Your accreditation visit is done—so your next step is to update your improvement plan, right? Nope!

Image by freepik

Nope! The next step after your accreditation visit isn’t using the major recommendations to update your improvement plan. I wish I had understood this earlier. I really wish I had. Why?

(1) Because our insufficient shared understanding of school improvement in terms of purpose slowed us down.

(2) Because we found out too late that we were getting nominal change at best because we hadn’t addressed the root causes of a given recommendation like insufficient staffing and faulty assumptions and misunderstandings regarding the improvement goal.

(3) Because our insufficient shared understanding of what helps/hinders progress resulted in us being less effective and less efficient.

(4) Because our lack of defining what “done” looked like left us pursuing a fuzzy understanding of success.

Photo by David Pisnoy on Unsplash

Instead of 2 steps (completing the visit and starting on the plan), I wish had used the following 4 steps:

Step 1: Complete accreditation visit, including an after action review.

Step 2: Collaboratively review, refine, and ensure understanding and use of our improvement engine: purpose, perspective, process, plan, and practices (see also School Improvement Reflection Protocol).

Step 3: Collaboratively create a scope statement for each major recommendation. This statement defines the…

1. Recommendation, commentary, and relevant indicators.
2. People directly involved.
3. User-friendly title we’re going to use to refer to this recommendation.
4. Root causes of the recommendation, for example, unhelpful mindsets.
5. Value to be created in terms of institutional effectiveness and in terms of people flourishing.
6. Operating assumptions. For example, if the goal is curriculum development, this would be our operating assumptions about curriculum (see ChatGPT prompt below).
7. Things that help/hinder us.
8. Accountability structures.
9. Key deliverables—these are the results/outcomes that we expect to see and that help us define what “done” looks like. 
10. Average time investment needed per person.
11. Who’s involved in developing the improvement plan.

Though it takes time to develop a scope statement, it will actually save you time in the long run. “[P]rojects [improvement goals/plans] seldom fail at the end. Rather, they fail during the definition phase” (Fundamentals of Project Management, loc 520). It takes far less time to develop a scope statement than to clean up and/or redo a failure.

Note: The above scope statement description is a modified version of what project managers generally use and reflects that schools create improvement plans that include things others may include in scope statements—things like timeline, budget, and milestones. To see sample templates for scope statements, click here.

ChatGPT Prompt for Step 3.A: Operating Assumptions: Act as a consultant for international Christian schools. We have an improvement plan on _____. We want to troubleshoot the assumptions our plan is based on. Give 20 possible assumptions, each of which is followed by 3 alternative assumptions and ways to address those alternative assumptions. This means a total of 20 possible assumptions and 60 alternative assumptions, OK?

Step 4: Develop an improvement plan that is aligned with the scope statement.

For Step 2, I wish that we had gathered together and discussed key questions about our improvement engine, for example:

1. What’s our school improvement engine? 
2. How well do staff and leaders understand and use it?
3. What revisions might be good to make before we start working on our major recommendations?

For Step 3, I wish we had gathered together to discuss key questions about a given recommendation, for example:

1. What’s the major recommendation? What commentary was provided?  What indicators were cited?
2. What user-friendly title are we going to use for this?
3. What stakeholders are directly involved?
4. What are the root causes of this goal?
5. What value do we want to create (in terms of institutional effectiveness and people flourishing)? How will we measure that?
6. What are our operating assumptions about _____ (topic of the goal)?
7. What are 5 things that will help us? What are 5 things that could hinder us?
8. What 1-3 accountability structures will we use?
9. Given the major recommendation, commentary, and indicators, what are 5 or more key deliverables? (What does “done” look like?)
10. How much time will the average person involved in the plan need to invest?
11. Who’s involved in collaboratively developing the improvement plan for this major recommendation?

If we had used these 4 steps (instead of 2 steps: complete the visit and develop the plan), we would have made more progress, been more helpful, been more likely to make an actual difference in terms of institutionally effectiveness and getting people flourishing.

Here are some related resources:

• When you want to more effectively improve, what do you need to do?
• How clear are you on the value you want to create through a given school improvement goal? (Hint: Use ChatGPT!)
• Leaders, what 3 things can you do to be even more successful at school improvement?
• International Christian school leaders, 70% of change initiatives are unsuccessful! How can you avoid your change initiative being part of that 70%?
• What steps have you taken in the past 12 months that actually helped you and your international Christian school colleagues do school improvement better?

Source

And here’s what I’m learning about Step 3: Scope Statement from Project Management for the Unofficial Project Manager:

• “…a smart project leader starts with the assumption that nothing is clear” (loc 570).
• “Without a clear and shared picture of the value you’re trying to create, the project is doomed” (loc 561).
• “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).

What about you? After your accreditation visit, what’s your next step? How might reviewing your improvement engine and establishing a scope statement increase the likelihood of your improvement goal not being part of the 70% that aren’t achieved? What will you do?

Bottom line: After your accreditation visit is done, review your improvement engine, establish a scope statement for the major recommendation, and then develop your plan.

Get flourishing!

Michael

Leaders, what 3 things can you do to be even more successful at school improvement?

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 Marcel Eberle on Unsplash

If you want to be even more successful at school improvement, (1) create value, (2) lead people, and (3) manage process (Project Management for the Unofficial Project Manager, loc 273). 

Let’s explore what doing this involves:

(1) Create Value: To create even more value from school improvement, use the chart and…

(1A) Determine the current level of value (see chart below): Full disclosure—for school improvement plans I was involved in, some were completed (but late), most were completed on time, some resulted in deep change, and only a few got people flourishing. When determining your current level of value creation, round down.

Note: Be sure to check out the ChatGPT prompt at the bottom, which allows you to apply the above 4 levels to the school improvement plan of your choice.

(1B) Determine your preferred level of value (see chart above): Previous to ACSI emphasizing flourishing, I would have said I wanted deep change—real change. Now, I want to see Level 4—people flourishing and the further cultivation of a flourishing culture. Definitely don’t settle for Level 1 or Level 2, and see if you can go for Level 4!

(1C) Take action (provided there’s a gap between your current level and preferred level): Based on my involvement in school improvement, there’s a gap between my track record (often Level 2) and my preferred level (Level 4). 

To close my gap, I could…

• Collaboratively develop a vision script to define the value we want to create—what deep change looks like (Level 3) and what flourishing looks like (Level 4) for a given improvement plan.
• Use the vision script to remind staff of what we’re really after (which is much more than completing the plan or maintaining accreditation).
• Use the vision script to assess the level of value actually created and determine next steps.

How about you? How can you close the gap between your current level and your preferred level? 

Image by freepik

(2) Lead People: To lead people so they are more inspired, engaged, and accountable…

(2A) Identify 4-5 leadership best practices you want to use: Kory Kogon (author of Project Management for the Unofficial Project Manager) suggests 5 practices: listen first, clarify expectations, extend trust, practice accountability, and demonstrate respect (p. 20). Or you could use LIFE skills: listen, inquire, focus on others, and encourage.

Try this ChatGPT prompt: Act as a consultant for international Christian schools. You believe that school improvement involves leading people, meaning getting people inspired, engaged, and accountable. What are 5 specific best practices for leading people on an improvement plan on _____. For each practice, give a title, a description, an example of what that looks like, and a non-example.

Whatever practices you choose, be sure they help you get others inspired, engaged, and accountable—help you get others flourishing.

(2B) Assess how effectively you are currently using those practices, using the following scale: Poor • OK • Good • Great. When determining the current level of value, round down. 

Let’s say I want to use LIFE skills. When it comes to focusing on others, I want to rate it as Good, but I know I should say OK—because I have a tendency to want to share what I think, rather than deeply understand others.

(2C) Determine how effectively you want to use those practices: Definitely don’t settle for OK or even for Good—go for Great! 

(2D) Take action (provided there’s a gap between your current level and preferred level): For me to move from OK to Great on the LIFE skill of focusing on others, I need to listen, inquire to get others thinking, check to be sure I understand, and ask, “What are your options?” (instead of giving advice).

How about you? What practices will you use to get people inspired, engaged, and accountable?

Image by rawpixel.com on Freepik

(3) Manage Process: To manage process even more effectively…

(3A) Determine the process you’ll use when working on a school improvement goal: Make sure the process works and is user-friendly (easy to understand, represented in graphic form). I’m considering using the process from Project Management for the Unofficial Project Manager (loc 497):

• Scope: define what the project is (aka: improvement goal), the value to be created, and who’s involved (click here to learn more)
• Plan: develop the map for getting from here to there
• Engage: get people engaged
• Track & Adapt—so we keep working to create value
• Close: celebrate and reflect

(3B) Determine the best practices you’ll use to manage the process: Two practices I like to use are scoreboards (which make progress visible) and team meetings during which team members report on progress and determine their own next steps.

How about you? What process will you use? What best practices will you use to manage the process? 

Here are some related resources:

• International Christian school leaders, 70% of change initiatives are unsuccessful! How can you avoid your change initiative being part of that 70%?
• When you want to more effectively improve, what do you need to do?
• Your accreditation visit is done—so your next step is to update your improvement plan, right? Nope!
• How clear are you on the value you want to create through a given school improvement goal? (Hint: Use ChatGPT!)
• What steps have you taken in the past 12 months that actually helped you and your international Christian school colleagues do school improvement better?

Source

Here’s what else I’m learning from Project Management for the Unofficial Project Manager:

• “…a Harvard study shows that only 35 percent of the projects undertaken worldwide succeed—which means we’re wasting a lot of time and resources” (loc 229).
• “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).
• “Without a clear and shared picture of the value you’re trying to create, the project is doomed” (loc 561).
• “What does it take to execute the project successfully as a team? How do you keep the team fixed on the goal? How do you keep them alert, absorbed, and motivated? In a word: accountability” (loc 1404).
• “Simply put, things happen to reactive people. Proactive people make things happen” (loc 1815)

Bottom line: To be even more successful at school improvement, create value, lead people, and manage process!

Get flourishing!

Michael
P.S. Here’s the ChatGPT prompt that allows you to apply the 4 levels of value creation to a school improvement plan of your choice:

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. 

Heres’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 plan 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.

What steps have you taken in the past 12 months that actually helped you and your international Christian school colleagues do school improvement better?

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).

Image by freepik

Like you, I want to get better at improving. I want to more effectively and efficiently improve. I want to find ways to go farther faster. 

Let me ask you 3 questions:

Question 1: What steps have you taken in the past 12 months that actually helped you and your international Christian school colleagues do school improvement even better? 

• I’m asking because I want to find out what’s working for others and try it out.
• I’m asking because working on school improvement goals is a challenge—one that can crowd out working on ways to do school improvement better.
• I’m asking because you might be making school improvement harder to do than it needs to be. 

Photo by Bruno Nascimento on Unsplash

Question 2: What steps could you take in the next 12 months to do school improvement even better? Here are some possibilities:

(1) Overcommunicate the why, how, and what of school improvement.

(2) Clarify what does and doesn’t help with school improvement.

(3) Document your improvement purpose, perspective, process, plan, and practices. Make these documents accessible, use them regularly, and review/revise them annually.

(4) Establish a galvanizing purpose for school improvement.

Image by pch.vector on Freepik

(5) At each improvement meeting:

• Include a well-being component (for example, ask everyone to share a recent high and low).
• Help everyone know how each meeting fits into the big picture. You can do this by connecting (as appropriate) the mission, vision, improvement process, and improvement goal to each meeting.

(6) Deepen shared understanding of what improvement is, what your improvement system is, and what helps you and your colleagues stay focused on improvement.

(7) Study and discuss mindsets that impact school improvement, for example, growth, fixed, thrive, and survive:

Growth mindset	Fixed mindset
The goal of our self-study and visit is to learn how we can be an even better school	The goal of our self-study and visit is to show how good of a school we are
The visiting team report helps us improve	The visiting team report is an indictment
Each recommendation we received from the visiting team is an exciting opportunity for us to work hard & grow	Each recommendation we received from the visiting team indicates a deficiency
Let’s talk with other schools that are better than us at this so we can learn how to improve	Why are they making us do this? Other schools are simply better than us at this, so why try?

*The above chart is based on this video and this video. To learn more, read this blog.

Thrive mindset focuses on…	Survive mindset focuses on…
Being proactive on what’s important.	Being reactive to what’s urgent.
Prevention.	Addressing symptoms.
Developing systems.	Completing tasks.
Using documentation.	Using personal recollection.
Carrying out ongoing processes and multi-year plans.	Completing projects.
Helping both current and future students, staff, and leaders to flourish.	Getting through today, this week, this month.

*To learn more, read this blog.

(8) Ensure that your school improvement process:

• Is ongoing, documented, and collaborative.
• Includes key components like 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.
• Is understood and used by staff and leaders.
• Gets participants experiencing the 5 elements of flourishing: passionate purpose, resilient well-being, healthy relationships, transformative learning, and helpful resources.

Additionally, consider having domain committees meet twice each year and considering using the Working Genius model to analyze the composition of your Steering Committee and to determine next steps.

(9) Ensure that your improvement plan:

• Is documented and evidence-based.
• Includes key components like goal, due date, action steps, resources, and evidence of progress. 
• Is formatted effectively.
• Is understood and used by staff and leaders.

Image by vecstock on Freepik

(10) Address the root causes of each action plan, for example: 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 (for example, curriculum, well-being, using student assessment data, and helping students grow strong in Jesus).

(11) Ensure that your improvement practices get results, get used, and get staff and leaders experiencing the 5 elements of flourishing: passionate purpose, resilient well-being, healthy relationships, transformative learning, and helpful resources. Here are sample practices:

• Ask questions.
• Frequently talk about improvement.
• Put improvement tasks on your calendar.
• Do daily, weekly, quarterly, and annual reviews to think about what happened and to determine next steps.
• Use a scoreboard to track progress on my goals.
• Before starting to work on a goal, review the School Improvement Framework and the Improvement Engine: purpose, perspective, process, plan, and practices.
• Use Radical Candor (video, chart).

(12) Work with a coach. On a time-permitting basis, I provide free coaching for international Christian schools. Interested? Feel free to contact me.

Question 3: Now what? What’s 1 thing you can do to help you and your international Christian school colleagues do school improvement even better?

Bottom line: Help your international Christian school colleagues do school improvement even better!

Get flourishing!

Michael

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).

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

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.

Image by starline on Freepik

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).