At the beginning of the school year, the Leadership Development Program (LDP) Q1 Session collaborated on refining our Purpose, Mission, Vision, Values and aligning departmental three-year strategies. This quarter’s Leadership Development Program’s (LDP) session brought together many key concepts that reinforced Systems Design in a fresh, culture focused way. Through collective discussions, collaboration and departmental case studies, leaders focused on the power of Mattering, Upstream Thinking, Systems Design, and a Culture analysis to prompt their learning and discoveries.
The Power of Mattering: Creating a Culture of Significance
Mattering within an organization starts with asking the question: Do the people in our organization feel as though they matter and that they make a difference? This can be further guided by exploring the key Mattering skills within each Mattering category offered by Zach Mercurio, author of The Power of Mattering: How Leaders Can Create a Culture of Significance.
- Noticing: The practice of paying attention to the details of people’s lives and work and offering proactive actions to show them you’re paying attention and demonstrating a real interest in the meaning and feeling behind someone’s words and inviting their experiences, perspectives and feedback within a climate of psychological safety.
- Affirming: Showing someone their uniqueness and how they make a unique difference.
- Needing: Showing others how they and their work are essential and indispensable.
By designing systems around Mattering that prioritize relationships, Method’s leaders are shaping environments where people know they are essential to the whole. These systems include something as small as sending team members a small, personalized gift on each work anniversary, including a specific recognition of the difference they make each year. Method leaders are finding that when people know they matter, they show up with purpose, creativity, and heart.
Upstream Thinking: Preventing Problems Before They Start
In education, it can become easy to get caught in a cycle of reacting to challenges after they happen — what can be referred to as “downstream thinking.” During this LDP session, we discussed what Dan Heath’s describes as an “upstream” approach in his book called Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen. A quick snaphsot of the differences between Upstream and Downstream thinking is outlined below, along with its emphasis on Invisible Success.
The concept of Invisible Success particularly resonated with the group and we were able to identify invisible successes across the organization that go unnoticed. We spent this time to use Mattering skills and further plans to use them across all departments to ensure recognition was in place for daily upstream practices that happened every day, from ensuring student records were complete to providing students with reminder texts to log in to their courses. By thinking Upstream, Method’s leaders are investing in a future where support and success are built in, limiting reactive behavior to crisis and issues.
Designing Systems That Reflect Our Values
The LDP’s work in systems design centers on simplifying systems design so that all departments can better grasp the concept of Systems and how it can help to support their daily work for students. We developed an application activity, where teams of 3-4 across all departments conducted a case study on a system needed to be developed or refined and they shared out their work for all other leaders to learn from. The below group used detailed data reports to work on refining the system used to ensure all student records and actions are fully documented and compliant.
At the end of the Systems Design segment, each team aligned their case studies to the below outline that shows how each step: Identify a Problem, Synthesize Resources, Systems Design, Using Mattering Skills and landing at Invisible Success are a critical part of an Upstream approach.
Through collaboration, reflection, and shared learning, the team is developing processes that align with Method’s values goals of academic growth, exceeding family’s expectations and organization expansion.
Culture: Assessing Where We Are
As a closing activity, the LDP completed a culture assessment that helped to show where what the team wanted in their work culture compared to where they think the culture currently is. The assessment provided the below categories to best describe tendencies and qualities of the perceived and desired culture.
Once results were compiled, we compared the two and plotted the analysis in the below chart to demonstrate how closely the current perceived culture is with the desired. We then discussed clarity of terms along with where there are opportunities to better align.
The LDP Q2 session was ultimately impactful in refining our Upstream approach through Systems Design and reinforcing through Mattering. We continue to find that when leaders come together to learn and grow, the ripple effects are profound. The LDP’s collaboration on quarterly topics isn’t merely professional development — it’s a movement toward a more connected, intentional, and growth centered organization.
