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Stop using a professional development plan, and start using a personalized flourishing plan that is designed to help you consistently experience each of the 5 elements of flourishing: passionate purpose, resilient well-being, healthy relationships, transformative learning, and helpful resources.
Why?
(1) Because international Christian education is all about flourishing (meaning, it’s about more than professional development). And as the CRM (chief role model, aka living curriculum), it’s vital that you are flourishing.
(2) Because using a personalized flourishing plan increases the likelihood…
- That you’ll experience each of the 5 elements of flourishing. Good!
- That you’ll more effectively serve at your school (because you are flourishing). Yes!
- That you’ll model that flourishing (not just learning) is the goal. Powerful!
(3) Because using only a professional development plan unfortunately increases the likelihood…
- That you won’t experience 1 or more of the 5 elements of flourishing. Not good.
- That you won’t serve effectively at your school (because you’re not flourishing). Not good.
- That you’ll model that learning is the only important thing—which is exactly what we don’t want to model for staff and students. Again, not good.
(4) Because making a plan to help you model what you and Christian educators really want (flourishing) is a best practice.
To see a sample plan, responses to concerns about using a personalized flourishing plan, and ways to create a plan, keep reading!
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What does a personalized flourishing plan look like? For me, a rough version could look something like this:
To consistently experience the 5 elements of flourishing so I get flourishing and help others get flourishing, over the next 3 years I will…
(1) Passionate Purpose:
- Recite the mission statement routinely in casual conversation.
- Routinely and explicitly use the mission as a decision-making guideline.
- Formally invite the board to rigorously monitor the implementation of our Christ-centered purpose statements.
(2) Resilient Well-Being:
- Get 7-9 hours of sleep each night.
- Practice gratitude by writing down 3 things I’m thankful for each day.
- Seek agency (not control) by focusing on my Circle of Influence.
(3) Healthy Relationships:
- Eat lunch 2+ times each week with colleagues that energize me.
- Increase my conflict resolution skills by implementing what I learn from reading Radical Candor and from completing an online course (The Feedback Loop).
- Listen in order to understand, not to respond.
(4) Transformative Learning:
- Increase my operational knowledge of what makes a good Christian school good by going on 1 accreditation visit per year.
- Stay current with best practice by attending the annual ACSI Administrators’ Conference and EARCOS Conference.
- Participate in weekly coaching sessions regarding my personalized flourishing plan.
(5) Helpful Resources:
- Subscribe to and read 1 newsletter.
- Field test 1+ tools that help me focus on flourishing, for example: Curriculum Plan, Expected Student Outcomes Assessment Plan, Help Students Grow Strong in the Lord, Organizational Culture Map.
- Formally ask board members to help me flourish.
Imagine. What might happen if you actively implemented your personalized flourishing plan? Just imagine! What might happen if staff do the same? Imagine flourishing staff! And what might the impact be on students? Imagine flourishing students!
You’ve been introduced to the idea of using a personalized flourishing plan, and you’ve seen an example of a personalized flourishing plan. At this point, you may have concerns. Let me address some:
(1) How long will it take to create a plan? Not long. Using Quick Win, you could get started in as little as 10-15 minutes. Here a template you can use to develop your plan. And please keep in mind, planning helps you flourish.
(2) What if I have trouble getting started? Getting started can be a challenge. Sometimes you just need a list of sample action steps. Quick Win has 35 sample action steps (p. 2) and a ChatGPT prompt designed to give you 250 more (p. 3).
(3) What if I don’t have the finances to fund this plan beyond what has already been allocated for my professional development? No problem. There are a variety of action steps you can take that don’t cost money. For example, it doesn’t cost money to memorize the mission, eat lunch with a friend, or subscribe to a free newsletter.
(4) In Standard 10 of the Inspire protocol, ACSI emphasizes professional development. If I use a personalized flourishing plan, how will professional development be addressed? Professional development is an important part of an personalized flourishing plan, as you can see in the action steps in the sample plan:
- Increase my conflict resolution skills by implementing what I learn from reading Radical Candor and completing an online course (The Feedback Loop).
- Increase my operational knowledge of what makes a good Christian school good by going on 1 accreditation visit per year.
- Stay current with best practice by attending the annual ACSI Administrators’ Conference and EARCOS Conference.
(5) Is this going to actually help me? I think so. In addition to professional development, this will help you focus on flourishing and on working toward holistic flourishing. As you get flourishing, you’ll feel better and be able to serve more effectively, in part because you’ll be able to better serve as chief role model/living curriculum. For me, focusing on flourishing has really helped —I’m getting more exercise, reading and writing more, and creating and using new tools.
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What helps you create and implement a personalized plan for flourishing that helps you consistently experience each of the 5 elements of flourishing? What comes to mind for me includes:
(1) Reflecting on how planning actually helps me flourish (meaning, I’m less likely to flourish if I just wing it).
(2) Brainstorming options for taking action. (Need a boost? Try Quick Win—it has 35 sample action steps on page 2 and a ChatGPT prompt on page 3 that is designed to give you 250 more!)
(3) Making sure I have 3+ action steps for each of the 5 elements (passionate purpose, resilient well-being, healthy relationships, transformative learning, and helpful resources).
(4) Using a 3-year timeframe to get flourishing by accomplishing my action steps.
(5) Starting with one thing, instead of trying to do everything at once.
(6) Seeing each action step as an experiment designed to get me flourishing.
(7) Reviewing how I’m doing each week and then as appropriate, determining next steps.
(8) Using a template.
Photo by Ussama Azam on Unsplash
Bottom line: Stop using a personalized professional development plan, and start using a personalized flourishing plan that is designed to help you consistently experience each of the 5 elements of flourishing: passionate purpose, resilient well-being, healthy relationships, transformative learning, and helpful resources.
What about you?
- How do you feel about replacing your professional development plan with a personalized flourishing plan?
- What excites/concerns you about the sample personalized flourishing plan?
- What might happen if you actively implemented a personalized flourishing plan?
- What concerns do you have about using a personalized flourishing plan?
- What helps you create and implement a personalized flourishing plan?
Get flourishing!
Get Flourishing 