Why Sweating the Small Stuff Makes a Big Difference

For years I have been taught not to “sweat the small stuff.” I warmly embraced this notion because it reinforced my natural inclination to focus on big strategic initiatives and to pay less attention to the small details, leaving those to others.

I have changed my mind. I have concluded that small stuff make a big difference.  Small stuff deserve a great deal of our attention!

What Convinced Me

God’s Care for Us and Creation:

If anyone was going to focus on big strategic plans it would be God. As the creator and governor of the physical universe and the affairs of heaven and earth, God certainly is focused on large scale objectives.

Yet, notice the incredible attention to detail exhibited by his rule:

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. (Mt 10:29–31)

Consider the remarkable detail in God’s creation. Look at how intricately God designed a flower. While God wrote our names in the Book of Life before he laid the foundations of the world and “made from one man every nation of mankind to live yon all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,” (Ac 17:26), he also designed the intricate details of flowers.

And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the‘ field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. (Matt. 6:28-29)

Ugly can be beautiful. The head and eyes of a horse-fly may not be “beautiful” in the classical sense yet the incredible creativity, detail, and symmetry is a beautiful reflection of God’s attention to detail and a nearly incomprehensible marriage of function and form.

Few things are more ethereal and ephemeral than a snow flake-especially in the U.S. South! Yet, even with something so fragile and short-lived, the variety, symmetry and beauty of a snow flake is a testament to God “sweating the small stuff.”

Not only does God’s creation “work,” it is beautiful and awe inspiring—and to the attentive soul—soul ennobling. Who has not been in the mountains, on a prairie, a beach, or a lake--and not been enthralled and enriched by the beauty made possible by God’s attention to the smallest details of his creation?

Steve Jobs:

It may seem odd to include Steve Jobs in a list with God. I do so because as an image bearer of his creator Job’s attention to detail imaged that of his creator—whether he chose to acknowledge it or not.  Jobs was fanatical about every detail of Apple’s products--even the unseen innards:

From his father Jobs had learned that a hallmark of passionate craftsmanship is making sure that even the aspects that will remain hidden are done beautifully. One of the most extreme—and telling—implementations of that philosophy came when he scrutinized the printed circuit board that would hold the chips and other components deep inside the Macintosh.

No consumer would ever see it, but Jobs began critiquing it on aesthetic grounds. “That part’s really pretty,” he said. “But look at the memory chips. That’s ugly. The lines are too close together.” One of the new engineers interrupted and asked why it mattered. “The only thing that’s important is how well it works. Nobody is going to see the PC board.”

Jobs reacted typically. “I want it to be as beautiful as possible, even if it’s inside the box. A great carpenter isn’t going to use lousy wood for the back of a cabinet, even though nobody’s going to see it.”

For Jobs, designing and manufacturing electronics was craftsmanship, not merely an economic activity.  He was fanatical about design and detail, even in product packaging because he learned that people DO judge a book by its cover:

“You should never start a company with the goal of getting rich. Your goal should be making something you believe in and making a company that will last.” Markkula wrote his principles in a one-page paper titled “The Apple Marketing Philosophy” that stressed three points.

• The first was empathy, an intimate connection with the feelings of the customer: “We will truly understand their needs better than any other company.”
• The second was focus: “In order to do a good job of those things that we decide to do, we must eliminate all of the unimportant opportunities.”
• The third and equally important principle, awkwardly named, was impute. It emphasized that people form an opinion about a company or product based on the signals that it conveys. “People DO judge a book by its cover,” he wrote. “We may have the best product, the highest quality, the most useful software etc.; if we present them in a slipshod manner, they will be perceived as slipshod; if we present them in a creative, professional manner, we will impute the desired qualities.

Application to Our Leadership and Schools

Perception is important.  How we “present” our product is important.  We may have wonderful teachers and programs but unless we present them with excellence would-be and current parents may perceive our schools as second-rate.  The good news is that “good packaging” doesn’t have to be expensive, it just needs to reflect attention to detail.

Like the cover on a book or your first impression of someone you meet, perceptions are formed almost immediately.  The first impression that parents get is from a phone call to the school, the website, or a visit to the campus.

Facilities

It is easy to become “blind.”  We are like the proverbial frog in the kettle, we have grown so accustomed to our surroundings that we no longer see what a visitor sees.  Everything looks fine to us.

Take one hour and walk through your buildings with a notebook.  Write down everything that is not perfect.  Note every time you see chipped paint, scuff marks, dirty carpet, smudges on glass doors, paper/trash on the floor or in the parking lot, shrubs needing trimmed, bare patches in the grass, book bags lying around, handwritten student or school messages/signs/posters (I’m not reviewing to student projects-I’m referring to announcements, directions, etc.), messy offices and desks, stuff out of place, pictures ajar in the reception area, etc....  You may be surprised just how disheveled things can become.

Phone Calls

How are your phones answered?  Do people reach an electronic message system with a labyrinth of options or a warm professional receptionist?  I have been lobbied for years to install an automated answering system.  It is “more efficient” is the reason given.  I have refused because such a system, though more “efficient” does not reflect the warm nurturing culture of our school.  Besides, people hate electronic answering systems, don’t you?

I call a lot of schools.  I am often dismayed by the poor phone skills of those who answer the phones.  Too often I am greeted with a sweet but unprofessional receptionist (poor grammar or too casual), or a very professional but “cold” individual.  In contrast, whenever I have called Apple headquarters or Apple support, I am greeted by a cheery, pleasant professional who always proves helpful. I am always left with a good impression.

Try this.  Call your school with new ears.  Use a phone that cannot be identified as you.  Was the impression you received that of a well educated, professional, happy individual or one who was harried and poorly spoken?  If you were calling the school for the first time, what impression did you get within the first 30 seconds?

Website

Was your website custom designed by a professional or was it created using a template and/or by a volunteer?  If the latter, it will look like it and the first impressions, while perhaps not “bad,” will not be superb.  Following my own advice, we are completely redesigning our website (not yet up).

When you review your website, look for the following:

•    Simple design, uncluttered •    Easy to navigate •    Warm and friendly •    Professional (drop the apples, crayons, etc.)

Remember, people will not spend a great deal of time reading material on your website.  The website should be designed to give a positive impression of the school, highlight important information, and provide easy navigation on where to obtain more information.

I recommend that you not put the photographs of your staff on the website’s staff directory unless they are unusually and universally photogenic.  A few well chosen photographs of staff and students on your site is very effective, but a directory with staff photos is not.  Most of us are not particularly photogenic so there is little to be gained by plastering our faces on the school’s website.

Staff Appearance

The way you and your staff dress creates a powerful impression. Although dress should be appropriate for the job, overly casual attire or poorly worn clothing does not create an impression of quality.  Walk around your school; discretely notice how your teachers and staff are dressed.  Are men’s ties tied properly?  Are the collars on men’s shirts crisp or wrinkled?  Are shoes polished?  Do some of your staff look “frumpy?” Designer cloths are not necessary, but being professionally dressed in contemporary styles is.

Your Presentations

Your presentations communicate a lot about you and the school!  Every presentation you make is enhancing or diminishing the “customer’s” (students, current and prospective parents, staff) perception of the school.

Are your presentations professional and warm?  Just as being professionally “cold” is to be avoided, so too is overly folksy. Here are some “small things” to sweat about.

•    Start and end on time.  It is unprofessional and inconsiderate of those who arrived on time to start any meeting late.  Do so also “trains” people to come late, after all, the “meeting will not really start until 10 after...” •    Make sure the venue, including the stage area, is neat and clean. •    Less is more--too much information given for too long is counter-productive.  It is best to keep things simple and short and then to provide backup information.

Review your PowerPoint/Keynote slides.  Over the last several years I have read several books on presentation design.  I have radically changed how I design and use slides. I cringe when I review past presentations!

•    Your content should not be on the slides; slides are only used to illustrate or solicit interest. •    Speak as “spontaneously” as possible.  Know what you have to say well enough that you only occasionally glance at notes.  Steve Jobs famously quipped, “People who know what they’re talking about don’t need PowerPoint.” There is a place for slides, but they are never to be your notes! •    It is important to maintain eye contact with your audience--do not turn to look at slides. •    Less is more on slides--few words, large font, great photos and illustrations.  No clipart! Few if any bullet points. Here is an example of how I have changed my slides and presentations.

Old Style:

New Style:

There are many other areas of the school-especially in classrooms-where we need to be “sweating the small stuff.”  While we need to focus on long-term strategic initiatives, we must pull the clippers out to ensure that every “blade of grass” in the school reflects the quality that we assure parents is true of our schools.

“Small” stuff matters to God and it should matter to us.  Remember, Jesus said, “He who is faithful in little will be faithful in much.”

God is the master craftsman.  Steve Job insisted on craftsmanship in the products Apple designed.  Do our schools reflect craftsmanship?

A Crash Course in Communication

  Although I might make some minor adjustments to the content of this article, the advice is sound and applicable to our leadership.  The article was written by By Jamie Walters and Sarah Fenson.  The original can be found here.

Recently I heard someone say, "Communication is easy." I disagree. Talking is easy; communication, which means an exchange or communion with another, requires greater skill. An exchange that is a communion demands that we listen and speak skillfully, not just talk mindlessly. And interacting with fearful, angry, or frustrated people can be even more difficult, because we're less skillful when caught up in such emotions. Yet don't despair or resign yourself to a lifetime of miscommunication at work or home! Good communicators can be honed as well as born. Here are a few tips to get you started.

• Don't take another person's reaction or anger personally, even if they lash out at you in what seems a personal manner. Another person's mood or response is more likely about fear or frustration than it is about you as an individual. Take a deep breath and count to 10, and see it as a way of letting the other person vent before he is able to communicate what's really on his mind.
• You don't have to have all the answers. It's OK to say, "I don't know." If you want to find out, say so, then follow up to share your findings. Or you may decide to work on the problem together to find the answer.
• Respond (facts and feelings); don't react (feelings) -- e.g., "Tell me more about your concern" or "I understand your frustration" instead of "Hey, 'm just doing my job" or "It's not my job" (which is sure to cause more irritation). Share responsibility for any communication in which you're a participant, and realize that sometimes, maybe often, your own personal reactions may be causing your frustrations about communicating with others.
• Understand that people want to feel heard more than they care about whether you agree with them. It's strange how many people complain about others not hearing them, yet they don't listen to others either! You can show that you're listening by giving someone your complete attention and saying things like:

"Tell me more about your concern." "What is it about XYZ that concerns you?" "I'm interested in what you've just said. Can you share a little bit about what lead you to that belief?" "What would have to happen for you to be more comfortable with XYZ?"

• Remember that what someone says and what we hear can be amazingly different! Our personal filters, assumptions, judgments, and beliefs can distort what we hear. Repeat back or summarize to ensure that you understand. Restate what you think you heard and ask, "Have I understood you correctly?" If you find yourself responding emotionally to what someone said, say so, and ask for more information: "I may not be understanding you correctly, and I find myself taking what you said personally. What I thought you just said is XYZ; is that what you meant?"
• Acknowledge inconvenience or frustration and offer a timeline, particularly if you need someone else's cooperation or your activities will affect them. For example, if you'll be updating someone's desktop computer system and need access to her office, you might say, "I know it's frustrating to have someone in your space at a time that might not be convenient for you, and I appreciate your cooperation. It'll help us to keep your system working well. We expect to be in your office at about 3 p.m., and out by 5 p.m."li>Don't offer advice unless asked. This can be tough, particularly if we have experience that we think might benefit another person. Use respectful expressions such as "One potential option is..." or "One thing that helped me in a similar situation was X. I'd be happy to share more about my experience if you think it'd be helpful to you" instead of "You should do X."
• Look for common ground instead of focusing solely on differences. What might you both be interested in (e.g., making the experience as non-disruptive as possible)? One way to begin discovering commonality is to share your underlying intention -- for example, "My intention in sharing this is to help you succeed on this project."
• Remember that change is stressful for most people, particularly if your activities affect them in a way that they aren't scheduling or controlling. Our routines can be comforting in the midst of what appears to be a chaotic world. So if you're in someone's space or need him to do something on your timeline, provide as much information as you can about what you'll need from the person and when. If you can, tell him how what you're doing will benefit him. Work to keep a positive mental focus. One of the choices we always have is how we see or experience any given circumstance. Many people who are considered skillful and successful, including professional athletes and cultural leaders, work to maintain a positive mind-set. Ask yourself, "What's great about this?" or "What can I learn from this?" to help maintain a positive state. Don't forget to adopt a variety of stress reduction practices that work best for you. Understand that most people, including you, have a unique, often self-serving, agenda. This isn't necessarily bad, because it helps us achieve and protect ourselves. Just don't assume that someone will know or share your agenda, so talking about what's most important to you and asking what's most important to others, can help build a solid foundation for conversation.
• Improve your listening skill. Most people think they listen well, but the truth is that most of people don't listen at all -- they just speak and then think about what they're going to say next. Good listening often means asking good questions and clearing your mind of distractions, including what you're going to say next, whom you're meeting with next, or what's going on outside. When someone makes prickly comments or complaints, there's often a concern or fear lurking. Like a detective, ask questions that get to the bottom of someone's real concern or agenda. Only then can you have a truly rich, beneficial conversation.

This information provides food for thought rather than counsel specifically designed to meet the needs of your situation. Please use it mindfully. The most effective communication plan should be tailored to your unique needs, so don't hesitate to get individualized assistance from a communication expert.

You Can Do This!

You Can Do This!

By Zach Clark

A recent post by Barrett Mosbacker entitled, “I Just Returned From the Future” has certainly sparked some dialogue among those we’ve shared it with. Responses have ranged from frustration and despair to enthusiastic choruses of “let’s do this!”

The post certainly challenged my own thinking and I thought I would share my notes after praying and thinking about this issue of leading our Christian school leaders and teachers to understand where all this may be headed for our students.

1. It is true that great teaching isn't defined by technology.

But, teaching (great or otherwise) that fails to help students demonstrate subject mastery using contemporary technology tools will produce students who lack the skills to integrate their knowledge and wisdom into contemporary mediums. Are we successful if we graduate students who can think deeply and critically, who are well written problem-solvers but don’t have a clue how to utilize contemporary tools in relation to others?

The basics of great learning and the utilization of contemporary tools and mediums are not divorced. But, for some reason we school folks treat them like they are.

We would never teach the principles of great writing and then have students get out a stone tablet and chisel. But, nowadays, we have students still print out their papers for peer editing and teacher editing. There are few excellent companies in America today that would utilize that approach to collaborative editing and final editing. The lack of productivity would be unacceptable. We must be focused on growing top tier teachers who understand that their jobs now utilize different tools today because students will be utilizing different tools in their future.

2. Dear reader, don’t get frustrated with me, but I still hear too much talk about teaching PowerPoint, Word, Excel, video editing, and other so-called technology skills.

We should be talking instead about expecting students to communicate visually, with integrated communications tools. We should be helping students use contemporary technology to unleash the power of groups in projects, collaborate over long-distances, and dialogue with peers across the hall or across the globe. My face flushed hot with embarrassment for a teacher in a high school classroom I visited in another Christian school this week to see that students had been producing fourth grade elementary-style crafts projects to demonstrate their knowledge of biblical integration concepts. Unbelievable! Unacceptable! I know I’m not as good an educator as you, but I’ll take bets on how much better some teams from your local businesses could help students actually learn to utilize today’s technologies in how they work together, communicate, and demonstrate mastery.

When I think about the skills that some Christian school educators believe are “technology skills” I shudder. Students, get out your three-ring binder notebooks! Let’s not use Evernote or OneNote. Students write in your planners! Don’t use your iPhone calendar or Google calendars. Students take this essay question home and write me your answer! Don’t text me your answer. Don’t email me your answer. Don’t post your answer. Students, please turn in your drafts! Don’t upload them for my comments and edits. Students, please help me pass out the thirty copies I printed this morning of our sheets! Don’t ask me to post in online and review it with you on the projector screen, so you can access it from home later. Students, please add to the class discussion! Don’t upload an audio comment on what you actually think. We are dealing with a generation of teachers/leaders who think that technology is a “thing” an “add-on” rather than a change in the tools we use to actually live and work.

3. If educators keep talking to other educators about what education-technology is supposed to be, they are going to stay behind the curve.

We’ll never get there. Planning for curriculum integration of technology needs to include people [parents?] who have jobs that actually depend on their mastery of technology. I once sat in the audience while a leading curriculum and technology integration expert shared his brilliant content and wisdom. His ideas and thinking were impressive, but his personal use of technology was antiquated, unorganized, lacking mastery, and most educators wouldn’t even notice because it’s so far beyond them. He sure didn’t notice. He won’t be invited to speak at Apple, Inc. headquarters anytime soon.

What’s that ancient quote? “In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.”

We are talking to the wrong people. We need to keep throwing our passion and energies behind teachers who are hungry to learn about this. We are on the right track by supporting those passionate teachers who really are pushing this direction, but we need to expose them to people in our community who know how to make technology hum. We need to build strategic partnerships that support our teachers’ learning and stop expecting them to just learn from other teachers.

4. Our leaders and teachers should be modeling this.

This shouldn’t be a suggestion, but an expectation. The more we shy away from pushing this expectation, the more we perpetuate the reality that schools are one of the few places that don’t have to utilize technology effectively. Twitter and social networking are being grappled with in any industry. Also, one of the unique challenges we have is that although we do have teachers who are “early adopters” of technology, these folks aren’t always the best teachers of others because it comes so easy for them. They scare people.

A leader or teacher who struggles and conquers technology challenges is a far more effective example and teacher to other teachers. I once heard Mark Miller, Vice President for Leadership Training and Development at Chick-fil-A tell a story about Dan Cathy, their CEO building his own website back when the web was exploding. Couldn’t Mr. Cathy have easily hired someone to do that for him? Of course, but, he wanted to struggle, conquer, so he could be the example to those that would struggle after him.

5. Video technology is key, especially for leaders.

Video is such a key part of where the web is now and where it is going. Almost every teacher and certainly every leader should be pushing the envelope on this. I know many leaders are camera shy. Get over it. Push through it, work at it, practice it, keep doing it until you get better. A video message from a principal or head of school will go farther than any email ever could. If we want to personally engage today’s culture, video is a great way to do it. Our FIRST question, anytime anybody wants to communicate anything should be, “should we use video?” The answer will not always be yes, but it should be our very first communication question.

6. A practical suggestion: every teacher and leader should select a student mentor.

Each teacher and leader should seek out a student who is exceptionally gifted at some aspect of technology: web tech, mobile tech, video tech, social networking, or other and ask the student to mentor the teacher/leader on how to develop mastery of these tools. They should schedule a one to one visit with a student, at least twice a month, just to talk with the student about how they are using technology. I dare you to do this.

Here are a few questions for leaders and teachers to ponder and discuss.

Is this important? If so, please show each other your calendar so we can see how this is actually reflected in how you use your time.

How much time have you invested in the past week, month, year, decade in learning and mastering new technology?

Who are you learning from? Who challenges you on this?

I Just Returned from the Future

I just returned from the future.

In one of the strangest experiences I have had in a while, I lived the future as I read about it! I did not realize it for a while but then it struck me suddenly over dinner—”I am what I’m reading!”

Let me explain.

As I write this I am nearing the end of my annual Think Week (you can read details about Think Week in these two articles: How to Reduce Stress While Getting More Done; and in How To Find Time to Focus, Think, and Work). During my Think Week my primary focus is prayer and reading. On this trip I took several books with me including Humility (Andrew Murray), The Culture Code (Clotaire Rapaille), Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God (John Piper), Derailed (Tim Irwin), Death by Meeting (Patrick Lencioni), and Generous Justice (Tim Keller).

I also took Anywhere: How Global Connectivity is Revolutionizing the Way We Do Business (Emily Nagle Green). This is the book I was reading when I realized that I was living the future. I will summarize some of the key points of this book and their implications for our schools in a subsequent post but for now let me simply state the theme of the book;

Within the next ten years the global ubiquitous digital network will connect most of the world’s people, places, information, and things, which will fundamentally alter the way we live, work, teach, and learn.

The author, Emily Green, knows what she is talking about. She is the President and CEO of the Yankee Group—one of the world’s premier research firms on the impact of the global connectivity revolution with operations in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Asia-Pacific.

One of the most fascinating parts of the book is her description of five consumer segments: Analogs, Technophytes, Digital Shut-ins, Outlet Jockeys, and Actualized Anywheres (AA’s). As I was enjoying my dinner and reading it suddenly dawned on me just how much I was exhibiting the characteristics of the Actualized Anywheres. The short description of AA’s is that they “bring the concept of a ubiquitously connected consumer to life.” This is when it struck me—-I was literally living the future she was describing!

Here is how I know. I wrote down how I was handling my recreational and work related tasks during Think Week. Here is a short list.

• All of my books, newspapers, and magazines are on my iPad. I read, highlight, annotate, and share my reading content electronically.
• I downloaded a book immediately onto my iPad based on a recommendation from the book I was reading at the time.
• I held a video-call with my daughter and grand daughter using FaceTime on my iPhone.
• I sent an email through Facebook to some friends and family. I accepted a connection request with a professional colleague on LinkedIn.
• I used the Yelp application on my iPhone to find restaurants and read reviews before choosing a place to have dinner. I also wrote my own review on Yelp for the benefit of others.
• I used my Garmin GPS to guide me to the restaurant.
• While driving and while dinning, I used an iPhone application called SoundHound to identify and order songs to download. I liked the songs but could not remember the titles. SoundHound solved that problem.
• I used an application called NoteSelf on my iPad to take notes using a stylus, including notes for this blog article. No paper or pen needed.
• I used the Evernote application to send clippings from the books I was reading to my administrative assistant for her to type so that the information could be put into my Endnote program for future reference and citation.
• I used Logos Bible Software on my computer to study and write a devotional for my faculty.
• I used Adobe Acrobat to print the devotional as a PDF. I uploaded it to Box.net (cloud storage and collaboration) so it could be shared with our parents with a hyperlink in an email, and then I emailed it to all school staff using Outlook.
• I used LoseIt on my iPhone to track my calories and my running.
• One of the books I was reading referenced a 2004 NYT article on how Apple Outflanked Sony in music players (this had to do with Disruptive Innovation). I went to the NYT website and downloaded the article.
• I am using my laptop to type this article using Live Writer, which I will then post to my blog using the same program.

Now, before you react with something like “are you crazy?!” let me highlight the key point. I am using mobile devices connected to a global digital network everywhere I go to get things done and to enhance and enrich my life. I have a seminary’s worth of books in my Logos Bible program. I have an entire library on my iPad for reading. I have a huge music library of beautiful music in my pocket. I can find and read reviews on local restaurants before deciding where to eat. And I was able to speak with AND see my granddaughter even though I am hours away in a hotel.

Some of my readers, perhaps many of them, have no intention or interest in using technology in the ways I describe above. That is okay. They are most likely Analogs. Most people are. All of us fall into one of the consumer segments that Emily Green describes in her book.

What does this have to do with our schools? Plenty! What I just described is how most of our younger parents and our students will conduct their personal and professional lives.

As school leaders we must understand that our younger parents (those born in the mid to late seventies) and certainly our current students and our future parents DO CARE. They will live and work much as I have described above. Mobile computing and connectivity will be a given—it will be woven into their lives. Their expectations are, and will increasingly be, that our classrooms and school-to-home communication reflect the realities of the new Anywhere Global Connectively.

This is a sea change. It is as evitable as the sun rising tomorrow.

Are we preparing our school infrastructures for this change? Are we preparing and training our faculty? Are we preparing our students for the new work world of tomorrow? Are we providing a biblical framework for understanding and using technology for God’s glory? Are we modeling the use of technology for our teachers and other administrators?

This is one of my favorite quotes from the book:

New things are an easy target for those who lack imagination … Years ago, no one understood why e-mail was worthwhile. Now, no one thinks twice about it—but they’re busy talking about why Twitter is stupid. Bob Metcalfe

Let’s put our sanctified imaginations to work—let’s travel to the future and then return to our schools to get ready!

How to Reduce Stress While Getting More Done

Too much to do!  Too much stress!  Not enough time!  More expectations!  More demands!  More information!  More interruptions!  People, meetings, calls, emails, documents, events to attend, speaking engagements, budgets, training ….. and the list goes on!

Does that sound familiar?

In today’s world, we are constantly bombarded with information, the urgent, and ever increasing expectations. 

The weight upon us and the pace of our lives often leave us feeling dissatisfied, stressed,and sometimes burned-out.

There must be a better way!  There is!

How I work

Over the years I have worked hard at working smarter. My goal is to increase effectiveness and to decrease stress. I make no claim to having arrived—I haven’t. I have learned to juggle the myriad demands paced upon my professional and personal life by developing habits and leveraging technology to help me work smarter.

Below is a brief summary of how I approach my work and responsibilities. If you want more detail or have a question, simply leave a comment and I will respond with more information.

Calendar & Meeting Management

Time of Arrival at the Office

I am usually in my office by 6:00-6:15 AM, sometimes earlier—depending on how often I hit “snooze” on my alarm! This enables me to beat the rush hour traffic, making me less stressed and more efficient. I’m also in a better mood for devotions.

Prayer and Devotions

I start the day with prayer and Bible study. My devotional time is blocked and locked on my calendar. It is not always easy to begin the day with prayer and Bible study. Some days I don’t feel particularly spiritual and don’t feel like praying or reading my Bible. I am tempted to start reading and responding to email.

It doesn’t matter how I feel. I pray and study my Bible anyway. My soul is almost always warmed and enlivened through prayer and Bible study (coffee also helps!) but not always. It does not matter—I pray and study anyway. God never told me to feel like praying or to feel like reading my Bible—he simply commands me to do so.

My prayer is that the “Lord will bless the work of my hands, that he will grant wisdom, that as I plan my way he will direct my steps, and that he will grant me holy rather than selfish ambitions in my work.”

I am currently reading through the Bible using the ESV on the iPad. I leave the computer off and go to another chair in my office to pray and read. This is called “fleeing temptation.” J

Review of Next Action Items and Upcoming Appointments

After devotions, I have 30 minutes set aside to review reports, NEXT ACTION items, the day’s appointments, etc. I am able to do this easily and effectively because I use the Task function in Outlook to manage my To Do list and projects. I am able to see at a glance what is due today and for the week.

Meetings

Time is scheduled before and after every meeting for prep, travel, and follow-up. This allows me time to walk into a meeting well prepared with documents gathered. It also ensures that I setup follow-up meetings, write a memo or email, etc., immediately after the meeting so that “balls are not dropped.”

When someone other than a parent or staff member stops by and asks “do you have a minute,” usually a salesperson, if I’m not in a meeting or leaving for one, I will give him or her a little time in order to give a good testimony of the gospel. However, if this is an unscheduled drop-in, I start by meeting him or her at the door. I remain standing. This significantly shortens the unplanned meeting. I will invite the unscheduled guest to sit IF I believe the issue has the potential to benefit the school and if I have time. Otherwise, the meeting will end as a standup meeting or my assistant will schedule a follow-up meeting. In other words, in so far as possible and polite, I attempt to control my time rather than having someone else control it.

I also use lunch for meetings. I have to eat anyway so I might as well make it productive. Very seldom do I eat without meeting with someone.

I normally leave the office at 4:00. I go home and run four miles on the treadmill while catching up on the news—I accomplish two things at once! I shower and eat and then go to any evening meetings or events that I may have.

I am almost always in bed by 10:00 and up at 5:00 the next morning.

Friday mornings are blocked on my calendar for project work—off campus to minimize interruptions. This is an important time each week. I am able to focus on those BIG rocks that can be crowded out by the urgent.

Phone Calls

I have the blessing of having a wonderful administrative assistant. I have instructed her to log all phone calls into Outlook’s Notes function. This provides a permanent record of every call. After returning the calls I make quick notes on each log. This ensures that I return calls in a timely fashion and I have a record of my response—which can be as easy as “Returned, Left Message, Referred, etc.

I also return calls in the car using hands-free voice activated dialing. NEVER dial when driving. (That sentence will make my attorney happy!)

Managing Email and Information

Email management is a challenge—but not impossible! Rather than outline strategies for managing email in this article, I have created a PowerPoint Presentation that you may find useful. At the end of the presentation are links to short Microsoft training videos.

Click HERE to download the PowerPoint Presentation. You may share the PPT with whomever you wish; I only ask that you refer them to this blog.

Think Week

My Think Week is one of the most important practices that I have developed over the years. As I write this, I am preparing to leave for my Think Week. I will be reading 10 books and a stack of research documents—all on my iPad. For more information on Think Week see my previous post: How To Find Time to Focus, Think, and Work.

I got the idea for Think Week from articles I read about Bill Gates and his Think Week. Here are two articles that may interest you: Article 1: Bill Gates in Secret Hideaway, Article 2: Bill Gates Think Week.

Tools I Use

• I strive to be as paperless as possible. To the extent that I have everything in digital form (which is almost everything) I can have my documents with me anytime and anywhere. They are also searchable and shareable. This is far more productive than keeping up with paper, legal pads, notebooks, post-it notes, etc.
• I use a Dell laptop on a docking station with two monitors. On the left is my project management/brainstorming software—Mindmanager from Mindjet. The center monitor is used for Outlook and other Microsoft products (Word, etc.)

• I make extensive use of video-conferencing. I use ooVoo-think Skype on Steroids! Video-conferencing makes phone calls far more personal, there is less temptation to “multitask” while on a phone call, and you can share your desktop and/or files while on the call. Video-conferencing also reduces the number of emails I must process.

· I use the iPad for virtually all of my reading and note taking. There is a very effective and powerful note taking application called “Note Taker HD.” Used with a stylus it is as effective as a legal pad but with the advantage that all of your notes are in one location, searchable, and shareable.

Software I Most Frequently Use

• Microsoft’s Office 2010
• Docs-to-Go on my laptop and iPad. This program syncs all of my laptop documents to my iPad so that I have everything with me at all times. Docs-to-Go also enables me to read, create, and edit Microsoft documents-Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Mindmanager with a Catalyst subscription—for project management, brainstorming, and collaboration. The program tightly integrates with Outlook and Microsoft Office products making it an extremely effective task and project management tool.
• The new I.E. 9 browser and Google's Chrome. They are fast, secure, full-featured, and customizable.
• Note Taker HD—replaces a legal pad.
• Logos Bible Study software—on my laptop and iPad. For in-depth Bible study.
• Kindle software on the laptop, iPad, and iPhone—I carry my library in my pocket.
• Skydrive—for online document storage, creation, and collaboration. Skydrive and MS Webapps integrate seamlessly with Microsoft Office.
• ooVoo for video-conferencing.
• Twitter—for keeping up with the news.
• Jott—for leaving myself reminders when I’m in the car.
• Adobe Acrobat Pro—for PDF creation and electronic forms completion and signing.
• Loseit-see below.

Personal Health

Staying fit is critical to reducing stress and being efficient and effective. Although it gets tiresome, I count calories (I use a software program called LoseIt on my iPhone) and I track my exercise using the same program.

I run four miles a day six days a week (Sunday off) unless providentially hindered. I maintain my weight within the “ideal range,” for my height and age.

I do NOT like running and I do not like counting calories—but—doing so makes a big difference in how well I sleep at night and how much energy I have each day.

Because I do not like running, I do not sit down when I get home—not even for a minute!! I walk immediately to the closet and change into my exercise cloths and mount the treadmill.

Life is hectic and our jobs are demanding. Learning to thrive rather than merely survive as a leader is a challenge. It can be done. Attention to one’s spiritual and physical health, establishing good practices and habits, and making appropriate use of technology can all, when used in combination, reduce stress while we strive to accomplish more for God’s glory.

You Have to Watch Out for the Pork on Thursdays!

By Mark Kennedy, ACSI Canada

My childhood friend Bill grew up to be a respected and successful bank executive- a man who occasionally helps financial institutions beyond our borders. A few years ago while consulting for a bank in Dublin he made his temporary GHQ in a small hotel that boasted a dining room for its guests. On a Thursday evening he ambled down to this quaint eatery for a taste of Celtic cuisine not suspecting the violent conflict that would arise later in his stomach.

“I was sick all last night after eating in your restaurant!” He told the manager the next morning.

“Well what did you have for dinner?”

“Roast pork!” said Bill.

“Ah yes,” replied the manager philosophically in a lilting Irish brogue, “You have to watch out for the pork on Thursdays.”

You can imagine the questions in my friend’s mind when his initial shock wore off. Maybe foremost was

“Why didn’t someone tell me?!?”

Sheltering someone from reality can be dangerous. And sometimes the consequences can be much more serious than a minor case of food poisoning.

Consider the effects of an education that intentionally shelters students from the most important realities about life and living- a secular education where the daily presence of the living God is ignored and the authority and guidance of scripture is dismissed- an education that edits out the creator and sustainer of the real world.

Paul warns about a day when:

Men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn away from truth and turn aside to myths.” 2 Tim 4: 3 & 4. That time sounds uncomfortably familiar.

It’s not that a secular education necessarily speaks out against the God of the Bible or openly denies the authority of the scriptures. It simply remains silent about them. And that’s the problem. If a student from a Christian family receives a consistently secular education how surprising can it be if he comes to think that God can’t be very important? ‘After all they never talk about Him at school’ he might reasonably say to himself- and his logic would be pretty hard to refute. He got the silent message.

Robert Louis Stephenson expressed it plainly,

“The cruelest lies are often told in silence.”

So when important, even vital truths are kept from people who desperately need to hear them, Stephenson says it is a cruel deception.

The silence in secular education has implications for the way children learn, believe, think and face life’s challenges. When students are sheltered from God’s reality they are prime candidates to be “taken captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.” 2Col 2:8. Philosophies produce actions, and actions produce consequences. So it should be no surprise that sex education that ignores biblical standards produces ever growing rates of sexually transmitted diseases, abortions and accompanying psychological problems; that a purely mechanistic and evolutionary view of humanity convinces some students they are worthless genetic accidents so that suicide becomes a reasonable option; and that when personal troubles for which secular minds have no real answers overwhelm students they turn to illicit drugs in an attempt to escape. The world of drug and alcohol abuse and promiscuous or perverse sexuality is so often a false refuge for people who have not been equipped to deal with the real world.

In Christian schooling we don’t shelter students from reality. We prepare students by telling them the whole truth about the real world and by honoring the presence of the source of all truth and by teaching future generations about his standards for living. As the Psalmist says,

We will not hide them from their children; We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power and the wonders he has done. Psalm 78:4

In the early 1990s after Russian Communism collapsed I found myself on a team of North Americans instructing hundreds of Russian educators about how to teach the Bible to Russian public school students. Evgenity Kurkin of the Russian Ministry of Education explained why we had been invited to do that,

Seventy years ago we closed Him (God) out of our country and it has caused so many problems in our society we cannot count them…..We must put God back into our country and we must begin with our children.

One evening as I walked with some of our Russian hosts down a snowy street in St. Petersburg, a translator told me about his life in Chernobyl after the nuclear accident – the one that killed and crippled thousands.

“For three years after the accident nobody told us what had happened, all we knew was that our children were getting sick. We finally learned about it through BBC radio.” Those people in Chernobyl knew the cost of being sheltered from reality – and it was far too high.

And what about the future cost for students who have been sheltered from the realities that matter most for living now and for the life yet to come?

We shy away from sounding a warning to families in our churches. “Try to focus on the positive aspects of Christian schooling and don’t offend anyone” we tell ourselves. But maybe the time has come to tell the whole story to Christian families for the sake of their children and the future of the church in North America.

Should Teachers Text, Facebook, or Twitter Students?

Do you think electronic communication between teachers and students should be forbidden or restricted? What are the benefits and risks of texting with students? How have you used texting and/or social networking as an educational tool.

What about Facebook?  Twitter?

Share your thoughts with the hundreds of educators who read this blog.

Some of Us Have Been Talking…

Dr. Marni Halvorson (Head of School, Covenant Day School)

Dear Christian school parent,

When something occurs that we h ave questions about, it’s not uncommon to ask others their impression or understanding. This happens frequently in connection to situations or circumstances at our Christian school. Perhaps a teacher gives an assignment to students that is unclear to a parent, or a child relays comments made in the classroom that are unsettling. A parent may turn to other parents in the carpool line for their assessment of the situation rather than going directly to the teacher. At times this fact finding clears confusion and it is back to business as usual. Other times, however, the communication begins to take on a different perspective. Second hand information can slip into idle talk or rumor; that is, we have become involved in gossip. This is true not only of parents and the carpool line; there are occasions when a teacher standing at the photocopier may ask another teacher a question that really is best directed back to a parent instead.

Words have tremendous power! They can be used for building up or for tearing down. In The Purpose Driven Life, author Rick Warren writes, “Refuse to listen to gossip. Gossip is passing on information when you are neither part of the problem nor part of the solution” (164). Note that gossip is not defined as untrue information; rather information that we are not to pass along because we are not directly involved as the source of the matter nor as the resolution thereof. What begins as perhaps an off-hand remark can morph into a communication that ultimately is highly inflammatory.

Jerry Bridges, in his book Respectable Sins, makes the point that the Bible is filled with warnings about the sins of the tongue, including gossip (159). Sin is sin, and even sins of the tongue are offensive to God. Unfavorable information can be extremely damaging. Often in the telling and re-telling, a communication “grows” details or the story gets twisted and distorted. We Christians are called to a higher standard. Scripture clearly warns us in Prov. 20:19, “A gossip betrays a confidence; so avoid a man who talks too much.” Prov. 26:20 adds, “Without wood a fire goes out; without gossip a quarrel dies down.”

We want our Christian school to be a place where gossip finds no welcome. Our faculty and staff are working to be conscientious about not spreading gossip. We have challenged ourselves to be accountable in this area. We do not want to be the source of the problem through our own words; we do not want to be the subject of someone else’s idle talk or rumor; we want to avoid being caught up as listeners.

We know that it can be awkward to find yourself near the front end of what is quickly revealing itself to be gossip. It takes spiritual sensitivity and boldness to say, “Please stop. I don’t need to hear this. Have you spoken directly to that person?” It may be uncomfortable for most of us to make such a direct request. But we want to use the gift of language in the manner God intended, to encourage and edify. Eph. 4:29 boldly directs us: “Let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”

If you agree that we have taken on a worthy challenge, would you join us in replacing gossip with Godly conversation? We commit to doing our best to assure that you have clear and open channels to teachers, administrators and coaches so that you will have timely and accurate information, especially as it relates specifically to your son or daughter. We also commit to assuring you that your communications with us are handled with respect and confidentiality.

May God be pleased with our communications as well as our motives and actions; and may He be honored as we give grace to everyone who hears us speak.

How and Why to Create a Word Cloud to Get Your Message Across

Dr. Barrett Mosbacker, PublisherI may be way behind but I just recently discovered that I could create a word cloud to present a visual representation of written material.  Having just written an important memo to my staff on our new distance learning initiative, I decided to create a word cloud using the text of my memo.  Below is the result.

The size of a word in the visualization is proportional to the number of times the word appears in my memo.  What is interesting, and encouraging, is that “Student” is the most prominent word, reflecting the focus on the benefits to students of our new distance learning initiative.  

I used Wordle to create my word cloud.  Wordle has a public gallery of word clouds.  Here is one I created from President Obama’s State of the Union speech.

Here is a word cloud I created from President George Washington’s first Stat of the Union speech.

Finally, here is a word cloud I created from President Franklin Roosevelt's 1944 State of the Union speech.

Beyond being merely fun and interesting, which it is, it also has real educational value.  For example, as illustrated above, a history teacher could use word clouds to compare historical documents as a way of illustrating the primary focus of concern.  A literature teacher could compare two pieces of literature dealing with similar themes.  Or, you could analyze your presentations to determine if the word frequency matches your intended emphasis.  Obviously, frequency is but one indicator, but useful.

Whereas Wordle provides the flexibility to change the layout, font, color, etc., of your cloud, tagcrowd provides more options in handling the actual text, e.g., the number of words displayed, word grouping (similar words), etc.  This can be useful because you can group words that should be combined to better illustrate frequency, e.g., learned, learns, learning=learning.  The word cloud below was created from my distance learning memo using tagcrowd.

Helpful Tips

It is best to paste your text in the Wordle or Tagcrowd textbox in unformatted text format without paragraph marks, bullet points, etc.  The easiest way to do this in MS Word is to copy your text and then paste in in a new Word document as unformatted text.

Then,  using the Fine/Replace tool in Word, replace paragraph marks, etc, with a space.

Copy and paste the resulting text in Wordle or Tagcrowd to create your new word cloud.

Are You Missing the Dialog?

In the previous post, Extreme Makeover! Take a Look, we noted the one of the significant upgrades to this blog was the addition of a Facebook page along with a discussion board.   The purpose of the discussion board is, of course, to encourage discussion around key issues facing our schools.  Current topics include:

• 100 Things Christian School Employees Should Never Do

• Did You Sign the Manhattan Declaration?

• School Board/Administrator Relationships

• What Topics/Issues for Articles and Discussion Would You Like?

Below is a sample of a recent dialogue concerning customer service, fairness, and student discipline.  You are invited to join an existing discussion or start a new one of interest!

Remember you can access the CSJ Facebook page by clicking on the Facebook logo on the right menu of this blog.