EPISODE #145

It all starts with your Purpose

You're listening to School Leadership Reimagined episode number 145

Welcome to the school leadership re-imagined podcast where we rethink what's possible to transform your school if you're tired of settling for small wins and incremental improvement, then stay tuned to discover powerful and practical strategies for getting every teacher in your school moving towards excellence. Now here's your host, Robyn Jackson.

Hey Builders, welcome to another episode of the school leadership reimagined podcast. I'm your host, Robyn Jackson. And today we are going to continue with our new series on the school hierarchy of needs.

Last time, I gave you an overview of what it was and how it works. And today, we're going to talk about the first level, which is the purpose level.

But before we do that, a couple of cool things to share with you first of all, this year, one of the things that we're committed to doing inside of buildership University is we are committed to celebrating our wins.

For instance, Monica, who is new to buildership University, she's already shared her vision with her team. And she's received some positive feedback. And she's working on sharing that with her staff this week, and getting her vision established and going. And Danielle also shared her vision with her leadership team. And while they were saying, you know, wow, that's really ambitious, they didn't push back. Instead, they started talking about ways that they could move their school to achieve their vision. That's a huge win. And then Pauline is in buildership University, she's already working. But she's also bringing aboard another builder as Herman T. And they're getting involved. And Sue who is just a win Rockstar inside of buildership university right now, she has found a way to take a ridiculous, in her opinion of ridiculous district mandates something that's not a good fit for her school. And she's found a way to turn that into a real opportunity. And that's that's exactly how builders think we we don't, we're not victims of of district mandates. Instead, we turn them into opportunities. And then Alicia, she's got her team working on their core values. And so they're all of these winds happening inside of builder ship University every single week, and we're taking time to celebrate them. And our wins are not always test score gains, although those happen. 

But if you're just waiting for a test score game to celebrate, you miss all the important milestones that you're hitting along the way the test score gains are a result of the work that you're doing as a builder every single day.

So right now, buildership University is closed because we go through cohorts. So we have a new cohort that started at the beginning of February. And that cohort is working on achieving level one of build a ship in the next 90 days. And so we want to get everybody at least to level one, before we bring in another cohort and get everybody moving in that direction.

So stay tuned for when we're going to open up our next cohort. And you really do want to be a part of that if if you're hearing these wins, and you're saying wait a minute, I don't have that many wins in my school, but I like to have those wins, that I want you to know that those winds are possible for you and your school, no matter what your school is, you know, one of the things that people who first joined buildership University always comment on this, they say, It's really crazy how everybody is so different. We have people from all over the world. I mean, Camilla joined us from Norway last week and was able to be able to get in from Norway. We've had people from India, we have people from Canada, from Australia, from Europe, all over the world, people are joining buildership University.

And so you have this diverse group of people who have different personalities, different styles, different kinds of schools, and yet they're all seeing that same consistent progress, because they're using a system that works. And when you kind of buildership University, you'll learn what that system is. And you'll you'll get the help and the support and the encouragement and the resources you need to apply that system to your school so that you can start seeing those gains. You know, our goal is to help everybody turn their school into a success story in the next three years with the people and resources you already have. And it's not about you know, the school itself. It's really about you the way that you build better schools as you build better builders. And the nice thing about once you become a builders once you do become a builder, the skills that you learn you can use in any school so it's not about the school you're in right now.

It's about how do you take it School and turn that school into a success story. 

Hit those gates hit your vision, make achievement, predictable and consistent for 100% of your students. And how do you do that over and over again, no matter what school you're in, how do you put those systems in place so that even after you leave the school you're in those systems still endure, you have that legacy for what it really means to be a builder. And so, look out for our next cohort, a builder ship University is going to be opening in a little while and so you want to be a part of that cohort, you want to be a part of that cohort. Alright, so that's the first thing.

 The other piece of good news that I have for you is that tickets for builders Lab, our next builders lab went on sale today. And so our next builders lab is happening June 27, through 29th 2022. And we're doing another 360 degree experience. That means you don't have to worry about traveling, you can enjoy builders live from the comfort of your own office or your own home. And tickets are on sale. Now. Now, I'm going to tell you right now, I believe this one is going to sell out the way we've sold out the last two builders labs that we've had. And I believe based on the preliminary interest, that's going to happen again. So you need to go ahead and get your ticket. Now we keep builders lab small intentionally because I want to be able to spend some some concerted and intentional time with each person who's in builder's lab, you're getting the coaching, you need to really be able to grasp this builder Ship Model and find ways to apply it to your school.

So during builder's lab, we work really hard on helping you get clear about your vision, having gives you a process for establishing that mission and core values and understanding how it works so that when you go back to your school, you can get started right away. And then we talk to you about how do you move your school through these four pillars that we're talking about now, on the podcast? How do you follow that builds your model, you get your purpose established? That how do you get your people on board? How do you build their well in skill? And then how do you find the right pathway for your school?

And then finally, how do you execute on your plan with discipline until you achieve your goal.

And so we you learn that entire model at builders lab so that you can go back in to try and immediately apply it to your own school. And then build a ship University provides you with the the support the resources, the coaching, to be able to implement that model in your school. So build your slab is really about understanding and learning the model and seeing how it fits in your school builder ship University is about implementation, taking that model and putting it to work. Again, tickets are on sale now. And all you need to do to get your ticket is go to mind steps inc.com/builders-lab. That's mind step think.com/builders-lap.

All right, ready to dive in to our builders ship hierarchy of needs.

I hope you are because I've been so excited to talk to you about this. 

And I'm going to tell you what, even this week with some of the principles that I'm coaching and some of the superintendents that I'm coaching right now, we got back to purpose, there are some challenges that some of these principals and superintendents are facing in their school. And when we use the hierarchy of needs, we got to the root cause of the challenges. I'll give you a couple of example, one principal is facing this increase in student disciplinary issues, the students are just kind of, I don't know if it's because they have been out of school for so long. They're back in school, they can't keep their hands to themselves, there's, there's a lot of there are a lot more meltdowns happening. And so she immediately wanted to kind of put a new disciplinary policy in place.

Now, you've heard me talk about in the past, this is something that comes up a lot and build a ship University. And we I always have the same answer, which is, before you put a disciplinary policy in place, what are your vision, mission and core values? Because if not, you're creating a disciplinary policy out of context. Now she's saying, but my immediate problem is, I've got to get discipline in place. And I say, yeah, you can do a short term fix. That's what leadership trains you to do slap a bandaid over it. But you'll be solving the same problem year after year after year. What if you could solve the problem once and for all. And if you do that, let's go to the base need.

And what we realize is that she doesn't have core values in place. And without those core values, any disciplinary policy she puts in place is going to be askew, it's not going to work as well. Because without those core values, your discipline policy doesn't have context. And the students don't have a consistent reminder about about what is non negotiable in terms of how we operate in the school. Core values are for your staff, and your students and your families and everyone who who interacts with your school, everyone is held to the same set of core values. And if you don't have those established, first, your discipline policy is really about dealing with infractions after they happen and not preventing infractions from happening in the first place.

Now, I think I told you about Kevin, who is a core values OG and Kevin, you know, just let slip recently that by starting with core values and rooting the discipline in those core values his school his high school went from having the largest number of suspensions in his district to the fewest number of suspensions in his district. And that started with a discipline policy that wasn't just a discipline policy that wasn't just about suspending kids and, and and and and cataloguing infractions and trying to match punishments to those infractions. That discipline policy was rooted in those core values. And Kevin has this great way of explaining it and how those core values act as guardrails for student behavior to help students understand what where the lines are, so that students are staying within those lines. And therefore they're, they're not acting out, they're not getting put out as fast when teachers do face misbehavior. They address that misbehavior through the lens of the core values so that they can prevent it from ever happening again, if you don't do that, then you are going to waste time creating a disciplinary policy that you're then going to have to enforce. And it's not going to stop the problem, it's not going to deal with the root of the problem.

 I'll give you another example. A superintendent is frustrated, because many of his principals have abandoned instructional leadership, because they're busy contact tracing, and they're busy. You know, they actually aren't contact tracing as much anymore. But they're subbing for classes, and they're dealing with culture issues, and they're overwhelmed themselves after being in the pandemic for two years. And so he's trying to figure out what can we take off of principals plates, because they're so overwhelmed? And I said, Well, what is your vision, and he talked about his vision. So I said, so the things that you're thinking about taking off the plates, the things that you're complaining about, you can't take off their plates, because those are the things that are most necessary for their vision.

Let's take a look at everything else on their plates. And anything that's not aligned with our vision, mission and core values. Those are candidates to come off their plates, you see if you just randomly take things off their plates. And what we saw was one of the things that was under consideration, one of the things that the principals were actually complaining about was something that was crucial to the district's movement towards the vision.

Now, if you take that off principals plates, sure you give principals a temporary relief, but you set your district back in terms of its pursuit of your vision. 

And in fact, one of the reasons that the principals were complaining about that was that that was being piled on 20 Other things that had nothing to do with anything, but that were just kind of artifacts from from years past and policies past, the principals were being asked to continue to do. And so this new thing, have the same level of importance as some of those old things in their minds, because they the superintendent wasn't sifting everything through the district vision.

And so when you don't have that vision in place, people can't prioritize. Everything feels like a priority. And When Everything Feels like a priority, nothing does. One of the things that I've learned over the last few years are teaching about vision, mission and core values. And I'll be honest, it shocked me a little bit, it's a little surprising is how often the problems that schools are facing, have the root cause and vision, mission and core values. I've been a part of tons of those root cause exercises, you know, I used to teach the five why's I can do the five why's and I can make those five why's turned out to make them say anything that I want them to say. And I've done the fishbone exercise and all these other root cause analyses.

And at the end of the day, they never get you to the root cause they help you guess they help you look at data a little differently. But most of the time they have you running in circles and chasing your tail. You want to get to the real root cause. First thing you have to ask is, is it an issue of vision, mission or core values? Every single problem you face in your school has its roots, and one of those three things.

And so, a lot of times when I go in and I'm coaching a school, and they you know, they look at me like I'm some sort of genius because I can get to the root cause really quickly, like, wow, I hadn't thought about that. And I'm not a genius, I promise you I'm not a genius. But since I know that every problem has its root in either your vision mission or core values. That framework helps me get to the root quickly. Because there that it's a fact every problem has its root and your vision, mission and core values.

And usually every problem that you face in your school is because it threatens your vision mission and provides It's a problem because it threatens your vision, mission and core values. 

So let's talk about some things you know, like teacher overwhelm right now, a lot of people are experiencing that. Teachers are burned out they're leaving, you know, you get teachers resigning, giving you two weeks notice in the middle of the school year, and you know that a lot of teachers are out and you're having to find subs and and so people are stressed out right now. And you're thinking, Well, what does that have to do with my vision, in fact, I need to stop pushing my vision because that's stressing my teachers out, I need to slow down on my mission because it's stressing my teachers out. And maybe now's not a good time to do core values, because my teachers can't take one more meeting.

Here's what builders know, teachers can't take one more stupid meeting, they can handle another meeting, they just can't handle another stupid meeting. But if you had a meeting where you sat down and talked about your vision, mission and core values, why are we here, and let's prioritize our work based on something we all believe in our vision mission and core values, teachers will have that meeting, because that meeting is clarifying and engaging and encouraging and inspiring. And it gets them focused on what they really want to focus on in the first place.

So people always say, oh, you know, we have so many student discipline problems, well, if you don't have a set of core values, that kind of guide your work, you're gonna always have a lot of student discipline problems, because you're playing Whack a Mole. When you establish those core values, those non negotiables in your building, and everybody gets themselves into alignment, those non negotiables a lot of your discipline problems disappear. You know, people say, Well, we are dealing with students lack of motivation, right now, a lot of our students are apathetic, well, you know what, probably because your work is off mission, you see if your mission is that you're going to help students become true owners of their learning, or your mission is that we want our students to be independent thinkers, then a lot of your students are apathetic, because when you walk into their classrooms, they don't own anything, or you walk into their classrooms, they're being they're being put in a position where they can sit and get, but not that they own their own learning. So over and over again, when I walk into schools, and they say, Yeah, let's we'll get to vision, mission and core values later, right.

Now we need to solve this problem, I promise you, if you don't have vision, mission and core values in place, any quote unquote, solution that you find to your problem is a bandaid and it doesn't eliminate the problem, it just delays the problem, it just kicks the can down the road, that problem is going to show up again, because you haven't done the foundational work, you know, you build a house from the ground up, you have to have a strong foundation first, if you try to put walls and windows in place, and then go back and put the foundation in later on, you're going to have a disaster of a house.

The same thing is true for your school. 

I know that there are problems that are immediate, that you know, you got to deal with right away, and you feel like you got to deal with those right away. And then I'll do my vision, mission and core values. But the vision mission and core values are the foundation, they're the foundation for everything else many of you are dealing with hiring season right now. And it's something that we're going to be tackling is how to build a ship University this month is looking at how to handle hiring season.

And you've heard me say this before people hire for skill and fire for Well, what you should do is as you're interviewing people you should be looking for are these people who are in alignment with our core values, and believe in our vision and our mission. If they're not, they're not a good fit for your school, I don't care what their qualifications are. And if you did that, you'd have less toxicity in your culture, because you're bringing people into your culture, who already share those fundamental foundational beliefs with you. They believe in your vision and your mission and your core values. And they see your core values as non negotiable the way you do. But most of us go in and just like, I need a math teacher, where can I find a math teacher, we go into an interview, and we're like, oh, that person was really impressive. And we never pressed to see if they align with our vision, mission and core values. And then they get in our building, and they wreak all kinds of havoc. Well, you know what the root cause was vision, mission and core values. And you didn't look for that. And those people are not in alignment with the vision, mission and core values you have in your school, and you bring them into your school, they're going to destroy your culture.

So it always starts there. 

And the problem is that we have, especially in the last two years, gotten into the habit of putting out fires and randomly attacking every problem that shows up, rather than doing the work of establishing that foundation.

Or like, Oh, it's cold in here. Let's put a window up. Oh, wait, in order to do a window, we need walls. Okay, so we throw a wall up, and then we wonder why the wall is wobbly and not working? And why the windows crack? Well, we don't have a foundation. You can't put vision mission and core values off. That's where it start. Because ultimately, that's the root cause.

So a lot of people get upset with me in the short term. When they say here's my immediate problem. And I say, yeah, well the root of that is that you don't have a clear vision or you're not thinking about the mission of the work. You don't clarity around that or you're you don't have core values that are truly non negotiable in your school. And they look at those things as luxury and they say, Yeah, okay, I'll get to that. But right now, I really have to solve this. You're not going to solve it. If you don't vision mission and core values. Even if you grab it to some discipline policy, even if you, you know, you go to the hiring fair and you hired the most qualified candidate, even if you give teachers a wellness day or you know, create a cart that you ride through the building, and then give you know, teachers, coffee and deliver it to their classrooms, or, you know, send them candy hearts for about Valentine's day is gone. I don't know, say you give them like, I don't know leprechauns for St. Patrick's Day, or whatever it is that you're doing. Those things are not going to solve the problem. You know, what drives me crazy. I probably shouldn't say this, but if you know started now, so go ahead.

I seen a lot of principle groups online. People asking questions like, does anybody have a cute idea to do for Teacher Appreciation? And then people like, well, at my school, we did this and they all cute ideas. I even get caught up in I'm like, Oh, that's really cute. Or, you know, we have Mr. Booth, we had a Mrs. Come in the staff lounge, and everybody got a 15 minutes seated back massage. That sounds great. But if you don't have a clear vision, mission and core values, people will take your massage and still curse you all the way to and from that massage. And it won't change anything. If you have clarity around your vision, mission and core values, you know, ask for cute ideas about staff appreciation, what you do is you design intentional, Staff Appreciation, not on Staff Appreciation Day, but every day, you're affirming people as they pursue your vision, you're affirming people because their work stays on mission, you're affirming people because they truly embrace and embody your core values. The appreciation means more because it's connected to something bigger than just oh, people are starting, they're going to turn on me in a second.

So I better feed the teachers before they eat the kids. 

If your approach is that kind of approach, you will constantly play a game of very involved whack a mole, where you're constantly batting at problems and you're not solving them. You see when when you look at your problems through the lens of leadership, every problem seems like a big problem. And every problem seems almost equal in magnitude. And so it can feel very overwhelming when you feel like I've got 20 problems. And they all need to be solved right away.

Filters builders think differently. Instead of looking at every problem and seeing every problem is equal. Builders are saying what is the most important problem for me to solve first, because they're looking always at where's my bottleneck? Guess I've got 20 problems, but they're not all critical for me to solve right now. So they find that bottleneck. And when they find that bottleneck, they say it's always goes back to okay, it's got to be an issue of vision, mission and core values. The more I get those straight, the more I open up these bottlenecks, the more I solve these problems, builders don't get distracted by symptoms.

Instead, what builders do is they focus on the foundation.

I'll challenge you right now, think of any problem that you're dealing with right now, whether it's a resistant teacher, whether it's a district mandate that's come down that that you know, is not the right direction for your school, whether it's, I don't have half my kids coming to school, because they they have community exposure, or they're dealing with COVID, or they had a family member dealing with COVID, or at the close a classroom.

So on any given day, I've got 60% attendance in my school, I don't have enough teachers to cover all the classes. And so, you know, on a given day, me and all of my staff are covering classes, I've even got, you know, the custodian teaching a class, any problem that you're facing right now. And I guarantee you, if you think about it long enough, it's either because you don't have clarity around, what are we building, or it's threatening what you're building, you don't have clarity around why it's important, or it's threatening the importance of your work, or you don't clarity about what's my role, or someone is acting outside of the role? Those are the three most important questions every organization has to answer. And the answer is very clear. What are we building vision? Why is it important mission? What's my role? Core values?

And so when you have those things in place, then all of a sudden your problems have context. And you know, when you've gotten the right solution, you see, without a vision, mission and core values, any solution sounds good. You go to a conference and you're like, Oh, I heard this person speak. They have the same problem we have this is their solution. And you take their solution out of their context and try to put in your context and it doesn't work and then you're saying oh, you know, must either the solution didn't work. or some of us beat ourselves up and say I didn't do it right? It must be something wrong with me because that principle made it work in their school. Why can't I make it work in my school, we'll never say that allow but inside, we're beating ourselves up, we you know why it didn't work, because their solution work because that solution was in alignment with their vision, their mission, their core values may not be in alignment with yours. So, at the root of every problem is your purpose. And because of that, the most important work you can do as a builder is to build the foundation first.

I know it feels like a luxury, I know it feels like we don't have time to have a core values conversation right now. 

You don't time not to. Because all those things that feel urgent right now, don't go away unless you get this part done first. So when you do that, when you when you when you create that foundation, you have now created something in which people can anchor, you know, one of the hardest parts of, of of, of the last couple of years is that they have felt very destabilizing Korean school, are we out of school or remote? Are we hybrid? Okay, we're going back to school. Oh, no, we got to go home again, because there's a new outbreak. Okay. A lot of districts now are even doing rolling closures where every morning you get up like it's a snow day, and you look on the TV to figure out if your school is going to be open or not. People are thrown off. And guess what, it's not just the pandemic, the geopolitical landscape of the world right now is destabilizing, you know, are we at war are we going to war are we do we have a pandemic, it's a pandemic over.

All these other issues are happening, and it's so destabilizing, that people are feeling unmoored. And that's what's leading to a lot of our overwhelm. But when you have a vision, mission and core values, you give people stability, you say, Listen, I don't know what the district's going to do. I don't know what's going to happen in the world. But here's what I do know, no matter what happens, we're going to pursue our vision, mission and core values. And when you do that, when you give people that anchor, all of a sudden, they feel a sense of security, they feel like they can trust the work, because it doesn't change. It's not buffeted about by whatever's happening outside of school, when they come to work every day, they know that the circumstances of their job may change. But the point of their job never changes.

We're always pursuing this vision, because of this mission in a way that aligns with these core values that they can trust. And they also can trust your decisions. Because when you make a decision that's in alignment with your vision, mission and core values, they know that you're making the right decision, even if they don't understand it, or agree with it.

And so a lot of the arguments, a lot of the pushback, a lot of the resistance goes away, because everybody is agreed upon this vision, mission and core values, and everybody's anchored in that. The second thing that happens and why purpose is the first step, it always is the first step is that when everything is important, nothing is so what we've been trained to do as leaders is we make a list of our problems, and then we try to fix them one by one. And so it feels like we're knocking things off our list. We're grinding through all the problems.

But when you do that, we don't if you're not solving the right problems in the right order, and in the right way, all you're doing is exhausting yourself. And those problems pop up over here. Principal said to me one time when I look to the east, they come in at me from the west. And if you're feeling like that, if you're feeling like you're you're always solving new problems that are popping up every single day, and you can't stay focus. The problem is that you are treating every problem as important. Your vision mission and core values helps you figure out which problems to solve, in which order. What are the priorities and what aren't the priorities. This can be really important for your teachers, because one of these are overwhelmed as everything feels important.

After all, we're talking about students lives here. 

So so everything is urgent, we got to get the reading scores up. And we have to differentiate and we have to have student engagement. And we have to have alignment with the standards. And you come in with your evaluation tool. And you're giving them random feedback on all these different things. And they don't know what to address first. And so they're just overwhelmed. When you come back and you've got that priority, here's our vision. So here's the most important thing that you need to be doing in your classroom right now, in order to move us towards our vision. It gives teachers a sense of security. I just got a note from someone the other day who says that, who told me that, you know, in spite of everything that's happening, they've really been focusing on that. That one thing feedback, really anchoring that feedback in the vision and the teachers are so appreciative because they know what to do they have a priority And and and that priority is being reinforced by the administration coming into the room. And what's more important is that not only do teachers feel they have a priority, the teachers are making progress. And now they're coming back. And they're saying, Okay, so what's the next one thing, and teachers are excited about moving and improving, because you're not trying to fix everything at once. You're prioritizing based on your vision, your mission and your core values.

Even when the district comes down with with with a with a mandate, and you feel like you have no choice, when you have a vision, mission and core values, then you feel anchored in that and you can push back or you can take a district mandate and turn it so that it serves your vision, mission and core values and protect the teachers you serve. But from things that are going to take them off track from that, and you're empowered to do that.

So just did that this week. And it's making a difference, she's turning something that would have been another source of stress to her teachers, and to something that she's leveraging to move her school towards that vision. You see, the obvious stuff is really a problem. And even though there's a saying the squeaky wheel gets the grease, the squeaky wheel is not the thing that needs the grease.

So my challenge to you this week is this. Take a look at the challenges that you're facing right now. And sift those challenges through your vision mission and core values. Got discipline issues, ask yourself, do we have core values in our building? Is is our work in alignment with those core values? Do we have clarity about what our mission is so that when we have to discipline students, we can discipline them through the lens of our core values and make sure that we're staying on mission in our work? Do we understand how these discipline issues are really threatening our vision so that we can create a discipline process that's going to actually help move students towards our vision, and not undermine what we're trying to do with our vision mission and core values? Got teacher problems, teachers not doing what they need to be doing teachers pushing back teachers checking out? Do we have a set of core values that we're all holding each other accountable to? Do we have a mission? And? And is the work we're asking teachers to do taking them so far off mission that they're checking out? Do we have clarity around the vision? And do we do? Do we have everyone embracing that vision and having that commitment to that vision? If not, no wonder of apathetic No wonder the checked out.

You got problems with with a district asking you to do something you want to do? 

Are you clear about your vision, mission and core values? And is there a way to take that district mandate and make it serve your vision, mission and core values? And if not, then you have, you're armed with something to be able to push back in the dish with a district. And you've got results that empower you to be able to push back with the district, because they're not going to mess with you if what you're doing it's working. Got got got issues around your own motivation. Now, one of our principals, and builders University said to me, I used to dislike my staff, I never would say it aloud. But I really couldn't stand those people because I felt like they were lazy. And I felt like they weren't really moving forward. And so when you told me I had to do a core values exercise with them, I thought it was going to be a waste of time, because and I was worried what are the core values are going to come up with because they're just going to come up with core values or try to avoid work, they're fighting me all the time. They don't want to do anything. But when she had the core values, conversation, they got to the root of a lot of the toxic behavior that was happening amongst the staff. And she said, Now I love coming to work, same people, same staff. But what before core values, they're butting heads, they're fighting. After her values. Everybody's getting along, everybody's moving in the same direction. Everybody's supporting each other, everybody's being more accountable.

And I see questions all the time. Like if a teacher is chronically late, what do I do about it? Well, without a vision, mission and core values, not much. I have a teacher who is calling out all the time and is chronically absent, and or doesn't get us. What do I do about it? What about vision, mission and core values? Not much can do. I have a teacher who continues to struggle and the kids are failing? And I don't care what kind of feedback I give a teacher. What can I do without vision mission core values? couple of tricks or strategies, maybe but is it going to move the teacher and get the teacher move in the right direction? Probably not. People say well, you know, my kids are just out of control this year. I've got to go get the building and control first before I can get a vision mission and core values. Good luck with that.

The starting point, if you really want to solve problems, so they never show up again. It's always going to be the purpose level. And the reason is simple because without a purpose. What are you doing without without a without a common purpose, you don't have an organization, you have a collection of people. If you want to build a school, or build a district or build an organization, that's going to hit that 100% goal, you got to tell them what the goal is, you got to help people understand why that goal is so important. And you got to help everybody understand that role, the role they will play in achieving that goal, vision, mission core values, that's your foundation.

So if your school is struggling, first step in the hierarchy of needs, you got to get back to that purpose, it got to get back to that purpose. And if you're struggling right now, you don't know what your vision is, then we have a free vision workshop that we do every month inside of builders university, you have to be a member of builders ship University join it, but we have a free tier builders university, you can join today for free. And that workshop, you can come to that workshop, and we will help you get a vision, get that vision established. So at least you know where your school is going. And I promise you, once you have that vision, a lot of the other stuff you're struggling with becomes a lot more clear. Because it's a matter of does this align with our vision, does it not, it doesn't align with our vision, we shouldn't be doing it. If it does align with our vision, we need to double down on it, because that's gonna help us get to our vision. And from there, once you have that vision, then you build the mission, then you build the core values, and then you start getting everything in alignment with that, you do those things. And a lot of your problems go away, they go away for good.

So this week, my challenge to you is this.

Take a look at your challenges, the problems that you're facing right now. 

And start considering how the vision, the mission and the core values of your organization can help you solve those problems. How being in more alignment with your vision, mission and core values, makes those problems go away. And then we're going to be doing an Ask Me Anything inside of builder ship University, we do one every single month. Look out for that and come to the next Ask me anything, and bring those challenges with you. And we'll spend some time looking at how at the root of those challenges is always going to be vision, mission and core values. And I'm telling you once you see that so much other things become clearer, you don't have to scratch your head and wonder how do I solve it, it always comes back to your vision, mission and core values. That's the first place you solve it. 

So ask me anything look on. If you're a member of buildership University, look at the calendar for the next Ask me anything. And that is free to join us free to join buildership University, and it's open to everybody inside of buildership University, bring your challenge, and we will get to the root of it together. And when you do that, when when you start with a vision, mission and core values that purpose, and you get that firmly established. That's how you can eliminate a lot of your problems once and for all, like a builder. I'll talk to you next time. 

Hey, if you're ready to get started being a builder right away, then I want to invite you to join us at buildership University. It's our exclusive online community for builders just like you where you'll be able to get the exact training that you need to turn your school into a success story right now with the people and resources you already have. Inside you'll find our best online courses, live trainings with me tons of resources, templates and exemplars and monthly live office hours with me where you can ask me anything and get my help on whatever challenge you're facing right now.

Thank you for listening to the School Leadership Reimagined podcast for show notes and free downloads visit https://schoolleadershipreimagined.com/

School Leadership Reimagined is brought to you by Mindsteps Inc, where we build master teachers.