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 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:

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

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

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

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:

1. Focuses on achieving the mission. In other words, the purpose of professional development is to increase the likelihood of achieving the mission.
2. Supports the implementation of the strategic plan.
3. Addresses current/future job responsibilities.
4. Helps individual staff members achieve their annual growth goals.
5. Is powerful and ongoing. Staff are the chief resource. Professional development is a professional investment in staff. 
6. Is research-based. 
7. Is differentiated. Not everyone needs the same professional development.
8. Is based on an assessment of the current reality.
9. Is designed using a process involving planning, implementation, and evaluation.
10. Takes place in a variety of ways, in addition to workshops.
11. Involves using new knowledge and skills during the training.
12. Involves reflection.
13. Involves teams. 
14. Involves follow-up. 
15. 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:

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

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:

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

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

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

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


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

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

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?

1. 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.
2. Because you want your staff primarily focused on achieving the mission, not on completing improvement plans or improving in job-related skills.
3. Because your staff is more passionate about the mission than they are about improvement plans or job-related skills.
4. Because improvement plans and job-embedded skills are means to an end—achieving the mission. Focus on end, not means.
5. 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.
6. Because focusing on job-related skills increases the likelihood that you’ll focus on a given skill at the wrong time.
7. 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?

1. 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?
2. 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?
3. 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:

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

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:

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

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

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. 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.

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:

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

Pursue excellence. Improve your meetings Today.

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:

1. Focus on the mission
2. Empower others
3. Work smart
4. Pursue excellence

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

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. Read More...

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

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

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. Read More...

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? Read More...

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? Read More...

Question: During staff meetings, how can you provide accountability and provoke reflection?
 
Answer: By asking questions. Read More...

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? Read More...

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? Read More...