Project Management

For school improvement, how can using a value statement, outcomes, and key deliverables help you increase clarity and actually create value?

/ mkessenburg

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For school improvement, don’t tolerate blurriness—instead, get clear in detail about the value you want to create and what “done” looks like so you can actually create value. Why?

(1) Because getting clear in detail helps you flourish. (Remember, “a smart project leader starts with the assumption that nothing is clear”—Project Management for the Unofficial Project Manager, loc 570).

(2) Because getting clear in detail increases the likelihood of shared understanding of what you’re working to accomplish, of good discussions and decisions, and of actually creating value in terms of increasing institutional effectiveness and getting people flourishing.

(3) Because not getting clear in detail increases the likelihood of competing views of what you’re working to accomplish, of bland discussions and mediocre decisions, and of only creating nominal change. Not good.

Note: “If members are not clear on the [value the team is to create], they will take the team where they think it is supposed to go, and that may not be the direction intended by the organization” (Fundamentals of Project Management, loc 2658). Not good.

(4) Because getting clear in detail is a best practice. Please keep in mind that “you can’t very well become something if you can’t describe and define it” (Fundamentals of Project Management, loc 650) and that “[w]ithout 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).

How clear are you actually when you use a goal, action steps, and evidence of progress? This approach is the one I have quite a bit of experience with, and it got me clear in terms of what we wanted to accomplish (goal), what we needed to do to achieve the goal (action step), and what we wanted to see as we made progress on the action steps (evidence of progress). 

And while it did work, it also seemed to put the focus on completion (and on the mistaken belief that completion of action steps = completion of goal), instead of on creating value, on making a real difference. This approach also left some questions unanswered, for example:

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What can help you get clear in detail about the value you want to create and what “done” looks like so you can actually create value? Three things that come to mind for me are (1) a value statement, (2) outcomes, and (3) key deliverables. Let me explain:

(1) Value Statement (aka: vision script): Collaboratively develop a document that answers this question: What value do we want to create? Here’s an example:

Value to be created for an improvement goal for increasing compensation and benefits:
(A) We experience increased compensation and an enhanced benefits package that includes a wellness program, a pension/401K, and more funds for professional development.
(B) We have increased retention.
(C) We are better able to attract more qualified candidates. 
(D) We are flourishing (for example, in terms of professional growth), able to stay in Christian education for our careers, and able to retire well.
(E) Feeling more valued, we experience increased passionate purpose in terms of commitment to the mission and to helping each other holistically flourish in Jesus. 
(F) We experience increased morale and unity.

(2) Outcomes answer the question, “What specific results do we need in order to create value?” Here’s an example of an outcome: “We have increased retention.” (Note: This outcome comes from the above value statement.)

(3) Key deliverables specify in detail the products we should have and what services we should be receiving for a given outcome. For example, if the outcome is increased retention, key deliverables could include:

  • A chart showing current and past retention rates.
  • Staff survey data indicating impact of new compensation and benefits package on retention.

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Bonus: An added bonus of using a value statement, outcomes, and key deliverables is more and better feedback. For me, task completion is about being done or not done. So feedback is generally “yes” or “no”—as in “Are you finished with your curriculum maps?”

 When asked for additional feedback, I’m not sure what to say because I’m unclear about the value to be created, the outcomes, and the key deliverables—as in: “Are your maps good?”

However, when using a value statement, outcomes, and key deliverables, I can provide more and better feedback to questions like: 

  • How can we help you reach proficiency in terms of using an Understanding by Design approach to mapping?
  • To what extent are you being positively impacted by the value we’re creating?
  • What best practices will help us create value as we map the curriculum?

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How about you? How important is it to you to get clear in detail about the value you want to create and what “done” looks like so you can actually create value? How clear are you actually when you use a goal, action steps, and evidence of progress? What can help you get clear in detail about the value you want to create and what “done” looks like so you can actually create value? 

Here are some related resources:

Bottom line: For each improvement goal, get clear in detail about the value you want to create and what “done” looks like so you can actually create value.

Get flourishing!

Michael

For school improvement, are you primarily focused on creating value or on completing tasks?

/ mkessenburg

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Focus primarily on creating value! Why?

(1) Because both creating value and created value helps you and others get flourishing.

(2) Because focusing primarily on creating value increases the likelihood of deep change, of improved processes and practices, of people flourishing in terms of 5 elements of flourishing: passionate purpose, resilient well-being, healthy relationships, transformative learning, and helpful resources.

(3) Because focusing primarily on task completion increases the likelihood of nominal change, of stagnation, and of people moving toward obsolescence and irrelevance. “As Dr. W. Edwards Deming has pointed out, there are two kinds of organizations in this world today: those that are getting better and those that are dying. An organization that stands still is dying. It just doesn’t know it yet” (Fundamentals of Project Management, loc 2184).

(4) Because focusing on creating value is a best practice.

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What can help you focus primarily on value creation? Here are 7 things that come to mind for me:

(1) Get the right people involved and working collaboratively. “The first rule of project management is that the people who must do the work should help plan it” (Fundamentals of Project Management, loc 409).

(2) Collaboratively clarify the value to be created in your scope statement, for example:

Value to be created for an improvement goal for increasing compensation and benefits:
(A) We experience increased compensation and an enhanced benefits package that includes a wellness program, a pension/401K, and more funds for professional development.
(B) We have increased retention.
(C) We are better able to attract more qualified candidates. 
(D) We are flourishing (for example, in terms of professional growth), able to stay in Christian education for our careers, and able to retire well.
(E) Feeling more valued, we experience increased passionate purpose in terms of commitment to the mission and to helping each other holistically flourish in Jesus. 
(F) We experience increased morale and unity.

Note: 

  • “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).
  • “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!’” (Project Management for the Unofficial Project Manager, loc 279)

(3) Collaboratively specify the outcomes and key deliverables needed to create the value (instead of specifying the activities to be completed). For example:

(3.1) Outcome: We experience increased compensation and an enhanced benefits package that includes a wellness program, a pension/401K, and more funds for professional development. (Note: This outcome comes from the above value statement.)

(3.2) Key deliverables:

  • Revised compensation and benefits plan
  • Wellness program
  • Pension/401K
  • Comparison of old/new professional development funding levels
  • Policy requiring the annual review of compensation and benefits policies, plans, and processes.
  • Increase of business office staff by .5 in order to implement and monitor compensation and benefits, and to stay current with best practices regarding compensation and benefits.

(4) Collaboratively assess progress in terms of outcomes achieved (instead of action steps completed). This is similar to assessing what students actually learned (instead of the number of assignments students turned in or the number of lessons teachers taught).

(5) Collaboratively determine the experiments you will use to try to increase the achievement of the outcomes and key deliverables (instead of determining the action steps needed to be completed to achieve the goal). Note the difference in mindset: With an experiment mindset, we try something to see if it helps us create value; with a task-completion mindset, we complete tasks, mistakenly believing that task completion will necessarily result in goal achievement. Not good.

(6) In school improvement meetings, ask “What value are we working to create? How much of that value has been created?” (instead of “How many tasks have been completed?”) Remember, what gets talked about gets focused on.

(7) Work with a coach. Interested? Feel free to contact me. I provide free coaching for international Christian school leaders on a time-permitting basis.

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How about you? How do you feel about primarily focusing on the value to be created? Are you primarily focused on task completion or value creation? What can help you focus primarily on value creation? 

Here are some related resources:

Bottom line: For school improvement, focus primarily on creating value! 

Get flourishing!

Michael

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

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

/ mkessenburg

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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:

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?

/ mkessenburg

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? 

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(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:

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.

International Christian school leaders, 70% of change initiatives are unsuccessful! How can you avoid your change initiative being part of that 70%?

/ mkessenburg

70% of change initiatives are unsuccessful, says Dr. Toby Travis (Zoe Routh Podcast 253, 5:53 – 6:42). 70%—such a painfully high percentage! But as I reflect on my experience with change initiatives, I recognize that I’ve seen change initiatives that fizzle at the start, that get started but don’t get completed, and that get completed but don’t actually result in deep change, just in nominal change.

What can you do to avoid having your change initiative (aka: improvement plan) being part of the 70% that are unsuccessful? Here’s are 12 action steps that come to mind for me:

Photo by Phil Hearing on Unsplash

(1) Ensure your school improvement engine is in good working order. Make sure…

  • Your purpose for improvement is galvanizing.
  • You have shared perspective on school improvement (see School Improvement Framework).
  • Your improvement process includes reviewing your purpose for improvement, assessing your current situation, taking action steps, assessing and celebrating progress, and determining next steps.
  • Your improvement plan is documented, is evidence-based, includes key components, and is accessible (see School Improvement Reflection Protocol, part 3).
  • Your improvement practices get results and get used.

ChatGPT: Act as an international Christian school consultant. For school improvement, what role do purpose, perspective, process, plan, and practice play?

(2) Use school improvement to get people flourishing. Through school improvement, get people experiencing passionate purpose, resilient well-being, healthy relationships, transformative learning, and helpful resources. Doing this will increase engagement and help you building a flourishing culture. To learn more, please read:

(3) Identify the deep change you want to see when you successfully complete your improvement plan. For example, for an improvement plan on increasing compensation and benefits, you may want to see increased staff retention, increased staff morale, and staff having reasonable financial resources in retirement. (To identify the deep change you want to see, try using a vision script format.) 

Document the deep change you want to see and then use it when…

  • Developing your improvement plan—the plan should increase the likelihood that your deep change will be achieved.
  • Implementing your improvement plan—make real-time adjustments to increase the likelihood that your deep change happens.
  • Assessing success—ultimately, school improvement is about deep change, not about completing an improvement plan.

ChatGPT: Act as an international Christian school consultant. If we successfully implement a school improvement plan on _____, what are 5 results we can expect to see?

4) Use a project management approach of creating value, leading people, and managing process (The Unofficial Project Manager, p. 3). School improvement is about managing projects—and unfortunately, I didn’t have training in project management and I wasn’t sufficiently familiar and skilled in project management. Wish I had been! How about you? To learn more, read this project management overview and watch this video:

ChatGPT: Act as an international Christian school consultant. Define “project management.” Give 10 ways that using a project management approach can help us do school improvement effectively.

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(5) Before developing your improvement plan, ask:

  • What 5 best practices will help us successfully develop our plan on _____?
  • What are 5 behaviors to avoid when developing our plan on _____?
  • What are 5 action steps to include in a school improvement plan on _____?

ChatGPT:

  • What are 5 best practices to use when developing a school improvement plan on _____?
  • What are 5 behaviors to avoid when developing a school improvement plan on ___?
  • What are 5 action steps to include in a school improvement plan on _____?

(6) Ensure your plan addresses root cause(s). In other words, what caused the situation you are addressing? Sample root causes include:

ChatGPT prompt—please note that you need to input the improvement plan:

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 plan 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 plan
(5) A lack of training/expertise
(6) Insufficient shared understanding of a given facet of Christian education related to the improvement plan.

Apply your belief regarding root causes to a school improvement plan 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?

(7) Vet the assumptions on which your improvement plan is based—these assumptions may not be fully correct or could be incorrect. To vet your assumptions:

  • Identify the assumptions your improvement plan is based on.
  • Provide 1 or more alternative assumptions and ways to address those alternative assumptions.
  • Revise your assumptions and improvement plan as necessary. 

For example, you have a plan to increase Biblical integration in the curriculum and you have the assumption that students understand Biblical principles. An alternative assumption is students have varying degrees of understanding of Biblical principles—you could address that through differentiation.

ChatGPT:  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?

(8) Ask, “What might we be susceptible to that we want to avoid when implementing our improvement plan?” Lack of traction? False starts? Confusion? Reviewing Chart 1, Chart 2, and Chart 3 can help you.

ChatGPT: What are 5 behaviors to avoid when implementing a school improvement plan on ___?

(9) Do a pre-mortem: Imagine that you have carried out your improvement plan and it was unsuccessful. Identify the key causes of the lack of success, and then identify the remedies. Use your findings to make appropriate changes to your plan and practices. (See also risk management strategy.)

ChatGPT: Act as an international Christian school consultant. We completed an improvement plan on _____. We were not successful. What are 20 possible causes, and what is a remedy for each possible cause?

(10) Field test your improvement plan before implementing it. For example, if your improvement plan on increasing staff well-being includes having staff develop and implement Personalized Flourishing Plans, have 1 or more staff do a pilot study to see if using Personalized Flourishing Plans will be sufficiently helpful.

ChatGPT: Act as an international Christian school consultant. What are 5 ways we can field test our school improvement plan on _____ to make sure it’s feasible before we fully implement it?

(11) Get an external review of your improvement plan. For example, invite one or more curriculum coordinators from other international Christian schools to review your improvement plan and give feedback. I find this works best in person or on videoconferencing—I don’t recommend that you do this by email or on the phone.

Note: If you are interested, I’m available to do this for you on a volunteer basis. Feel free to contact me.

(12) Get and keep staff engaged—both before you start and while the plan is being carried out. Practices that can help include:

ChatGPT: Act as an international Christian school consultant. What are 20 practices that get and keep staff engaged when working on an improvement plan on _____?

Bonus: Would you like to explore additional ways to avoid having your improvement plan being part of the 70% that are unsuccessful? Use this ChatGPT prompt: Act as an international Christian school consultant. We want our school improvement plan on ___ to be successful. What are 50 things to avoid? What are 50 things we should do?

Photo by Pixabay

Question: What action step(s) will you take to increase the likelihood that your improvement plan will result in deep change? I’d like to challenge you to invest 10-15 minutes in exploring 1 or more of the options above by using the ChatGPT prompts.

  • I found using them to helpful, especially #5 on assumptions and #7 on the pre-mortem.) 
  • In my experience, using ChatGPT prompts gets me going, gets me some quick wins, and gets me thinking both broadly and deeply.

Here are some related resources:

Bottom line: Take action to ensure your improvement plan is successful! Don’t settle for anything less than deep change.

Get flourishing!

Michael