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 your perspective on improvement actually helps you improve! Why?
(1) Because a helpful perspective gets you and your colleagues flourishing.
(2) Because a helpful perspective results in a positive attitude, an openness to growth opportunities, and shared understanding about organizational change—making it easier for you and your colleagues to work together.
(3) Because an unhelpful perspective can cause freezing during change, being closed to growth opportunities, and having fragmented understanding of organizational change—making it harder for you and your colleagues to work together.
(4) Because using a helpful perspective is a best practice.
Let’s keep thinking about this by reflecting on 4 questions:
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Question 1: What makes up your perspective on improvement? For me, my perspective on improvement is a combination of my understanding of improvement and my mindset.
Question 2: What’s your perspective on improvement? My perspective flows from my purpose for improvement and includes:
(A) An understanding of what improvement is, what my improvement system is, and what helps me stay focused on improvement. When working with others, shared understanding of what improvement is, what our improvement system is, and what helps us stay focused on improvement.
(B) A growth mindset, not a fixed mindset. (Remember, if we’re not improving, we’re either stagnating or moving toward obsolescence. Not good.) The following chart applies mindset to the accreditation process:
| Growth mindset | Fixed mindset |
| The goal of our self-study and visit is to learn how we can be an even better school | The goal of our self-study and visit is to show how good of a school we are |
| The visiting team report helps us improve | The visiting team report is an indictment |
| Each recommendation we received from the visiting team is an exciting opportunity for us to work hard and grow | Each recommendation we received from the visiting team indicates a deficiency |
| Let’s talk with other schools that are better than us at this so we can learn how to improve | Why are they making us do this? Other schools are simply better than us at this, so why try? |
(3) A thrive mindset, not a survive mindset:
| Thrive mindset focuses on… | Survive mindset focuses on… |
| Being proactive on what’s important. | Being reactive to what’s urgent. |
| Prevention. | Addressing symptoms. |
| Developing systems. | Completing tasks. |
| Using documentation. | Using personal recollection. |
| Carrying out ongoing processes and multi-year plans. | Completing projects. |
| Helping both current and future students, staff, and leaders to flourish. | Getting through today, this week, this month. |
Note: Perspective matters. Perspective eats your improvement initiatives for breakfast. When it comes to improvement, how can you enhance shared understanding and a growth/thrive mindset?
Question 3: To what extent does your perspective actually help you improve? I think my perspective actually helps me improve. I’m clear on what improvement is, and I’m open to learning new things, to growing, to experiencing tangible transformation. How about you?
Question 4: What can you do to make your perspective on improvement even more helpful?
(A) Ask God and others for help.
(B) Reflect on your own understanding of improvement. How effective is your definition of improvement? How effective is the system you use for improvement? What might help you stay even more focused on improvement?
(C) Hold a staff-wide discussion of your international Christian school’s perspective on school improvement in terms of shared understanding and mindset. Be sure to include what your perspective is, the impact it has, and how you can enhance it.
(D) Develop shared understanding of improvement by using the School Improvement Framework.
(E) Assess your own growth/fixed mindset. Next, apply the results of your assessment in 3 ways. Share with a colleague.
(F) Assess your own thrive/survive mindset. Review the above table to see the extent to which you may be using a survive mindset. Next, apply the results of your assessment in 3 ways. Share with a colleague.
Here are some related resources:
- How important is mindset?
- What mindset do you and your colleagues use when doing school improvement? Growth mindset? Fixed mindset? A mix?
- What mindset do you and your colleagues use when doing school improvement? Thrive mindset? Survive mindset? A mix?
- What mindsets help you to flourish and to help others flourish?
- Leaders, is your mindset eating your model for breakfast?
- School Improvement Reflection Protocol
Bottom line: Ensure your perspective on improvement actually helps you improve!
Get flourishing!
Michael
P.S. Bonus: Here are 10 quotations from books I’ve read that include a form of the word perspective:
(1) “When we try to see the world with a fresh perspective, we can maintain this learning process long after it would usually stop” (Feel-Good Productivity, loc 755).
(2) “Strategic planning conducted from the perspective of stewardship can open up new possibilities for flourishing which hitherto were invisible from the vantage point of ownership” (Flourishing Together, loc 2621).
(3) “To deal with these emotional grenades, I ask myself questions like: How would my future self (meaning the person that I aspire to be) react? Who do I want to be right now? How would someone who I admire hope I would respond in this situation? If you are a person of faith, ask, What course of action would my faith suggest? Reframing and seeing the situation from a different perspective helps me right-size my response” (Smart Growth, loc 2000).
(4) “Leaders have always needed to understand human nature and personality differences to be successful in business—that’s nothing new. What’s new is the requirement for twenty-first century leaders to be prepared to understand a wider, richer array of work styles than ever before and to be able to determine what aspects of an interaction are simply a result of personality and which are a result of differences in cultural perspective” (The Culture Map, p. 252).
(5) “To fully shift both our personal perspective and that of the people around us in a positive direction, we must ask the right questions” (Power of 3, loc 519).
(6) “From a performance and productivity perspective, where are we now? Where do we excel? Where do we not? From a product perspective, where do we do well within our marketplace? Where can we do better? From a value perspective, where are we improving the lives of our customers? And where are our products seen as a commodity?” (Good Comes First, loc 3085)
(7) “The perspective of Team is about putting your personal perspective aside and fighting to see what your people see. It involves acknowledging and believing that they have different experiences, insights, and information that you need to understand to be an effective leader. And to truly embrace it, you must chase it with intentional curiosity” (The 7 Perspectives of Effective Leaders, loc 1050).
(8) “By engaging in productive conflict and tapping into team members’ perspectives and opinions, a team can confidently commit and buy in to a decision knowing that they have benefited from everyone’s ideas” (The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, loc 2559).
(9) “Do you tend to ask God, “Why is this happening?” How might asking, “How will Your name be honored and glorified in the midst of this happening?” change your perspective? (The Gift of Disillusionment, loc 2446)
(10) “Dialogue is an art, but it’s also a skill that can be developed by practicing two key behaviors: exchanging perspectives and being receptive” (The Work of Leaders, loc 1214).
Get Flourishing 