Close the Gap Now

To what extent are staff held accountable for improvement plans?

closethegapnow — Thu, 20 May 2010 23:20:40 +0000

When I am held accountable to get something done, I get it done. When I’m not held accountable to get something done, I might not get it done.

Tip: If you want to get your improvement plans done, make sure your staff are held accountable.

Question: To what extent are staff held accountable for improvement plans?

To get an idea of the extent to which your staff are held accountable for improvement plans, take the following assessment. Rate each item, using the following scale:

4: Consistently • 3: Usually • 2: Sometimes • 1: Rarely

Leaders hold staff accountable to implement the improvement plans.
Staff hold each other accountable to implement the improvement plans.
Staff hold themselves accountable to implement the improvement plans.
Staff are held accountable to implement the improvement plans.

3 questions:

To what extent do you want your staff to be held accountable for improvement plans?
How can you increase staff accountability?
What are you going to do?

Bottom line: Pursue excellence. Hold staff accountable to implement improvement plans. Today.

Empower teachers to help students understand how teachers teach from a Biblical perspective

closethegapnow — Thu, 20 May 2010 22:42:06 +0000

Here’s a set of DRAW questions you can use for a discussion of “How can you help your students understand how you teach from a Biblical perspective?”

Define: Get the facts defined.

How do you teach from a Biblical perspective?
What do you do to help your students understand how you teach from a Biblical perspective?

Respond: Get the facts responded to in terms of feelings/experiences.

What satisfies/concerns you about how you teach from a Biblical perspective?
What satisfies/concerns you about your students’ understanding of how you teach from a Biblical perspective?

Analyze: Get the facts, feelings, and experiences analyzed.

What happens when your students understand how you teach from a Biblical perspective?
What helps them understand this?

What’s next?: Get next steps considered.

What will you do to help your students understand how you teach from a Biblical perspective?

How focused are you on achieving your mission?

closethegapnow — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 02:22:01 +0000

Want to achieve your mission? If so, focus even more on your mission. Why? Because the more you focus on your mission, the more you will get it done.

3 questions:

On a scale of 1-10 (10 being high), how focused are you on your mission?
On a scale of 1-10 (10 being high), how focused on your mission do you want to be?
What will you do?

Focus on achieving your mission. Today.

What are your action steps?

closethegapnow — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 02:40:32 +0000

You’ve spent 2 days in reflection. You feel good:

You have a mission statement.
You have a list of the 4 goals necessary for carrying out your mission statement.
You like the wording of your mission statement and your goals.
You feel like you have what you need—direction.

Question: What’s next?

Answer: Determining the action steps you need to take for each of your 4 goals—then taking those action steps. Why? Well, success is not having a mission statement and goals—success is accomplishing your mission and goals.

I recommend that each week you take time to determine action steps.

Bottom line: Determine your action steps. Then take them.

How often do you refrain from giving advice/suggestions?

closethegapnow — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 00:40:22 +0000

You want to help people. I do, too. One way to help people is by giving advice. But there are some definite downsides to giving advice:

You might irritate someone by giving unsolicited advice.
Your advice might work for you and not for the person you’re talking to.
If someone takes your advice and it doesn’t work, that might harm your relationship.
Giving advice doesn’t target developing the person into a better problem solver—it targets solving the immediate problem.

I don’t want to irritate people, give advice that doesn’t work, put my relationships at risk, or only solve the immediate problem. I want people to solve their own problems by developing as problem solvers. So, I strive to refrain from giving advice.

Question: How often do you refrain from giving advice?

Consistently?
Usually?
Sometimes?
Rarely?

Strive to consistently refrain from giving advice. Strive to consistently focus on what others think in order to help them become better problem solvers. When you are tempted to give advice or when you find yourself focusing on what you are thinking, ask an open-ended question instead:

What’s your goal?
What’s going on?
What are your options?
What will you do?

Question: What action steps will you take to ensure that you consistently refrain from giving advice?

How can you help your students apply a Biblical perspective to issues?

closethegapnow — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 23:22:27 +0000

Your juniors are writing about social issues. You want them to apply a Biblical perspective to their issues.

Question: How can you help your students apply a Biblical perspective?

Answer: By asking them questions:

What social issue are you writing about?
What excites/frustrates you about this issue?
What Biblical teaching applies to this issue?
What’s a Biblical response to this issue?

Help your students apply a Biblical perspective to issues. Ask them questions. Today.

Empower others to help students understand what effective application of a Biblical perspective looks like

closethegapnow — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:46:56 +0000

Here’s a set of DRAW questions you can use for a discussion of “How can you help your students understand what effective application of a Biblical perspective looks like on a classroom assessment?”

Define: Get the facts defined.

What do your students think effective application of a Biblical perspective looks like?

Respond: Get the facts responded to in terms of feelings/experiences.

What’s encouraging/discouraging about your students’ understanding of what effective application of a Biblical perspective looks like?
What’s easy/hard about helping your students understand what effective application of a Biblical perspective looks like?

Analyze: Get the facts, feelings, and experiences analyzed.

To what do you attribute your students’ current level of understanding?
On a scale of 1-10 (10 being high), how clear are you on what effective application of a Biblical perspective on a classroom assessment looks like?

What’s next?: Get next steps considered.

What are 3-5 ways you could help your students understand what effective application of a Biblical perspective on a classroom assessment looks like?
What will you do?

How often do you use restatement to encourage others?

closethegapnow — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:36:57 +0000

I like getting encouragement. I like it more than getting critiques. Encouragement feels better and actually results in me working more effectively.

I believe in the power of encouragement, so I want to encourage others. One way I encourage others is by listening to what they say. And one way I demonstrate that I’m listening is by restating what the other person has been saying. Through restatement I show I’ve been listening and that I want to understand. For example, I might say, “If I understand correctly, you’re saying that ___. Is that right?”

Question: How often do you use restatement to encourage others?

Consistently?
Usually?
Sometimes?
Rarely?

Strive to consistently use restatement to encourage others. To encourage others, say things like: So what I think I hear you saying is ___. Is that right?

Question: What action steps will you take to ensure that you consistently encourage others through restatement?

To what extent do improvement plans guide staff work?

closethegapnow — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:16:12 +0000

The goal isn’t to have improvement plans. The goal is to improve your organization by completing improvement plans. And to be completed, the improvement plans must guide the work—they must be central, not peripheral.

Question: To what extent do improvement plans guide staff work?

To get an idea of the extent to which improvement plans guide your organization’s work, take the following assessment. Rate each item, using the following scale:

4: Consistently • 3: Usually • 2: Sometimes • 1: Rarely

Staff understand the improvement plans.
Staff know which improvement plans they are to implement.
Staff can explain their role in a given improvement plan.
Staff implement the improvement plans.
Improvement plans guide staff work.

3 questions:

To what extent do you want improvement plans to guide staff work?
How can you help staff use improvement plans to guide staff work?
What are you going to do?

Bottom line: Pursue excellence. Use your improvement plans to guide staff work. Today.

How are proposals related to your mission?

closethegapnow — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 02:16:42 +0000

Tomorrow, you’re presenting a proposal to the Leadership Team. The proposal is about how to orient new staff better. You feel good about the proposal.

But something is bothering you.

Then you realize what is bothering you. When developing your proposal, you didn’t think about your organization’s mission. You didn’t ask yourself, “In terms of the mission, what do new staff need to understand, be able to do, and value?”

As you consider this question, other questions come to mind:

How can we help new staff understand the mission?
How can we help new staff understand where we are in terms of achieving our mission?
How can we help staff understand how they contribute to the mission?
How can I help the Leadership Team see how this proposal supports the mission?

Good news! The presentation isn’t until tomorrow. So, you have time to revise it. You have time to make clear how the proposal supports the mission.

Consider 4 questions:

What proposal are you working on?
What do you hope to accomplish through your proposal?
How does your proposal support the mission?
How will you help others understand how your proposal supports the mission?

Connect your proposals to your mission. Today.