This blog post is part of a series on your improvement engine—make sure you have a great improvement engine (purpose, perspective, process, plan, and practices) before you start working on your improvement goal! (See also School Improvement Reflection Protocol).
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
If you want to more effectively improve, enhance the engine that drives your efforts! Enhance your improvement engine of purpose, perspective, process, plan, and practices. Why?
(1) Because enhancing your improvement engine (purpose, perspective, process, plan, and practices—aka, the 5Ps) helps you get flourishing faster.
(2) Because you’re more likely to achieve your improvement goals when you have an inspiring purpose, use an ongoing process, and implement a documented plan.
(3) Because you’re less likely to achieve your improvement goals if you have an uninspiring purpose (to get the goal done, to improve, or to get/stay accredited) or if your process and plan are undocumented. (Did you know that about 70% of improvement initiatives don’t succeed? 70%. Ouch.)
(4) Because enhancing the 5Ps is an effective practice.
Let me pull this together by asking you a question: In the chart below, which person is more likely to successfully improve?
| 5Ps | Person #1 | Person #2 |
| Purpose | To get holistically flourishing in Jesus | To get the goal done |
| Perspective | Has a thrive mindset | Has a survive mindset |
| Process | Uses a documented process designed to increase focus on getting flourishing | Doesn’t have a documented process, sees improvement as an event and not as a process |
| Plan | Uses a documented plan | Doesn’t have a documented plan |
| Practices | Works with a coach | Doesn’t work with a coach |
My answer: Person #1. From my experience, the more I’m like Person #1, the more likely I am to actually improve, to grow, to flourish.
Let me ask you another question: In the chart below, which international Christian school is more likely to successfully improve?
| 5Ps | School #1 | School #2 |
| Purpose | To help students, staff, and leaders holistically flourish in Jesus | To be accredited |
| Perspective | Has a growth mindset and shared understanding of school improvement | Has a fixed mindset and little or no shared understanding of school improvement |
| Process | Uses a documented, ongoing improvement process that gets people flourishing | No documented process, sees improvement as an event and not as a process |
| Plan | Uses a documented plan | Doesn’t have a documented plan |
| Practices | Starts school improvement meetings with a review of the purpose, the improvement goal, and the meeting’s focus | Starts school improvement meetings with a review of the meeting’s focus |
My answer? School #1. If you want to improve, be like School #1, not like School #2.
Note: When the engine is working, you can drive the car. When the engine isn’t working, you push the car. Any questions?
What will you do to enhance your personal improvement engine and/or your school’s improvement engine? Possibilities include:
(1) Purpose: Documenting your purpose—be sure to make it inspiring!
Note: “When you know your WHY, you’ll know your WAY” (Michael Hyatt, X, 2020-07-09).
(2) Perspective: Reading this blog and this blog, studying this graphic, watching this video, and reviewing this tool—then assessing your improvement mindset. At school, collaboratively develop and implement your School Improvement Framework (template).
Note: Your perspective eats your process and plan for breakfast!
(3) Process: Documenting a process that is ongoing and includes key components like:
- Reviewing your purpose for improvement.
- Assessing your current situation.
- Developing and implementing a plan.
- Assessing, celebrating, and reporting progress.
- Determining next steps.
Note: “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems” (James Clear).
(4) Plan: Finding ways to document and/or enhance your plan. Exploring sample plans can help. Try the Personalized Flourishing Plan, Quick Win, Stop Self-Neglect/Start Self-Care, and the Action Plan template.
Note: “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!”
(5) Practices: Identifying practices that actually help you improve. Practices that help me include talking with a coach, using a scoreboard, putting improvement tasks into my calendar, and starting school improvement meetings with a review of the purpose, the goal, and the meeting’s focus.
Note: “You will never change your life until you change something you do daily” (John Maxwell).
Here are some related resources:
- Why improve?
- How galvanizing is your purpose for improvement?
- What mindsets do you want to use to get flourishing in your current context?
- As a leader, how can you grow, improve, get stronger?
- How do you feel about planning?
- School improvement Reflection Protocol
Bottom line: If you want to more effectively improve, enhance your improvement engine of purpose, perspective, process, plan, and practices. In fact, do this before pursuing your improvement goal!
Get flourishing!
Michael
P.S. Bonus: Here are 10 quotations from books I’ve read that contain engine or a form of improve:
(1) “Positive emotions are the fuel that drives the engine of human flourishing” (Feel-Good Productivity, loc 98).
(2) “…the engine of the Protestant Reformation wasn’t work ethic so much as literacy” (Hidden Potential, loc 701).
(3) “… self-knowledge including a sense of our life purpose is the very engine of exceptional performance” (Deep Purpose, loc 2052).
(4) “…if you devote only one hour a week to anything, you’re not likely at all to grow or improve significantly in that area of your life” (Think Ahead, loc 1236).
(5) “Coaching can only be utilized by a leader wanting to improve. If you are too proud to admit that you have a problem, then you won’t try to conquer that nonexistent (in your mind) problem. Consequently, you will not get better. A good measure of humility is required for coaching to work” (Becoming Coachable, p. 92).
(6) “Realize—and embrace—the fact that you are likely not quite as good at leading meetings as you think you are. Evidence shows that we are likely to overestimate our abilities; accepting this reality is key to self-awareness and making improvements” (The Surprising Science of Meetings, loc 605).
(7) “When leaders listen to followers and use what they hear to make improvements that benefit those who speak up and the organization, then followers put their trust in those leaders. When leaders do the opposite—when they fail to listen—it damages the leader-follower relationship. When team members no longer believe that their leaders are listening to them, they start looking for someone who will” (The Self-Aware Leader, loc 787).
(8) “Effectively leading across various cultures is a capability that can be measured and improved. But it begins with a more thoughtful, situational understanding of leadership” (Leading with Cultural Intelligence, loc 570).
(9) “Reliance on work-arounds does not just fail to improve the system, it makes it worse” (Right Kind of Wrong, loc 3544).
(10) “…because of your unawareness of your mindsets and inability to recognize that they can be improved, you have been living life below your potential. Now for the good news: by becoming aware of your mindsets and enhancing your ability to see how they can be improved, you can become empowered to dramatically change and improve your life” (Success Mindsets, p. 17).
Get Flourishing 