What frameworks do you want to use to get flourishing and help others get flourishing?

Photo by Dakota Roos on Unsplash

Use frameworks! Why?

• Because using frameworks helps you and others get flourishing.
• Because frameworks are helpful resources that help you focus on flourishing, diagnose a given challenge, and prioritize what you need to do to flourish.
• Because not using frameworks increases the likelihood of being scattered, of misdiagnosis, and of working without shared priorities. Not good.
• Because using frameworks is a best practice.

As someone involved in international Christian schooling, what frameworks could you use to get flourishing and help others get flourishing? Frameworks that come to mind for me include…

(1) ACSI’s Flourishing School Culture:

• Relationships
• Well-Being
• Purpose
• Expertise & Resources
• Teaching & Learning

Source

(2) Best Christian Workplaces’ FLOURISH:

• Fantastic Teams
• Life-Giving Work
• Outstanding Talent
• Uplifting Growth
• Rewarding Compensation
• Inspirational Leadership
• Sustainable Strategy
• Healthy Communication

Best Christian Workplaces has “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” (Road to Flourishing, loc 195).

(3) Decisionwise’s Engagement MAGIC:

• Meaning
• Autonomy
• Growth
• Impact
• Connection

(4) Franklin Covey’s 4 Disciplines of Execution: To increase execution…

• Focus on 2-3 wildly important goals.
• Act on lead measures.
• Keep a compelling scoreboard.
• Create a cadence of accountability.

(5) Table Group’s 4 Disciplines of Organizational Health: To increase organizational health…

• Build a cohesive leadership team.
• Create clarity.
• Overcommunicate clarity.
• Reinforce clarity.

(6) Irresistible: The Seven Secrets of the World’s Most Enduring, Employee-Focused Organizations:

• Teams, not hierarchy
• Work, not jobs
• Coach, not boss
• Culture, not rules
• Growth, not promotion
• Purpose, not profits
• Employee experience, not output

Here are 3 quotations from Irresistible that I found intriguing: (1) “‘I think if you’re fortunate enough to be someone’s employer, you have a huge moral obligation really to make sure that that person really looks forward to coming to work in the morning.’ JOHN MACKEY” (Irresistible, loc 1805) (2) “…irresistible companies are pursuing a workforce strategy that elevates employee health, safety, and wellbeing—creating culture, not rules” (Irresistible, loc 18012). (3) “In the past, companies focused on annual (and later pulse) engagement surveys to understand employee satisfaction. Today, this is a discipline of design: studying what employees do, understanding their work and job needs, and then designing the systems, workplaces, and rewards that help them thrive” (loc 3186).

(7) Employalty: How to Ignite Commitment and Keep Top Talent in the New Age of Work:

• Ideal Work: compensation, workload, and flexibility.
• Meaningful Work: purpose, strengths, and belonging.
• Great Boss: coaching, trust, and advocacy.

What is employalty? “Employalty is a portmanteau of the words “employer,” “loyalty,” and “humanity.” Employalty is the commitment employers make to consistently deliver a humane, person-centered employee experience, because that’s what leads people to the highest levels of commitment at work” (Employalty, loc 182).

Note: For additional framework/models, check out my Toolbox!

What frameworks do you want to use to get flourishing and help others get flourishing? Given that I’m focused on helping international students, staff, and leaders to flourish in Jesus, I’m primarily using a combination of the 4 Disciplines of Organizational Health and my modified version of ACSI’s Flourishing School Culture—the 5 Elements of Flourishing:

• Passionate Purpose
• Resilient Well-Being
• Healthy Relationships
• Transformative Learning
• Helpful Resources

At times I use the 4 Disciplines of Execution, and I think that ACSI international Christian schools could benefit from using the FLOURISH framework which has an employee engagement survey.

What helps you get started with using your frameworks? What helps me includes thinking of using the framework(s) as an experiment, starting with myself, starting small, and doing something—1 thing. 

What does using frameworks to get flourishing and help others get flourishing look like for you? For me, it looks like…

• Using my frameworks as diagnostic tools.
• Using 5 Elements of Flourishing to guide my decision-making and blogging.
• Using a tagline at the end of each blog post that emphasizes a framework: Get flourishing!
• Developing a  shared vocabulary for the frameworks, for example, words like clarity, overcommunicate, flourish, and 5 elements of flourishing.
• Reflecting on what I need to KeepStartStop doing in order to more effectively get flourishing and to help others get flourishing.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

What about you? How do you feel about using frameworks? What frameworks could you use? What frameworks do you want to use to get flourishing and help others get flourishing? What helps you get started with using your frameworks? What does using frameworks to get flourishing and help others get flourishing look like for you?

Get flourishing!

Michael