Pursue Excellence

Move organizational improvement forward

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2009-12-23T12:01:58+09:00

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

How can you increase the impact of professional development?

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2009-08-14T17:09:43+09:00

You want your organization to achieve its mission. Your staff are your key resource, and you invest in them by providing professional development. And you want to ensure that professional development makes a positive impact on the achievement of your mission.

Question: How can you increase the impact of professional development?

Answer: Follow up. If you want to help your staff apply their learning in order to achieve the mission, follow up. Spend 50% of your resources on follow-up, in helping your staff apply what they learned.

Follow up by having professional development participants do 3 things:

Share what they learned with colleagues. They can report in a meeting, write an article for a publication, or lead a workshop.
Develop action steps to apply what they learned. Supervisors should monitor these action steps.
Work with a coach.
Pursue excellence. Follow-up with professional development participants. Today.

*This blog entry is part of a 6-part series:

What do you want to focus your organization’s professional development on?
What are the components of a professional development plan?
What do you believe about professional development?
How can you enhance your organization's professional development program?
How can you increase the impact of professional development?
What are your organization's professional development needs?

What do you believe about professional development?

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2009-08-14T16:27:47+09:00

One component of an effective professional development plan is a set of beliefs about professional development. This set of beliefs guides your professional development program and can be used to enhance your professional development program.

Question: What do you believe about professional development?

Answer: I believe that effective professional development:

Focuses on achieving the mission. In other words, the purpose of professional development is to increase the likelihood of achieving the mission.
Supports the implementation of the strategic plan.
Addresses current/future job responsibilities.
Helps individual staff members achieve their annual growth goals.
Is powerful and ongoing. Staff are the chief resource. Professional development is a professional investment in staff.
Is research-based.
Is differentiated. Not everyone needs the same professional development.
Is based on an assessment of the current reality.
Is designed using a process involving planning, implementation, and evaluation.
Takes place in a variety of ways, in addition to workshops.
Involves using new knowledge and skills during the training.
Involves reflection.
Involves teams.
Involves follow-up.
Results in staff applying knowledge and skills (not in having knowledge and skills).

So, what you do believe about professional development? Talk with other staff members. Develop shared understanding about what constitutes effective professional development. Then document your organization’s beliefs about professional development.

Pursue excellence. Today.

*This blog entry is part of a 6-part series:

What do you want to focus your organization’s professional development on?
What are the components of a professional development plan?
What do you believe about professional development?
How can you enhance your organization's professional development program?
How can you increase the impact of professional development?
What are your organization's professional development needs?

What are the components of a professional development plan?

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2009-08-14T16:21:04+09:00

You want to develop an effective professional development plan. You want to make sure your plan includes key components.

Question: What are the components of a professional development plan?

Answer: Well, I think a professional development plan should answer questions like:

What does your organization believe about professional development?
What does your organization want to focus its professional development on?
What’s happening this year for professional development? What’s happening in the next few years?
What opportunities will you provide your staff for professional development?
How can your staff get funding?
How can your staff apply for professional development?

So, I think key components of a professional development plan include:

A set of beliefs.
A stated focus.
A calendar that identifies what the professional development emphases will be each year for the next 3 years.
A list of professional development opportunities provided by your organization (for example, internal/external training, publications, memberships, and coaching).
Funding guidelines that explain how much funding is available, what the funding may be used for, and how decisions about funding are made.
An application procedure.

Pursue excellence. Develop a professional development plan that includes key components.

*This blog entry is part of a 6-part series:

What do you want to focus your organization’s professional development on?
What are the components of a professional development plan?
What do you believe about professional development?
How can you enhance your organization's professional development program?
How can you increase the impact of professional development?
What are your organization's professional development needs?

To learn more about enhancing professional development, explore these 6 questions

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2009-08-14T16:08:31+09:00

You want to your organization to achieve its God-given mission. You know that enhancing your organization’s professional development can help. So, you want to learn more.

Question: How can you learn more about enhancing your organization’s professional development?

Answer: By exploring the following list of 6 questions:

What do you want to focus your organization’s professional development on?
What are the components of a professional development plan?
What do you believe about professional development?
How can you enhance your organization's professional development program?
How can you increase the impact of professional development?
What are your organization's professional development needs?

Pursue excellence. Enhance your organization’s professional development. Today.

What do you want to focus your organization's professional development on?

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2009-08-14T16:11:47+09:00

You want to focus of your organization’s professional development. You’re thinking about focusing it on 1 of 3 things: job-related skills, improvement plans, or the results you need to achieve your mission.

Question: What do you want to focus your professional development on?

Answer: Personally speaking, I want to focus professional development on the results my organization needs to achieve its mission. And I recommend that you focus your organization’s professional development on the results you need to achieve your mission, not on improvement plans or job-related skills. Why?

Because the bottom line is getting the results needed to achieve the mission, not achieving improvement plans or having a staff that is proficient in job-related skills.
Because you want your staff primarily focused on achieving the mission, not on completing improvement plans or improving in job-related skills.
Because your staff is more passionate about the mission than they are about improvement plans or job-related skills.
Because improvement plans and job-embedded skills are means to an end—achieving the mission. Focus on end, not means.
Because it’s easier to use results you need to achieve your mission than job-related skills. The list of results you want usually takes less than 1/2 a page, while the list of job-related skills take more than 1/2 a page (and possibly pages and pages and pages). Trust me—shorter is better.
Because focusing on job-related skills increases the likelihood that you’ll focus on a given skill at the wrong time.
Finally, because the bottom line is getting the results needed to achieve the mission, not achieving improvement plans or having a staff that is proficient in job-related skills. (Yes, I know. I repeated this line. It bears repeating.)

Need more convincing? OK. Which of the 3 sets of questions do you want your staff to primarily focus on?

Achieving the mission: What’s the mission? What results do we need to achieve the mission? What level of results do we have right now? What professional development do staff need to achieve the mission?
Improvement plans: What’s the improvement plan? What’s it take to complete the improvement plan? What progress have we made on the improvement plan? What professional development do staff need to complete the improvement plan?
Job-related skills: What kind of employees do we want? What skills does a model employee have? What level of these skills do staff have right now? What professional development do staff need to become model employees?

Answer: I want staff to primarily focus on the first set, the set that focuses on achieving the mission.

Final question: What will you focus your organization’s professional development on?

Pursue excellence. Focus your professional development on the results your organization needs to achieve its mission.

*This blog entry is part of a 6-part series:

What do you want to focus your organization’s professional development on?
What are the components of a professional development plan?
What do you believe about professional development?
How can you enhance your organization's professional development program?
How can you increase the impact of professional development?
What are your organization's professional development needs?

To enhance your organization's improvement system, take this self-assessment

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2009-08-08T08:26:20+09:00

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.

To learn more about enhancing organizational improvement, explore these 6 questions

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2009-08-08T08:55:55+09:00

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.

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

*To learn more, take this self-assessment.

Develop, document, and discuss your philosophy

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2009-07-29T10:22:42+09:00

Do you want to increase shared understanding and focus? If so, develop, document, and discuss your organization’s philosophy. Below is Christian Academy in Japan’s philosophy statement which school staff discuss in meetings.

Change is uncomfortable and doable

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2009-07-20T16:42:01+09:00

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

What makes a good meeting good?

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2009-06-22T12:09:13+09:00

Meetings are an important tool you can use to achieve your mission. I’ve participated in good meetings. If you want to participate in good meetings more often, answer this question: What makes a good meeting good? Good meetings are on TARGET in terms of:

Team purpose
Assessment
Results
Guidelines
Effective facilitation
Types of meetings.

To get an idea of how you can make your meetings even more effective, complete the following assessment (download). Use the following scale:

4: Strongly Agree • 3: Agree • 2: Disagree • 1: Strongly Disagree

Team purpose
___ Our team’s purpose is documented.
___ Our team’s purpose targets mission achievement.
___ Our team’s purpose is understood by each team member.
___ Our team’s purpose statement is user-friendly.
___ Our team’s purpose is used as the filter for what gets on the agenda.

Assessment
___ We assess completion of assigned tasks.
___ We assess meeting effectiveness in terms of team purpose.
___ We assess meeting effectiveness in terms of achievement of targeted results.
___ We assess meeting effectiveness in terms of abiding by meeting guidelines.
___ We use assessment at each meeting.
___ Each team member is involved in assessment.

Results
___ We identify results for a given meeting before the meeting.
___ We use the SMART goal format to list our targeted meetings results on our agenda.
___ Our targeted meeting results target mission achievement.
___ We achieve our targeted results at each meeting.

Guidelines
___ We developed our meeting guidelines collaboratively.
___ Our guidelines define our desired team dynamics.
___ Our guidelines support the achievement of our team purpose and our mission.
___ Each team member abides by the guidelines.

Effective facilitation
___ The facilitation focuses our team on achieving the team purpose.
___ The facilitation focuses our team on achieving the targeted results.

Types of meetings
___ Our team members understand that there are different types of meetings.
___ We use a schedule of different types of meetings to address tactics, strategy, and vision.

Now, ask yourself 4 questions about the data:

How many 4s, 3s, 2s, and 1s do I have?
What satisfies/frustrates me about the data?
To improve your meetings, which 1-2 of the 6 TARGET areas could you address?
What will I do?

Pursue excellence. Improve your meetings Today.

How can you enhance your organization's professional development program?

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2009-06-22T07:41:37+09:00

You want your organization to achieve its God-given mission. To achieve the mission, you want your staff to carry out their job responsibilities, including implementing the strategic plan. And you want your professional development program to better support all of this.

What’s next? Look at the characteristics of your professional development program. To get an idea of how you can improve your organization’s professional development program, take the following self-assessment.

What are your organization's professional development needs?

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2009-06-22T08:28:06+09:00

Staff in Christian organizations face a challenge—to close the gap between the words of the mission statement and the reality of the current situation.

To meet this challenge, staff can do 4 things:

Focus on the mission
Empower others
Work smart
Pursue excellence

To what extent do staff in your organization do these 4 things? To find out, take the following self-assessment.

What drives your organization’s improvement?

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2010-01-11T08:12:00+09:00

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:

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

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

How focused is your staff on organizational improvement?

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2009-11-14T08:07:00+09:00

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:

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

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

How involved are your stakeholders in organizational improvement?

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2009-09-14T07:59:00+09:00

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:

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

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

How well does your staff understand what’s involved in organizational improvement?

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2009-07-08T07:53:59+09:00

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:

How well do you want your staff to understand what’s involved in organizational improvement?
How can you help your staff better understand what’s involved in organizational improvement?
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.

Enhance your organization’s improvement system

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2009-06-03T07:48:40+09:00

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:

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

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

Pursue excellence. Today

Increase your investment in your staff

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2009-05-26T11:53:27+09:00

If you want your organization to more effectively carry out its God-given mission, increase your investment in your staff.

How can you energize, focus, and unleash your staff?

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2009-05-25T12:29:27+09:00

As an administrator at an international Christian school, you know that staff play a vital role in carrying out the mission. Because your care about your staff, want to be good a steward of the staff God has provided, and want your school to carry out its God-given mission, you ask yourself, “How can we energize, focus, and unleash staff both personally and professionally?”

To find out, take the following self-assessment.

Ask questions to provide accountability

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2009-02-11T10:35:14+09:00

Question: During staff meetings, how can you provide accountability and provoke reflection?

Answer: By asking questions.

Ask a question

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2009-01-14T10:29:35+09:00

You want your staff to further develop common understanding of a key idea. You know that if this happens, you staff will be able to work together even more effectively.

Question: How can you help your staff further develop common understanding?

Ensure a common understanding of expectations and definitions

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2008-12-10T09:15:00+09:00

Question: What helps your staff pursue excellence?

Answer: A common understanding of expectations and definitions.

Who are your key stakeholders? What role do they play?

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2008-11-12T09:36:01+09:00

You value your stakeholders. And you know it’s important for your staff to have shared understanding about who your key stakeholders are and the roles these stakeholders play.

Question: How can you develop shared understanding?

Getting 300% more training impact

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2008-11-08T07:16:02+09:00

Dr. Keith E. Webb

Let's be honest, most training is full of knowledge, ideas, and "good stuff" but not much practice.

Develop shared understanding

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2008-09-12T08:14:55+09:00

Shared understanding is powerful. When staff members have shared understanding, they move forward together. Why? Because they understand what an idea means and what it looks like in practice.

Question: How can you help your staff develop shared understanding?

Use staff meetings to reflect on philosophy

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2008-08-28T08:17:26+09:00

You’re leading a Christian organization, and you want your staff to increasingly implement you organization’s philosophy. Good.

Question: How can you do this?

Recognize student diversity

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2008-08-22T10:59:04+09:00

You have a philosophy of Christian education. Good. And you want to make sure you’re implementing it. Even better.

Question: How can you do this?

Support new staff

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2009-05-14T08:51:00+09:00

Remember what it was like the first month on a new job? Remember how you felt? You wanted to do a good job. You needed support so that you could get your questions answered. You needed support so that you could fully use your gifts.

Question: How can you provide new staff with support?

Provide your staff with feedback

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2009-03-11T08:49:09+09:00

You like feedback. When you get feedback, you make better decisions and use your God-given gifts more effectively. Same with your staff.

Question: How can you provide your staff with feedback?

Supervise your staff

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2009-01-16T08:40:27+09:00

Good stewardship of staff involves supervision, supervision that results in staff understanding job expectations, meeting the expectations, and growing professionally.

Question: How can you provide effective supervision?

Encourage reflective practice

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2008-11-12T15:37:20+09:00

Your staff members are a gift from God. You know this, and you want to be a good steward of God’s gift. How can you excise staff stewardship?

Answer: By encouraging reflective practice.

Address the personal lives of your staff

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2008-09-12T08:34:46+09:00

God has provided you with staff. You know your staff members are more than employees. They are God’s people who seek to pursue God’s calling through their personal and professional lives. You care about your staff and want to be a good steward of them.

To exercise staff stewardship, be sure to address staff personal life. Here are some options.

Implement a staff stewardship plan

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2008-07-18T08:30:52+09:00

Your staff members play a vital role in carrying out your organization’s mission. Because you care about your staff and because you want to be a good steward of the staff God has provided, you ask yourself, “How can I energize, focus, and unleash the staff?”

Answer 8 questions as you plan strategically

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2008-05-21T12:30:25+09:00

Need to develop a strategic plan? Start by answering 8 questions.

Identify, measure, then take action

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2008-03-13T08:41:16+09:00

As a leader, you want pursue excellence in order to achieve your organization’s mission. Good. These 3 steps can help.

Assign qualified staff, get your staff qualified, or recruit qualified staff

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2008-01-16T08:33:56+09:00

God’s people are talented, faithful, and servant-hearted. Out of love for God and others, God’s people do jobs for which they are not trained, suited for in terms of temperament and strengths, or passionate about—they do jobs for they are not sufficiently qualified. And God uses them. Good.

Or is it?

Leaders, empower new staff by providing training

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2007-11-20T13:43:03+09:00

You’re moving to a new country. You’ve spent quite a bit of time online learning about the country. And you’re glad that when you arrive, you’ll receive training.

Follow up

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2007-10-24T16:31:38+09:00

To achieve your mission, staff need to use new skills. So, staff get trained. Good. But remember, that getting training doesn't mean using training.

Align Board policy/procedure with the mission

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2007-09-14T10:56:31+09:00

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

You know that the Board plays a key role in your organization and that Board policy/procedure should be aligned with the mission statement.

Describing the vision helps

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2007-08-27T16:41:11+09:00

Tom Postema, curriculum coordinator at Christian Academy in Japan (CAJ), explains how describing his vision for curriculum helped him.

To pursue excellence, start by describing what you want to see

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2007-07-09T08:45:17+09:00

It’s June 13, 2007. Teachers are talking with each other about their assessment data and using it to modify instruction. Plans for SY 08/09 have been developed regarding teachers using assessment data to set student learning targets. This is exciting!

Take your meetings to the next level

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2007-05-19T07:16:02+09:00

To be a good steward of what God has given you, you want to pursue organizational excellence. You want your organization’s meetings to result in increased achievement of your organization’s God-given mission. Question: How effective are the agendas of your organization’s meetings?

How can you demonstrate commitment to your God-given mission?

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2006-09-08T08:42:14+09:00

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?

To pursue excellence, answer 4 questions

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2006-09-20T08:40:55+09:00

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

Focus your organization’s energy on achieving your God-given mission

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2006-10-27T08:40:42+09:00

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.

Use the IDEAL process to help staff understand the big picture

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2006-12-06T08:40:25+09:00

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

Maintain and increase commitment, participation, and accountability

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2007-01-10T08:40:09+09:00

“God has given us a mission, and we’ve got to get our mission done. I’m committed to this. It’s a big goal. To achieve it, every staff member needs to be involved. Every staff member. Definitely me. What do I need to do?”

To achieve your God-given mission, take professional development to the next level

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2007-02-01T08:39:48+09:00

To be a good steward of what God has given you, you want to pursue organizational excellence. You want your organization’s professional development to result in increased achievement of your God-given mission. Question: To what extent are your administration and staff are involved in ongoing professional development that promotes mission achievement?

To what extent does your organizational environment reflect your organizational values?

learnmore@closethegapnow.org — 2007-04-18T11:41:24+09:00

Your organization believes. Your organization believes that…