Leaders, what types of thinking do you use for resource planning and management?

I want leaders to flourish in terms of helpful resources. My deep hope is that leaders are consistently experiencing… 1. A welcoming work space. 2. Plans, policies, and procedures that result in effective, efficient decision-making. 3. Regular discussions about resource management and resource planning that reflect agile, strategic, mission-centered thinking (see Construct: Resources and Resource Planning, p. 17). 4. A comfortable compensation and benefit package that allows them (A) to flourish, (B) to stay in Christian education for their career, and (C) to retire well. This blog post addresses #3 above.

VUCA (say “VOO-ka”): volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. International Christian schools operate in a VUCA world—think gas price and stock market fluctuations, COVID, war, demographic shifts, new competitor schools, and changing exchange rates and government regulations. And it is within this VUCA world that we work to help our students, our staff, and ourselves as leaders to flourish.

For me, flourishing in a VUCA world necessitates regular reflection on questions, for example: 

• What open doors is God providing in this VUCA word? 
• How can I join God in what He is already doing in this VUCA world?
• How are we thinking about X? What kind of thinking do we need to use as we think about X?

Photo by Yosep Surahman on Unsplash

Right now, I’m thinking about thinking—about agile thinking, strategic thinking, and mission-centered thinking. I deeply hope international Christian school leaders consistently experience the combination of agile, strategic, and mission-centered thinking as they consider resources:

(1) Agile thinking is nimble, quick-moving, and sharp (not stiff, slow, or dull). Agile thinking helps us function in a VUCA world by helping us respond to volatility and uncertainty—we focus, for example, on clarity over certainty. Agile thinking helps us be responsive, try experiments, focus on the next step, and respond to questions like, “What do you want to KeepStartStop doing?”

(2) Strategic thinking is planned, prudent, and well thought out (not random, unwise, or reckless). Strategic thinking helps us function in a VUCA world by helping us deal with complexity and ambiguity—we focus, for example, on priorities, on what is essential. Strategic thinking helps us stay focused on our Christ-centered vision, be aware of our context (think SWOT analysis), assess the costs and benefits of proposed improvement plans, and respond to questions like, “How is your system perfectly designed to produce this?” 

(3) Mission-centered thinking (though similar to strategic thinking in that it addresses the long-term) is all about the mission. Period. Nothing else. Mission-centered thinking helps us function in a VUCA world by helping us stay centered on our Christ-centered mission—we focus on achieving our God-given mission, and when considering a proposal, we ask ourselves, “How will X impact mission achievement?”

If you are consistently experiencing these 3 types of thinking when doing resource planning and resource management, great! If you want to experience more of these 3 types of thinking, remember to:

• Start with yourself. Assess your thinking. Find ways to enhance your thinking. 
• Serve as a role model. For example, ask questions: What do we need to KeepStartStop doing? How is our system perfectly designed to produce this? How will this impact mission achievement?
• Then invite others to consistently use agile, strategic, mission-centered thinking.

Image by kalhh from Pixabay 

What about you? How do you feel about flourishing in a VUCA world? What helps you flourish in a VUCA world? What types of thinking help you make good use of God’s resources in a VUCA world? What can you do to increase agile, strategic, mission-centered thinking?

Here are some posts related to flourishing in terms of helpful resources:

• What’s in your toolbox?
• Helpful Resources: What comes to mind when you think about flourishing?
• To what extent are you experiencing the 5 elements of flourishing?
  

Get flourishing!

Michael

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

1. “My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:2, NIV).
2. “Well-chosen resources can help students connect concepts to reality and further develop their worldview“ (ACSI Inspire Standards, p. 10).

2. “Healthy communication also helps leaders to see how they may inadvertently frustrate their good intentions to extend trust to employees” (Road to Flourishing: Eight Keys to Boost Employee Engagement and Well-Being, loc 2760).
3. “As leaders, we’re responsible for helping to sort out good ideas from bad ones, prioritizing time and energy, and using our muscle of position to push past the objections, fears, silos, and possessiveness. And then, we set a high standard for implementation” (Opportunity Leadership: Stop Planning and Start Getting Results-Notebook, loc 426). 
4. “How have I/we helped shape a culture whereby students are encouraged to serve one another and defer to one another?” (Leadership for Flourishing Schools, p. 20)
5. “Just as an airline asks you to put on your own oxygen mask first before helping others, you cannot be effective in raising those around you if you don’t work on yourself first” (Trust and Inspire: How Truly Great Leaders Unleash Greatness in Others, loc 1902).
6. “Servant leaders help their people achieve goals by coaching, encouraging, and praising them along the way” (Simple Truths of Leadership: 52 Ways to Be a Servant Leader and Build Trust, loc 289).
7. “…people must be nurtured once hired…one of the best ways to nurture people professionally is to develop a “community of practice” where supportive relationships, ongoing feedback, shared inquiry, and mutual commitment help professionals to grow” (Flourishing Together: A Christian Vision for Students, Educators, and Schools, loc 2639).
8. “… we are not helping people when we don’t hold them accountable” (High-Impact Teams: Where Healthy Meets High Performance, loc 1337).
9. “When it comes to game-changing leadership, this is a critical trait: the ability to assemble a diverse team of players, to help them perform at a higher level, to exceed expectations and to achieve a bold and ambitious goal” (The E5 Movement: Leadership through the Rule of Five, loc 196).
10. Consulting with others helps define your ideas more clearly. Seeking counsel also helps keep us humble and reminds us that we can never think of everything” (The Work of Leaders: How Vision, Alignment, and Execution Will Change the Way You Lead, loc 865).