To what extent does your improvement process help you improve?

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).

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Ensure your improvement process actually helps you improve! Why?

(1) Because a helpful process gets you and your colleagues flourishing. 

(2) Because a helpful process gets you focused on your purpose for improving, assessing the situation so you can determine your improvement priorities, and developing next steps.

(3) Because an unhelpful process can result in fuzziness about the purpose for improvement, get you working on things you don’t actually need to prioritize, and make you think that improvement is a 1-off, not continuous. Not good.

(4) Because using a helpful improvement process is a best practice.

Let’s keep thinking about this by reflecting on 6 questions: 

Photo by Miguel Á. Padriñán

Question 1: How important is process? (aka: Can’t we just get at our goals?) For me, process is vital. Process flows from purpose and perspective, and it precedes planning, practice, and progress. 

Note: “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems” (James Clear). 

Question 2: What’s your actual improvement process? My improvement process has 4 parts:

• Reviewing my purpose for and perspective of improvement.
• Assessing my current reality.
• Identifying a goal, creating a scope statement, and then making and implementing a plan.
• Using helpful practices, for example: (A) assessing, reporting, and celebrating progress, and then determining next steps (possibly by using an after action review and the School Improvement Reflection Protocol); (B) having domain committees meet 2+ times a year to reflect on how students, staff, and leaders are holistically flourishing; and to assess your progress on your domain-related, schoolwide action plans.

Question 3: What makes a good improvement process good? Here are 5 criteria that come to mind for me:

(A) Ongoing: The process is continuous. I use it from day to day, week to week, month to month, and year to year.

(B) Documented: The process is written down and easily accessible.

(C) Collaborative: The process gets people working together.

(D) Includes key components: reviewing the purpose of school improvement; assessing the current situation; developing and implementing an action plan; assessing, celebrating, and reporting progress; and determining next steps.

(E) Gets participants experiencing the 5 elements of flourishing: passionate purpose, resilient well-being, healthy relationships, transformative learning, and helpful resources.

Question 4: How well does your actual improvement process meet your criteria for a good improvement process? 

(A) Ongoing: I use my process daily, weekly, quarterly, and annually.

(B) Documented: My process is documented in my task management software. (In the school setting, document the process in a Google Doc so everyone can access it.)

(C) Collaborative: For schools, the process is collaborative, as domain committees talk together.

(D) Includes key components: It includes all key components.

(E) Gets participants experiencing the 5 elements of flourishing: My process does this. For example, reviewing my purpose helps me experience passionate purpose, making a plan helps me experience helpful resources, and working with others helps me experience healthy relationships.

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Question 5: To what extent does your improvement process actually help you improve? I think my improvement process actually helps me improve. It keeps me going day to day, week to week, and year to year. It helps me stay focused on my purpose, seeing how I’m doing, and determining next steps.

Question 6: What can you do to make your improvement process even more helpful? At the personal level, action steps that come to mind include documenting your process, making sure your process meets your criteria for a good improvement process, and consistently using your process.

At the school level, action steps that come to mind include:

(A) Documenting your process.

(B) Assessing your process to see the extent to which it meets the criteria for a good improvement process. Then, using assessment results to enhance the improvement process.

(C) Consistently using the improvement process.

(D) Having domain committees meet 2+ times a year to reflect on how students, staff, and leaders are holistically flourishing; and to assess your progress on your domain-related, schoolwide action plans.

(E) Regularly celebrating during staff meetings and in school publications the progress you’re making on your action plans and the progress of students, staff, and leaders on flourishing. Reporting progress to parents and other stakeholders through your annual report.

(F) Completing an annual after action review that includes determining next steps.

Photo by Anna Tarazevich

If your international Christian school doesn’t yet have a documented improvement process or wants to enhance its improvement process, feel free to contact me. I’d be glad to talk with you!

Here are some related resources:

• What process does your team use to do something new?
• How can enhancing processes help your team improve its GRIP?
• How can you use the process of doing your ACSI Inspire self-study to help people actually flourish?
• When you want to more effectively improve, what do you need to do?
• School Improvement Reflection Protocol

Bottom line: Ensure your improvement process 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 process:

(1) “Enjoy the Process” (Feel-Good Productivity, loc 404).

(2) “Elevating your culture to the flourishing level and having it last is often a three- to five-year process if your organization is starting from a toxic level” (Road to Flourishing, loc 2983).

(3) “Understanding the…process in general reduces anxiety, fear, frustration, and impatience, just as having a map or navigation system eases worries on an unfamiliar trip” (Smart Growth, loc 475).

(4) “You can manage resources. You can manage systems. You can manage processes and procedures. But you cannot effectively manage people” (Trust and Inspire, loc 624).

(5) “The process of behavior change always starts with awareness. You need to be aware of your habits before you can change them” (Atomic Habits, loc 898).

(6) “No action, activity, or process is more central to a healthy organization than the meeting. As dreaded as the ‘m’ word is, as maligned as it has become, there is no better way to have a fundamental impact on an organization than by changing the way it does meetings” (The Advantage, p. 173).

(7) “Multicultural teams need low-context processes” (The Culture Map, p. 55).

(8) “How can you better leverage the asking of questions in the development process of your leaders?” (The Leader’s Greatest Return Workbook, loc 1436)

(9) “…failure is just simply part of the learning process” (On Leadership—Build Your Career: Anne Chow).
(10) “A manager’s job is to build a team that works well together, support members in reaching their career goals, and create processes to get work done smoothly and efficiently” (The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You, p. 16).

When you want to more effectively improve, what do you need to do?

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.

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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?

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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

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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).

International Christian school educators, should we be teaching our secondary students about AI?

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Teach your secondary students about AI! Why?

(1) Because it is a part of the creation God has given us stewardship over, and it is a tool that can help us exercise more effective stewardship and flourish as God’s image bearers. 

(2) Because it is a part of our current world and will be an ever-increasing part of the future world, the one we are preparing students for.

(3) Because it can act as an assistant, saving us time so we can focus on priorities that AI can’t do and catalyzing our best efforts.

(4) Because our students are learning about it and formulating their own responses—if we aren’t modeling responsible, ethical, creative, just responses, they may be fumbling on their own or falling under influences that are irresponsible, unethical, deadening, and unjust.

(5) Because teaching our secondary students about AI is a best practice. In AI for Educators: Learning Strategies, Teacher Efficiencies, and a Vision for an Artificial Intelligence Future, Matt Miller says, “For our students’ sake, to prepare them for the future, we can’t look at the world through ‘today glasses.’ We must use our ‘tomorrow glasses’” (Loc 96).  

Where do we start? I started out by thinking deeply about ChatGPT when it first came out (see my blog posts here and here). Then I experimented with ChatGPT (you can sign up for a free account here). Think of ChatGPT as having your own research assistant. Here are some ways I’ve used it recently: 

(A) For I-need-to-know-questions: The bread package was left open and the bread got hard. How can I soften it again? 

(B) For answers to questions kids ask: Why do we call it a garbage can when it is much bigger than a can? (After I got the answer, I asked my AI assistant to level the answer for a 5-year-old. It did it!)  

(C) For examples that can be used in blog posts: What are 10 examples of collaboration in important scientific advances?

(D) For support for students with learning needs at a small school without a specialist: Write a social story for a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder illustrating the importance of coming into the classroom quietly. (I learned about social stories while discussing the book Decoding Autism with another teacher, and we were really impressed with their effectiveness, but wondered where we’d get them. Then I had this brainstorm!)

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You might be thinking, “Okay–I can see why and how I could start to explore using AI. But I have questions:

1. Why be the one to introduce kids to all the potential harm and cheating AI can generate? 
2. Even if I wanted to, just how do I get started? 
3. Why use it in my classroom?
4. What does using AI look like?
5. How will using it help me personally?”

All good questions. Let me respond to each: 

Question 1: “Why be the one to introduce kids to all the potential harm and cheating AI can generate?” Please keep in mind that we’re not the ones introducing students to AI. I’m pretty sure that most students have heard of it. If not yet, then soon. The tech savvy ones are using it. Shouldn’t we be part of that? Giving them information, examples, and a model of how intelligent, godly, faithful adults deal with new technology? Otherwise we’ll just be putting out fires, handing out punishments for misuses when we haven’t given guidance on proper uses.

Question 2: “Even if I wanted to, just how do I get started?” You can get started with AI by…

• Helping students understand what AI is and how it helps us grow, create, love our neighbors, and steward creation—and how it could also threaten and stunt all those things. 
• Using 1 or more of these 8 short (20 minutes or less) AI literacy lessons for grades 6-12 from Common Sense. 
• Using the 12-step continuum below from Matt Miller’s book and website to generate student discussion:

AI in the Classroom: What’s Cheating? What’s OK? (Ditch That Textbook)

Question 3: “Why use it in my classroom?” Use AI in the classroom to further student learning and better prepare students for their future. Imagine graduating students with no experience of using AI into a workforce where even entry-level workers have an AI research assistant and secretary at their service. I don’t remember the source for this statement, but it really resonated with me as a writer: AI will not take jobs away from writers, but writers who use AI will take jobs away from writers who don’t use AI.   

Question 4: “What does using AI look like?” Miller shares frequent examples, and one of my favorites is adding it to the “Think-Pair-Share” protocol:

• Students think about a question on their own (in a quick write or in their minds), discuss with a partner (pair) what they’ve thought about. 
• Then, before sharing out to the whole group, they add the steps of individually going to AI with additional questions and coming back together to discuss what they’ve discovered. 

Here are more examples Miller gives: 

(A) Ask AI for advice: What are good ways to study for the test tomorrow?

(B) Anticipate AI’s response: How do you think AI will answer, “How did World War 2 shape the world today?” Then generate the answer, and note anything the AI omitted or added. 

(C) Take several AI responses and make a better product: Give me 3 definitions of Krebs cycle. Then create your own.)

(D) Get a different perspective with AI: Ask AI what someone from a different place, time, or group would think of an argument, issue, or topic you’ve been studying.

(E) Deepen learning by using AI to reformulate your answer to a question you’ve been studying: Write a rap using given vocabulary words or concepts.

Note: When you start having your students use AI in the classroom, you will want to develop with them classroom rules for ethical use. For example, check out the poster for Classroom AI Rules that Vicki Davis uses. Miller models this kind of transparency in his book, ending each chapter with a disclosure of the percentage that was generated by himself vs AI, and then giving the portions that were AI generated–usually definitions and lists, which AI brainstormed and Miller chose from, added to, and expanded on.

Image by pch.vector on Freepik

Question 5: “How will using it help me personally?” Using ChatGPT can save you time. Who doesn’t want more time? ChatGPT has saved me time by generating sentences for student practice, summarizing texts for English language learners, and generating model writing. Miller notes other ways ChatGPT can save you time, including: 

• Creating lesson plans, discussion prompts, and review questions and activities.
• Helping you with writing report card comments, parent emails, letters of recommendation.   

You can use the time ChatGPT saves you to plan that really cool unit you’ve been wanting to work on, get some regular exercise, subscribe to a professional journal, go on a date with your spouse, and read a book. Why not buy yourself back that time? 

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

If you’re interested in learning more about AI (how to think about it and how to use it for yourself and for your students), check out the website for Matt Miller’s book, AI for Educators: Learning Strategies, Teacher Efficiencies, and a Vision for an Artificial Intelligence Future. On the website you’ll find a summary and support materials for each chapter of the book. If you find that helpful, consider reading the book. And here are some more related resources: 

(1) 2 Reasons to Write in an AI World: What I taught middle school student writers. 

(2) 5 Fun, Ethical Uses of AI I’ve Shared with Students: An article with some good specific ideas you might want to try.

(3) 9 Questions for English Teachers in a World with AI: My reflections on ChatGPT.

(4) AI Literacy Lessons for Grades 6-12: 8 short, basic lessons, less than 20 minutes long each.  

(5) The Cool Cat Teacher Blog, by Vicki Davis, IT teacher, Christian, winner of educational awards. Her whole blog is full of good articles (the classroom poster is hers).

(6) Navigating a World of Generative AI: Suggestions for Educators, Next Level Lab, Harvard School of Education.   

Bottom line: Teach your secondary students about AI!

Get flourishing!

Kim

International Christian school leaders, how do you feel about doing 1:1 meetings?

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“The best leaders recognize that 1:1s are not an add-on to the job; 1:1s ARE the job of a leader” (Glad We Met: The Art and Science of 1:1 Meetings, loc 336).

1:1s? Really? These meetings are actually the job of the leader? Steven Rogelberg, author of Glad We Met, says, “Yes!” He notes that “well-executed 1:1s should wind up saving you time by creating better alignment in your team, higher performing directs, and fewer spontaneous interruptions to your workday as they are saved for the scheduled 1:1″ (loc 339).

Overall for me, Glad We Met is a useful reminder that 1:1s are an effective way to help others flourish personally and professionally. Says Rogelberg, “While 1:1s are meant to address directs’ practical needs, they must also be conducted in a way that meets directs’ personal needs. Doing so ensures that directs feel included, respected, valued, heard, understood, and supported” (loc 1853).

Throughout his book, Rogelberg gives helpful guidance. He consistently addresses questions readers want answers to. Just check out his chapter titles, including: 

• Do I Really Need to Do 1:1s?
• Won’t Team Members Be Fearful of 1:1s?
• Can’t I Just Meet When I Have Something I Need to Say?
• How Should I Schedule 1:1s—Same Day, Clustered, or Spread Out?
• Do These Meetings Need an Agenda?
• Is There a General Model for Conducting 1:1s?
• How Do I Start and End 1:1s—And the Middle Stuff Too?

He provides helpful tools, for example:

• Quiz to Determine Your Overall 1:1 Meeting Skills 
• Preparation Checklist for 1:1 Facilitation
• Checklist for Effectively Giving Feedback & Establishing Accountability in 1:1s
• Creating an Organization-Wide System for 1:1s

And he offers helpful insights, including:

1. “Find the Right Cadence. The most common 1:1 cadences are weekly, biweekly, and monthly. Avoid having an ad hoc (as-needed) approach to the cadence of your 1:1s. Research supports weekly 1:1s as the best option in most cases” (loc 691).
2. “…the biggest predictor of 1:1 value I have found in my research is the direct report’s active participation, as measured by the amount of time they talk during the meeting, relative to the manager. The ideal balance appears to be the direct speaking anywhere between 50% and 90% of the time” (loc 1567).
3. “After the meeting ends, it is critical for both you and your directs to follow through on the action items they committed to. Breaking commitments hurts trust, hurts the working relationship, and makes it harder to have effective 1:1s in the future” (loc 2425).

What about you? How do you feel about 1:1 meetings? How could you use 1:1s to help others flourish personally and professionally? How interested might you be in reading Glad We Met: The Art and Science of 1:1 Meetings?

Here are some meeting-related blog posts:

• Leaders, what can you do to ensure your meetings consistently help participants flourish?
• How do you feel about meetings?
• What’s your motive for leading?
• International Christian leaders, what are meetings like at your school?
• International Christian school leaders, how effective are you at leading meetings?

Bottom line: Use 1:1 meetings to help others flourish personally and professionally!

Get flourishing!

Michael

Which do you want to use? Good enough plans or perfect plans?

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Use good enough plans, not perfect plans! 

Why? Because good enough plans get you flourishing (instead of waiting for the perfect plan—aka stagnating). Because good enough plans are helpful resources that allow you to get started, to take thoughtful action, to complete reasonable experiments that help you learn, make progress, and then improve your plan. And because perfect plans don’t actually exist this side of heaven:

“A Good Enough Plan is distinct from the perfect plan, which is an elusive, fantastical creature that has never actually been spotted in the wild. Search for the perfect plan has slowed down many a sentimental operator with dreams of perfectionistic glory” (Move Fast and Fix Things, p. 87).

Photo by Vadim Bogulov on Unsplash

What are the characteristics of a good enough plan? For me, a “good” good enough plan is clear enough to get started and to stay out of trouble, easy to create (I find that using a Q/A format, first-person, and a length of 1-2 pages really helps), and documented and accessible—Google Docs works well.

What do good enough plans actually look like? Here are 12 examples of good enough plans:

1. Christ-Centered Purpose Statements Plan
2. Curriculum Plan (blog post)
3. Expected Student Outcomes Assessment Plan (blog post)
4. Financial Health Plan
5. Get Flourishing Framework
6. Governance Plan
7. Help Students Grow Strong in the Lord (blog post)
8. Personalized Flourishing Plan (blog post)
9. Organizational Culture Map (blog post)
10. School Improvement Framework
11. Student Assessment Data Usage Plan
12. Well-Being Culture Plan (blog post)

What are the benefits of using good enough plans? I’ve found that using good enough plans helps me use 3 mindsets (growth, open, and promotion), is less stressful, and helps me get started faster—I take action more quickly so I get results more quickly.

Here are some blog posts on planning:

1. How do you feel about planning?
2. We can flourish without a plan, right?
3. If your international Christian school has no intentional, documented plan for well-being, how do you feel?
4. International Christian school leaders, why should you stop using a professional development plan?
5. International Christian school leaders, how do you feel about implementing a separate action plan on getting flourishing?
6. Leaders, what types of thinking do you use for resource planning and management?

What about you? How do you feel about using good enough plans instead of perfect plans? What are the characteristics of a good enough plan? What benefits might you experience from using good enough plans?

Get flourishing!

Michael

What mindsets do you want to use to get flourishing in your current context?

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Use mindsets that help you get flourishing in your current context! Why?

• Because using context-appropriate mindsets help you get flourishing.
• Because by using context-appropriate mindsets, you increase the likelihood that you’ll see challenges as opportunities and that you’ll take risks and carry out experiments as you pursue your purpose.
• Because by not using context-appropriate mindsets, you increase the likelihood that you’ll see challenges as stressors, that you’ll use inappropriate or less helpful mindsets, and that you’ll seek comfort rather than pursue new opportunities that entail taking risks.
• Because using context-appropriate mindsets is a best practice.

What mindsets could you use to get flourishing? Mindsets that come to mind for me include:

• A Christ-centered mindset (Matthew 6:33, Romans 12:2).
• An Agile Change Mindset (graphic).
• A Scout, Not Soldier mindset—when addressing a conflict, think like a scout (open, curious, seek truth), not like a soldier (closed, defensive, seek evidence/winning).
• The 4 Success Mindsets: growth (not fixed), open (not closed), promotion (not prevention), and outward (not inward).
• The 5 Elements of Flourishing Mindsets which include a wellness mindset (not a personal neglect mindset), an abundance mindset (not a scarcity mindset), and a Christ-centered, focused, trust/inspire mindset (not a worldly, scattered, command-and-control mindset).

The mindsets you choose must take into account your current context—so, what’s your current context like? Your geographical context might be in Asia or Europe. Your cultural context might be egalitarian or hierarchical. Your work context might be inspiring or ho-hum, and your economic context might be prosperous or poor. Your context might be familiar, unfamiliar, or somewhere in between; and no matter the context, it is affected by sin, and with varying degrees of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA).

What mindsets do you want to use to get flourishing in your current context? My context is new in terms of location (North America) and role (coach/consultant working remotely), so I’m intentionally using a combination of open mindset, growth mindset, and promotion mindset to get flourishing.

• I need to be open to new cultural experiences.
• I need to grow so that I can be helpful as a coach/consultant.
• And I need to take some risks in order to promote my purpose of helping international Christian school students, staff, and leaders flourish in Jesus.

If a key feature of my context was uncertainty, I’d consider using the 6 mindsets suggested in The Imperfectionists: Strategic Mindsets for Uncertain Times:

1. Curiosity mindset (not a closed mindset).
2. Imperfectionist mindset (not a perfectionist mindset).
3. Dragonfly-eye (aka multiple-lens) mindset (not a single-lens mindset).
4. Occurrent (aka real-time experimental) mindset (not a rely-on-past-data-or-projections mindset).
5. Collective-intelligence mindset (not a we-already-have-all-the-smarts-we-need mindset).
6. Show-and-tell mindset (not a just-logic-and-facts mindset).

Source Robert McLean and Charles Conn (authors of The Imperfectionists) provide help and hope for those pursuing their purpose in uncertain times. I found the following 3 quotations to be insightful: (1) “… in times of rapid change, you should be curious, embrace risk and not avoid it, you should be suspicious of experts, you should think about how to run your own experiments, you should consider ways to source ideas from entirely different fields, and you should convince your colleagues that you have the right answer with rich and visual storytelling that speaks to their values rather than to logic alone” (loc 416).  (2) “Curious questions can be irritating when you’re under pressure. But when companies stifle curiosity, they are shutting off opportunities to search, question, and experiment” (loc 686). (3) “If tomorrow’s strategic and operating environment is going to be like today’s, there isn’t a strong case for experimenting. But if rapid change and high uncertainty are part of an industry’s structure and dynamics (what we face in nearly every situation today), then experimenting is imperative to developing the case for action” (loc 592). The authors conclude, “All real-life strategic problem solving is a wager on an uncertain world. Fortified with a good understanding of your problem’s structure, stakes, and odds, and armed with the six mindsets, we hope you are well equipped to overcome risk aversion and confidently step into uncertainty as a full-fledged imperfectionist” (loc 3696). To learn more, explore this article, this video, and this podcast.

Bottom line: Intentionally and consistently use mindsets that help you flourish in your current context. 

Here are some related resources:

• How important is mindset?
• What mindset are you using to consider focusing on flourishing?
• What mindsets help you flourish? 
• What mindsets help you to flourish and to help others flourish?
• Leaders, is your mindset eating your model for breakfast?

What about you? What mindsets could you use to get flourishing? What’s your current context like? What mindsets do you want to use to get flourishing in your current context?

Get flourishing!

Michael

P.S. What kind of leadership mindset do you need in your current context?

What 7 things should you give up on right now?

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

Give up. That’s right. Give up. Actually quit. Just give up on those things that are holding you back from flourishing. That’s what Byron Morrison says in his book Maybe You Should Give Up: 7 Ways to Get Out of Your Own Way and Take Control of Your Life. 

So let me ask you, “What are some things you’re glad you’ve given up on?”  My list includes:

• Thinking I can be in shape without regular exercise—I now regularly stretch, lift weights, and walk. Feeling better!
• Tolerating not fully using my strengths—I’m glad in my work as coach/consultant, I can fully use my strengths. Wonderful!
• Using traditional work hours—I now use flexible work hours, monitoring my energy and my results, instead of monitoring time. Love it!

Going forward, what are 7 things you should give up on that are getting in the way of you flourishing? To prime the pump, here are the 7 things Morrison says we should give up on:

(1) “[B]eing reactive” (p. 3). He notes that “once you’ve given up on being reactive, and you’ve recognized that you and you alone are responsible for creating results in your life, you’ll be empowered to take the action you didn’t think you were capable of before” (p. 31).

(2) “[L]etting fear control you” (p. 31). “Fear reinforces all of the mental barriers in your head, creating stories that cause you to procrastinate, overthink and doubt yourself, which in turn stop you from doing the things you know you should be doing to live or create the life you want” (p. 32). Morrison discusses 3 big fears (failure, success, and rejection/judgment) and how reframing can help us overcome them. 

(3) “[S]hort-term thinking” (p. 53) that negatively impact the long-term—“the small decisions you make today can and will impact your future for years to come. And most of the small decisions we make today are designed to make us feel good in the short-term—often at the expense of success in the long-term” (p. 55).

(4) “[F]ixating on the future as either a scary place where everything will go wrong or a heavenly place that will solve all your problems for you” (p. 72). Morrison adds, “If you want to find joy in your achievements and appreciate the journey, then you have to give up on fixating on the future. That’s the only way you will be able to fully enjoy the present” (p. 86).

(5) “[C]omparing yourself to others” (p. 87). Morrison encourages the reader to “make a decision about what’s actually important in the life you want to live, and from today, start living it. Because when you give up on comparing yourself to others and their achievements, that’s when you’ll finally be able to build a life that you are happy with” (p. 108).

(6) “[B]eing so hard on yourself” (p. 111) which “manifests in four major ways: trying to be perfect, dismissing your progress, judging your worth only by your success and taking criticism personally” (p. 113).

(7) “[P]utting off happiness” (p. 131). Says Morrison, “Don’t set yourself up for a life-long regret. Give up on putting off your happiness by being the best version of yourself you can be and live life with intention right now” (p. 147).

Which of Morrison’s 7 things might you want to include in your list of 7 things to give up on? I want to consider giving up on #4 (fixating on the future) and #7 (putting off happiness).

Photo by RDNE Stock project

Keep thinking about 7 things you should give up on. To further prime the pump, here are 29 more things to give up on:

(A) Give up 4 negative mindsets: fixed, closed, prevention, and inward (see Success Mindsets).

(B) Give up on tolerating 5 hindrances to flourishing: passionless purpose, fragile ill-being, unhealthy relationships, transformationless learning, and unhelpful resources (see 5 Elements of Flourishing).

(C) Give up 7 negative habits: being reactive, working without goals, focusing on unimportant things, using an “I win/you lose” approach, seeking first to be understood, working alone, and neglecting self-care (see The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People).

(D) Give up on 8 obstacles to a flourishing workplace culture: fractious teams, life-draining work, mediocre staff, stagnation, unrewarding compensation, uninspiring leadership, unsustainable strategy, and unhealthy communication (see The 8 Drivers of a Flourishing Workplace Culture).

(E) Give up on 5 things that cause team dysfunction: absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results (see The Five Dysfunctions of a Team).

So, what are 7 things you should give up on right now that are getting in the way of you flourishing? Here’s my list:

(1) Fixating on the future. I want to be more present in the moment so that I have more joy in my journey and in my progress. 

(2) Putting off happiness. Again, I need to be more present in the moment.

(3) Using a closed mindset when I’m stressed—it isn’t OK, it frustrates people, and it doesn’t help me have healthy relationships.

(4) Unhelpful resources. Instead, I’ve begun creating the helpful resources: 

• Action Plan
• Conversation Protocol
• Curriculum Plan 
• Expected Student Outcomes Assessment Plan
• Help Students Grow Strong in the Lord
• Organizational Culture Map
• Quick Win
• Stop Self-Neglect/Start Self-Care
• Well-Being Culture Plan 

(5) Working alone. As an introvert who works remotely, I enjoy alone time. I find working by myself helpful—however, working alone does not produce synergy. Time to do more collaborating!

(6) Life-draining work. I want to find ways to do more life-giving work.

(7) Thinking I can handle 60-minute morning meetings. This makes my morning too crowded, so I’m now working to limit meetings to 45 minutes.

Photo by Prateek Katyal

What are you going to do? I’m giving up on using a closed mindset when I’m stressed.

Here are some resources related to giving up, stopping, quitting:

• What do you want to stop doing?
• What might you need to stop doing?
• Stop Self-Neglect! Start Self-Care! 
• What do you want to KeepStopStart doing?
• What do you want to include on your “to-don’t” list?

What about you? How do you feel about giving up? What are some things you’re glad you’ve given up on? Which of Morrison’s 7 things might you want to give up on? What are 7 things you should give up on right now that are getting in the way of you flourishing? What are you going to do?

Get flourishing!

Michael

Leaders, how can you ignite staff commitment?

If you want to ignite commitment and retain staff, use employalty. Coined by author Joe Mull, “Employalty is a portmanteau of the words ’employer,’ ‘loyalty,’ and ‘humanity.’ Employalty is the commitment employers make to consistently deliver a humane, person-centered employee experience, because that’s what leads people to the highest levels of commitment at work” (Employalty, loc 182). 

Employalty is the answer to the question, “‘What can I do so that these employees think, Man, they treat me so well here that I’d be a fool to go anywhere else?’” (Employalty, loc 123).

In Employalty: How to Ignite Commitment and Keep Top Talent in the New Age of Work, Mull uses engaging stories and intriguing research to help the reader understand that “[c]ommitment appears when employees get to do their Ideal Job, doing Meaningful Work, for a Great Boss” (loc 316). He defines Ideal Job, Meaningful Work and Great Boss as follows:

• Ideal Job means that employees experience effective compensation, a reasonable workload, and flexibility.
• Meaningful Job means employees experience purpose, using their strengths, and belonging.
• Great Boss means employees experience coaching, trust, and advocacy from their supervisor.

Mull begins by introducing the need for employalty and then systematically works through his definitions of Ideal Job, Meaningful Work, and Great Boss. To give you an idea of what he writes and why I found the book helpful, here are some quotations:

(1) Ideal Job:

(1.1) Compensation: “…executives must think of employees not as costs, but as assets” (loc 1229).

(1.2) Workload: “Too little work, and people lack challenge…. Too much work, which has been the case for so many for so long, and people become threadbare. A manageable workload is about striking a balance. Think Goldilocks: not too much, and not too little, but just right” (loc 1530).

(1.3) Flexibility: “…you can no longer focus on hiring the best person for the job. To attract talent and inspire commitment, you must create the best job for the person. One of the most powerful ways to do this in your organization is to prioritize flexibility for employees” (loc 1663).

(2) Meaningful Work:

(2.1) Purpose: “Your organization’s mission must be specific, transformational, and rooted in emotion” (loc 1900).

(2.2) Strengths: “The more hours a day adults believe they use their strengths, the more they report having ample energy, feeling well-rested, being happy, smiling or laughing a lot, learning something interesting, and being treated with respect” (loc 2137).

(2.3) Belonging: “What’s clear is that employees are abandoning noxious cultures of competition, exclusion, gossip, infighting, and tribalism” (loc 2443).

(3) Great Boss:

(3.1) Coaching: “Coaching draws out employees’ strengths, gives them purpose, accelerates belonging, develops trust” (loc 2687).

(3.2) Trust: “In organizations where employees enjoy high amounts of trust from their leaders, workers report 74 percent less stress, 106 percent more energy at work, 50 percent higher productivity, 13 percent fewer sick days, 76 percent more engagement, 29 percent more satisfaction with their lives, and 40 percent less burnout” (loc 2817).

(3.3) Advocacy: “Great Bosses do what it takes to give people what they need to thrive in their role” (loc 2975).

Mull concludes with a challenge: “How many people truly love what they do or where they work? How many people dread going to work each day, return home miserable, and suffer that experience again and again? Imagine the incredible social, physical, and mental health improvements that would take place across society if we made work work for more people. You have that power. And now you have the instruction manual. It’s time to get to work” (loc 3413).

Employalty reminds leaders to provide the work conditions staff need to flourish, to focus on getting staff flourishing. Mull’s model provides a useful diagnostic tool for identifying how to improve work conditions. Try it—what could you do to improve your staff’s daily experience, to help your staff flourish?

• Ideal Job: compensation, workload, flexibility
• Meaningful Work: purpose, strength, belonging
• Great Boss: coaching, trust, advocacy

What about you? To what extent do you want to ignite commitment and retain staff? How do you feel about employalty? What could you do to improve your staff’s daily experience, to help your staff flourish?

Get flourishing!

Michael
P.S. To learn about other frameworks that can help you get others flourishing, read this.

What frameworks do you want to use to get flourishing and help others get flourishing?

Photo by Dakota Roos on Unsplash

Use frameworks! Why?

• Because using frameworks helps you and others get flourishing.
• Because frameworks are helpful resources that help you focus on flourishing, diagnose a given challenge, and prioritize what you need to do to flourish.
• Because not using frameworks increases the likelihood of being scattered, of misdiagnosis, and of working without shared priorities. Not good.
• Because using frameworks is a best practice.

As someone involved in international Christian schooling, what frameworks could you use to get flourishing and help others get flourishing? Frameworks that come to mind for me include…

(1) ACSI’s Flourishing School Culture:

• Relationships
• Well-Being
• Purpose
• Expertise & Resources
• Teaching & Learning

Source

(2) Best Christian Workplaces’ FLOURISH:

• Fantastic Teams
• Life-Giving Work
• Outstanding Talent
• Uplifting Growth
• Rewarding Compensation
• Inspirational Leadership
• Sustainable Strategy
• Healthy Communication

Best Christian Workplaces has “a dream of seeing Christian-led organizations set the standard as the best, most effective workplaces in the world. If we want to cooperate with God in drawing the world to himself, we have nothing better to offer the world than flourishing Christian workplaces. They stand as a witness that life in Christ is truly a flourishing one! They are the best evidence that Jesus really did come so that people could have life to the fullest (John 10:10)—even in their work” (Road to Flourishing, loc 195).

(3) Decisionwise’s Engagement MAGIC:

• Meaning
• Autonomy
• Growth
• Impact
• Connection

(4) Franklin Covey’s 4 Disciplines of Execution: To increase execution…

• Focus on 2-3 wildly important goals.
• Act on lead measures.
• Keep a compelling scoreboard.
• Create a cadence of accountability.

(5) Table Group’s 4 Disciplines of Organizational Health: To increase organizational health…

• Build a cohesive leadership team.
• Create clarity.
• Overcommunicate clarity.
• Reinforce clarity.

(6) Irresistible: The Seven Secrets of the World’s Most Enduring, Employee-Focused Organizations:

• Teams, not hierarchy
• Work, not jobs
• Coach, not boss
• Culture, not rules
• Growth, not promotion
• Purpose, not profits
• Employee experience, not output

Here are 3 quotations from Irresistible that I found intriguing: (1) “‘I think if you’re fortunate enough to be someone’s employer, you have a huge moral obligation really to make sure that that person really looks forward to coming to work in the morning.’ JOHN MACKEY” (Irresistible, loc 1805) (2) “…irresistible companies are pursuing a workforce strategy that elevates employee health, safety, and wellbeing—creating culture, not rules” (Irresistible, loc 18012). (3) “In the past, companies focused on annual (and later pulse) engagement surveys to understand employee satisfaction. Today, this is a discipline of design: studying what employees do, understanding their work and job needs, and then designing the systems, workplaces, and rewards that help them thrive” (loc 3186).

(7) Employalty: How to Ignite Commitment and Keep Top Talent in the New Age of Work:

• Ideal Work: compensation, workload, and flexibility.
• Meaningful Work: purpose, strengths, and belonging.
• Great Boss: coaching, trust, and advocacy.

What is employalty? “Employalty is a portmanteau of the words “employer,” “loyalty,” and “humanity.” Employalty is the commitment employers make to consistently deliver a humane, person-centered employee experience, because that’s what leads people to the highest levels of commitment at work” (Employalty, loc 182).

Note: For additional framework/models, check out my Toolbox!

What frameworks do you want to use to get flourishing and help others get flourishing? Given that I’m focused on helping international students, staff, and leaders to flourish in Jesus, I’m primarily using a combination of the 4 Disciplines of Organizational Health and my modified version of ACSI’s Flourishing School Culture—the 5 Elements of Flourishing:

• Passionate Purpose
• Resilient Well-Being
• Healthy Relationships
• Transformative Learning
• Helpful Resources

At times I use the 4 Disciplines of Execution, and I think that ACSI international Christian schools could benefit from using the FLOURISH framework which has an employee engagement survey.

What helps you get started with using your frameworks? What helps me includes thinking of using the framework(s) as an experiment, starting with myself, starting small, and doing something—1 thing. 

What does using frameworks to get flourishing and help others get flourishing look like for you? For me, it looks like…

• Using my frameworks as diagnostic tools.
• Using 5 Elements of Flourishing to guide my decision-making and blogging.
• Using a tagline at the end of each blog post that emphasizes a framework: Get flourishing!
• Developing a  shared vocabulary for the frameworks, for example, words like clarity, overcommunicate, flourish, and 5 elements of flourishing.
• Reflecting on what I need to KeepStartStop doing in order to more effectively get flourishing and to help others get flourishing.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

What about you? How do you feel about using frameworks? What frameworks could you use? What frameworks do you want to use to get flourishing and help others get flourishing? What helps you get started with using your frameworks? What does using frameworks to get flourishing and help others get flourishing look like for you?

Get flourishing!

Michael

Even if your ACSI Inspire self-study visit isn’t for 18+ months, what are 10 things you can do right now?

Photo by ROCKETMANN TEAM

Leaders, thinking you don’t need to do anything because your ACSI Inspire self-study visit isn’t for 18+ months is a faulty assumption. Why?

(1) Because ACSI Inspire is about inspiring you to flourish—and Christian education is all about flourishing. So do something. This year. Maybe even today.

(2) Because this year you can get flourishing as you get ready to start your ACSI Inspire self-study. You can update all your manuals—which means staff will be using fully helpful resources (out-of-date manuals are not sufficiently helpful), and experiencing helpful resources helps staff flourish.

(3) Because if you do nothing this year, you increase the likelihood that you won’t be fully prepared to start your ACSI Inspire self-study and that staff will be frustrated during the self-study. Not good. 

(4) Because getting prepared before starting is a best practice. Just like you tell your students.

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

So, if your ACSI Inspire visit isn’t for 18+ months, what can you do right now? What comes to mind for me includes:

(1) Accomplishing the tasks outlined in ACSI’s School Coordinator Handbook (see p. 7-8) for 18-24 months before the visit, for example:

• “Appoint a school coordinator.”
• “Develop a timeline with the steering committee chair….”
• “If the school is involved in a joint accreditation process, review with the divisional accreditation director any special considerations that might apply.”

(2) Using your school’s accreditation recommendations to help others flourish.

(3) Deepening staff understanding of flourishing by reading and discussing ACSI’s Flourishing Together: A Christian Vision for Students, Educators, and Schools and/or completing a tutorial on flourishing (accredited schools, unaccredited schools).

(4) Prioritizing getting yourself and others flourishing and having each staff member and leader develop an individualized plan for flourishing. For ideas, see Quick Win and Stop Self-Neglect/Start Self-Care. (Leaders, this may involve getting board members to help you flourish.)

(5) Developing shared understanding that transitioning from REACH to Flourish & Inspire is a big deal. Ways to do this include (A) comparing REACH with Flourish & Inspire and (B) having 1+ people serve on an visiting team that is doing an Inspire visit.

(6) Establishing domain committees, inviting each committee to consider key questions, for example:

• In terms of your domain, what comes to mind when you think of flourishing? (Here are sample responses on the following domains: purpose, well-being, relationships, learning, and resources.)
• What are 10 things that happen when international Christian school students/staff are and aren’t having an effective experience in terms of ____ (your domain name)?
• In terms of your domain, what do flourishing students, staff, and leaders look like?

(7) Clarifying what you are aiming for from your ACSI study.

(8) Considering how you can use the process of doing your ACSI Inspire self-study to help people actually flourish.

(9) Learning about domain reports and how to write an effective domain report.

(10) Using new tools that help you and others focus on flourishing, for example:

• Action Plan
• Curriculum Plan 
• Expected Student Outcome Assessment Plan
• Flourishing Plan (personalized)
• Help Students Grow Strong in the Lord 
• Organizational Culture Map.
• Well-Being Culture Plan 

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

You might be thinking, “That’s quite a bit! Seems like another major recommendation.” I agree. Which is why I recommend you create and implement an action plan designed to get you ready to start your ACSI Inspire self-study. Why?

• Because it will help you and others focus on flourishing and actually get flourishing.
• Because making a plan is a process you know how to use and because making a plan increases the likelihood that you will get flourishing and that you’ll be fully prepared to start your ACSI Inspire self-study.
• Because not making a plan increases the likelihood that you will not get flourishing and that you won’t be fully prepared. Ouch.
• Because making an action plan is a best practice.

How can you get started on creating an action plan?

• With a collaborative process.
• With a review of the possible action steps listed above.
• With this action plan template (see tab 2). Please contact me if you have questions or would like to talk: messenburg @ caj.ac.jp
• And with an understanding that your action plan should reflect your answer to the following question: What are flourishing staff members (who are fully prepared to start an ACSI Inspire self-study) consistently experiencing in terms of the 5 elements of flourishing (passionate purpose, resilient well-being, healthy relationships, transformative learning, and helpful resources)?

Bottom line: Even if your ACSI Inspire self-study is 18+ months away, get flourishing by creating and implementing an action plan that gets you prepared to start your self-study.

What about you? Even if your ACSI Inspire visit isn’t for 18+ months, what can you do right now? How do you feel about creating and implementing an action plan design to get you ready to start your ACSI Inspire self-study? How can you get started on creating an action plan?

Get flourishing!

Michael
P.S. Leaders, here’s something for you to consider: “When using this approach, leaders generate more questions than answers, fostering curiosity & critical thinking. This encourages their team to fully explore & define the opportunity at hand, instilling confidence that their efforts are built upon a solid foundation” (@LizWiseman, 2023-09-08).