Remarkable Times, Remarkable Blessings

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:

1. Ongoing enrollment growth.
2. Ongoing income growth and record levels of giving.
3. Constant programmatic improvements and reputation for increasing quality.
4. The beginning of a capital campaign calling for transformational facility expansion, an entirely new campus.
5. A projection for another year of enrollment growth in 2009-10.

Only six months later, by February, we realized reality had changed:

1. A tuition increase was in place, although lower than in most recent years at 5%, it was still noticeable and felt by parents.
2. Shifts in our inquiries for admissions data suggested that enrollment would most likely hold steady, and more re-enrolling families than ever before would be requesting financial aid for the first time.
3. Unrestricted giving providing important dollars for the budget was the lowest in seven years. We projected our budget giving would be as much as 20% off of our budget.
4. Resistance to making any long-term campaign commitments was overwhelming.
5. A region-wide culture of fear and strong reactions was in place as we received constant advice on planning for such things as a possible 30% decrease in enrollment and 40-50% decreases in giving.

Another six months later, in August 2009, we started this school year with some amazing news of God’s provision through these difficult times.

1. Record enrollment, surpassing even our pre-economic crisis projections.
2. Record giving, and only a 10% drop in budget giving.
3. No significant cuts to people or programs that impact students and families.

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.

• Implement conservative spending and aggressive fund-raising, making some tough decisions along the way in our annual budgets.
• Support creativity and innovation among teachers.
• Continue to go the extra mile for students who struggle socially or academically.
• Promote even more personal involvement of teachers and coaches in the lives of students and families, as many will face unusual challenges.
• Respond to the unique economic problems that may be faced by our parents and teachers to the very best of our ability.
• Improve our processes and communications with parents, utilizing non-paper methods to improve speed and lower costs.
• Leap forward in technology integration at the classroom level and 21^st Century learning for students.

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:

• We communicated like crazy, even asking families to respond to a “Share Your Heart” survey so they could tell us privately how the economy was really affecting them and give us advice.
• We put our campaign on a short-term hold, because Priority 2 said, “we will not compromise the quality of today for tomorrow’s dreams.”
• We froze faculty/staff salaries.
• We increased our total financial aid budget to respond to many re-enrolling families experiencing dramatic economic difficulty.
• We asked teachers and staff to give us their ideas on how to save money without reducing quality.
• We looked for key ways to add value to families without adding cost.
• We made significant shifts in our costs of paper and printing.
• Every administrator became personally responsible for helping teachers, staff, and even volunteers focus on student retention and new family enrollment.
• We increased our focus and energies on improving the school through changes, innovations, improvements, and efficiencies. And, we continued to focus on the implementation our Strategic Plan.
• We made our most significant and visible investment in technology for teachers ever, with every teacher receiving a new Macbook.

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.

They Are Coming After Your Students and Said So!

Dr. Barrett Mosbacker, PublisherAt a recent Executive Symposium on Distance Education that I attended a public school superintendent, not knowing I was from a private school, said to the group (to paraphrase), "we are developing a robust online program and we fully expect to recapture students from home schooling families and private schools."

I just reread portions of Christensen's excellent book, "Disrupting Class".  I am particularly interested by his analysis of the "Dimensions of Agreement" and the "Tools of Cooperation".  I have attached graphics depicting the concepts.  These are particularly important to me because it can be difficult to get staff to accept change--I find this particularly problematic among conservative Christians, whom by definition, are "conservative."  :-)  In my estimation, moving forward, carefully and thoughtfully, with distance learning programs in imperative but it is not an easy task--the learning curve is steep, creating a feasible business plan is critical, and getting buy in can be tough.  But, Christensen argues, refreshingly, that consensus is not necessarily the goal--cooperation is!  I find that a refreshing approach given the emphasis on consensus building over the last several decades in the management literature.  I was also surprised by his observation that change is most difficult when there is wide agreement on the goals and processes currently in place.  Generally, one would think that this is a good thing. Upon reflection, however, it is easy to see why change in an organization can be very difficult when the organization is in the upper right quadrant of the dimensions of agreement chart.  This means that one of our challenges is to challenge the consensus on the goals and/or processes currently in place, which is all the more difficult when the organization is successful.  In other words, success can actually work against us, as in "good is the enemy of great."  It is what I'm calling the "Hobbit Effect."

In the Lord of the Rings, the Hobbits went merrily about their lives oblivious to the fact that Mordor was rising and threatening them.  Only a few saw the danger and acted.  I wonder if distance learning and charter schools aren't the "Mordors" of Christian education.  While we argue about uniforms, dress codes, and tuition discounts, the public system is installing a robust distance learning infrastructure and charters are multiplying.  Will we wake up in 10 years and wonder what happened to our market?’

Christensen (2008), Disrupting the classroom, p. 187

 

I am so impressed with Christensen's book that I've ordered two more:
The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book that Will Change the Way You Do

The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth

Take a Break: Time for a Laugh!

Sometimes you just have to add a little humor to your day. 

Reverend Jim’s Driving Test

Kramer the Movie Expert

 How to Respond to a Telemarketer

Jesus, Save Us From Your Followers

By Jay Matthews

Just had the privilege to view the documentary in selected theaters, "Jesus Save Us From Your Followers." I had an inside source allow me to see a DVD of it and have had some time to view it in sections.

Very clever movie and very impressive in terms of the visual presentation and trendy graphics.

The documentary explores the polarization of American culture over issues of faith and asks a great question: What is wrong? Why is there so much venom over such a beautiful message- the gospel of Jesus Christ?

Dan Merchant presents an excellent exploration of this caustic culture in these important areas.

I found the movie helpful in some points, but too silent on two large aspects of this issue.

First: We have lost civil dialogue in this culture. Disagreement usually means 'war'. Instead of honest debate- we hurl sound bites over the internet or through talking heads. I agree that we have lost humility and love in the message. The section of the movie (inspired by Blue Like Jazz) of Christian confession was very powerful.

Second: We are ignorant of opposing worldviews and uneducated in the trends of mainstream culture. The culture war mantra has made these issue oriented debates instead of human relationships.

I agree with these premises and, sadly, am guilty as charged.

But there are two other major problems in our presentation of the gospel.

1) We need to be more tender to the 'world' - but we have lost accountability inside the church. There is no discernible difference inside the American church and outside the American church today. We are guilty of loving the world. We have the same consumerist tendencies- we have the same divorce rate- we have the same pattern of addiction and cynicism. Our lips love Jesus, but our hearts love the world.

This problem stems from a lack of seeing sin as serious. We have preached the watered down gospel. To quote Niebur,

A God without wrath brought men without sin into a Kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a Cross.

The bad news is not bad... so the good news is not good.

2) We also stand as the most biblically illiterate generation in America. Our reading comprehension slowly dwindles and the light of the Word is dimming. I recently read a handout from C.S. Lewis to my freshman Bible class- when I finished a student said, "I didn't understand a word he said."

The purity of the church is diminishing because God's word is being eclipsed in our midst.

We should be tender to others and tough on ourselves. We need God's Spirit to convict us of sin. We need to stop posing and come clean in our sin- but we also need to move toward repentance and holiness.

One final comment- the Gospel of Christ will be offensive. Granted, it should be the only offensive part of our life as we seek to love, serve, in humility live above reproach. But if we ever think that we will live in harmony with the world.... don't be gullible.

So I come away from the movie conflicted... I want to stand for righteousness and preach forgiveness. That means drawing hard lines which will make me appear intolerant and offensive. I need to love sinners, but I cannot ignore sin.

Sin destroys.. the gospel heals. Help me Lord find the balance- help me walk in the truth. Anyone else seen this documentary? Comments? I won't be offended if you disagree!

What is Google Wave and Why Should You Care?

What is Wave?

Google Wave is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

A wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

A wave is shared. Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process. Then playback lets anyone rewind the wave to see who said what and when.

A wave is live. With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time.

Why Should I Care?

If you you are like many, the rapid unrelenting wave (yes, the pun is intended) of new technologies can be mind numbing, even exhausting.  Who can keep up with it all?  Should we even try?

No, we cannot keep up with all of it but yes, we should try to stay current.  There are several reasons to stay on top of developments like Google Wave:

• As leaders, we do not want to be caught with our pants down when a new technology explodes on the scene fundamentally changing the way we communicate and interact.  IF it is a efficient and cost effective technology we need to know about it before investing limited resources in outdated technologies, irrelevant training, and misaligned infrastructure.
• Some technologies have the potential to be game changers—they can change the expectations of parents and students and they can change the educational market, Distance Learning and the concomitant technologies is one example.
• Your credibility as a leader is affected by your “currency.”  If you don’t know what’s going on today it is hard to convince others that you are equipping your students for tomorrow.
• Good technologies, effectively used, can increase your productivity.
• Google Wave may provide additional evidence that Email as we know it no longer rules.  See my related article: “For Good or Bad: Email No Longer Rules".”

Here are three videos that explain Google Wave.  Want to try Wave?  You will need an invitation.  Click here.

The Short Version

The Longer Version

The Really Thorough, Long Version!

Do Our Schools Need to Become Less Uptight?

WARNING: this article is provocative.  I am posting this article not because I agree with everything asserted (I don’t) but because it provokes thought and has relevance for how we are leading our schools during a time when the landscape of education is changing-perhaps dramatically.  At the end of this article I pose some questions for your consideration.

WSJ: September 29, 2009

By Gary Hamel

In most  organizations, change comes in only two flavors:  trivial and traumatic.  Review the history of the average organization and you’ll discover long periods of incremental fiddling  punctuated by occasional bouts of frantic, crisis-driven change.  The dynamic is not unlike that of  arteriosclerosis:  after years of  relative inactivity, the slow accretion of arterial plaque is suddenly  revealed by the business equivalent of a myocardial infarction. The only  option at that juncture is a quadruple bypass:  excise the leadership team, slash head  count, dump “non-core” assets and overhaul the balance sheet.

Why does  change have to happen this way?   Why does a company have to frustrate its shareholders, infuriate its  customers and squander much of its legacy before it can reinvent itself?   It’s easy to blame leaders  who’ve fallen prey to denial and nostalgia, but the problem goes deeper than  that.  Organizations by their very  nature are inertial.  Like a  fast-spinning gyroscope that can’t be easily unbalanced, successful  organizations spin around the axis of unshakeable beliefs and well-rehearsed  routines—and it typically takes a dramatic outside force to destabilize the  self-reinforcing system of policies and practices.

Let me  return, for a moment, to the topic of my last post, organized religion.   What are some of the inertial forces that have prevented churches from  reinventing themselves in ways that might make them more relevant to a  post-modern world?  A partial list  would include:

–Long-serving denominational leaders  who have little experience with non-traditional models of worship and  outreach.

–A matrix of top-down policies that  limits the scope for local experimentation.

–Training programs (seminaries) that  perpetuate a traditional view of religious observance and ministerial  roles.

–Promotion criteria for church pastors  that reward conformance to traditional practices.

–And a straightjacket of implicit  beliefs around how you “do church.”   For example:

• Church  happens in church.
• Preaching is the most effective way of imparting religious  wisdom.
• Pastors lead in church while parishioners remain (mostly)  passive.
• The  church service follows a strict template:  greet, sing, read, pray, preach,  bless, dismiss (repeat weekly).
• Believers, rather than curious skeptics, are the church’s primary  constituency.
• Going  to church is the primary manifestation of a spiritual life.
• Church  is a lecture not a discussion.

If organized  religion has become less relevant, it’s not because churches have held fast to  their creedal beliefs—it’s because they’ve held fast to their conventional  structures, programs, roles and routines.  The problem with organized religion  isn’t religion, but organization.    In the first and second centuries, the Christian church was communal,  organic and unstructured—a lot like the Web is today.  It commanded little power (it couldn’t  raise an army or depose a monarch), but had enormous influence.  (The Christian church grew from a handful of believers in AD 40 to 31 million adherents by AD 350, roughly half the population of the Roman empire. ) Today many mainline denominations  are institutionally powerful, but spiritually moribund—at least in the  U.S.

What’s true  for churches is true for other institutions:  the older and more organized they get,  the less adaptable they become.   That’s why the most resilient things in our world—biological life,  stock markets, the Internet—are loosely organized. 

To thrive in  turbulent times, organizations must become a bit more disorganized—less buttoned down, less  uptight, less compulsive, less anal.

As a start,  you’ll need to become more alert to the things that reflexively favor the  status quo in your own organization.   While no one’s going to stand up  and say, “I’m on the side of inertia,” they may nevertheless defend management  processes that reflexively favor the status quo.

All of the  things that allow little organizations to grow into big ones—scale, learning  effects, and accumulated expertise—are products of repetition.  When the environment changes, however,  the returns to repetition start to diminish.  Problem is, old habits die hard,  particularly when they’ve been hardwired into a company’s management  processes. 

–Hiring criteria that over-value  “expertise” and under-value diverse life experiences.

–A planning process that  institutionalizes orthodox thinking by using industry standard definitions of  customer segments and product categories

–Decision-making bodies that are  comprised mostly of long-serving industry veterans who tend to discount new  views.

–Highly conservative budgeting criteria  that starve unconventional projects of resources by demanding near certain  returns, even when the funds involved are modest.

–A single approval track for new  projects, where every new idea has to go up the chain of command.

–Large, monolithic organizational units built around a single, dominant, business model.

–A highly optimized but inflexible IT  infrastructure.

Large  organizations don’t worship shareholders or customers, they worship the  past.  If it were otherwise, it  wouldn’t take a crisis to set a company on a new path.

The most  extreme version of organizational inertia comes when those within a company  are no longer able to distinguish between form and function—when their  instinctual loyalty is to the “how” rather than the “what.”

If one  didn’t know better, it would be easy to believe that a lot of newspaper  publishers have been more committed to producing broadsheets than to  delivering the news in a convenient form, or making it easy for advertisers to  connect with customers.

Until  recently, music companies seem to have been more committed to stamping out  plastic discs than to giving their customers easy access to their favorite  tunes.

Many drug  companies seem a lot more interested in peddling temporary palliatives for  chronic conditions than in eradicating disease.

For years,  Kodak seemed more focused on making film than on leveraging new digital  technologies that would make photography simpler and cheaper.

Alzheimer’s,  arteriosclerosis and arthritis—these seem to be the inevitable byproducts of  old age.  But must organizational  maturity bring a similar set of maladies?  I don’t think so.  Despite all the evidence to the  contrary, I think a company can truly be “Forever 21.”

Questions:

• Is your school too “button down”, to wedded to tradition?
• Does the administration, faculty, board members, or parents confuse form with function, preference with principle, or truth with tradition?
• Has inertia set in at your school?  If so, how can you overcome it?
• How would you apply the arguments / principles in the above article to addressing 21st century skills, distance learning, technology integration, recent discoveries in cognitive science, and other innovative developments in education to your school?

A Gardener's Tale

By Boyd Chitwood, Ed. D.,

A story about growing – plants and children – by God's design.

A family once was given a gift by a kind and powerful neighbor.  He told them that at night, as they slept, he had planted for them a garden.  If they cared for it well, it would produce for them both abundant food and astonishing beauty.  What the family saw was a plot of ground with beautifully tilled, rich loam, and the signs of seeds having been freshly planted.

The father and mother resolved to care for it well; they were very grateful.  The son asked if he might have a small portion of the garden to care for and, though they weren't sure he was ready for the responsibility, they gave him a small corner.

They knew plants needed food and water, but didn't know much else.  The boy knew even less, so he resolved to get to know each of his plants very well, wanting to see them grow into all they were meant to be.

The father and mother watered and fertilized, and began to see growth.  They saw leafy greens and grassy shoots and were overjoyed.  The boy followed their lead, but also had been looking at every garden he could find, along with all the produce at the grocery store, and all the plants at the nursery.  He began to recognize some of his plants as they grew.  After awhile, though worried because his father and mother weren't doing it, he began to prune and weed what he knew wasn't true to the plants which were growing.  He also varied his watering and fertilizing based on the growth he saw, and he picked insects off the growing plants.  He tied up and supported some plants, and redirected others.

The father and mother continued to see a profusion of growth – the weather was warm, and they fed and watered the garden with dedication.  More and more things grew, though they weren't sure they could recognize much of it. 

In just a couple of months, both parts of the garden had grown much.  The boys corner wasn't as high or as green, but his had begun to bear fruit and vegetables which he knew were good to eat.  As they ripened, he picked them and more grew.  He also saw astoundingly beautiful flowers begin to blossom, sharing their sweet fragrance with all who came by.

The larger garden of the father and mother was a mass of vegetable plant stalks and grass and leaves with large holes eaten out of them and a few scrawny vegetables and flower buds here and there.  They watered and fertilized all the more, but were very discouraged.

The kind neighbor walked by one day and remarked on the mass of foliage in the garden.  He said they must have worked with vigor and dedication.  Perhaps they could come to his garden and look around a bit.

Then he saw the boy's corner and broke into a brilliant smile.  "Now this," he said, "is the garden grown up into the bounty and beauty I had in mind when I planted it.  Well done!"

_________________________________

Education according to God's glorious design is about hard work, but not just about watering and fertilizing.  Growth conformed to the Lord's plan for each of our children is the standard of success.  With pruning and training, along with weeding and feeding and watering, we pursue the highest good for our children and the greatest glory for our God.

Is Perception Reality?

By Mark Kennedy (ACSI Canada)

Every now and then I hear it, even in Christian school circles. “Perception is reality”, they say with a kind of unquestioning conviction that suggests the discovery of a new immutable truth. 

This, along with other snippets of pop business philosophy, have steadily made inroads into the board rooms of churches and Christian schools. Some are quite useful. It is not that we can’t gain insights and understanding from effective business principles and practices. The fact is that all truth, even in the area of business, is God’s truth. The problem comes when we accept any philosophical assertion without testing it against the teaching of scripture.

And that is my concern about the “Perception is reality” concept. In keeping with post modern thinking it implies that people can have their own private self-created realities –their own personal truths.

Some people reason that if only they could manipulate those perceptions effectively they would be able to get what they want –in our schools that could mean creating new pro Christian school “realities” in people’s minds.
It seems to me that the whole idea is false. We can’t have our own private versions of reality anymore than we can have our own personal definitions of truth. And Christians more than anyone should realize that truth (which is the only genuine reality) exists despite our perceptions. William Blake puts it well in his poem, The Eternal Gospel.

“Thus Life’s five windows of the soul
Distort the heavens from pole to pole,
And lead you to believe a lie
When you see with, not through the eye.”

To my thinking the final word on the subject comes from Isaiah. In chapter 11 verses 3 and 4 he contrasts the undependable nature of personal perceptions and with God’s truth.

“He will not judge by what he sees with his eye,
Or decide by what he years with his ears
But with righteousness he will judge the needy
With justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.”

Nuff said.

Where is Your School in the Organizational Life Cycle? Why Does it Matter?

By Dr. Barrett Mosbacker

The School Life Cycle

Dr. Barrett Mosbacker, PublisherSchools are organic and dynamic—they are not static. Like the human body, schools go through a lifecycle of change or stages of development. Although most schools go through a predictable cycle or series of stages, the cycle is not inevitable.

Below are typical organizational stages, which I have summarized and adapted from research on the topic.  I have not developed the last stage (renewing).

Why is this important?  Because understanding where your school is in the typical organizational lifecycle will help you understand the issues you are facing and how to adapt your leadership.

Birth/Infant Stage

• Characterized by a strong entrepreneurial visionary leader or small group

• Requires a strong visionary leader who can maintain a high degree of commitment

• The leader, or small founding group, must maintain control and have significant input into the infant school. It is normal at this stage that the leader be more hands-on and in control with little or no delegation.

• Visionary and pioneering staff

• Staff characterized by belief, hard work, high morale

• Tendency to latch on to a particular school of thought or philosophy of education, instruction, and/or curriculum

• School structure is minimal and informal

• Systems are developing

• Minimal policies, ill-defined roles (or well written but poorly followed policies)

• Group/committee/board micro-management of administrative functions, usually out of necessity in this infant stage

• Change can be quick and relatively easy

• Limited resources

• Potential for quick growth

• Establishing a reputation and market presence

Adolescent Growth Stage

• Beliefs, values, goals, structure, and actions become more formalized

• With growth, staff are added

• Delegation is increasing

• The challenges of growth are being confronted—facilities, resources, programs, personnel, school structure, board/administrator roles and relationships

• The original “feel” of the small infant school is being replaced with the feel and characteristics of a larger maturing school. This can result in a change in clientele, complaints that “we have abandoned our mission,” that “we no longer feel….,” “that we are becoming……”

• As structures begin to mature, the board grapples with its role relative to a changing school, added staff, and maturing leadership and administration

• Faces the danger of growing too fast with growth and vision outpacing current or projected resources (usually financial and physical)—Example: adding a high school too quickly

• Conflict and inconsistency can become more evident (there are more stakeholders; the original founders/entrepreneurs find their original vision and values being challenged and stretched. Conflicts arise from confusion regarding roles and responsibilities. Leadership must learn to share control and to delegate responsibility with concomitant authority.

• Problems can arise when conflict erodes or ends in a critical loss of mutual respect and trust among those charged with formal and informal control of the decision-making process. This can lead to concentrating on technicalities, legal and procedural issues rather than on strategic development.

Maturing Stage

• This stage is characterized by high visibility for the school. A strong understanding of its common purpose and mission continue to energize and drive school leadership. Leadership knows what it is doing, where it is going and how to get there.

• School leadership makes plans and then follows up on those plans

• Structures and policies have matured but are still developing and growing

• Bureaucracy and systems are increasing (note: not all bureaucracy is bad—there is good and bad bureaucracy)

• Leaders must continue to maintain the delicate balance between creating and managing. It is easy during this stage to get caught into doing what is customary, but forgetting the reason for doing it. This may lead to rigid clinging to something no longer suitable. A method may become more important than the mission.

• Increased specialization among staff and with programs

• Increased emphasis on high quality rather than “start-up” training

• Standards are raised for teachers and other staff

• Overall school quality is growing and there is clear evidence of excellence

• The school is confident and secure

• Morale is high

Aging Stage

• The aging stage can be characterized by a decline in stakeholders’  understanding of and commitment to the school’s purpose.  New parents and staff may not have a sense of ownership of the school’s purpose. They assume others to be responsible, so there is decline in involvement.

• As the aging stage progresses, the school moves from nostalgia to questioning. In the nostalgia phase the school community reflects on and longs for a comfortable past. You know the school has reached this phase when you hear: "I remember when." "We can't do that." "We've tried that and it didn't work."

In the questioning phase, school stakeholders initially question within themselves, concerning leadership and school problems. Then the questioning becomes more intense as groups begin to discuss problems. At this point, either the organization redefines itself and is revitalized by its dream, or decline sets in.

• Expectations for growth are lowered. There is little interest in development of new  new methods. The school starts to focus on past achievements instead of future visions. Emphasis is on how things are done rather than what and why they are done.

• Procedures and policies are kept in place even though they are no longer relevant.

• Changes are viewed with suspicion and met with increasing resistance. Fewer changes are proposed, and no change that radically departs from status quo or disrupts the peace is considered.

The Dying Stage

• This fifth stage is characterized by the total loss of purpose and hope. The mission is not understood. As questioning and polarization increase, the emphasis shifts to who caused the problem, rather than what to do about it.

• Conflict, back stabbing, and infighting abound.

• Focus shifts to the internal turf wars while newcomer, especially if they have a vision to try new things, to challenge the conventional wisdom, are seen as a nuisance, threat, or are ignored.

• Due to the lack of interest and participation, programs are eliminated. It is difficult to find volunteers with only 10 percent of stakeholders doing 90 percent of the work.

• Programs and structures are deleted for lack of funds and involvement. The primary goal is preservation and survival.

• Although there are many traditions, practices and procedures in place, they serve little to reach and develop people and to fulfill the mission of the school.

• Changes are nearly impossible. Excuses and rationalizations are made for why something can't be done.

• While dying is frightening, changing is more so. Any suggested change tends to fuel the fire of polarization.

• There is confusion between what constitutes an enviable principle and a personal preference.

• Morale declines to a deep low. Few have any sense of hope and optimism. No one knows what to do about the problem, but everyone thinks that it is the other person's fault.

• Leadership is extremely frustrated to the point of despair by not knowing how to stop decline and the infighting in this stage. Frequently the leader is perceived as the problem which may or may not be the truth. Leadership takes many hard hits in the dying stage, particularly if the primary influencers do not support the leader. If the leader is visionary, creative and aggressive, he or she will likely not last long.

• If the leader is passive and maintenance oriented, he or she may make the patient comfortable while it continues to die.

Where is your school in the organizational lifecycle? Are you adjusting your leadership to ensure that your school navigates the lifecycle successfully so that it continues to have a lasting impact?

Welcome to the Library. Say Goodbye to the Books

Things are changing!  For many years e-books have resided in the back waters of publishing.  Early adopters and gadget freaks have read them but the vast majority of the population were either unaware of them or didn’t care.

The lowly status of the e-book may be about to change—and radically.  David Weir, in a BNET (a business and management blog) article outlines five reasons why he believes e-book publishing and use is reaching their tipping point--becoming widely accepted and on the way to outpacing printed books in popularity.

1.  Screen reading now rivals paper reading, and for those of us in the over 40 set, screen reading is often easier on the eyes thanks to adjustable font sizing.

2.  Consumer awareness has increased dramatically.  A year ago, consumers were skeptical and resistant to e-books.  Today, consumers are doing a complete 180.  The early adopters have celebrated their Sony Readers, Kindles and iPhones to their friends, and now their friends want in.

3.  The amount of content is increasing.  Free books have served as a gateway drug to many early adopters.

4.  Ebooks are impulse buys.  I met a guy at the Las Vegas airport last month who told me he purchased a Sony Reader so he wouldn’t have to lug around 20 pounds of technical manuals.  Now he finds himself buying more fiction than ever before because it’s so easy and convenient.

5.  Value.  E-books are cheaper.

My Personal Experience

I love books.  My study is wall to wall books and I have spent thousands of dollars on my traditional library.  I love to read and I love the feel and smell of books.

Nevertheless, my reading habits are changing.  In fact, I recently finished reading Dr. Poythress’ excellent book, Redeeming Science (384 pages) on my iPhone version of the Kindle (Read a review: Amazon launches Kindle application for the iPhone).

After reading Dr. Poythress’ book on my iPhone, I have concluded that I would love to have the Kindle DX for the vast majority of my reading.  In fact, I would like to duplicate my printed library on the Kindle.

Hint to my wife: great Christmas present!

Although there are some drawbacks to e-books/e-readers relative to printed books (mainly sentimental), the advantages are numerous including:

1. The ability to read books, newspapers, magazines, and blogs anywhere anytime without the need to carry large books and dirty newspapers.  The Kindle DX for example is just over 1/3 of an inch, as thin as most magazines.  This is particularly an advantage when traveling or when in waiting rooms.

2. The ability to literally carry a library in my pocket or laptop case.  I could carry to 3,500 books, periodicals, and documents in the Kindle DX.

3. For those of us who are a little older, the ability to adjust font size is a big advantage (yes, pun was intended).  The Kindle DX has a 9.7" diagonal e-ink screen and reads like real paper and boasts 16 shades of gray for clear text and sharp images.  Additionally, the device has a display that auto-rotates from portrait to landscape as you turn the device so you can view full-width maps, graphs, tables, and Web pages.

4. I can read PDF documents enabling me to read my personal and professional documents on the go.

5. With wireless 3G I can download books and magazine to the Kindle DX anytime, anywhere; there are no monthly fees, no annual contracts, and no hunting for Wi-Fi hotspots.

6.  Currently, Amazon has over 300,000 e-books; many of which are only $9.99.

7. I can have subscriptions to U.S. and international newspapers including the New York Times and Wall Street Journal (both of which I read), magazines including The New Yorker and Time, plus popular blogs, all auto-delivered wirelessly.

8. I could have an electronic backup of my library.  If there a fire in my house, I would find it hard and probably impossible to replace many of my out of print books.  If my library was on the Kindle, I could re-download my library from Amazon, Project Gutenberg, etc.

According to the Kindle Review, a lot of the books available at Project Gutenberg are already available in Kindle .azw format at ManyBooks (if you’re using your laptop). There are 19,505 eBooks available at ManyBooks and they’re all free! When you get to the page for an individual book, just click on the dropdown at the top right that says ‘Free Download’ + ‘ Select Format’ and the FIRST option is Kindle.

Note: You can browse and download Manybooks on the Kindle. @ mnybks.net

For Project Gutenberg books that are not available at ManyBooks, you can go to the Project Gutenberg Website. You can download EVERY book on Gutenberg to your Kindle for Free. No conversion required. This is a good page to start at Project Gutenberg to get Free Kindle eBooks.

Potential for Our Schools

I am not prepared to go as far as Cushing Academy (see below) but I am reviewing the potential of using Kindles, netbooks, and other electronic devices to supplement our library and textbooks.  One of the great advantages for our students would be that they would not have to carry heavy book bags around all day.

Welcome to the library. Say goodbye to the books.

Cushing Academy embraces a digital future

By David Abel, Globe Staff  |  September 4, 2009

Boston prep school nixes all the books in its library, replaces them with 18 e-readers

ASHBURNHAM - There are rolling hills and ivy-covered brick buildings. There are small classrooms, high-tech labs, and well-manicured fields. There’s even a clock tower with a massive bell that rings for special events.

Cushing Academy has all the hallmarks of a New England prep school, with one exception.

This year, after having amassed a collection of more than 20,000 books, officials at the pristine campus about 90 minutes west of Boston have decided the 144-year-old school no longer needs a traditional library. The academy’s administrators have decided to discard all their books and have given away half of what stocked their sprawling stacks - the classics, novels, poetry, biographies, tomes on every subject from the humanities to the sciences. The future, they believe, is digital.

“When I look at books, I see an outdated technology, like scrolls before books,’’ said James Tracy, headmaster of Cushing and chief promoter of the bookless campus. “This isn’t ‘Fahrenheit 451’ [the 1953 Ray Bradbury novel in which books are banned]. We’re not discouraging students from reading. We see this as a natural way to shape emerging trends and optimize technology.’’

Instead of a library, the academy is spending nearly $500,000 to create a “learning center,’’ though that is only one of the names in contention for the new space. In place of the stacks, they are spending $42,000 on three large flat-screen TVs that will project data from the Internet and $20,000 on special laptop-friendly study carrels. Where the reference desk was, they are building a $50,000 coffee shop that will include a $12,000 cappuccino machine.

And to replace those old pulpy devices that have transmitted information since Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 1400s, they have spent $10,000 to buy 18 electronic readers made by Amazon.com and Sony. Administrators plan to distribute the readers, which they’re stocking with digital material, to students looking to spend more time with literature.

Those who don’t have access to the electronic readers will be expected to do their research and peruse many assigned texts on their computers.

“Instead of a traditional library with 20,000 books, we’re building a virtual library where students will have access to millions of books,’’ said Tracy, whose office shelves remain lined with books. “We see this as a model for the 21st-century school.’’

Not everyone on campus is sold on Tracy’s vision.

They worry about an environment where students can no longer browse rows of voluptuous books, replete with glossy photographs, intricate maps, and pages dog-eared by generations of students. They worry students will be less likely to focus on long works when their devices are constantly interrupting them with e-mail and instant messages. They also worry about a world where sweat-stained literature is deemed as perishable as all the glib posts on Facebook or Twitter.

Liz Vezina, a librarian at Cushing for 17 years, said she never imagined working as the director of a library without any books.

“It makes me sad,’’ said Vezina, who hosts a book club on campus dubbed the Off-line Readers and has made a career of introducing students to books. “I’m going to miss them. I love books. I’ve grown up with them, and there’s something lost when they’re virtual. There’s a sensual side to them - the smell, the feel, the physicality of a book is something really special.’’

Alexander Coyle, chairman of the history department, is a self-described “gadget freak’’ who enjoys reading on Amazon’s Kindle, but he has always seen libraries and their hallowed content as “secular cathedrals.’’

“I wouldn’t want to ever get rid of any of my books at home,’’ he said. “I like the feel of them too much. A lot us are wondering how this changes the dignity of the library, and why we can’t move to increase digital resources while keeping the books.’’

Tracy and other administrators said the books took up too much space and that there was nowhere else on campus to stock them. So they decided to give their collection - aside from a few hundred children’s books and valuable antiquarian works - to local schools and libraries.

“We see the gain as greater than the loss,’’ said Gisele Zangari, chairwoman of the math department, who like other teachers has plans for all her students to do their class reading on electronic books by next year. “This is the start of a new era.’’

Cushing is one of the first schools in the country to abandon its books.

“I’m not aware of any other library that has done this,’’ said Keith Michael Fiels, executive director of the American Library Association, a Chicago-based organization that represents the nation’s libraries.

He said the move raises at least two concerns: Many of the books on electronic readers and the Internet aren’t free and it may become more difficult for students to happen on books with the serendipity made possible by physical browsing. There’s also the question of the durability of electronic readers.

“Unless every student has a Kindle and an unlimited budget, I don’t see how that need is going to be met,’’ Fiels said. “Books are not a waste of space, and they won’t be until a digital book can tolerate as much sand, survive a coffee spill, and have unlimited power. When that happens, there will be next to no difference between that and a book.’’

William Powers, author of a forthcoming book based on a paper he published at Harvard called “Hamlet’s Blackberry: Why Paper is Eternal,’’ called the changes at Cushing “radical’’ and “a tremendous loss for students.’’

“There are modes of learning and thinking that at the moment are only available from actual books,’’ he said. “There is a kind of deep-dive, meditative reading that’s almost impossible to do on a screen. Without books, students are more likely to do the grazing or quick reading that screens enable, rather than be by themselves with the author’s ideas.’’

Yet students at Cushing say they look forward to the new equipment, and the brave new world they’re ushering in.

Tia Alliy, a 16-year-old junior, said she visits the library nearly every day, but only once looked for a book in the stacks. She’s not alone. School officials said when they checked library records one day last spring only 48 books had been checked out, and 30 of those were children’s books.

“When you hear the word ‘library,’ you think of books,’’ Alliy said. “But very few students actually read them. And the more we use e-books, the fewer books we have to carry around.’’

Jemmel Billingslea, an 18-year-old senior, thought about the prospect of a school without books. It didn’t bother him.

“It’s a little strange,’’ he said. “But this is the future.’’