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 our improvement goals (See also School Improvement Reflection Protocol.)
Photo by Suzanne D. Williams on Unsplash
School improvement should help students, staff, and leaders at your international Christian school to flourish. It should result in deep, lasting change. It should result in tangible transformation (aka caterpillar to butterfly).
For that to happen, we need to be at our best when doing school improvement. When are you and your international Christian school colleagues at your best? For me, here’s what I know:
- I’m not at my best when I’m in crisis mode.
- I’m not at my best when I’m working for a quick fix (aka just getting it over with).
- I’m not at my best when I’m reluctantly changing (aka dragging my feet).
- And I’m at my best when I’m flourishing forward.
Photo by Jason Weingardt on Unsplash
I’ve been thinking about the root causes of crisis mode, quick fix, reluctant change, and flourishing forward. For me, one of the root causes is mindset, more specifically 2 sets of mindsets: (1) growth mindset vs. fixed mindset and (2) thrive mindset vs. survive mindset. The charts below describe the differences.
| 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 & 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? |
| 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. |
Image by pch.vector on Freepik
What helps you and your colleagues be at your best when doing school improvement? What helps me is more consistently using a growth/thrive mindset (aka flourishing forward)—and not 1 of the other 3 combinations:
- Fixed/survive mindset (aka crisis mode).
- Growth/survive mindset (aka quick fix).
- Fixed//thrive mindset (aka reluctant change).
*This chart was made with the help of ChatGPT. See the prompt below.
What about you? When doing school improvement, when are you and your international Christian school colleagues at your best? What percentage of time do you and your colleagues do school improvement in each quadrant in the above chart? What will help you more consistently be flourishing forward?
Here are some related resources:
- To what extent does your perspective help you improve?
- 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?
- School Improvement Reflection Protocol
- School Improvement Framework
Bottom line: Be your best when doing school improvement so that you help students, staff, and leaders flourish. Consistently use a growth/thrive mindset!
Get flourishing!
Michael
P.S. Here’s the ChatGPT prompt I used (April 1, 2024): Act as a school improvement consultant, OK? I think mindset impacts school improvement. I want to think about how the following 2 sets of mindsets impact school improvement, OK? Here are the mindsets: Set 1: Growth Mindset vs Fixed Mindset. Set 2: Thrive Mindset vs. Survive Mindset.
Here are descriptions for each mindset:
(A) Growth Mindset: (1) The goal of our self-study and visit is to learn how we can be an even better school. (2) The visiting team report helps us improve. (3) Each recommendation we received from the visiting team is an exciting opportunity for us to work hard & grow. (4) Let’s talk with other schools that are better than us at this so we can learn how to improve
(B) Fixed Mindset: (1) The goal of our self-study and visit is to show how good of a school we are. (2) The visiting team report is an indictment. (3) Each recommendation we received from the visiting team indicates a deficiency. (4) Why are they making us do this? Other schools are simply better than us at this, so why try?
(C) Thrive Mindset focuses on (6) being proactive on what’s important, (7) prevention, (8) developing systems, (9) using documentation, (10) carrying out ongoing processes and multi-year plans, and (11) helping both current and future students, staff, and leaders to flourish.
(D) Survive Mindset focuses on (6) being reactive to what’s urgent, (7) addressing symptoms, (8) completing tasks, (9) using personal recollection, (10) completing projects, (11) getting through today, this week, this month.
OK, now I want you to take 3 steps for me, OK?
Step #1: Identify a school improvement recommendation, and tell me 10 things that happen when the following 4 combinations of mindsets are used: Combination #1: Growth Mindset and Survive Mindset. Combination #2: Growth Mindset and Thrive Mindset. Combination #3: Fixed Mindset and Survive Mindset. Combination #4: Fixed Mindset and Thrive Mindset. Use the same school improvement recommendation for each of the 4 combinations, OK?
Step #2: For each of the 4 combinations, give a 2-3 sentence summary.
Step #3: Give me 5 titles for Combination 1, 5 titles for Combination 2, 5 titles for Combination 3, and 5 titles for Combination 4. Each title can be 1-5 words.
Get Flourishing 