Michele sits in her office with Tom. Both are smiling. Michele says, “They understand! Our staff understand how the big picture fits together.”

“Yeah, at this morning’s meeting,” Tom responds, “the maintenance crew prioritized projects based on how much impact they would have on achieving the mission. And during the lunch meeting, the office staff discussed how the improvement process is moving us toward achieving our mission.”

“That type of conversation wasn’t happening before,” says Michele. “As a staff, we’re definitely more focused. I’m glad we used the IDEAL process to move forward on this.”

What have Michele and Tom be working on? Meeting the following organizational standards:

• The leadership empowers staff through developing staff understanding.
  
• Staff understand the connections between the mission, the definition of mission achievement, job descriptions, and the improvement process.

What process did they use? The IDEAL process.

• Identify the problem and ask God for help.
  
• Define the problem.
  
• Explore ways to address the problem. Pick one and make a plan to address it.
  
• Act.
  
• Look at the results.

How did Michele and Tom use the IDEAL process?

Identify the problem and ask God for help: Michele and Tom noticed that staff didn’t sufficiently understand how their jobs contributed to mission achievement or how improvement plans contributed to mission achievement. Because of this, some staff felt disconnected from the improvement plans and from colleagues who seemed to play a more prominent role in improvement plans. Michele and Tom added this issue to their regular list of prayer requests and asked God for help.

Define the problem: Tom reviewed the organizational standards. He shared his findings with Michele, and both agreed that the 2 organizational standards to target were:

1. The leadership empowers staff through developing staff understanding.
   
2. Staff understand the connections between the mission, the definition of mission achievement, job descriptions, and the improvement process.

Using the following rubric, they rated current performance as below standard on inputs and outputs:

Inputs: The leadership ___ staff through developing staff understanding.

• consistently and systemically empowers
  
• consistently empowers
  
• empowers (meets the standard)
  
• somewhat empowers
  
• rarely empowers

Outputs: Staff ___ the connections between the mission, the definition of mission achievement, job descriptions, and the improvement process.

• consistently and systemically understand
  
• consistently understand
  
• understand (meets the standard)
  
• somewhat understand
  
• rarely understand

Explore ways to address the problem: Michele and Tom decided that they would first focus on inputs, on what they could do as leaders. Then they brainstormed options:

• Ask questions: What is our mission? What does our mission mean and not mean? What’s our definition of mission achievement? What’s our current level of mission achievement? What can we do to close the gap? How effectively will this ___ (meeting, project, task, proposed change) help us accomplish our mission?
  
• Provide training, during which staff would study and memorize the mission and the definition of mission achievement.
  
• Provide time for staff to discuss the following question: If no one did my job, how would that impact the achievement of our mission?
  
• Provide training, during which staff would connect each section of a given job description to a part of the definition of mission achievement.
  
• Provide training, during which staff would connect improvement plans to job descriptions and to the definition of mission achievement.

Michele decided that she would ask questions (Option #1), while Tom decided to lead a training on the mission and the definition of mission achievement (Option #2).

Act: Michele asked 1 or more questions in each meeting she attended. Tom provided training for 100% of the staff.

Look at the results: Michele and Tom noticed that staff increasingly used the mission and the definition of mission achievement in conversations. They wanted to move the organization toward exceeding the standard. As a next step, Tom decided to ask staff, “If no one did your job, how would that impact the achievement of our mission” (Option #3). Michele decided to provide training to help staff connect each section of a given job description to 1 of the 3 parts of the definition of mission achievement (Option #4).

How does this apply to you? Ask yourself 3 questions:

• To what extent do I empower our staff to understand the big picture?
  
• To what extent do our staff understand the big picture?
  
• How can I use the IDEAL process to meet or exceed 1 or both of these organizational standards?

Steward what God has given you. Use the IDEAL process to meet or exceed a key organizational standard. Pursue excellence today.

Your goal? To meet or exceed the following organizational standard: The leader focuses organizational energy on achieving the mission.

To reach your goal, start by imagining. Imagine you and your organization focused. Imagine you and your organization consistently and systemically focused on achieving your God-given mission. If this happened, how would this impact the achievement of your mission?

To start making this vision a reality, answer 4 questions:

1. What does it take to meet or exceed this standard?
   
2. What’s the current performance level?
   
3. What can you do to increase your focus of organizational energy on achieving the mission?
   
4. What does your organization need to do to increase its focus on achieving the mission?

What does it take to meet or exceed the standard?
To meet the standard:

• Input: You need to focus organizational energy on achieving the mission.
  
• Output: Your organization needs to focus its energy on achieving the mission.

To exceed the standard:

• Input: You need to consistently focus organizational energy on achieving the mission.
  
• Output: Your organization needs to consistently focus its energy on achieving the mission.

(2) What’s the current performance level? Find out by answering a question on inputs and a question on outputs:

Inputs: I ___ organizational energy on achieving the mission.

1. consistently and systemically focus
   
2. consistently focus
   
3. focus (meets the standard)
   
4. somewhat focus
   
5. rarely focus

Outputs: My organization ___ its energy on achieving the mission.

1. consistently and systemically focuses
   
2. consistently focuses
   
3. focuses (meets the standard)
   
4. somewhat focuses
   
5. rarely focuses

(3) Input: What can you do to increase your focus of organizational energy on achieving the mission? Here are 10 options:

1. Pray daily.
   
2. Memorize your mission statement.
   
3. Tell stories about achieving the mission.
   
4. Ask questions: What is our mission? What does our mission mean and not mean? What’s our definition of mission achievement? What’s our current level of mission achievement? What can we do to close the gap? How effectively will this ___ (meeting, project, task, proposed change) help us accomplish our mission?
   
5. Listen to the responses to your questions.
   
6. Use SMART goals and scoreboards.
   
7. Coach leaders.
   
8. Provide support, encouragement, and accountability.
   
9. Design job descriptions so that they are a function of mission achievement.
   
10. Empower 100% of staff to recite the mission, explain the definition of mission achievement, explain the current level of mission achievement, and identify how their job and schoolwide improvement plans contribute to mission achievement.

Pick 1 option. Do it. Today. And ask someone to hold you accountable. Until you get it done. Then, if necessary, pick another option.

(4) Output: What does your organization need to do to increase its focus on achieving the mission? Here are 10 things staff can do:

1. Pray daily.
   
2. Memorize the mission.
   
3. Learn to explain the definition of mission achievement.
   
4. Learn to explain the current level of mission achievement.
   
5. Learn to explain how their job contributes to mission achievement.
   
6. In each meeting, ask “How will this meeting help us achieve our mission?”
   
7. When developing proposals, ask “How will this proposed change help us achieve our mission?”
   
8. When considering whether or not to take on a task, ask “How effectively will this ___ (meeting, project, task, proposed change) help us accomplish our mission?”
   
9. When pursuing professional development, ask “What type of professional development will most effectively help me contribute to mission achievement?”
   
10. Track progress towards job completion and/or assigned improvement tasks. Share progress with a supervisor on a routine basis.

Ask each staff member to pick 1 option. Today. And hold staff members accountable. Until they get it done. Then, if necessary, ask them to pick another option.

Imagine you and your organization consistently and systemically focused on achieving your mission. Make this a reality by increasing your organization’s focus on achieving the mission. Target inputs (what you do) and outputs (what your organization does).

Steward what God has given you. Pursue excellence today.

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Martie Tarter, Christian Academy in Japan (Music/School Advancement), SEND International:
Focusing organizational energy on achieving the mission is central to achieving the mission. Ways I do this include praying daily and talking about how what we are doing is connected to the mission. To take it to the next level, I’m going to provide encouragement and ask organizational members to set personal goals related to achieving the mission.

Your goal: To be a good steward of what God has given you by pursuing excellence. How? By meeting or exceeding each organizational standard.

Now what? Get answers to 4 questions:

1. What’s the standard? To meet or exceed the standard, you must know what the standard is. Does your organization have a set of standards? If not, get some. If so, learn them.
   
   
2. What does it take to meet or exceed the standard? To meet or exceed each organizational standard, you must know what “meeting” and “exceeding” the standard means. Does your organization have concrete definitions of “meeting” and “exceeding” each organizational standard? If not, develop definitions. If so, discuss them.
   
   
3. What is the current performance level? To meet or exceed each organizational standard, you must know the current performance level. Do you know which standards you currently meet or exceed? If not, find out. If so, use your data to develop improvement plans.
   
   
4. What will I/we do to meet or exceed each standard? To meet or exceed each organizational standard, use performance data to develop an improvement plan. Do you have an improvement plan? If not, develop one. If so, use it.

Steward what God has given you. Take steps to get answers to these 4 questions. Pursue excellence today.

Your goal: To be a good steward of what God has given you by pursuing excellence.

Your plan: To demonstrate commitment to your God-given mission.

Your question: How?

Here are 4 options:

1. Talk about your mission.
   
2. Target mission achievement through your job.
   
3. Participate in achieving improvement plans.
   
4. Make collaborative decisions regarding increasing student learning.

Use 1 option. Today.