news & updates
I'm Jonno White, founder of Clarity for Christian Schools based in Brisbane, Australia.
I walk alongside heads of Christian schools as a sounding board for important decisions.
In the past couple of years I've presented workshops at Christian Schools Australia's National Conference, the Northern Territory Christian Schools Annual Conference and for Associated Christian Schools Queensland.
I'm offering 75% off 12 months head of school support until the end of July because I'm passionate about helping to build healthy Christian schools and I have the capacity to support more heads of Christian schools in the next year.
I'd love to catch up to hear what's most important to you in 2019 in your role and to answer any questions you have.
What day and time would suit you best for a 30-min catch up over Zoom? Pick a time that works for you in...
Employee wellbeing for Christian schools
At some point, all great heads of schools have asked, "Are my people okay?"
But how can you really know how your people are going?
Here's a framework based on Tom Rath’s book, Are You Fully Charged? and Patrick Lencioni’s book, The Truth About Employee Engagement to help Christian schools measure and improve employee wellbeing.
Part one—measuring employee wellbeing in a Christian school
There are four keys to measuring employee wellbeing in a Christian school.
1. Energy
Tom Rath defines energy as making choices that improve your mental and physical health.
Christian school staff who make poor choices regarding mental and physical health will inevitably perform poorly—and even have to step back altogether at some point either by resigning or changing careers.
How to measure:
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Sleep
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Exercise
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What is school health?
Patrick Lencioni argues that successful organisations are both smart and healthy. How smart a school is includes areas such as strategy, marketing, finance and technology. These areas tend to receive a bulk of the time and energy from the school leadership team and board.
However, successful schools also need to be healthy. Smart but unhealthy schools don’t achieve exceptional results—they stagnate.
Or, even worse, they take a massive hit and are unable to recover and close down.
Lencioni explains that organisational health includes:
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Low staff turnover
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High productivity
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High morale
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Minimal confusion
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Minimal politics
How can a Christian school become healthier?
Any misalignment at a school leadership team and board level is magnified down the org chart. As a result, some confusion and poli...
Thank you to the heads of Christian schools who have reached out about our limited offer of 75% off head of school support.
We know budgets are tight in Christian schools, so we've decided to extend the offer to all heads of Christian schools until the end of July.
We hope this offer might help those with a limited budget to invest in support they wouldn't normally be able to afford.
Our vision is to see a day where Christian schools are the healthiest organisations in the world and we know having a sounding board for important decisions helps heads of schools build healthier Christian schools.
12 months head of school support includes at least two one-on-one catch ups every quarter to help heads of Christian schools to navigate important decisions relating to relationship with the board, strategic direction, HR challenge...
A free powerpoint to help you explain The Five Dysfunctions of a Team to your team, colleagues or in a keynote/workshop.
Vulnerability, conflict, commitment, accountability and results make up The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni.
You're passionate about building a healthy leadership team... but what do you do next? Well, first check you have between three and ten people on your leadership team. Yep? Great, next why don't you try one of the five dysfunctions of a team exercises. I'll unpack two exercises here for you to try with your team.
Personal histories
Excellent for building vulnerability, personal histories allows your team to practice being vulnerable. Simply allow 20 minutes in your next meeting and give everyone a few questions. Lead the process by going first yourself (as is always the case in five dysfunctions of a team exercises).
It's also worth assuming your team aren't stupid. This might sound crass, but too often as leaders we dumb things down for our team to help them understand when what people appreciate is being trusted and when we assume...
It's easy to confuse kindness and being nice. Too often, especially in Christian organisations, we think everyone must be nice all the time and that somehow this is what love is. Really? The Lencioni 5 dysfunctions dispel this myth, and I'm so thankful they do.
The easiest way to see this play out, as Lencioni explains in his books, is to think of one of your closest friends. If you were sitting over a meal with them and they looked up at you as they spoke and you saw they had a large piece of lettuce stuck in their teeth, what would you do? Would you be 'nice' and ignore it? Or would you be kind, and out of love tell them they have something in their teeth?
In teams, we need to get rid of the notion that nice equals kind. And we definitely need to stop believing that nice equals love. Lencioni 5 dysfunctions including conflict and...
Of the 5 dysfunctions, none is more important than the last one. I don't care what team you're a part of - or leading - if you're not achieving results as a team then there's no point to your team existing.
At the end of the day, teams are formed for a reason. There's an objective or a project for every team and the ultimate of the 5 dysfunctions to overcome is results. Look at an unhealthy team and rather than results you'll see individual egos doing their own thing due to a lack of vulnerability, conflict, commitment and accountability.
The opposite is true for healthy teams. 5 dysfunctions can all be overcome. It's not easy, but it is possible. Give it a go and watch your team move from individual effort to team combined goals that achieve the results your team exists to achieve.