Vison - Mission - Goal - Target: How They Relate

The 5/23/2014 post, “Vision – Mission – Goal – Target: A Travelogue,” gave a visual representation of those elements.  Today I will discuss how they relate and impact your campus.

There are a lot of people who believe that you must have a vision, then a mission, then a goal, and then a target.  That: 

1 – It is a backwards design process; and 

2 – Without having all four, you are lost.  

Both of these beliefs are true in some cases and false in other cases. In practical terms, here is how it works in schools.  

I can make significant and meaningful progress (in the short term) without a vision and mission.  The reason for this is two-fold.  First, as a profession, educators want to do well by their students and please their boss.  We are good people who crave order.  Just doing what comes naturally to us represents steps in the right direction.  Second, the state mandates annual performance goals that force us to adjust our practices towards meeting those goals.  We can argue how those goals are measured, but bottom line we are expected to teach students to a standard.  As we teach to standards, again we make steps in the right decision.

For those that embrace their mandated goals, there is a need to create a slate of interim targets that inform us in the pursuit of goal accomplishment.  For many schools, this is all that is needed in the short to midterm.  But once we build some competence we need more to keep us moving forward.  Just increasing the goal is one way to do this.  But that doesn’t stoke the fire in the belly, at scale.  Now is the time to build that vision and mission. 

Which one you build first is situational.  There are those who first define the mission of the organization and then paint the picture of what the organization aspires to be.  This is a viable solution.  There are those who paint a picture of the vision for organization and then define a mission that supports the vision.  This is a viable solution. 

What I think is the important take away from this discussion is that what is most important on any given day is a clear understanding of the goals and targets of the organization.  What is important for the long-term success of the organization is a clear understanding of the vision and mission.  But this is a crawl, walk, jog, run dynamic.  If your team isn’t ready to consider vision and mission yet, that doesn’t make you a bad leader. But note that the longer it takes to get your team to that level of competence and consciousness does have a negative effect on progressing from survival mode to actualized mode.

      

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: TASSP Summer Conference (Multiple Presentations); Texas ASCD Summer Conference; ESC 14 Sumer Conference (Keynote Presentation); ESC 11 Summer Conference (Keynote Presentation); NEASP National Conference; The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote Presentation) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

Vision - Mission - Goal - Target: A Travelogue

I am often asked to better define the concepts of Vision, Mission, Goal, and Target as they relate to campus operations.   For terms that are thrown about so casually, there really is a lot of confusion and just wrong thinking about what these are.  In an attempt to clarify these terms and critical understandings instead of a 6,000 word essay, I present to the LYS Nation, “Vision – Mission – Goal – Target: A Travelogue”

Consider the following picture. For something seemingly so innocent and benign, there is a lot going on.

In this picture of a seemingly random journey, the RV represents your school.

The mountains on the horizon represent a vision. This vision, though somewhat abstract, represents where we aspire to eventually arrive. 

The road represents our mission. This is what drives us forward and over time positions us to fulfill our vision.  The mission can and should slowly adapt and evolve.

On we progress on our mission path, there are goals.  These goals ensure that we stay focused on accomplishing our mission.

Finally, there are targets that we use to gauge progress and determine what adjustments we need to make to ensure that we meet our goals.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: TASSP Summer Conference (Multiple Presentations); Texas ASCD Summer Conference; ESC 14 Sumer Conference (Keynote Presentation); ESC 11 Summer Conference (Keynote Presentation); NEASP National Conference; The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote Presentation) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

Who Defines the Campus

As the scores from state accountability tests roll in over the next couple of weeks and as you begin to get ready for the next school year, consider this.

Over the past twenty years I have been working with and studying both exceptional and struggling schools.

Some quick vocabulary work:

• Exceptional School – a school that consistently outperforms schools that serve similar populations.
• Struggling School – a school that either lags behind or struggles to keep up with schools that serve similar populations.

By the above definition, many schools that are seemingly high performers aren’t and many schools that are seemingly average performers are much more than that.  So the question becomes, what sets the exceptional school apart from the rest.  There are of course a variety of factors at play, some random, some consistent. And here is a factor that is almost a given.

The non-exceptional campuses allow themselves to be defined by external actors and/or minimum standards.  This practice attacks the collective psyche of the campus and creates a pervasive victim mentality.  Because it doesn’t matter what the campus accomplishes, it is never quite to par.  In this environment, people work but lose the unifying purpose that leverages mind, body and effort. 

The exceptional campus defines itself internally and creates its own performance standards that are beyond the scope and scale of minimum standards.  This practice builds and focuses the collective psyche of the campus.  People have a compelling, motivating and unifying purpose to engage in the work of school.  Performance measures (internal and external) are welcomed, not because they define, but because they time. No longer is the campus good (whew) or bad (uh-oh), the campus is either closer to (don’t stop, we’re almost there) or further from (step it up so we don’t fall behind) where it is going.

So who defines your campus?  

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: TASSP Summer Conference (Multiple Presentations); Texas ASCD Summer Conference; ESC 14 Sumer Conference (Keynote Presentation); ESC 11 Summer Conference (Keynote Presentation); NEASP National Conference; The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote Presentation) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

A Superintendent Asks... Student Choice

A LYS Superintendent asks the following:

SC,

I would like to hear your thoughts on the subject of student choice. I have been meeting with a panel of high school students, which I have thoroughly enjoyed.  The message that I consistently hear from our students is they are interested in learning, but want more freedom to explore topics that interest them.  That makes sense when you think about things from their perspective.  Netflix, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc., allow them to choose what, where, and when they "learn" pretty much everywhere except at school. 

As a result of what I have heard from our students, I’ve been reading about the benefits of student choice.  As expected, giving students a choice, or autonomy, in what they learn increases student motivation and engagement. 

The obvious question is how can we give students autonomy in their learning in Texas?  What students learn is pre-determined (TEKS).   I may be missing something here but it seems to me our ability to allow students to explore their interests is greatly restricted by our accountability system, thus reducing student engagement and motivation.  While not a fan of our current accountability system, I do believe assessment is essential and accountability with the right perspective is beneficial.  Is there a way we can have the best of both worlds, can we give students autonomy and still measure learning?

  

Thanks.

SC Response

Great questions. Here are some of my initial thoughts, as a practitioner and realist.

When it comes to student choice, I have to carve out a path in the middle.

I do think that students should have some flexibility to pursue their interests.  But I also know that they are children, and part of our job is to prepare them for success in an increasingly competitive world.

Which means that I place an emphasis on literacy, numeracy, critical thinking, complex problem solving and being multi-lingual.  I'm OK with this, because that is my responsibility and to repeat my favorite modified Dagget quote, "In America we need to realize that the DEGREE matters.  We need more scientists, engineers, mathematicians, doctors, researchers and programmers. We have all the SOFT DEGREE holders that we need."

Now I can still offer a lot of varied courses and meet this mandate.  I just make sure that my electives use their content to teach the critical core.  For example, my art classes can teach applied geometry.  Do this and your campus will drive instructional relevance off the charts (instead of off the cliff).

We do have to move instruction and learning outside the four walls of the classroom. What that looks like right now, I don't know.  But I'm not talking about replacing the teacher. I'm talking about leveraging the impact of a good teacher.  This will require an evolving teacher skill set and the sad truth is if we are not willing to pay for this new type of knowledge worker, I don't think we will ever attract the right kind of candidate.  Leaving schools in a perpetual situation of having an idea of what they want to do, but never quite being able to do it.  

Now for some ugly truth.  I could argue that accountability has a negative impact on teacher innovation and instructional quality.  Except that teacher innovation and instructional quality, at scale, was never there in the first place.  If you look at the past 25 years, accountability has moved the bar simply because we now teach more students poorly instead of choosing which groups of students we will teach poorly.  But understand, I don't blame the prior generation of educators for this clearly obvious fact. The teachers before us had little in the way of instructional tools and next to no objective research.  Now we have tools and knowledge of best practice - that as a profession we too often fight to not implement.  Throw into the mix that the only meaningful improvements in teacher practice has occurred at campuses facing some level of adversity and the "Accountability stifles us," complaint falls flat.  However, at this point the State of Texas accountability system is a freaking training wreck. But even with that being true, the real "problem" of accountability is that now doing what we have always done ensures failure. And in spite of years of warnings and arguments to the contrary, too many schools are still doing a lot of what they have always done.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5
• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: TASSP Summer Conference (Multiple Presentations); Texas ASCD Summer Conference; ESC 14 Sumer Conference (Keynote Presentation); ESC 11 Summer Conference (Keynote Presentation); NEASP National Conference; The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote Presentation) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

Top LYS Tweets From the Week of May 4, 2014

A number of you in the LYS Nation are now Twitter users.  If you haven’t done so yet, we want you to join us.  To let you see what you are missing, here are the Top 10 LYS Tweets from the week of May 4, 2014.

1. Critical Writing and Purposeful Talk should be in every literacy classroom! (By @tra_hall)

2. Ideas are great but implementation is everything.  Decisiveness and action build confidence and momentum. Even if it is only a 70% solution. (By @TinneyTroy)

3. If retention is what is best for the student, why will there so few 19 and 20 year old students crossing the stage at the end of May? (By @LYSNation)

4. Bottom Line: Students should be learning every day they are required to be at school. If not, then what's the point of them being there? (By @BluntEducator)

5. Requiring kids read texts beyond their instructional level won't help them become independent readers. It will help them become frustrated. (By @KyleneBeers)

6. Teacher decisions in regards to environment can accelerate student achievement. (By @CabidaCain)

7. A culture that encourages questions is a culture that encourages learning. (By @Doughney)

8. At school, make the decision that is best for kids. If adults don't like it, they STILL get paid. (By @LYSNation)

9. Today's Quote:  “The simple truth is that nine-tenths of education is encouragement.” (By @DrRichAllen)

10. The Fundamental 5 (Cain & Laird) has now sold more than 57,000 copies!! Thank you, LYS Nation!!! (By @LYSNation)

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn... 

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: TASSP Summer Conference (Multiple Presentations); Texas ASCD Summer Conference; ESC 14 Sumer Conference (Keynote Presentation); ESC 11 Summer Conference (Keynote Presentation); NEASP National Conference; The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote Presentation) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook