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Excellence in K-12 Christian Schools / Published by Dr. Barrett Mosbacker
t is hard to get people’s attention. Inboxes overflow with emails. Social media feeds compete for attention. Voice messages wait impatiently for a return call. Schedules are packed.
In all of the noise your emails can get lost or ignored. Here are a few simple things you can do to increase the odds of your emails being opened.
Read Mores school leaders, we have all been there. We receive an email something like this:
“Dear Dr. Mosbacker, I would like to request a meeting this Tuesday. This meeting is regarding a series of concerning events that have happened with “name.” I am now asking for your involvement because I believe “name’s” actions have created harm by ….. I will be sending details to you prior to this meeting for you to review … I would like to meet before sending a letter to the school board….”
Receiving emails of this sort is never pleasant. The prospect of meeting with a disgruntled and sometimes angry parent is stressful.
The good news is that such meetings can be a positive experience—if handled well. Over the years I have found the following practices to result in positive outcomes more often than not.
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The pen is mightier than the sword. Edward Bulwer-Lytton
My life was unalterably changed by a few words. I was, at the time, an average student. I did what was necessary to get by but my academic ambitions and motivation were limited.
None of my family had attended college and some had not graduated from high school. I never recall hearing the word college in my home. In fact, education was so undervalued in my home that I recall a time when my mother scolded me for using “big words” when I returned home during a college break.
Something remarkable had happened several years before this sad episode with my mother. As I recall, I was a ninth grade student standing in the lunch line when a student tapped me on the shoulder and pronounced, “You would make a great attorney.” The unexpected compliment arose from my performance in English class as the defense attorney defending Brutus’s participation in the assassination of Julius Caesar. Was Brutus a patriot or traitor? I argued that his actions were noble, animated by his desire to protect the Roman Republic from dictatorship. A jury of ninth grade English students acquitted him.
Those few words, “You would make a great attorney,” caused me to think about college for the first time in my life. From that point forward I applied myself to my studies and went on to earn a doctorate. My life would have been dramatically different but for those few words of encouragement.
The moral of this story is that words are powerful—they can change a life or a school for good or bad. The start of a new school year is a good time to consider the words we use as leaders. It is a good time to unsheathe your most powerful leadership tool—your words.
These words or communication traits will make you a wiser person and more effective leader.
Empathy
Strive to put yourself in the other person’s shoes no matter how obnoxious their words or actions may be. This will give you a better perspective. As Becky Gaylord points out: “empathy leads to rational, thoughtful solutions.” Empathy has a calming and a rational impact on any conversation and is consistent with these two biblical principles:
So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. Mat. 7:12
Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Phil. 2:4
Employ the Wise Use of Humor
Appropriate humor reduces tension and can put all parties at ease in a difficult situation. Humor also makes for a more enjoyable workplace and is a great way to start a presentation. Interlacing appropriate and well timed humor into any conversation or presentation will increase effectiveness and help you connect with others.
Yes
No one likes to hear “no.” Although sometimes “no” is necessary, it is probably less necessary than you think. Sometimes we say “no” not because it is necessary but because it is easier. “Yes,” can create more work or complications for us. While saying yes may produce more work in the short-term, remember that a history of wise “yes” responses makes the necessary “nos” more palatable and leads to long-term positive relationships and school culture.
Please
No matter how exalted your position, “please” is almost always appropriate. Hopefully you learned this as a young child. Saying please is not only polite, it has the benefit of making it easier for people to accept a directive. While compliance may not be optional, saying please demonstrates courtesy and humility. Saying please makes it easier for others to comply willingly.
Thank you
Thankfulness is a constant theme in the Bible. We are admonished to be thankful and to express thankfulness. Never miss an opportunity to thank students, parents, employees, or vendors.
Listen, Really Listen
Our natural tendency is to talk. It is far wiser to follow the biblical command to “be quick to hear, slow to speak” (James 1:19), which was paraphrased by Steven Covey who said, “seek first to understand and then to be understood.” Listening leads to understanding, empathy, and better decisions and relationships. Click here for tips on how to actively listen.
Trust
While a leader must avoid being uniformed or naive, start with trust. This is the position that great leaders start from when dealing with others. Assume the best, give the judgment of charity, for Paul writes:
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 1 Cor. 13:4–7
I am Sorry
Saying I'm sorry is the handmaiden of humility. If we are humble we will quickly acknowledge our mistakes and sins and readily apologize. Pride does not say I am sorry. Becky Gaylord is correct when she asserts, “This word has prevented lawsuits, mended friendships and almost surely avoided wars. Too many bosses don’t use it — or know the magic it can create. Great leaders know it, and use it.”
Your words are the most powerful leadership tool you have. Use them wisely.
We talk too much. As school leaders this is problematic for several reasons:
Because I'm convinced that we often talk too much, I found this article by Mr. Bregman to be relevant and insightful. This is a guest post by Mr. Peter Bregman and is posted with permission. The article was originally published in Harvard Business Review," click here.
Peter Bregman is the CEO of Bregman Partners, Inc., a global management consulting firm which advises CEOs and their leadership teams. He speaks, writes, and consults about how to lead and how to live. He is the author, most recently, of 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done, winner of the Gold medal from the Axiom Business Book awards, named the best business book of the year on NPR, and selected by Publisher’s Weekly and the New York Post as a top 10 business book. He is also the author of Point B: A Short Guide to Leading a Big Change and co-author of five other books. Featured on PBS, ABC and CNN, Peter is a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Forbes, National Public Radio (NPR), Psychology Today, and CNN. Peter can be reached at www.peterbregman.com.
How to Speak More Strategically
It had been three weeks since my throat started to feel sore, and it wasn't getting better. The pain was most acute when I spoke. So I decided to spend a few days speaking as little as possible. Every time I had the urge to say something, I paused for a moment to question whether it was worth irritating my throat.
This made me acutely aware of when and how I use my voice. Which led me to a surprising discovery: I spend considerable energy working against my own best interests. And if my experience listening to others is any indication, so do you. In my observations, we speak for three main reasons:
That's not surprising. All three of those objectives are legitimate and worthwhile.
What is surprising though is how frequently we fool ourselves into thinking we're achieving those objectives when, in reality, we're thwarting them. The more I listened, the more I noticed how we undermine our own interests.
Frequently, I had the urge to gossip about someone else. I realized that I did this to help myself (I will feel better if I think I'm better than that person) and to connect with the other gossipers. But clearly that would distance me from the people about whom I was gossiping. In fact, it would probably even distance me from my fellow gossipers too; who could trust someone who talked behind other people's back? My attempt to strengthen relationships was, instead, hurting them.
I also had the urge to share information when I thought it would be helpful to someone. That's a productive reason to speak. But several times I had the urge to say something simply to show that I knew the answer. Or to get attention. Or to increase my power in the group. It became clear to me that my urge to speak in those moments came from my desire to feel special. I wanted people to like me and to think highly of me. But who likes the guy trying to show off?
Sometimes I wanted to help myself by getting the answer to a question, or making sure I was counted in a decision. That's useful. But other times, I just wanted to make sure my voice was heard over the din of the other voices. I caught myself wanting to speak over someone in a meeting. Or arguing a point to get others to agree with me so I'd feel more confident in my own opinion (which I'm hearing a lot this political season). Is that really helping someone else?
In fact, I was amazed at how often I wanted to speak simply to assure myself that I was here. I had a role. I was noticed.
As I sat silently, trying to preserve my voice, I had the opportunity to notice how and when other people spoke as well. And I noticed all the same tendencies.
If I were to reduce our counter-productive speaking to a single motivation, it would be this: We often speak to make ourselves feel better in the short-term.
But life and relationships are long-term. And when we gossip, raise our voices, speak behind other people's backs, offer unsolicited opinions, or make jokes at other people's expense we're isolating ourselves over time.
There was some good news in my experience of talking less: I listened more. And listening, it turned out, was a much more productive way to achieve my speaking objectives than speaking.
When I listened, I helped myself, helped others and built relationships at least as effectively as I did speaking and with much less collateral damage.
I'm obviously not suggesting we stop speaking; we can't achieve our three objectives unless we do. We need ask for things. We need to share information. And there are a number of ways — like offering compliments and rephrasing what we're hearing — we can build relationships through speech.
I am, however, suggesting that we think ahead — long term — when we're about to say something in the moment. And that, before speaking, we ask ourselves one simple question: Is what I'm about to say going to detract from one of the three reasons I speak? If the answer is yes, consider saving your voice.
My throat is better now and I can speak as much as I want. Which left me feeling a little nervous; now that I know how easy it is to be self-defeating, will I keep myself on the productive side of the speaking equation?
Thankfully, the sore throat left me with a gift: the memory of a sore throat.
These past few days, when I get the urge to talk, I find myself doing a little calculation in my head: If I only have so much speaking I can do in a day, is this thing I'm about to say a worthwhile use of my voice?
What's amazing is that most of the time I immediately know.
Leaders make presentations. Transformative leaders deliver inspirational, informative, and persuasive presentations.
Good presentations are hard to design and deliver, which is why we have suffered through so many poorly delivered seminars and workshops. Although I like to think of myself as a decent speaker and presenter, the truth is that I’ve given my share of poor keynotes and boring seminars.
Fortunately for those who must listen to me (my staff) and those who will do so voluntarily during conferences, graduate classes, and workshops, I’m improving. My growth in giving higher impact presentations is the result of reading articles and books, the critique of others, and trial and error. I offer the following tips with the hope that you can benefit from my reading and experience.
The amount of time that you spend on your presentation will vary based on the subject and context but in general, a 30-60 minute high impact presentation will require 36-90 hours of preparation. You read that right; a quality one hour presentation = 36-90 hours of preparation.
Presentation authority Nancy Duarte, author of the book Slideology and principal at Duarte Design (clients include Apple, Cisco, and Al Gore among many others), puts it this way; “The amount of time required to develop a presentation is directly proportional to how high the stakes are.” Duarte goes on to provide this guidance:
Total Time: 36-90 hours
Is that accurate? Thirty six to ninety hours for a one hour presentation given all that I have to do? For what it is worth, that has been my experience lately. It takes a long time to prepare a good presentation. I have spent hours over several weeks preparing and designing presentations.
You are a steward not only of your time but of your audience’s time as well. Don’t waste your time or theirs by giving a poorly designed and delivered presentation. Don’t abuse your audience with a mediocre presentation.
I recommend that you schedule time throughout the week for several weeks to prepare your presentation. Your preparation time will be more efficient if you work on it in small, frequent chunks over an extended period of time.
Your presentation is not about you; it is about your audience and what they need to hear, learn, and/or do. Your presentation is a service to them.
To serve your audience well you need to know them and their perceived as well as real needs. If I am speaking to an outside group I make it a habit to ask my host the following questions:
Tailor your presentation to your audience. The stories you tell, the examples used, and the graphics employed should match the demographics and needs of your audience. Otherwise your presentation will be largely irrelevant.
To prepare properly you need to know the venue and to request things that you may need. I typically ask:
Less is MUCH MORE! This is probably the most important lesson I have learned from my reading and my experience. Keep it simple, clean, and elegant. Remove everything that is not absolutely necessary on your slides and charts.
Less is more-fewer slides, fewer points, less text, and less time.
This is harder than it seems! We want to add information, not eliminate it. When designing your slides keep the following in mind:
You should seldom use template designs for the same reason--they are distracting. Here is an example of a distracting verses a good slide template:
Distracting Template:
Good, Clean Template:
Assuming that a “picture is worth a thousand words,” here are some examples of before and after designs. Many of these are slides that I have produced--both good and bad and a few are provided from other sources as examples. My slides are indicated by the initials BLM.
BLM (Cheesy clipart, poor color selection, distracting text)
BLM (Boring with no graphics or illustration, small font, too many bullet points)
BLM (This one is so bad it is just embarrassing. There is nothing good about this slide. The graphics are terrible. Too many bullet points. Font too small. Poor color selection.)
BLM (The slide has too much text, which is too small. The illustration is poorly done and the overall impact of the slide is boring and distracting.)
BLM (The slide has too much text and cheesy clip art.)
Here is the same topic being covered with a redesigned slide from the one above.
BLM (This one has no clipart and no text. A high quality photo covering the entire slide is used. The photo speaks for itself. It is much more impactful than the one before with the same point to make.)
BLM (This title slide is affective because the professional photo reinforces the title, which is very short and to the point. The photo also matches the audience, this presentation was given in Canada in the winter.)
BLM (One word with a photo matching the key concept.)
BLM (Transition slide to next topic--simple text on solid background)
BLM (This is a playful slide using a professional photo but with a font matching the playful mood. This slide was designed to communicate with and encourage elementary teachers thus the colors and playfulness, which are characteristic of elementary programs.)
The following five slides tell a story and reinforce each other.
BLM Slide 1
BLM Slide 2
BLM Slide 3
BLM Slide 4
BLM Slide 5
BLM Slide 6 This slide has animations so that each date appears and disappears in sequence.
Charts can be very helpful in a presentation but just like your slides they need to be simple with all distracting and unnecessary elements deleted.
Numbers are usually confusing to the audience. Use as few as possible and allow extra time for the audience to do the math. Numbers should never be ultra precise: “Anticipated revenues of $660,101.83” looks silly. Are your numbers that accurate? Just say $660 thousand. 
This is a busy, hard to read and understand chart with too many words and numbers.
BLM This chart is much better. Easy to understand, clean with no distracting elements, e.g., grid lines, unnecessary numbers, and text.
It is stressful and embarrassing to stand up to deliver a presentation only to discover that something is not working. Worse, it is distracting to your audience and immediately reduces your credibility and impact.
You only have about 1 minute to make a first impression. Don’t make it with you trying to get your computer to work or your slides to show up on the screen.
Plan for Murphy to show up. He always does. Plan for the worst case scenario. What will you do if the computer crashes and burns, the video system goes out, or the sound system does not work? Prepare for the unexpected. When you do, you can go with the flow and not skip a beat.
Have your presentation so well rehearsed that you do not need slides as prompts (more on this later). You should be able to speak spontaneously. If you can’t, you don’t know your subject well enough.
If you must have notes, have a printed copy readily available.
Have electronic backup copies of your slides on a thumb drive (for use on a local computer if yours crashes) and your online for immediate download if needed. I use an iPad for this purpose.
Have copies of your notes and slides available for distribution or access online.
Whatever you do do NOT look at your slides and read from them! Keep your eyes on your audience. Make eye contact with individual audience members.
Remember, your slides are to illustrate key ideas, concepts, trends, and facts. Do not use your PowerPoint or Keynote presentation as a teleprompter.
Remember, your audience will form a first impression within 60 seconds or less! Make that first minute count!
Show enthusiasm. Nobody wants to listen to a dull presentation. On the other hand, don’t overdo it. Nobody talks and gestures like a maniac in real life. How would you explain your ideas to a friend?
All truth is God’s truth. We can learn from unbelievers because by God’s common grace he reveals truth to believers and unbelievers alike. Although I do not endorse everything in the following books (e.g., some have Buddhist and Zen philosophy embedded in them), nevertheless, some of the principles are true and can help anyone design and deliver better presentations.
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!
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?
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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 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.
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?
This was allegedly voted unanimously by staff at Maroochydore High School in QLD for use on their telephone answering system. Very possibly fake, but very funny.
Also has a serious point that perhaps parents and students should be more accountable and take more responsibility themselves instead of blaming the school for their failings.
Remarkable Times, Remarkable Blessings
by Zach Clark, Westminster Christian Academy, St. Louis
There is always a non-voodoo explanation.
From the TV series, Monk
In January of 2009, news began to spread that our nation and world truly was suffering the “worst economic crisis since the Great Depression”. The first week of January I was on the phone with Barrett Mosbacker, and I said to him, “I believe 2009 is going to be a remarkable year!” Barrett asked, “Remarkable in what way?” And I replied, “That’s what I like about that word…remarkable…I’m going to be right whether things get worse than anyone imagines or better than anyone dares hope for.”
2009 has been truly remarkable, and it’s not over yet. At the Christian school (grades 7-12) where I serve we faced the threats of major shifts in our region and world. From what I hear, it is possible that every Christian school in America faced some unique challenges this year, and many are struggling. At Westminster Christian Academy, we have been greatly encouraged by how God is leading us through these challenges. We are trying to determine what we are doing right (so we can keep doing it) and what we need to change or improve in the future (so we can stay strong).
I’m hopeful that some of my personal thoughts on the threats, strategies, blessings, and challenges that we have faced might be helpful to you.
We began the 2008-09 year having experienced the following in previous years:
Only six months later, by February, we realized reality had changed:
Another six months later, in August 2009, we started this school year with some amazing news of God’s provision through these difficult times.
Above I’ve provided a very general and high-level view of some of the key economic health indicators of a Christian school, and how dramatically they shifted. Perhaps your circumstances were more challenging or less so.
What I want to focus on in this piece is how we responded and the steps that we took because I believe they are instructive and helpful. Even though some may say the “crisis is behind us,” the basic steps we’ve taken and how we continue to move forward are based on core values and principles of effectiveness that should be helpful and transformative at any time. Our school leadership continues to discuss these, analyze these, and seeks to understand what is happening.
The aforementioned shifts literally seemed to occur overnight and our heads were spinning. There is no reason to pretend that we all “knew what to do.” Every person I talked to at the beginning of 2009 seem dumbfounded and awed by the changes that were occurring. I kept hearing people say, “I’ve never seen anything like it.” But, we took a deep breath, we prayed, we asked a lot of people for advice, and we tried to be steady and strong as we outlined how we intended to move forward during these strange times.
Firstly, we recognized that this is an overwhelming difficult time for so many people. Husbands and wives are facing fears and tests of faith they have never experienced before. Fathers and mothers are enduring major adjustments to their careers and lifestyles. Children are dealing with questions and uncertainty unique to this moment in history.
Secondly, we began by asking the question found in Ezekiel 33: “How should we then live?” We are finding strength in a renewed sense of our dependence upon God as we remember His faithfulness.
Thirdly, we made a conscious decision not to go into what we called a “hunker-down” mode. We wanted to be willing to make tough decisions but be proactive and not simply reactive.
Fourthly, we committed to communicate in an encouraging but straightforward manner.
Lastly, and maybe most importantly, we asked the Lord to help us discover ways to make decisions with the right priorities in mind. We believed this is a time where we could make significant statements about who we really are as a school community. We prayed that we could seize opportunities to live out the truth that God, in His unchanging love through Jesus Christ, is the faithful, merciful, and compassionate Provider and Savior of the world.
One of the things I personally learned is that all of the above is really easy to talk about. It’s taking the time to establish priorities and then make tough decisions to back it up that is the truly hard and sometimes painful part.
So, we recognized reality, asked questions, prayed, resisted the urge to hit the panic button, prepared to communicate, and established priorities to guide our decision making...and I mean all of this in the most literal sense possible.
Here are the priorities we established, put in writing, and communicated.
Priority #1: Today and Every Day
Today and every day, we will hold to our mission and vision to see young men and women equipped to engage the world and change it for Jesus Christ. Our core values will never change. We will keep the main thing, the main thing: the Christian education of the individual student. We continue to strive to hire and keep the best teachers, coaches, and staff members. We constantly improve, offering better value to students and families through the years, always working to become better than we once were.
Priority #2: Stronger Tomorrow
We are making the tough decisions that help us stay financially strong over the long haul. We are holding fast to the families we serve, enrolling new students, and we will serve families in good times and bad. We are pushing forward on difficult decisions that pave the way for our future sustainability, ensuring a strong Westminster in the future. We will also introduce new technologies and programs that best equip our students for their future, not our past. We will not compromise the quality of today for tomorrow’s dreams, but neither will we make decisions that are so shortsighted that they compromise the financial stability of our future.
Priority #3: Moving Ever Forward
We will continue to implement our strategic plan and communicate our vision for the future, providing opportunities for people to make a difference and make decisions that move us ever forward as a Christian school. Planning will continue to be a dynamic part of our culture. We pray that God will move the hearts of people to give in order to keep Westminster strong and improving, and we will continue to wait upon the Lord for the sale of our current campus and provision of our future dreams.
It is usually easy to establish priorities, the challenging part is making decisions on a daily basis that honor your priorities.
Then, we took it a step further. We articulated, in very specific terms, the types of disciplined actions we would be taking to reflect those priorities. I’ve underlined here the key principles.
And then, we started moving forward on all these actions in very tangible ways. I won’t go into every action, but here are some:
Ultimately, it is God’s mercies and provision, by His grace, that sustains us. But, I also know that God works through people, their decisions, and their strengths and weaknesses. Many schools are facing far more difficult times than we have. We do not pretend to fully understand all of what has happened or what is happening now. But, I do challenge you to join us in the day-to-day discipline of asking questions and digging deeper down and climbing higher up in the understanding of this calling of serving in a Christian school in today’s times.
2009 is indeed a remarkable year, and remarkable times remain ahead. Let us go forward together.
![[EMAIL]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/TE-AA822A_EMAIL_F_20091008202711.jpg)
From the WSJ: OCTOBER 12, 2009
Email has had a good run as king of communications. But its reign is over.
In its place, a new generation of services is starting to take hold—services like Twitter and Facebook and countless others vying for a piece of the new world. And just as email did more than a decade ago, this shift promises to profoundly rewrite the way we communicate—in ways we can only begin to imagine.
We all still use email, of course. But email was better suited to the way we used to use the Internet—logging off and on, checking our messages in bursts. Now, we are always connected, whether we are sitting at a desk or on a mobile phone. The always-on connection, in turn, has created a host of new ways to communicate that are much faster than email, and more fun.
Why wait for a response to an email when you get a quicker answer over instant messaging? Thanks to Facebook, some questions can be answered without asking them. You don't need to ask a friend whether she has left work, if she has updated her public "status" on the site telling the world so. Email, stuck in the era of attachments, seems boring compared to services like Google Wave, currently in test phase, which allows users to share photos by dragging and dropping them from a desktop into a Wave, and to enter comments in near real time.
Little wonder that while email continues to grow, other types of communication services are growing far faster. In August 2009, 276.9 million people used email across the U.S., several European countries, Australia and Brazil, according to Nielsen Co., up 21% from 229.2 million in August 2008. But the number of users on social-networking and other community sites jumped 31% to 301.5 million people.
"The whole idea of this email service isn't really quite as significant anymore when you can have many, many different types of messages and files and when you have this all on the same type of networks," says Alex Bochannek, curator at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif. So, how will these new tools change the way we communicate? Let's start with the most obvious: They make our interactions that much faster.
Years ago, we were frustrated if it took a few days for a letter to arrive. A couple of years ago, we'd complain about a half-hour delay in getting an email. Today, we gripe about it taking an extra few seconds for a text message to go through. In a few months, we may be complaining that our cellphones aren't automatically able to send messages to friends within a certain distance, letting them know we're nearby. (A number of services already do this.)
These new services also make communicating more frequent and informal—more like a blog comment or a throwaway aside, rather than a crafted email sent to one person. No need to spend time writing a long email to your half-dozen closest friends about how your vacation went. Now those friends, if they're interested, can watch it unfold in real time online. Instead of sending a few emails a week to a handful of friends, you can send dozens of messages a day to hundreds of people who know you, or just barely do.
Consider Twitter. The service allows users to send 140-character messages to people who have subscribed to see them, called followers. So instead of sending an email to friends announcing that you just got a new job, you can just tweet it for all the people who have chosen to "follow" you to see. You can create links to particular users in messages by entering @ followed by their user name or send private "direct messages" through the system by typing d and the user name.
Facebook is part of the trend, too. Users post status updates that show up in their friends' "streams." They can also post links to content and comment on it. No in-box required.
Dozens of other companies, from AOL and Yahoo Inc. to start-ups like Yammer Inc., are building products based on the same theme.
David Liu, an executive at AOL, calls it replacing the in-box with "a river that continues to flow as you dip into it."
But the speed and ease of communication cut both ways. While making communication more frequent, they can also make it less personal and intimate. Communicating is becoming so easy that the recipient knows how little time and thought was required of the sender. Yes, your half-dozen closest friends can read your vacation updates. But so can your 500 other "friends." And if you know all these people are reading your updates, you might say a lot less than you would otherwise.
Another obvious downside to the constant stream: It's a constant stream.
That can make it harder to determine the importance of various messages. When people can more easily fire off all sorts of messages—from updates about their breakfast to questions about the evening's plans—being able to figure out which messages are truly important, or even which warrant a response, can be difficult. Information overload can lead some people to tune out messages altogether.
Such noise makes us even more dependent on technology to help us communicate. Without software to help filter and organize based on factors we deem relevant, we'd drown in the deluge.
Enter filtering. In email land, consumers can often get by with a few folders, if that. But in the land of the stream, some sort of more sophisticated filtering is a must.
On Facebook, you can choose to see updates only from certain people you add to certain lists. Twitter users have adopted the trend of "tagging" their tweets by topic. So people tweeting about a company may follow their tweet with the # symbol and the company name. A number of software programs filter Tweets by these tags, making it easier to follow a topic.
The combination of more public messages and tagging has cool search and discovery implications. In the old days, people shared photos over email. Now, they post them to Flickr and tag them with their location. That means users can, with little effort, search for an area, down to a street corner, and see photos of the place.
Tagging also is creating the potential for new social movements. Instead of trying to organize people over email, protesters can tweet their messages, tag them with the topic and have them discovered by others interested in the cause. Iranians used that technique to galvanize public opinion during their election protests earlier this year. It was a powerful example of what can happen when messages get unleashed.
Perhaps the biggest change that these email successors bring is more of a public profile for users. In the email world, you are your name followed by a "dot-com." That's it. In the new messaging world, you have a higher profile, packed with data you want to share and possibly some you don't.
Such a public profile has its pluses and minuses. It can draw the people communicating closer, allowing them to exchange not only text but also all sorts of personal information, even facial cues. You know a lot about the person you are talking to, even before you've ever exchanged a single word.
Take, for example, Facebook. Message someone over the site and, depending on your privacy settings, he may be a click away from your photos and your entire profile, including news articles you have shared and pictures of that party you were at last night. The extra details can help you cut to the chase. If you see that I am in London, you don't need to ask me where I am. They can also make communication feel more personal, restoring some of the intimacy that social-network sites—and email, for that matter—have stripped away. If I have posted to the world that I am in a bad mood, you might try to cheer me up, or at least think twice about bothering me.
Email is trying to compete by helping users roll in more signals about themselves. Yahoo and Google Inc. have launched new profile services that connect to mail accounts. That means just by clicking on a contact, one can see whatever information she has chosen to share through her profile, from her hobbies to her high school.
But a dump of personal data can also turn off the people you are trying to communicate with. If I really just want to know what time the meeting is, I may not care that you have updated your status message to point people to photos of your kids.
Having your identity pegged to communication creates more data to manage and some blurry lines. What's fine for one sort of recipient to know about you may not be acceptable for another. While our growing digital footprints have made it easier for anyone to find personal information about anyone online if they go search for it, new communications tools are marrying that trail of information with the message, making it easier than ever for the recipient to uncover more details.
Meanwhile, one more big question remains: Will the new services save time, or eat up even more of it?
Many of the companies pitching the services insist they will free up people.
Jeff Teper, vice president of Microsoft Corp.'s SharePoint division, which makes software that businesses use to collaborate, says in the past, employees received an email every time the status changed on a project they were working on, which led to hundreds of unnecessary emails a day. Now, thanks to SharePoint and other software that allows companies to direct those updates to flow through centralized sites that employees can check when they need to, those unnecessary emails are out of users' in-boxes.
People were very dependent on email. They overused it," he says. "Now, people can use the right tool for the right task.
Perhaps. But there's another way to think about all this. You can argue that because we have more ways to send more messages, we spend more time doing it. That may make us more productive, but it may not. We get lured into wasting time, telling our bosses we are looking into something, instead of just doing it, for example. And we will no doubt waste time communicating stuff that isn't meaningful, maybe at the expense of more meaningful communication. Such as, say, talking to somebody in person.
Dr. Barrett Mosbacker, PublisherOver the last year or so 200 Christian schools have 
closed their doors. Many who have not closed have lost students and laid off staff. More will close this year. Although a few Christian schools are thriving, most are not.
This may not be a short term problem. There are at least three long-term challenges facing the Christian school movement:
1) Prolonged high unemployment
2) Federal funding for more charter schools and distance learning programs
3) New research that seems to show that distance learning can be as or more effective than traditional instruction
In a recent Wall Street Journal article (August 25, 2009), Deborah Solomon warns:
The administration, in its mid-year budget review, painted a picture of a nation that … is in for a prolonged period of economic weakness, joblessness and unsustainable government spending …
The administration now foresees unemployment hitting 10% at some point over the next year and a half, with the jobless rate averaging 9.3% in 2009 and 9.8% in 2010 … "We do predict unemployment will reach 10% for some months and some quarters," …
In a measure of the dire state the nation's fiscal picture, the level of U.S. public debt when measured as a percentage of economic output is projected to reach its highest levels since World War II. The administration is projecting that public debt will hit 66.3% of gross domestic product in 2010, more than any other time since the 1940s, when it peaked at more than 121% of GDP.
In an article published by eSchool News, the authors report that:
… stimulus could spur more virtual charter schools 'Race to the Top' program favors states that encourage charter schools -- including those that offer online instruction …
As states compete for more than $4 billion in federal "Race to the Top" stimulus grants, Education Secretary Arne Duncan has made it clear that states willing to embrace charter schools and other favored innovations will get preference. That, in turn, could prompt a rise in the number of virtual charter schools and other charters that open across the country …
Duncan recently wrote in an opinion piece, declaring that states with limitations on charter school will decrease their odds of getting Race to the Top grants …
At the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools Conference this summer, Duncan called the charter movement "one of the most profound changes in American education--bringing new options to underserved communities and introducing competition and innovation into the education system." …
Todd Ziebarth, vice president of policy for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, thinks Duncan will want to reward states that are strong in all the elements, forcing states like Washington back to the table on charters …
Virtual charter schools are growing in popularity across the country … Indiana is opening its first statewide online charter school this year, and five organizations have filed petitions with Georgia's Charter School Commission to open virtual charter schools in the state, hoping to capitalize on the popularity of the state's sole online charter school, the Georgia Virtual Academy …The academy has nearly 4,500 students enrolled in just two years of operation and a growing waiting list …
Duncan has been putting states on notice for months that he wants them to embrace charter schools, and that their failure to do so could mean they lose out on federal money …
Tennessee lawmakers passed a bill expanding charter schools in the state after hearing Tennessee could lose out on the money if they kept blocking an expansion of charter schools.
Illinois lawmakers decided in July to allow 60 more charter schools to answer President Obama's challenge after a campaign in that state by the state network of charter schools.
An article in the New York Times reports that a recent 93-page report on online education, conducted by SRI International for the Department of Education, has a starchy academic title, but a most intriguing conclusion:
“On average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction.” …
The analysis for the Department of Education found that, on average, students doing some or all of the course online would rank in the 59th percentile in tested performance, compared with the average classroom student scoring in the 50th percentile. That is a modest but statistically meaningful difference.
“The study’s major significance lies in demonstrating that online learning today is not just better than nothing — it actually tends to be better than conventional instruction,” said Barbara Means, the study’s lead author and an educational psychologist at SRI International.
This hardly means that we’ll be saying good-bye to classrooms. But the report does suggest that online education could be set to expand sharply over the next few years, as evidence mounts of its value.
It means that our school
s are likely to be squeezed from two sides—an anemic economy with high unemployment (and potentially high inflation) and more vigorous competition from charter schools and distance learning options.
I make no pretense of having all of the answers but I would like to suggest the following ideas.
Every challenge has a reciprocal opportunity. Although poorly managed and relatively weak Christian schools may not survive, those with strong, creative, and decisive leadership will not only survive but thrive—provided they adapt to the changing educational landscape.
Although this may seem to be counter-intuitive, being “affordable” is not the solution—being excellent and providing a high marginal value for parents is. We must be able to answer two questions for the vast majority of our parents who, unfortunately, do not grasp or fully appreciate the value of a biblical worldview:
“Why should I spend $x for a Christian education when the charter school is free and offers an education characterized by high academic standards and traditional Judeo-Christian “values”?
Or,
“Why should I spend $x for a Christian education when I could home school my child and supplement his/her instruction with distance learning?
Those are fair questions and they must be answered in concrete terms. Simply answering by recounting the benefits of teaching a biblical worldview will not be an adequate answer for many parents.
Do not misunderstand—teaching our students to have the mind of Christ IS the central mission of our Christian schools. But that mission is always within the academic context. Christian education is an academic enterprise with an unapologetic and energetic focus on providing students a Christ honoring world-class and globally aware education.
Whether we like it or not, most of our parents don’t understand the mission of developing a biblical worldview. And if they don’t understand or appreciate it they will not make significant sacrifices for it, everything else being relatively equal.
In other words, for most of our parents, the development of a biblical worldview is an ethereal concept subservient to more “practical” considerations like education quality, admission to top colleges, the breadth and depth of extra-curricular programs, a safe and nurturing environment, etc.
Why don’t they understand and appreciate the goal of developing a biblical worldview? I believe there are at least three reasons:
1) Because they have never experienced its life changing impact. Most of our parents were educated in public schools and public universities. They don’t get it—at least at first. They have no experiential context to draw upon.
2) Most of our pulpits do not explicitly endorse the value of a Christian education as an intellectual enterprise. Christian education is not promoted as a theological or kingdom imperative.
3) The prevalence of theological ignorance and pietism. As a rule, pietism minimizes the life of the mind while emphasizing the emotional/experiential component of the Christian life.
We must place emphasis on ensuring that we are delivering an excellent educational product and understand that doing so is intrinsic to providing a Christian education that honors Christ and prepares his disciples to serve him in this world. We are NOT providing excellence in education AND a Christian education. Christian education by definition must be excellent education.
The good news is that many parents will learn to understand and appreciate the development of a Christian worldview once they experience it through the lives of their children. Those who enroll for other reasons, e.g., academic quality, grow in their understanding and commitment to a Christian philosophy of education—but most do not start with that understanding or commitment.
Excellence is in and of itself a holy goal when done for God’s glory. It is also a practical means to encourage parents to enroll their children in our schools and to sacrifice to keep them enrolled. Over time, these parents become strong advocates of Christian education for ALL of the right reasons.
I am not going to beat around the bush. We must do whatever it takes, provided it is biblical, to ensure that every classroom is staffed with a highly competent Christian teacher. We must dismiss, ethically and graciously, those who are unable or unwilling to learn and grow and who are merely adequate. We must stop the educational malpractice of having students educated by mediocre teachers using “grace” as a pretext for an unwillingness to make hard decisions. We do not have the right nor the liberty to make our students bear the educational cost of sitting under the instruction of ineffective or mediocre teachers. Period.
I am absolutely convinced that the most important thing we can do to honor our Lord, serve our families, and strengthen our schools is to hire, train, and retain only excellent Christian teachers. The same general principle holds true for every employee we hire or keep but quality instruction in each classroom must be our first priority.
Parents will make great sacrifices to have their children in a school where they know that their children will receive dynamic, creative, loving, and effective instruction year after year from mature Christian teachers. They will—and I think rightly so—look for other educational options if this is not their experience.
For more information on hiring and training teachers, see my previous article “Rethinking Staff Development: “This Too Shall Pass.”
Our schools need to consider how to leverage new technologies, particularly distance learning, to enhance and expand their curriculum and market. For more information on this topic see my previous article “Can We Keep Up with the Competition?”
It sounds like a cliché but we need to be less reactive and more proactive as leaders. We need to look over the horizon in order to position our schools to take advantage of new opportunities and to meet new challenges.
Case in point. As I read the Wall Street Journal and witnessed the unraveling of the economy one of my first thoughts was, “How will this affect our parents and school?” I quickly came to the conclusion that the rising unemployment rate would translate into lower retention rates, fewer new applications, and the increased aging of our accounts receivables. With those thoughts in mind we quickly made the following decisions prior to the creation of the budget and prior to reenrollment deadlines:
I share this information with you to illustrate that hard economic times is precisely the time to focus on quality and value while simultaneously working to reduce cost. Rather than reacting to the situation, we must plan aggressively for the future always asking, “how can we be more effective?” “How can we provide greater value for our parents?”
We sometimes assume too much. We assume that parents understand Christian education. We assume that they know about our programs and the enhancements that we have made.
The truth is that most parents are focused on their children and those things that immediately affect them. They are barely aware of “other” things going on in the school.
It is important, however, that parents be aware of all school-related matters from the more dire, e.g., how the school is responding to the H1N1 virus to the new initiatives underway that will help their children.
It is an old advertising adage that it takes seven times for a message to “click”. That means that we must communicate often using multiple venues and media. Email, newsletters, meetings, Facebook, Twitter, one-on-one lunch meetings, the school’s website, etc…… Be creative but repeat repeat repeat!
I like to give my business to those who go out of their way to provide good customer service. I am willing to pay more for good service. So are most of our parents.
The danger that we face is that we can create policies or respond in a way that demonstrates that “our convenience” “our policies” are more important than the needs and/or wishes of our paying customers—and they are customers!
We strive to have a “Bias for Yes.” “Yes we Can!” (Sorry, I couldn’t resist!) “Yes we will.” “Yes, we will seriously consider that.”
Obviously we can’t always say yes. I have had to turn down a number of requests from parents this year. But I only do so when it is absolutely necessary to comply with important policies designed to enhance our service to parents/students or to protect them.
We don’t say no because doing so is more convenient for us!
The educational marketplace is more dynamic and competitive than it has ever been. This new market reality combined with current economic difficulties create significant challenges and opportunities for our schools. Although we cannot change the external environment we can and must adapt our internal practices and programs. Adapting is the only way many of our schools will survive, let alone thrive.
Cafés evoke feelings of warmth, conversation, community and connection. Conversations in a cafe often give birth to great ideas. This is the idea behind this site.
The Christian Education Leadership Cafe is a comfortable and informative place for connecting and sharing best practices in Christian School Leadership. This site is devoted to fostering practical and creative dialog for promoting excellence in K-12 Christian schools. Discussion focuses on leadership, productivity, professional development, technology integration, personnel, dealing with stress and conflict, enrollment and marketing, and best practices for promoting and sustaining world-class quality in Christian schools.
Come on in and join the conversation.
DISCLAIMER
This is a personal weblog. The opinions expressed here represent those of the authors and not those of my employer or any other organization. My thoughts and opinions may change from time to time as a necessary consequence of being a life-long learner. The information on this blog is authentic to the best of my knowledge, and as such, it is prone to errors and the absence of information. The content on this blog is provided for entertainment and informative purposes only and should not, therefore, be perceived as professional advice in regards to health, finances, or any other field. This disclaimer is subject to change at anytime without notification.
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