Vision

How clear are you on the value you want to create through a given school improvement goal? (Hint: Use ChatGPT!)

/ mkessenburg

Photo by Paul Skorupskas on Unsplash

Get clear on the value you want to create through a given improvement goal! Why?

(1) Because clarity and creating value helps you and others flourish.

(2) Because getting clear increases the likelihood that value will actually be created in terms of deep change (in terms of institutional effectiveness) and in terms of people flourishing (by experiencing 1 or more of the 5 elements of flourishing: passionate purpose, resilient well-being, healthy relationships, transformative learning, and helpful resources).

(3) Because not getting clear increases the likelihood that value won’t be created, that no change or nominal change will happen, and that people will get frustrated and irritated with school improvement. Not good.

(4) Because getting clear and creating value are best practices.

Think of it this way: It’s much easier to actually create value when you know what you want to create. Or to put it another way, “Without a clear and shared picture of the value you’re trying to create, the project is doomed” (Project Management for the Unofficial Project Manager, loc 561). Ouch!

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So, how can you get clear on the value you want to create through a given improvement goal? What comes to mind for me is (1) purpose, (2) parameters, and (3) the practice of collaboratively generating a vision script. Let me explain:

(1) Purpose: Establish a galvanizing purpose for all your school improvement efforts. Here’s mine: To get students, staff, and leaders holistically flourishing in Jesus.

(2) Parameters: Define the parameters for creating value, for example: The value created must…

  • Be aligned with the overall purpose for school improvement.
  • Be based on an improvement plan that is completed on time and within budget (not on a plan that is not completed, or is late, or is over budget). 
  • Be deep change (not nominal change). Deep change includes addressing 1 or more root causes of the improvement goal (such as unhelpful mindsets, insufficient staffing, inadequate policies and processes, faulty assumptions and misunderstandings, a lack of training/expertise, and insufficient shared understanding of a given facet of Christian education). And deep change includes noticeable, lasting change, especially in terms of practices that increase institutional effectiveness. 
  • Get people flourishing during and after the implementation of the plan, further cultivating a flourishing culture. Flourishing means (A) that people consistently experience 1 or 2 of the 5 elements of flourishing (passionate purpose, resilient well-being, healthy relationships, transformative learning, and helpful resources) and (B) that people consistently help others do the same.

(3) Practice: Collaboratively identify the value you want a given improvement goal to create, documenting it in a vision script format: 1-2 paragraphs that use present tense verbs and that describe 5-15 specifics of the value you want to create in terms of deep change and getting people flourishing. 

Before starting, review sample vision scripts. Here’s a sample vision script for an improvement goal to increase compensation and benefits:

We experience increased compensation and an enhanced benefits package that includes a wellness program, a pension/401k, and more funds for professional development. The new compensation and benefits package is…
(1) Based on accessible, transparent, and equitable policies and practices (and these policies and practices are reviewed annually).
(2) Monitored by additional qualified staff who enable us to stay current with best practices regarding compensation and benefits.
(3) Clearly and repeatedly communicated, resulting in shared understanding regarding compensation and benefits.

We have increased retention, and we are better able to attract more qualified candidates. We are flourishing (for example, in terms of professional growth), able to stay in Christian education for our careers, and able to retire well.

Feeling more valued, we experience increased passionate purpose in terms of commitment to the mission and to helping each other holistically flourish in Jesus. We experience increased morale and unity.

And before starting, consider using these 3 ChatGPT prompts:

  • ChatGPT Prompt 1 applies the above parameters to an improvement goal. It will help you see what happens when value is and isn’t created. Exhilarating and scary!
  • ChatGPT Prompt 2 will help you see what deep change could look like for a given improvement goal.
  • ChatGPT Prompt 3 will help you see what both deep change and getting people flourishing could look like for a given improvement goal.

*Note: When using a given ChatGPT prompt, you will need to insert the improvement goal you are working on toward the bottom of each prompt—see purple print.

ChatGPT Prompt 1: Act as an international Christian school consultant who specializes in school improvement. You believe that school improvement should create value, and you have developed a 4-level model to assess the value created. Here’s the 4-level model: 

Level 1: The improvement plan is completed (but it’s late and/or over budget). 

Level 2: The improvement plan is completed within parameters for time and cost (but does not result in deep change or in people flourishing). 

Level 3: The improvement plan is completed within parameters and results in deep change. Deep change includes addressing 1 or more root causes of the improvement plan (such as unhelpful mindsets, insufficient staffing, inadequate policies and processes, faulty assumptions and misunderstandings, a lack of training/expertise, and insufficient shared understanding of a given facet of Christian education), and deep change includes noticeable, lasting change, especially in terms practices that increase institutional effectiveness. 

Level 4: The improvement plan is completed within parameters, results in deep change, and results in people flourishing during and after the implementation of the plan, further cultivating a flourishing culture. Flourishing means that people consistently experience 1 or 2 of the 5 elements of flourishing (passionate purpose, resilient well-being, healthy relationships, transformative learning, and helpful resources) and means that people consistently help others do the same. Remember, (A) only include 1 or 2 of the 5 elements of flourishing and (B) specify what this looks like both during and after plan implementation.

Now, please apply the model to an improvement goal on _____. For each of the 4 levels, write 4 or more sentences describing the results. Use present tense verbs and give 5-15 specific descriptions for each level.
ChatGPT Prompt 2: Act as an international Christian school consultant who specializes in school improvement. You believe that for school improvement to result in deep, lasting change (for example, practices that increase institutional effectiveness), school improvement must address 1 or more root causes of a given improvement goal such as the following 6: 
(1) Unhelpful mindsets: fixed mindset, closed mindset, survive mindset
(2) Insufficient staffing
(3) Inadequate policies and processes, at the board and/or administrative levels
(4) Faulty assumptions and misunderstandings regarding the improvement goal
(5) A lack of training/expertise
(6) Insufficient shared understanding of a given facet of Christian education related to the improvement goal.

Apply your belief regarding root causes to a school improvement goal on _____. Identify 5 specific examples for each of the 6 root causes listed above. Next, 5 ways to address each of the 6 root causes listed above. This means you will provide a total of 30 examples of root causes and a total of 30 ways to address root causes, OK?
ChatGPT Prompt 3: Act as a consultant for international Christian schools. We have an improvement goal, and as a result of working our improvement goal, we want to see 2 things: 

(1) We want to see deep change. Deep change includes addressing 1 or more root causes of the improvement goal (such as unhelpful mindsets, insufficient staffing, inadequate policies and processes, faulty assumptions and misunderstandings, a lack of training/expertise, and insufficient shared understanding of a given facet of Christian education), and deep change includes noticeable, lasting change, especially in terms practices that increase institutional effectiveness. 

(2) We want to see people flourishing. Flourishing means that people consistently experience the 5 elements of flourishing (passionate purpose, resilient well-being, healthy relationships, transformative learning, and helpful resources) and means that people consistently help others do the same.

Now for our improvement goal on _____, identify 20 specific examples of deep change. Next, identify 5 examples of each of the 5 elements of flourishing during the implementation, and then 5 examples each of the 5 elements of flourishing after the implementation. 

Here are some related resources:

Source

And here’s what else I’m learning about creating value from Project Management for the Unofficial Project Manager:

  • “You’ve got to make sure that everybody sees the same picture of your project’s outcome. Its value must be clear and unquestionable to the people involved” (loc 567).
  • “It’s a strange world, but often projects are called successful if they end on time and stay on budget. Oddly enough, achieving an important, worthwhile, or useful outcome is rarely mentioned! It’s as if you were to make dinner on time and on budget but serve up lousy food nobody wants to eat. But you could still claim, ‘My project succeeded!’” (loc 279)
  • “Here’s how to lead your project: First, we SCOPE the project to define its value to the people who will benefit from it. Then we PLAN how to achieve it. We ENGAGE people to give their best to the work, revisiting the plan as necessary. And we TRACK & ADAPT throughout to ensure we’re always heading for value. Finally, we CLOSE the project and celebrate success and lessons learned” (loc 497).
  • “…the main measure of success is the value delivered to stakeholders—people” (loc 2251).

How about you? How do you feel about getting clear on the value you want to create through a given improvement goal? How can you get clear on the value you want to create through a given improvement goal? What will you do?

Bottom line: Get clear on the value you want to create through a given improvement goal! 

Get flourishing!

Michael

How can you deepen shared understanding of your international Christian school’s Christ-centered purpose statements?

/ mkessenburg

Photo by Zuzana Ruttkay on Unsplash

To deepen shared understanding of your international Christian school’s Christ-centered purpose statements, collaboratively respond to a set of key questions!

Why?

  • Because deepening shared understanding helps you and others flourish.
  • Because deepening shared understanding ignites passionate purpose, because working collaboratively provides better results than working alone, and because key questions provoke thought.
  • Because not deepening shared understanding increases the likelihood of misunderstanding, misalignment, and meandering.
  • Because deepening shared understanding and collaboratively reflecting on key questions are best practices.

Photo by Ana Municio on Unsplash

What questions could you use? Questions that come to mind for me include:

  1. What are Christ-centered purpose statements? How are they related to flourishing?
  2. What makes a good Christ-centered purpose statement good?
  3. Why do we use Christ-centered purpose statements?
  4. What kinds of Christ-centered purpose statements do we use? How are they related to each other? 
  5. Who does what regarding the development, review, and implementation of our Christ-centered purpose statements?
  6. What helps us stay focused on our Christ-centered purpose statements?
  7. What does staying focused on our Christ-centered purpose statements look like?

What’s 1 action step you can take today? Hint: Check out Christ-Centered Purpose Statements Plan. It has the above 7 reflection questions—and 7 ChatGPT prompts and 7 sample responses.

Here are some blog posts related to Christ-centered purpose statements:

What about you? How do you feel about deepening shared understanding of your international Christian school’s Christ-centered purpose statements? What questions could you reflect on? What’s 1 action step you could take today?

Get flourishing!

Michael
P.S. Be sure to check out the Christ-Centered Purpose Statements Plan!

Leaders, how focused on the future are you?

/ mkessenburg
This post focuses on transformative learning in terms of ACSI’s construct on culture of improvement: “Guided by school leadership and focused on the future, the school is continually improving/makes necessary changes to improve” (Flourishing Schools, p. 16).

Photo by Jacob Sapp on Unsplash

Focus. On the future. I want to flourish, so I focus on the future, on improving. And I want international Christian school leaders to flourish, so I encourage them to focus on the future, on improving.

You might be wondering, “What do international Christian school leaders focusing on the future look like?” For me, they look like leaders who:

  1. Are proactive (not reactive).
  2. Embrace the future (not maintain the past).
  3. Focus on flourishing (not on surviving).
  4. Learn about current best practice by reading books (Flourishing Together), reading blogs (Christian Deeper Learning), reading newsletters (Carey Nieuwhof), listening to podcasts (At the Table), and taking classes (At Your Best).
  5. Intentionally design and develop culture, in part by using the 4 disciplines of organizational health (not letting culture grow with an anything-goes approach).
  6. Talk with a coach or mentor (not going it alone).
  7. Using coaching/mentoring to help others grow (not letting others go it alone).
  8. Implement and overcommunicate a clear, documented vision (not take things as they come or talk about whatever comes up).
  9. Design and implement documented plans to carry out the vision (not winging it). To carry out the vision, it’s helpful to have plans for organizational improvement, facilities, staffing, budget, compensation and benefits, professional development, wellness, and so forth.
  10. Practice the 4 disciplines of execution.

What about you? What do international Christian school leaders focusing on the future look like?

But let’s get more specific by considering 4 questions about focusing on the future:

Question 1: How prepared are you actually to focus on the future, on improving? 

  • Do you have documented plans for your own professional development and that of each staff member? 
  • Do you have a documented organizational improvement plan? 
  • Do you have a team that regularly discusses organizational improvement? 
  • Do you know what you need to learn and what tools you need so you can focus even more effectively on the future, on improving?

Question 2: As a leader, how much time do you actually invest each week in focusing on the future, on “improving [and making] necessary changes to improve” (Flourishing Schools, p. 16)? For example, how much time do you spend on things like your own professional development, coaching staff, developing culture, refining processes, developing plans, implementing your organizational improvement plan, and thinking about the future? 

I ask this because as an international Christian school leader, you have to execute, to carry out the mission, to keep school going. This takes significant focus and effort. It’s not easy, and it takes time. But you also have to focus on the future, on improvement—and it can be a challenge to find the time.

Before you look at your calendar or make an estimate, remember to be brutally honest—and when in doubt, round down. So—how much time each week do you actually invest in focusing on the future, on improving?

  • 0-59 minutes
  • 1-4 hours
  • 5-8 hours
  • 9-16 hours
  • 17-24 hours
  • 25 or more hours

Photo by Jasper Garratt on Unsplash

Question 3: Given your responses to the first 2 questions, how would you rate your actual focus on the future? Great? Good? Sort of good? Not enough? (As a coach/consultant, I need to consistently focus on the future. I feel that I have the tools I need to focus on the future, and that I invest an effective amount of time each week on focusing on the future. So, I feel good/great about the degree to which I focus on the future.)

Question 4: What can you do to ensure you are consistently focused on the future to an effective degree? Things that come to mind for me include talking with a coach, focusing on the future when I’m at my best, ensuring I have funding for my professional development, and arranging my calendar primarily around focusing on the future, not around execution. What comes to mind for you?

Here are some related blog posts:

Get flourishing!

Michael

P.S. Bonus! Here’s a list of 10 quotations from things I’ve read that contain a form of future:

  1. “When there is uncertainty for the future, real leaders clarify the vision for where the organization is going” (The Unstuck Church: Equipping Churches to Experience Sustained Health, loc 597).
  2. “When you invest in your culture with money, time, and people, it will make the difference for your company’s future” (Culture Wins: The Roadmap to an Irresistible Workplace, loc 2195).
  3. “Your leveraged priority for the week is the action that amplifies your force today and makes future tasks easier” Winning the Week: How To Plan A Successful Week, Every Week, loc 839).
  4. “To prepare for the future, every organization has to keep questioning its existing strategy even while implementing it” (Built to Innovate: Essential Practices to Wire Innovation into Your Company’s DNA, loc 218).
  5. “…character development is far more painful than skill development. Working on your character forces you to go into the crags and crevices of your heart. It encourages you to look at your past to forge a better future. It makes you look in the mirror” (Didn’t See It Coming, loc 734).
  6. “What is the problem? What if I engaged the resources, information, people and ideas at my disposal in another way? Does it matter? To me? To others? To the future? How might I get this big thing done?” (Get Big Things Done: The Power of Connectional Intelligence, p. 21)
  7. “We need the ability to regret our poor decisions—to feel bad about them—precisely so we can improve those decisions in the future” (The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward, loc 665).
  8. “What should I spend my time doing? What are the 20% of my activities that will yield 80% of the results? What can I stop doing? How can I use constraints to my advantage? What are my hypotheses about the future—and how do they inform my actions today?” (The Long Game: How to Be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World, loc 1484)
  9. “Crafting a Vision: imagining an improved future state that the group will make a reality…. Building Alignment: getting to the point where everyone in the group understands and is committed to the direction” (The Work of Leaders: How Vision, Alignment, and Execution Will Change the Way You Lead, loc 385).
  10. “Each day, we ask our students to step into a future they cannot yet see. There will be few students who flourish where they do not first feel trust and security in the present, which endows them with the confidence they need to step into their future” (Flourishing Together, loc 3752).

How does integrity impact unity?

/ mkessenburg

“…poor communication, gossip, unresolved disagreements, lack of shared purpose, and sanctioned incompetence.” You’re sitting in your office, watching a Dave Ramsey video entitled The Power of Unity. At the end, Ramsey identifies the “5 main enemies of unity: poor communication, gossip, unresolved disagreements, lack of shared purpose, and sanctioned incompetence.”

What captures your attention is “lack of shared purpose.” Both as a Christian and as a leader, you recognize the importance of unity. For some time now, you’ve been wondering about your organization’s level of shared purpose and unity—it feels more like the unity of a pick-up basketball game at the park than the unity of a basketball team playing to win the season-end tournament. Not good. 

You decide explore unity a bit more, noting the following:

  1. “While I am grateful to work in Christian organizations where there is unity around key Christian basics, these Christian basics are insufficient at the organizational level” (How can you increase unity in your Christian organization?).
  2. “What happens when Christian organizations are not deeply unified?… What happens? The leader heads in a good direction; each leadership team member in different, good directions; and each staff member in other good directions.” 
  3. “…imagine working for an organization where no one talks about the core documents (mission, vision, philosophy) and where staff don’t really understand what the documents mean. Not good. No talking and no no real understanding lead to no (significant) implementation and the perception that core documents are irrelevant” (How can reading make your mission, vision, and philosophy faster?).
  4. “…the root of division is…[having] two visions. [Staff] are not always intending to create…disunity…[but] for lack of clarity of vision they created their own” (GC 2015 Leadership Focus “The Importance of Unity”). 
  5. “Dissect your company’s various statements (vision, purpose, mission, brand, values, etc.) and identify the implied promises to yourself, colleagues, employees, and customers. What commitments are being honored?” (To Be Honest, loc 1508).

And then it hits you: lack of shared purpose, over-reliance on Christian unity (instead of on both Christian and organizational unity), multiple operational mission statements, a lack of understanding and implementation of the official mission statement. Your organization lacks integrity—and that lack of integrity is negatively affecting unity. Ouch.

You recall that your organization has recently updated its mission statement. Then you recall that you didn’t really launch the updated mission statement, you haven’t been really emphasizing the updated mission statement, you didn’t de-emphasize the previous mission statement or the previous (unofficial) operational mission statements, possibly including “remain financially solvent” and “preserve jobs and a way of life for staff.” And then you think, “If we have multiple missions (only one of which is our official mission statement), then we lack integrity. And if we lack integrity because we have multiple competing missions, then we can’t or won’t have unity around doing 1 thing—our official mission statement.” Double ouch.

Question: How can you help your organization increase its integrity (and thereby increase its unity)? Things that come to mind for me include: (1) further assessing the situation, (2) starting with yourself, and (3) learning more. Let me explain:

(1) Further assessing the situation: Ways to do this include discussing the situation with other leaders, inviting a consultant to assess the situation, taking the “How Honest Is Your Team?” self-assessment, and taking the following self-assessment (using the following scale: Strongly Agree • Agree • Disagree • Strongly Disagree):

  1. Staff have received training on the mission statement.
  2. Staff deeply understand the mission statement. 
  3. Staff can readily explain how what they do each day is aligned with the mission statement.
  4. Staff have memorized the mission statement.
  5. Staff regularly recite the mission statement when talking with others. 
  6. Staff actively use the mission statement to guide decision making.
  7. Staff are focused on achieving the mission.
  8. In terms of our mission statement (our organizational promise), we are who we say we are.

Reflect on your assessment results: What do you observe? To increase both integrity and unity, which of the above would you initially work on?

(2) Starting with yourself: Having considered the situation and the self-assessment results, now it’s time for action. It’s time for you to take action—it’s not time for you call others to action: 

  • Start with yourself, working to become a model of the mission statement in terms of each of the 8 self-assessment items. Using this approach has 2 advantages: others get to see what the mission looks like in action and you gain credibility with others. (If you are looking for a way to deepen your understanding, try the 6-question exercise at the end of the above video.)
  • You also need to solicit criticism from others by asking questions, for example, “To be a better model of the mission, what should I start doing and stop doing?”

(3) Learning more about organizational integrity and unity. Watch the playlist for To Be Honest, listen to a podcast (Leading Transformational Change with Tobias Sturesson: 009. Ron Carucci: Building an Honest Organization), read To Be Honest, and read blog entries: 

What about you? How might the 5 enemies of unity be affecting your organization? How does integrity impact unity? How can you help your organization increase its integrity (and thereby increase its unity)?

Michael

P.S. Bonus! Here’s a list of quotations from things I’ve read that contain the word integrity:

  1. “An organization has integrity—is healthy—when it is whole, consistent, and complete, that is, when its management, operations, strategy, and culture fit together and make sense” (The Advantage, p. 5).
  2. “Trustworthy leaders…. demonstrate competence by having the knowledge, skills, and expertise for their roles…act with integrity when they tell the truth, keep confidences, and admit their mistakes…care about others…. People trust leaders who honor their commitments” (Leading with Trust: If You Build It, They Will Come – 4 Characteristics of Trustworthy Leaders).
  3. “Guard your integrity” (Leading with Trust: 10 Powerful Ways to Build Trust).
  4. “To become the most effective vision-driven leader, tenacity, integrity, and courage are essential” (The Vision Driven Leader, loc 2299).
  5. “When we refer to integrity, we are not referring to its popular definition—things such as not stealing from the company or being generally honest. Rather, integrity was manifested in the senior leadership teams we studied by these behaviors: • Putting enterprise-affecting issues on the table for discussion by the group even when resolution of the issues could have negative implications for one’s own area of responsibility • Keeping discussions among senior executives confidential, not sharing them with one’s group or gossiping to others about who argued for which position in senior team meetings • Actually implementing decisions that have been agreed to by the team • Holding the team accountable for making choices that are consistent with publicly espoused team and organizational values” (Senior Leadership: What It Takes to Make Them Great, p. 93).
  6. “In his best-selling book The Speed of Trust,15 Stephen M.R. Covey describes two sources of trustworthiness: character and competence. Character is who you are—your personal maturity, integrity, and commitment to principles. An immature, unprincipled person cannot be trusted regardless of his or her skills. Your competence is what you do—your talents, skills, and capabilities. Even a person of high character cannot be trusted if they lack the skills to do the job in a high quality way. Both character and competence are essential to have trust and credibility” (Unlocking Potential, loc 491).
  7. “Simply put, trust means confidence. The opposite of trust—distrust—is suspicion. When you trust people, you have confidence in them—in their integrity and in their abilities. When you distrust people, you are suspicious of them—of their integrity, their agenda, their capabilities, or their track record” (The Speed of Trust, p. 5).
  8. “Be honest. Tell the truth. Let people know where you stand. Use simple language. Call things what they are. Demonstrate integrity. Don’t manipulate people or distort facts. Don’t spin the truth. Don’t leave false impressions” ((The Speed of Trust p. 147).
  9. “What is trust? It is predictability. When you trust someone, you know how they will react to new or unknown circumstances. It is a measure of assurance of someone’s honesty and integrity” You’re It: Crisis, Change, and How to Lead When It Matters Most, p. 107).
  10. “One of the major faults leaders can make is to assume they get trust just because of their title. Your title might get you watched, but what will others see? The next move is yours. Your credibility exists only insofar as others believe in you: in your integrity, track record, and commitment” (Cracking the Leadership Code, loc 2412).

How can you increase unity in your Christian organization?

/ mkessenburg

Unity! I can hear the chants: “U-ni-ty! U-ni-ty! U-ni-ty!” I’m in 9th grade, we’re playing basketball against Unity Christian in their gym, and we’re focusing on aggressive defense and getting ball to the post. Our team is unified, our unity disrupts their team unity, and we go on to defeat Unity. My first real taste of what team unity could do—I liked it!

I’ve coached basketball, I’ve served as a leader in Christian organizations, and I can tell you that with unity, there is clarity, focus, and increased mission achievement; without unity, there tends to be confusion, frustration, and increased everyone-doing-their-own-thing achievement. (Think Tower of Babel after God changed language—see Genesis 11:1-9.) I can also tell you that:

  1. Unity is Biblical. Psalm 133:1 says, “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” And Ephesians 4:3 says, “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” 
  2. Unity is not uniformity. In the Body of Christ, there are many parts (that do different things) but 1 body (1 Corinthians 12:12). On a basketball team, there are different positions (that do different things) but 1 team. In an organization, there are many different job positions (that do different things), but 1 organization.
  3. Unity is the result of effective coaching/leadership. My 9th grade basketball coach (Dan Vander Ark) focused our team and prepared us with effective drills—including very strenuous defensive slide drills that paid off in the victory over Unity Christian. My first international Christian school headmaster (Bruce Hekman) focused staff on being a caring community—he rallied us around developing healthy relationships.
  4. Unity is impacted by the level of clarity regarding purpose, parameters, and practice. Let me explain.

Christian organizations have unity around key basics. These basics need to be reviewed and reinforced, in part because we all need to continue growing in Christ and because there may be new Christians on staff who do not yet sufficiently understand the basics. By basics, I mean the following: 

While I am grateful to work in Christian organizations where there is unity around key Christian basics, these Christian basics are insufficient at the organizational level. Why? 

  • Because Christian organizations vary—think accounting office, retirement home, school, church planting mission, and sports ministry.
  • Because key Christian basics do not provide enough clarify and focus to help specific organizations increase the achievement of their mission and vision. 
  • And because Christian organizations are often composed of staff from different cultural backgrounds—meaning, even more things need to be clarified.

In addition to Christian basics, Christian organizations need organizational basics. Here’s what I mean:

(1) Purpose: Mission statement—a user-friendly statement (short, memorable, memorizable) that identifies your Christian organization’s specific purpose.

(2) Parameters: Vision: Where do we want to go? Strategy: How do we get from here to there? Values: How do we behave?  Philosophy: What’s our perspective on our work?

(3) Practices: 

  • Reviewing organizational purpose and parameters at each and every staff meeting.
  • Using collaboratively developed and documented cultural practices regarding communicating, evaluating, leading, deciding, trusting, disagreeing, scheduling, and persuading (see The Culture Map). 
  • Documenting and using job descriptions, plans (strategy, marketing), policies (hiring, grievance/whistleblowing), and processes (school admissions and enrollment).
  • Measuring achievement so everyone understands what’s been accomplished—measure achievement of the purpose, parameters, compliance best practice (like ACSI’s 84 indicators for Christian schools), and financial health (as monitored by a financial dashboard that includes KPI’s like net profit and % of expenses from compensation/benefits). 
  • Using the 4 disciplines of organizational health at the leadership team level.

So, how can you increase unity in your Christian organization? Things that come to mind for me include (A) doing devotionals at team/staff meetings on unity, (B) encouraging staff to memorize the mission and to talk about the mission, (C) implementing a strategic plan that is supported by strategic financial management, and (D) sharing my view of a unified team: Unified teams are smart and healthy, use appropriate cultural practices, and are composed of members who are smart, healthy, and self-aware:

What about you? What’s your experience with unity/disunity? Based on your experience, what have you learned about unity? How can you increase unity in your Christian organization?

Here’s what I’m learning from The Power of Positive Leadership on unity:

  • “Positive leaders unite instead of divide. They are able to get everyone on the bus and moving in the right direction. They are able to create unity, which is the difference between a great team and an average team. The more united and connected a team and organization is, the more they are able to accomplish together” (loc 1212).
  • “It’s important to create unity and wholeness. It needs to be a priority and it doesn’t happen without intentionality and action” (loc 1256).
  • “If unity and connection are so essential, then I must address why so many teams and organizations aren’t more united and why more leaders don’t create unity and connection. I’m convinced that besides selfishness, the enemies are busyness and stress” (loc 1323).

And here are some related blog posts:

Michael

What role does measurement play?

/ mkessenburg

I measure things all day long. When I get up, I measure what time it is. Then I measure water, coffee, and temperature in order to make hot coffee. And later during the workday, I measure a variety of things, including:

  • Organizational financial health by looking at current income and expense, the financial forecast, and the financial dashboard.
  • Organizational compliance with some of ACSI’s 84 accreditation indicators.
  • Organizational vision achievement by comparing student performance against rubrics from Becoming a Globally Competent Teacher.

Why do so much measuring? Well, to be honest, a key reason is to reduce the no good, very bad things that are more likely to happen when I don’t measure. When I don’t measure in the morning, I may get up too early (meaning, not get enough sleep) or make terrible tasting coffee that is lukewarm at best. And during the workday when not enough measurement is happening, fully informed financial decisions are not made, compliance with best practice doesn’t increase and is likely to actually decrease, fewer people talk about the mission and vision, and even fewer people take action to achieve the mission and vision—ouch!

Another reason I do so much measuring is because measuring increases my understanding, focus, and (consequently) achievement. For example, my school’s vision includes students communicating in English and Japanese. 

  • Understanding: Identifying how communication will be measured (for example, using standardized test scores and benchmark assessments in reading, speaking, and writing) helps me understand how success will be determined and what we think success looks like.
  • Focus: When I use data from the communication measures (for example, standardized tests and benchmark assessments), I get more focused on communication. Seeing specific scores helps me pay sustained attention.
  • Achievement: The more I understand communication and the more I focus on the communication, the more likely I am to take action to increase student achievement on communication.

So, what role does measurement play? For me, measurement increases understanding, focus, and (consequently) achievement. Or to put in terms of Lencioni’s 4 disciplines of organizational health, measurement reinforces clarity.

What about you? What do you measure? What happens when you don’t measure? What role does measurement play?

Michael

P.S. Bonus! Here’s a list of quotations from things I’ve read or listened to that contain the word measure, measured, measuring, measurable, and/or measurement:

  1. “People ought to think about measuring those things that make a difference to the person or people they serve” (The Truth About Employee Engagement, loc 2060).
  2. “Trust grows when expectations are unambiguous. People need to know what winning looks like and where they stand on the path to victory. Trust comes with a scoreboard, with clarity around how results will be measured. Having no gauges is a setup for confusion. When people know what they’re expected to achieve, they can focus on doing it rather than trying to figure out what matters most. They can trust the system” (The 10 Laws of Trust, loc 816).
  3. “Without clear, measurable goals, a tracking system, and frequent, regular accountability, a team has little chance of fulfilling the strategy. It’s the job of the leaders to make sure these things are in place” (Unlocking Potential, loc 1521).
  4. “When you commit to a specific outcome, you’re forced to get better. Your results speak for themselves. If your results aren’t getting better, then you should question how interested or committed you are to this thing. You’ll know you’re serious about improving your results when you really begin tracking everything you do, down to the minutest detail. As Pearson’s Law states, ‘When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates’” (Personality Isn’t Permanent, loc 1319).
  5. “Remember, Radical Candor is measured not at the speaker’s mouth, but at the listener’s ear; it’s not what you say, it’s how the other person hears it” (Radical Candor Podcast 3.4: Gauge the Feedback You’re Giving & Getting).
  6. “Make specific quantitative statements, not blanket qualitative ones. Don’t just tell your employees to work harder or get better. Give them specific challenges to meet that can be measured and have deadlines” (Your Next Five Moves, loc 2386).
  7. “Have you had multiple face-to-face conversations over multiple months with the employee where you have clearly explained and agreed there is a gap in performance, and where you have agreed to specific measurable actions to address that gap?” (The Art of Leadership, p. 26)
  8. “How you spend your time is the single clearest indicator of what’s important to you. Constituents use this metric to judge whether you measure up to espoused standards. Spending time on what you say is important shows that you’re putting your money where your mouth is. Whatever your values are, they have to show up on your calendar and on meeting agendas if people are to believe they’re significant” (The Leadership Challenge, loc 1884).
  9. “What if we stopped celebrating being busy as a measurement of importance? What if instead we celebrated how much time we had spent listening, pondering, meditating, and enjoying time with the most important people in our lives?” (Essentialism, p. 26)
  10. “GRASS: Guilt, Resentment, Anxiety, Self-absorption, and Stress. These are the five real and measurable costs of not managing transition effectively” (Managing Transition, loc 2891).

How important is shared understanding?

/ mkessenburg

Imagine. Both you and your friend like sports. You have good weather, so you talk about getting together to play a game:

  • Me: Let’s get our teams together and play a game of football. 
  • You: OK. 
  • Me: Just to be clear—1 ball, 11 players, grassy field, high score wins, with a start time of 5PM, OK?
  • You: OK

[Later at 5PM]

  • Me and my team: round ball, 11 players in uniforms (shorts, T shirts, socks, shoes with cleats)—with the understanding that when we score, we get 1 point.
  • You and your team: oblong ball, 11 players in uniforms ((helmets, shoulder pads, padded pants, socks, shoes with cleats)—with the understanding that when we score we can get 1-2 points (extra points after a touchdown), 3 points (field goal), or 6 points (touchdown), and possibly 2 points for a touchback.
  • Me: We’re playing football, right?
  • You: Yes, so why are you dressed for soccer?

So, how important is shared understanding? For me, it’s vital. When I don’t have shared understanding no good, very bad things seem to happen more often—everything from 2 teams preparing for a game (but a different sport) to doing a 50-minute presentation (but not meeting the full expectations of the person who requested the presentation). How about you? What happens when you don’t have shared understanding?

As a leader, having shared understanding is vital, particularly around the mission and vision. It’s vital that we have shared understanding of what we mean by mission and vision. For me, mission is purpose and vision is the results I want to see as a result of carrying out the mission. For others, vision is what we want to see and mission is the part of the mission we want to achieve.

It’s also vital that we understand what the words in the mission and vision statements mean. For example, imagine your organization (international Christian school) has the following mission statement: Equipping students as cross-cultural leaders who impact the world for Jesus. 

  • What does “equipping” mean? 
  • What’s our view of students? 
  • What’s a cross-cultural leader? 
  • What kind of activity does “impact” include? 
  • What does “the world” mean?
  • What does “for Jesus” mean? 

I’ve found it helpful to have official commentary below the mission statement that promotes shared understanding of terms, for example:

For vision statements, I’ve found it helpful not only to have official commentary (see above), but also to have set of key performance indicators that are used to measure the achievement of the vision. For example, imagine your organization (international Christian school) has the following vision statement: Students communicate in English and Japanese; collaborate with people from different cultures; are prepared for college, career, and citizenship; and have increased openness to and understanding of Jesus.

A shared set of key performance indicators helps staff develop shared understanding of success: 

  • Students communicate in English and Japanese: standardized test scores
  • Students collaborate with people from different cultures: rubric scores from Becoming a Globally Competent Teacher.
  • Students prepared for college: percentage of graduating seniors with a college acceptance and percentage of graduating seniors that enroll in college
  • Students prepared for career: survey responses from graduates
  • Students prepared for citizenship: stakeholder survey responses (current students, current parents, graduates, staff)
  • Students with increased openness to and understanding of Jesus: rubric scores based on the Gray Scale.

What about you? How important is shared understanding? What happens when you don’t have shared understanding? How do you develop shared understanding?

Here’s what I’m learning:

  1. “Leadership is more than an attribute or an activity. Leadership is also when you and your staff identify a problem and know you must choose from an array of options to tackle that problem. When the leader chooses the wrong option, the solution can become part of the problem itself….The key to successful leadership is to understand the types of challenges you are facing so you can choose the right skills to address the challenge” (The Leadership Triangle: Dealing with Tactical, Strategic, and Transformational Challenges).
  2. “Christ-centered schools have a threefold mission: (1) providing students with a quality education; (2) informing and nurturing their faith; and (3) equipping them to biblically interact with the prevailing culture” (Making Sense of Culture for the Christ-Centered School).
  3. “In addition to the individual efforts of educators, schools must stay on course as institutions. The missions and objectives of our schools are more than formal necessities. They are declarations of commitment calling us to action, guiding us in our collective endeavors, providing standards against which we measure our resolve and our results. They must be clear, talked about often, and personally significant for each educator” (Facing the Growing Pressures in Christian Education: Three Essentials to Consider)

Michael

How can reading make your mission, vision, and philosophy faster?

/ mkessenburg

Not good—imagine working for an organization where no one talks about the core documents (mission, vision, philosophy) and where staff don’t really understand what the documents mean. Not good. No talking and no no real understanding lead to no (significant) implementation and the perception that core documents are irrelevant. Double not good.

To increase implementation, make your core documents (mission, vision, and philosophy) FASTER!

  1. Frequently talked about
  2. Aligned: internally consistent
  3. Specific: clear and concrete
  4. Transparent: accessible, known, and understood
  5. Easy to use: memorizable, easy to say/write, and measurable
  6. Reinforced with the 5Ps: prayer, policies, plans, processes, and publications 

Reading can help you get statements Frequently talked about and Transparent. Here’s how:

  1. Reading books increases Frequently talked about because (in my experience) staff talk about what they read—particularly if an organization holds book discussions.
  2. Reading books increases Transparency in terms of staff understanding the mission, vision, and philosophy.

What does using reading to make your core documents (mission, vision, and philosophy) FASTER look like? 

Step 1: Write down your core documents. Here’s what mine look like:

  • Mission: Equipping students as cross-cultural leaders who impact the world for Jesus
  • Vision: Students communicate in English and Japanese; collaborate with people from different cultures; are prepared for college, career, and citizenship; and have increased openness to and understanding of Jesus.
  • Philosophy: Bilingual, internationally-minded, American-based, Christ-centered education within a caring community equips students.

Step 2: Identify reading resources that address specific parts of the core documents. Here’s what this looks like for me:

(2.1) Mission: Equipping students as cross-cultural leaders who impact the world for Jesus

(2.2) Vision: Students communicate in English and Japanese; collaborate with people from different cultures; are prepared for college, career, and citizenship; and have increased openness to and understanding of Jesus.

(2.3) Philosophy: Bilingual, internationally-minded, American-based, Christ-centered education within a caring community equips students.

Step 3: Get staff reading. Ways to do this include:

  • Reading a book yourself and talking about it with others.
  • Providing professional development funds to cover book costs.
  • Sharing your list of reading resources.
  • Starting a book discussion group on a book you want to read.

Step 4: Celebrate the results you are seeing in terms of making your core documents (mission, vision, philosophy) FASTER, particularly in terms of Frequently talked about and Transparent.

  • Celebrate at staff meetings by listing the results you are seeing.
  • Celebrate at book discussions having participants share how reading a given book helped them better understand core documents.

What about you? How can reading make your mission, vision, and philosophy FASTER? How can you get your staff Frequently talking about core documents? How can you increase Transparency by helping your staff really understand the core documents?

Here’s what I’m learning:

  1. “…readers are leaders, and leaders are readers…” (On Leadership: Success Principles: Jack Canfield).
  2. “Read, learn, and grow. Just like our students, we will get better at leading and communicating when we learn about it. Grow your professional library with books and articles, and start following blogs and other leaders in and outside of education” (Leading with Grace: Leaning into the Soft Skills of Leadership, loc 1474).
  3. “Practices such as reading Scripture and praying are important — not because they prove how spiritual we are — but because God can use them to lead us into life” (The Life You’ve Always Wanted Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People, loc 783).

Michael

How can you make your mission, vision, and philosophy smarter and faster?

/ mkessenburg

Dumb statements—no one wants to have dumb mission, vision, and philosophy statements. I know I don’t. I find that there’s significant value in making those statements SMARTER, which according to Michael Hyatt means:

  • Specific
  • Measurable
  • Actionable
  • Risky
  • Time-keyed
  • Exciting
  • Relevant

What about you? How can make your organization’s statements even SMARTER?

While I value SMARTER statements, lately I find that I prefer FASTER statements because I get better results with FASTER statements. What do I means by FASTER? Let me use 2 versions to explain:

(A) Short version: Make your mission, vision, and philosophy FASTER!

  1. Frequently talked about
  2. Aligned
  3. Specific
  4. Transparent
  5. Easy to use
  6. Reinforced

(B) Long version: Make your mission, vision, and philosophy FASTER!

(1) Frequently talked about: Start team meetings by reading aloud your mission, vision, and philosophy statements. Or start team meetings with devotionals related to the core documents.

(2) Aligned (internally consistent): The mission, vision, and philosophy should be a matched set. For example, the vision should describe the results you want from carrying out the mission, and the philosophy should describe the perspective you use as you work to achieve your mission and vision.

(3) Specific (clear and concrete): Use words the clearly specific your purpose; for example, if you believe in bilingualism, put that into your philosophy statement. Provide a glossary that clarifies what the words in each of your statements means.

(4) Transparent (accessible, known, and understood): Make the statements accessible by putting them in Google Docs, make them known by asking staff to memorize them, and make them understood by providing professional development.

(5) Easy to use (memorizable, easy to say/write, and measurable): Since you want people to communicate about the statements:

  • Make them memorizable (meaning short—I’ve developed a set of statements that uses a total of 52 words, and it seems to work well). 
  • Make the statements easy to say—if they don’t roll off the tongue with relative ease, people will say them less, and, consequently, use them less. 
  • Make them easy to write—that way, you’ll be more likely to include them in emails, letters, blogs, and social media posts. 
  • And make the statements measurable—develop a set of key performance indicators for each statement. For example, if your vision statement includes students being effective communicators, use standardized test scores and internal assessments (speaking, writing) to measure how effectively students communicate.

(6) Reinforced with the 5Ps: prayer, policies, plans, processes (include a cycle of review of each statement), and publications (social media posts and blog posts).

What about you? How can you make your mission, vision, and philosophy smarter and faster? How can you make your organization’s statements even SMARTER? How can you make your organization’s statements even FASTER?

Here’s what I’m learning?

  • “Christ-centered schools have a threefold mission: (1) providing students with a quality education; (2) informing and nurturing their faith; and (3) equipping them to biblically interact with the prevailing culture” (Making Sense of Culture for the Christ-Centered School).
  • “The missions and objectives of our schools are more than formal necessities. They are declarations of commitment calling us to action, guiding us in our collective endeavors, providing standards against which we measure our resolve and our results. They must be clear, talked about often, and personally significant for each educator” (Facing the Growing Pressures in Christian Education: Three Essentials to Consider).
  • “A vision…statement is precise, adaptive, and responsive. Its tenets should be reflected in curriculum, assessment, instruction, projects, and learning artifacts” (Christian School Mission Statements).

Michael

P.S. Bonus! Here’s a list of quotations from things I’ve read or listened to that contain the word mission:

  1. “…stay true to your mission in everything you do, no matter what your size, and you’re more likely to succeed. Lose touch with it, and you’re more likely to fail” (The Founder’s Mentality, p. 24).
  2. “Driving a positive, high-performing culture requires more than words. After all, everyone has a mission statement, but only the great organizations also have people who are on a mission. The greatest mission statement in the world is pointless unless your people are on a mission” (The Power of Positive Leadership, loc 456).
  3. “Our goal isn’t just to motivate leaders. Our goal isn’t just to find self-motivated leaders. What is our goal? Our goal is to inspire self-motivated leaders toward a world-changing mission” (Think Inspiration Not Motivation).
  4. “That’s what I mean by an unstoppable team, one that brings diverse gifts to bear on the team’s goals through a shared sense of purpose and a deep commitment to each other. You can assemble as many individual superstars as you’d like, but they won’t become unstoppable unless they believe in each other and in their collective mission” (Unstoppable Teams: The Four Essential Actions of High-Performance Leadership, loc 45).
  5. “My organization’s leaders care more about doing what is right for its people, clients, and mission than they care about their own power and status” (The 10 Laws of Trust, loc 1294).
  6. “Do you want to work for someone who actually really cares about the mission of the organization and gets excited when you’re being successful or the person who just never shows any emotion?” (At the Table with Patrick Lencioni: 7. Robot CEO)
  7. “Too many leaders work on developing and relying on their technical competency or knowledge and overlook the influence part of leadership…. That ability to effectively communicate your ideas and vision, to rally people around a common idea or mission, to connect people and help them to come together to achieve something extraordinary—that’s what leadership influence is all about” (Building Champions Podcast: 3.3 Multiplicative Systems).
  8. “How are you doing about leading from your strengths? What adjustments should you be praying about to live your life message and mission better? Who can you enlist to protect you from drifting into leading from weakness?” (Healthy Leaders: 4 Ideas to Lead from Strength)
  9. “…teams without purpose become leaderless. With no clear direction, people pursue the things that advance their own short-term interests, with little awareness of how their activities contribute to (or in some cases, derail) the long-term mission of the team as a whole” (Essentialism, p. 123).
  10. “As trust declines, people grab power. Another way to contrast low-trust organizations with high-trust organizations is to compare the role of power in achieving desired ends. In low-trust organizations, power plays the key role in attaining goals. In high-trust organizations, authority is still vital, but it tends to be distributed and is aimed at a shared mission. And it is seen not as a personal asset to be wielded by leaders for their own benefit but as both a duty owed to those granting it and a responsibility to those over whom it extends” (The 10 Laws of Trust, loc 442).

How do you become a leader?

/ mkessenburg

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What helps you lead?

How do you become a leader? The answer’s actually pretty simple—by getting at least 1 follower. How do you get a follower? That answer varies—there are a myriad of ways to get a follower, including being someone others want to follow.

Well, how do you become a person others want to follow? By being the person you’d follow—which for me means being someone who builds trust, who creates vision, who carries out strategy, and who helps others grow. So then, how do you build trust, create vision, carry out strategy, and help others grow? Let’s take those questions 1 at a time:

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What’s one way you build trust with others?

(1) How do you build trust? I talked with my wife about how I build trust, and we both thought that I basically do 4 things: 

  • I take time to get to know others and hear their stories (see Personal Histories Exercise).
  • I demonstrate character, in part by following through on my commitments. 
  • I demonstrated competence by using and referring to current best practices, including organizational health.
  • I practice being vulnerable, which includes sharing my struggles, admitting my mistakes, asking for help, and apologizing.

What about you? How do you build trust?

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What helps you create vision?

(2) How do you create vision? What I’ve found helps me create vision is deeply immersing myself in best practice—reading books (like Mindshift), listening to podcasts (like At the Table), watching videos (like Two Mindsets and How to Solve Organizational Challenges), and talking online courses (like Crucial Conversations and The 7 Habits for Managers).

Next, I reflect on what I’ve learned. One way I do this is by blogging each week. Finally, I use a structure for creating my vision—the Vision Driven Leader provides a practical structure. And when I’ve created a draft of my vision, I get input from others, making revisions as appropriate.

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What helps you carry out strategy?

(3) How do you carry out strategy? Things I’ve found helpful include:

  • Remembering that strategy helps me achieve the vision.
  • Using quarterly goals instead annual goals. At the end of each quarter, I assess my results and then make a new goal.
  • Using FAST goals, that is, goals that are Frequently Discussed, Ambitious, Specific, and Transparent 
  • Using colors to assess progress on my goals: red (concerned about), yellow (a little concerned about), and green (on track).

What about you? What practices have you found helpful as you carry out strategy?

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What helps you grow?

(4) How do you help others grow? My answer? By shifting from ladder climbing to ladder building. By being a multiplier instead of an accidental diminisher. By listening, asking, and encouraging (instead of talking, advising, and critiquing). By modeling personal and professional growth (in part through blogging) and by encouraging others to do the same, getting them started with developing a 3-year professional development plan.

What about you? How do you build trust? Create vision? Implement strategy? Help others grow?

Here’s what I’m learning:

—Michael

P.S. As you consider leadership, consider your mindset regarding leadership. Consider reading The Motive and How Important Is Mindset?