How galvanizing is your purpose for improvement?

/ mkessenburg

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).

Ensure that your purpose for improvement is galvanizing! Why?

(1) Because a galvanizing purpose statement helps you improve, which helps you flourish.

(2) Because a galvanizing purpose statement gets you going, keeps you going, and helps you complete tasks designed to help you improve.

(3) Because a boring, blah, or mediocre purpose statement (aka not galvanizing) doesn’t get you going, doesn’t inspire you to keep going, and doesn’t help you finish.

(4) Because intentionally defining and pursuing an inspiring purpose is a best practice. Check out the video below:

Image by freepik

Let’s keep thinking about this by reflecting on 4 questions: 

Question 1: What’s your operational purpose for improvement? Here are 7 possible responses:

  • We’re not sure.
  • To maintain certification. To maintain accreditation.
  • To grow and improve. 
  • To increase effectiveness.
  • To increase student learning.
  • To increase the achievement of your mission/vision.
  • To get students, staff, and leaders holistically flourishing in Jesus and help others do the same.

Question 2: What makes a good purpose statement good? For me, 4 criteria come to mind:

  1. A good purpose statement focuses on improvement, growth, and tangible transformation. It doesn’t focus on maintenance (like maintaining certification or accreditation).
  2. A good purpose statement is specific, not general. For me, increasing achievement of your mission/vision is more specific than growing or improving.
  3. A good purpose statement is about people (the ends), not systems, policies, finances, technology, or textbooks (the means).
  4. A good purpose statement galvanizes my passion and inspiration which helps me find improvement meaningful and helps me to persevere and get the job done. Good purpose statements aren’t boring, blah, or ho-hum.

Question 3: How well does your operational purpose statement meet your criteria for a good purpose statement? My purpose statement for myself is to get holistically flourishing in Jesus and help others do the same.

  1. Improvement: It’s about flourishing.
  2. Specific: It’s about holistically flourishing in Jesus.
  3. People: It’s about me.
  4. Galvanizes: It gets me going because it involves me, Jesus, and my neighbors.

My organizational purpose statement is to get students, staff, and leaders to holistically flourish in Jesus and help others do the same.

  1. Improvement: It’s about flourishing.
  2. Specific: It’s about holistically flourishing in Jesus.
  3. People: It’s about students, staff, and leaders.
  4. Galvanizes: It gets me going because it involves students, staff, leaders, and Jesus.

Question 4: What can you do to make your improvement purpose statement even more galvanizing? Here are some options:

  • Ask God and others for help.
  • Refine your statement so it better reflects your criteria for a good purpose statement.
  • Regularly review your statement so you stay focused on your purpose.
  • Recite your statement in casual conversation.
  • Celebrate progress in terms of accomplishing your purpose.

Here are some related resources:

Bottom line: Get galvanized around your purpose for improvement!

Get flourishing!

Michael

P.S. Bonus: Here are 10 quotations from books I’ve read that include a form of the word purpose:

(1) “When we inspire other people, we breathe new life, purpose, and passion into them and us” (Trust and Inspire, loc 348).

(2)  “For the vision and purpose to come alive, it must have meaning for each team member” (The Power of a Positive Team, loc 621).

(3) “Purpose leads to high impact” (Lead Like You Were Meant To: Switch from Autopilot to Intentional, p. 147).

(4) “Flourishing cultures engage people in work that is full of meaning, significance, and purpose” (Road to Flourishing, loc 380).

(5) “We can work to design the human ecosystem purposefully and beautifully, so that it will inspire those who live and work in it. We can shape it to shape us” (Smart Growth, loc 3445).

(6)  “[Turn] your abstract purpose into a set of concrete goals and actions. [Move] from the ‘why’ to the ‘what’” (Feel-Good Productivity, loc 1423).

(7) “An organization’s core purpose—why it exists—has to be completely idealistic. I can’t reiterate this point enough” (The Advantage, p. 82).

(8) “…purpose increases motivation significantly over pay” (The Burnout Epidemic, loc 3234).

(9) “…learning that leads to flourishing is deeply purposeful” (Flourishing Together, loc 1808).
(10) “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,[a] for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28, ESV).