You’re grateful for what God has done for you. So, you want to serve God, in part by pursuing excellence for Him. As a ministry leader, you know that one type of excellence you want to pursue is organizational excellence. Good.
 
What can you do to pursue organizational excellence? Here are 4 things you can do:
 
(1) Make sure staff are cared for. To care for staff on a personal level, demonstrate interest in them, have fun together, and provide life coaching to help staff balance work/home. To care for staff on a professional level, demonstrate interest in their ministry, encourage them to reflect, and provide support, encouragement and accountability.
           
(2) Make sure staff participate in professional development. What kind of professional development? In professional development that addresses current job responsibilities and that helps individual staff members achieve their annual growth goals. In professional development that involves staff in reflection and follow-up. In professional development that helps your staff do ministry more effectively.
 
(3) Make sure staff meetings target mission achievement. Make sure each meeting’s purpose is documented, targets mission achievement, and is used as the filter for what gets on the agenda. Have those attending the meeting collaboratively develop meeting guidelines that define desired meeting dynamics. And schedule separate meetings to address tactics, strategy, and vision.
 
(4) Make sure staff understand, are involved in, and are focused on organizational improvement. How can you do this? By explaining organizational improvement, encouraging ownership, involving staff in developing improvement plans, and providing the support and accountability staff need to carry out improvement plans. Here's the acid test: If ministry leadership dropped of the planet, would the plans still get implemented? If so, then you have an effective organizational improvement plan.
 
Bottom line: Pursue excellence.

*How can you help others pursue excellence? By asking questions like:

1. What’s excellence?
2. What’s satisfying/unsatisfying about pursuing organizational excellence?
3. For your ministry, what does organizational excellence look like?
4. What can you do to pursue organizational excellence?
5. What will you do?

When I am held accountable to get something done, I get it done. When I’m not held accountable to get something done, I might not get it done.
 
Tip: If you want to get your improvement plans done, make sure your staff are held accountable.
 
Question: To what extent are staff held accountable for improvement plans?
 
To get an idea of the extent to which your staff are held accountable for improvement plans, take the following assessment. Rate each item, using the following scale:

4: Consistently • 3: Usually • 2: Sometimes • 1: Rarely

___ Leaders hold staff accountable to implement the improvement plans.
___ Staff hold each other accountable to implement the improvement plans.
___ Staff hold themselves accountable to implement the improvement plans.

___ Staff are held accountable to implement the improvement plans.

3 questions:

1. To what extent do you want your staff to be held accountable for improvement plans?
2. How can you increase staff accountability?
3. What are you going to do?

Bottom line: Pursue excellence. Hold staff accountable to implement improvement plans. Today.

The goal isn't to have improvement plans. The goal is to improve your organization by completing improvement plans. And to be completed, the improvement plans must guide the work—they must be central, not peripheral.
 
Question: To what extent do improvement plans guide staff work? (Here’s a perceptive response I received from a friend who serves as a school administrator and who rightly notes that the more staff have ownership of improvement plans, the more likely it is that staff will use improvement plans to guide their work: "Go for it, but I think the first essential question is ‘To what extent has your staff been involved in developing the improvement plans themselves?’ followed by ‘To what extent does the staff own the improvement plans they are expected to implement?,’ implicit in that being ‘If the administration dropped off the planet, would the plans still get implemented?’ Then you have a plan!")
 
To get an idea of the extent to which improvement plans guide your organization’s work, take the following assessment. Rate each item, using the following scale:

4: Consistently • 3: Usually • 2: Sometimes • 1: Rarely

___ Staff understand the improvement plans.
___ Staff know which improvement plans they are to implement.
___ Staff can explain their role in a given improvement plan.
___ Staff implement the improvement plans.

___ Improvement plans guide staff work.

3 questions:

1. To what extent do you want improvement plans to guide staff work?
2. How can you help staff use improvement plans to guide staff work?
3. What are you going to do?

Bottom line: Pursue excellence. Use your improvement plans to guide staff work. Today.

So, what drives your organization’s improvement? A discussion? A book a leader just finished reading? Workshops that staff attend? The unwritten agendas of different leaders? Not sure?
 
Question: What do you want to drive your organization’s improvement?
 
My answer: Documented improvement plans. That’s right—documented improvement plans. I want my organization’s improvement to be driven by documented plans. That way, I and everyone else can review and share them.
 
And I want these documented plans to target mission achievement. What do I mean by that? At my school, our mission is to equip students to impact the world for Christ. One of our improvement plans is to further develop our curriculum so that we can better equip students to impact the world for Christ—not so that we can simply improve our curriculum.
 
To get an idea of the extent that documented improvement plans (that target mission achievement) drive your organization’s improvement, take the following assessment. Rate each item, using the following scale:

4: Consistently • 3: Usually • 2: Sometimes • 1: Rarely

___ Our improvement plans are documented.
___ Our improvement plans target mission achievement.
___ Our improvement plans drive organizational improvement.

___ Our organization’s improvement is driven by documented plans that target mission achievement.


3 questions:

1. To what extent do you want organizational improvement to be driven by documented improvement plans that target mission achievement?
2. How can you ensure that organizational improvement is driven by documented plans that target mission achievement?
3. What are you going to do?

Bottom line: Pursue excellence. Use documented improvement plans. Today.

Organizational improvement can help you, those you work with, and your organization. Take steps to move organizational improvement forward.

What gets focused on gets done. So, if you want to improve your organization, make sure your staff is focused on organizational improvement.
 
Question: How focused is your staff on organizational improvement?
 
To get an idea of how focused your staff is on organizational improvement, take the following assessment. Rate each item, using the following scale:

4: Consistently • 3: Usually • 2: Sometimes • 1: Rarely

___ Staff talk about organizational improvement.
___ Staff make proposals regarding organizational improvement.
___ Staff work on organizational improvement.
___ Staff hold each other accountable for organizational improvement.
___ Staff are disappointed when improvement goals are not reached.

___ Staff focus on organizational improvement.


3 questions:

1. How focused do you want your staff to be on organizational improvement?
2. How can you increase staff focus on organizational improvement?
3. What are you going to do?

Bottom line: Pursue excellence. Focus staff on organizational improvement. Today.

You want your organization to improve. You know that to improve, your organization must carry out its improvement plans. And you know that for your organization to carry out its improvement plans, your stakeholders must be involved.
 
Question: How involved are your stakeholders in organizational improvement?
 
To get an idea of how involved your stakeholders are in organizational improvement, take the following assessment (which targets school stakeholders). Rate each item, using the following scale:

4: Consistently • 3: Usually • 2: Sometimes • 1: Rarely

___ Students support the improvement plans.
___ Parents support the improvement plans.
___ Staff support the improvement plans.
___ Leaders support the improvement plans.

___ Students are involved in implementing the improvement plans.
___ Parents are involved in implementing the improvement plans.
___ Staff are involved in implementing the improvement plans.
___ Leaders are involved in implementing the improvement plans.

___ Stakeholders support and are involved in implementing the improvement plans.


3 questions:

1. How involved do you want your stakeholders to be in organizational improvement?
2. How can you increase stakeholder involvement in organizational improvement?
3. What are you going to do?

Bottom line: Pursue excellence. Get stakeholders involved. Today.

You want to close the gap. You know that enhancing your organization’s improvement system can help. So, you want to learn more.

Question: How can you learn more enhancing organizational improvement?

Answer: By exploring the following list of 6 questions.

1. How well does your staff understand what’s involved in organizational improvement?
2. How involved are your stakeholders in organizational improvement?
3. How focused is your staff on organizational improvement?
4. What drives your organization’s improvement?
5. To what extent do improvement plans guide staff work?
6. To what extent are staff held accountable for improvement plans?

*To learn more, take this self-assessment.

You want improve your organization’s improvement system. You want to target things like stakeholder involvement, staff focus, and staff accountability. And you want to start by analyzing what’s currently going on.

Question: What can you do?

Answer: You can take the following self-assessment. Read More...

Keep in mind that organizational change is both uncomfortable and doable.

Want to improve your organization? If so, make sure your staff members understand what’s involved in organizational improvement. Make sure your staff understand that:

• The purpose of organizational improvement is increasing achievement of the mission.
• Improvement plans target mission achievement.
• When implementing improvement plans, staff are to live out organizational values, use organizational best practices, and collaborate with other stakeholders.

Question: How well do your staff members understand what’s involved in organizational improvement?
 
To get an idea of how well your staff understand what’s involved in organizational improvement, take the following assessment. Rate each item, using the following scale:

4: Consistently • 3: Usually • 2: Sometimes • 1: Rarely

___ Staff members understand our values.
___ Staff members understand our mission.

___ Staff members understand our best practices.
___ Staff members understand our improvement plans.
___ Staff members understand the importance of stakeholder collaboration.

___ Staff members understand how values, mission, best practices, improvement plans, and stakeholder collaboration are connected.
___ Staff members understand what’s involved in organizational improvement.


3 questions:

1. How well do you want your staff to understand what’s involved in organizational improvement?
2. How can you help your staff better understand what’s involved in organizational improvement?
3. What are you going to do?

Bottom line: Pursue excellence. Help your staff understand what’s involved in organizational improvement. Today.


*To learn more, explore these 5 questions.

You want your organization to achieve its mission. You know that a quality improvement system can help.
 
Question: What’s next?
 
Answer: Take time to reflect. Take time to reflect on key questions, for example:

1. How well does your staff understand what’s involved in organizational improvement?
2. How involved are your stakeholders in organizational improvement?
3. How focused is your staff on organizational improvement?
4. What drives your organization’s improvement?
5. To what extent do improvement plans guide staff work?
6. To what extent are staff accountable for improvement plans?

Reflect, then take action to enhance your organization’s improvement system.
 
Pursue excellence. Today