving work—work that is full of meaning, significance, and purpose. When employees can utilize their skills and spiritual gifts in what they do, and when they know their effort makes a difference, they love coming to work, and they’re devoted to it” (loc 775).
  • “Uplifting growth is the improvement of individuals, groups, and the whole organization to meet the challenges of a changing world. When employees learn new things, their elevated ability enables the organization to maintain and improve its effectiveness. But the organization also improves because employees are more engaged in what they do” (loc 1418).
  • “When taught and modeled by inspirational leaders who hold people accountable to them, core values establish the consistency that allows trust to flourish in workplace culture” (loc 2244).

Get flourishing!

Michael

P.S. Bonus! Here’s a list of 10 quotations from things I’ve read that contain the word why:

  1. “Focus on purpose, start with ‘why’” (The E5 Movement: Leadership through the Rule of Five, loc 885).
  2. “Unless you first know why you’re working, you can’t properly evaluate how you’re working” (Free to Focus: A Total Productivity System to Achieve More by Doing Less, loc 331).
  3. “Being unprepared for the future means overlooking key opportunities in the present. Why? Vision keeps us attuned to possibilities that align with the future we see. Without a vision, those opportunities slide right by” (The Vision-Driven Leader: 10 Questions to Focus Your Efforts, Energize Your Team, and Scale Your Business, loc 588).
  4. “Purpose, people process. The why, the who, and the how. A great manager is constantly asking herself how she can influence these levers to improve her team’s outcomes” (The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You, p. 24).
  5. “Leadership Intent = The ‘why’ of the strategy + A clear picture of the end state” (Does Your Team Know What You Want? Clarify Your Intent with These 4 Steps).
  6. “When people feel valued by their leader and their group, it becomes a part of them. They internalize the group’s goals, and their work has meaning. Conversely, when people don’t feel appreciated, they slowly remove themselves from the group emotionally. Why should they care if it succeeds? After all, they’re just fulfilling a contract—they put in work and, in return, they receive a paycheck. It’s transactional” (The Work of Leaders: How Vision, Alignment, and Execution Will Change the Way You Lead, loc 1985).
  7. “Why, despite the desire to learn, can it be so difficult to start something new and stick with it? What does it take to gain and maintain momentum? Once we’ve made considerable progress, why do we sometimes tire of what we’re doing and even feel we can no longer do it? Why do we outgrow things so quickly? (Smart Growth: How to Grow Your People to Grow Your Company, loc 152).
  8. “Why would a reasonable, rational, and decent person do what this person is doing?” (Crucial Conversations, p. 124)
  9. “Why is it easy to make that initial decision for change, and even to start to do some of the things right—but difficult to persist in the longer term?” (Good Habits, Bad Habits: The Science of Make Positive Changes That Stick, p. 7)
  10. “If you aren’t fed spiritually, you won’t have the resources to edify others. This is why we strive to read the Bible and pray daily. If you don’t look after your health and become sick, you can’t best serve your family or co-workers. This is why we exercise regularly and eat nutritionally. If you don’t make time for reading great books, you won’t have the intellectual resources you could otherwise have to share with others. This is why we strive to read at least a book or two a month and listen to others audibly when exercising or traveling. If you don’t make the effort to work through your emotional wounds, you end up reacting to others instead of being in a position to help them. This is why we take regular emotional audits and uproot any seed of bitterness we find growing. If you don’t get sufficient rest, you get grumpy and nobody wants to be around you. This is why we try to sleep seven-plus hours nightly. Plus, we want to model how to take care of ourselves, so that those we lead will take care of themselves” (Living Forward: A Proven Plan to Stop Drifting and Get the Life You Want, loc 1015).