4 Questions to Guide Your School District's Next Strategic Planning Session

Each year every superintendent and his or her team need to invest the time in strategic planning.

Like a space shuttle headed to the moon, constant course corrections need to take place. A strategic planning session can help to tweak the direction and focus of your school district.

Here are 4 main questions with sub questions to ask your team that will guide your next strategic planning session.

1. Where are you now? How are you positioned in the academic market place? What are your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?

2. How did you get here? What decisions and actions have led your school district to where it is now?

3. Where do you want your school district to be in the next 3 to 5 years? What kind of standards must you meet? How do you want your value to be perceived in the community?

4. How will you and your team get there? What are the strategies you will implement? Who are the people you need on your team? Who do you need to add or deploy? Which programs and external consultants do you need to get there?

When done properly, your annual strategic planning session can keep your school district on course and effectively deal with the challenges it will inevitably face.

Tom Borg Consulting, LLC works with schools systems that are having issues with retaining students and community support.
For additional information on how we can help your team with its next strategic planning session please contact our office at 734-404-5909.

Ten Tips on Dealing with Change in Your School District

Here are 10 tips to help you deal with change more effectively.

1. Don’t be surprised by trouble.
2. Don’t act like a “clenched fist”.
3. Allow for renewal on a regular basis.
4. Find something to be cheerful about when you are unhappy.
5. Accept what you cannot change.
6. Remember to live one day at a time. If that is too difficult try one hour at a
time.
7. Count your blessings.
8. Don’t forget that based on the law of averages only 8% of the things we worry
about are worth being concerned about and taking action.
9. Remember the saying “This too, shall pass”.
10. Expect you will have control over your future and then take action.

For more information on Tom Borg Consulting, LLC and our services please contact our office at 734-404-59096 or visit our website at: www.TomBorgConsulting.com

Communicating Clearly with Your Staff-Public Schools, MI

If you are a superintendent or principal, it is critical that you use as many tools as possible to help you communicate effectively. Most people will criticize things they don’t understand.  In order for you to be convincing, you must keep your communication tools as sharp as possible.

 One of the best ways to verbally convey ideas that may need some explanation, is to use something called an analogy. An analogy is taking something that is familiar and comparing it to something that is not familiar. By taking this approach, it allows the listener to bridge the gap between something they are already accustomed to, to something they are not. Using an analogy can be the difference between having the person or group you are talking to agree or not agree with you.

For example, if you were trying to explain what the office paper shredder does, you could use an analogy of how a cheese shredder works. A cheese shredder takes a block of cheese and slices it into tiny fragments. The office paper shredder does the same, only it takes paper and cuts it up into very small pieces

Another example is, if you were trying to explain how easy it is to accomplish a major project. You could use the analogy of how a large bundle of twigs cannot be broken in half as a bundle, but when taken apart, each twig could be easily broken. It is similar to how you can break a major project down into small enough tasks that would allow the person to easily complete them one at a time. By taking this approach, the entire project would gradually be completed.

Using an analogy to communicate your ideas can help you gain the understanding and support you need to communicate your ideas effectively.

Tom Borg of TomConsulting, LLC.  located in Canton, MI. works with public school superintendents and principals to help them keep the support of the parents of their students and keep student retention consistent.. You can contact him email him at tomborg@tomborgconsulting.com  visit his website at www.TomBorgConsulting.com or call him at 734-404-5909.

How to Improve Your School System Overnight

Here are four questions that when honestly answered can create the kind of leadership in your public school and begin to change your system overnight.

1. What do we want?
2. What are we doing?
3. How is that working for our school system?

4. What are we willing to do differently?

For more help with this thought process or to implement changes that can dramatically improve your organization, please contact us. We would be happy to help you make some significant changes in your school system. 734-404-5909 or email us at: TomBorg@TomBorgConsulting.com or visit our website at www.TomBorgConsulting.com

How to Create the Right Brand for Your School District - Brand Awareness – Part 1 of 4

There are four basic levels of branding you can create for your public school district:
Brand Awareness - people know about you.
Brand Image – what people think about you.
Brand Preference - they prefer your services or products to others, but they will use others.
Brand Insistence - they demand your services or products and no one else.

In this article let’s look at Brand Awareness. Brand Awareness is something your school district earns by being visible in the marketplace. Some of the things you can use to create brand awareness are advertising, publicity, public relations or word of mouth. In other words your prospects become more aware of who you are and what you do.

For example, Target Department stores, advertises on a regular basis. Their post cards and newspaper advertising help create an awareness of who they are and what they sell.  Target could get publicity by building a new store. In order to develop public relations they might sponsor or contribute to some charitable event. Of course, word of mouth would come from what their customers are saying about them to their friends and business acquaintances.

Regarding your school district, you could advertise in many different ways. One great way is to do what Wayne-Westland Community Schools does. They create and periodically mail out a publication called Wayne-Westland Connections to the parents of the students in their school district. This excellent piece does a number of things. First it communicates to the parents timely and important information about their school district. In the fall edition, it publishes the start and dismissal time of all of their schools. It also includes a school bus schedule of all of the pickup times and locations. This is vital information to most parents and their children.

Publicity is another way to build your brand awareness for your school district. Articles about your school that you can submit to your local newspaper are a good example of this.

Public relations can go a long ways in helping create brand awareness for your school district. It is here that a good public relations firm can help you craft a campaign of messages that are communicated to the community.

Word of mouth, by far the most powerful, is what people say about your school district to their friends and acquaintances. This is the result of all of the other efforts you put into place, i.e. the quality of service you provide, how you handle the problems that come up, and how you deliver what you promise.

In summary, good brand awareness is something your school district earns by consistently doing the right things to be visible in the marketplace.

Contact our office for more information on how we can help you build your customer service culture and market your school district effectively. You can reach us at Tom Borg Consulting, LLC 734-404-5909 or visit our website at:
www.TomBorgConsulting.com

The 3 R's to Handling Customer Complaints

Every organization receives complaints. The key is turning a complaint into win-win situation.

Too often employees and managers take the client or customer’s complaint personally and get defensive. It would be better if they took the complaint professionally and look at the complaint as an opportunity to fix what went wrong and if possible keep the customer. The second reason is to take an action that would prevent that sort of problem from reoccurring in the future with other customers.

The first R in my formula stands for the word RESPECT.  It is critical that you show respect to the customer.  You can do this by listening and letting the customer vent their feelings and frustration. The longer you are able to listen, the better. Use cushion statements to ease the frustration level of the customer.  A cushion statement is anything you say or do that shows the customer you empathize with their concern. Some examples would be: “You are right to feel concerned” or “That must be frustrating”.

The next R stands for the word RAPPORT. You can develop rapport with the person by sincerely apologizing for any trouble that was caused by the person who experienced the problem. One way you could say this is: “Mr. Jones, I want apologize for any trouble this has caused you”. Then thank them for bringing this concern to their attention.

The third R stands for RESOLVE. Here is where you resolve the situation to the best of your ability. One question you could ask is: “What action would you like us to take?” Many times the complaining person’s idea of a resolution is much less than you would think. The key here is to take action and if possible, resolve the problem.

By following this three step process you will be able to use your customer’s complaints to strengthen and grow your business.

By Tom Borg ©2013

Tom Borg Consulting, LLC., is a consulting group that specializes in outside the box strategic planning, leadership training, team building, and customer culture transformation, for public school systems in Michigan and the United States. For a free 30 minute consulting session or for more information please call 734-404-5909 or visit our website at www.TomBorgConsulting.com

Put Healthy Humor to Work in Your School System

Have you ever noticed how laughter can make for a more productive and healthy business or school system? It seems that when people are able to laugh with each other, they are happier, and more motivated to do the things necessary to make their establishment a better work place. Students and parents are served more completely, and in turn, are more satisfied with the school system. A positive upbeat atmosphere that greets the customers or clients each time they call or visit, positively affects their mood as well. Generally speaking, people like being part of a school system and interact with others who like themselves and like their place of work.

When laughter goes out of an organization, it becomes a place where people abhor coming to work, and the organization starts to die a little bit. If you are a public school administrator, it is up to you to set the pace for your employees and the people you serve.

If you are an employee, it is important to bring a sense of healthy humor and laughter to work. One of the number one reasons people work for a school system is they like the other people with whom they work.

Whether you are a superintendent,  principal, teacher, bus driver, food service employee, maintenance person or some other employee, here are four ways to use laughter to improve the work environment in your organization. First, set the example; look for opportunities where healthy humor can be used. Many times it is poking fun right at yourself, it could be something you said or did. It could pertain to a particular situation you found yourself in, or how you handled it.

Next, don’t inappropriately poke fun at others that put them down, make fun of their religion, or their physical looks. No one likes to be the butt of a joke, because it can cause them to feel embarrassed or self-conscious.

Mike Brown suggests, “Signal a laughing opportunity through your words, actions, and tone. It’s also a good practice to give people “permission” to laugh in the workplace.” Many times you have to give others permission to have a little fun on the job. Some leaders believe you should simply put your head down and work all day long. No casual conversation or laughter is allowed in their organizations. This is a mistake. When people cannot indulge in some light kibitzing and joking, it makes for an environment that can be extremely depressing. Most people will not want to work in this kind of environment for long.

Finally, use humor to diffuse tension. Done appropriately, it can communicate to others that there is life after a work crisis, and that this wasn’t the first problem, and certainly won’t be the last. Life goes and so will your school system.

For more information on how Tom Borg Consulting, LLC can help make your school system more successful please contact our office at 734-404-5909 or visit our website at: www.TomBorgConsulting.com