Educational Management

We are preparing to undergo a new style audit that the Ministry of Education (New Zealand) have put in place for all educators that teach post Secondary school.

The main emphasis and thrust behind this audit is the ability to reflect.  In the traditional system of auditing  the paperwork was checked and we try to laud how good we are while simultaneously hide anything we aren't good at.

Under the new system the evaluators want to see

• How well do we understand what we do - that is teach,
• How we do know how we are doing,
• How are we improving.

I think these questions are really self audit questions that every manager and employee should ask themselves about their position within the company and in their relationship with the customer.

I have captured the three main reflection questions in a different way.  Try answering these questions and see what answers you get -

1. What do you do to help our students learn/customers spend/ clients succeed?
2. How do you know how well it works?  What are the results?  What evidence do you have?
3. What are you doing to improve it?

(Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/venndiagram/4445273071/)

Quaterly Performance Review

The first three months of 2010 have passed already. So now is a good time time to go back and review the goals and objectives that I set for for the year and assess - where am I up to in my progress?

My original resolutions and focus areas can be summarised as follows -

1. Compliance.
2. Excellence.
3. Teamwork.

So how do I rate my progression so far this year?

Compliance -A; Excellence - B+; Teamwork - B+.

(Note - I usually rate myself a bit harder than I should so I am happy with the results to date.)

• Compliance is the single biggest area that needed working on. And I feel that I am succeeding in that. Compliance is defined as - following instructions, adhering to regulations and making sure others are aware and also comply with the guidelines set out for the organisation.
• Excellence is coming along nicely and it's always easier to a task properly or the best of our ability when it is something we care about and get some fulfillment out of.
• Teamwork is going well. This year has been odd because the 'team' I manage has changed. I now have seperate two areas to focus on. In order to look after both I have had to let go of who I thought was most important (staff) for others who are just as important but take up far more of my time (students).

As far as my personal goals go - I am well on my way to getting to where I want to be. By July I will have completed half my goals for the year which will line me up nicely for finishing the year that I thought I would at the beginning of the year.

"We have no control of the locations of our dreams, we do however control the steps and paths we take on our way to get there." (Me).

How are your goals going so far this year? Are you achieving? What area's do you think you need to spend a bit more time on before you make your next appraisal?

List - Audits

Creating the list

...is not the same as obeying the list.

Do you make the list you check off, follow and work on every day? When does it get made? Who approves it? Do you identify tasks or perform them?

If you had a better list, would you do better work? If you made the list instead of just obeying it, would you be a more valuable member of the team?

Yes, asking questions is often more valued than answering them. (If they're the right questions.)

(Source: This series of audit questions comes to you from: Seth Godin)

These questions are very similar to the questions I posed yesterday. However Seth's view is more micro where as mine was macro.

It is important to remember to view the world from other's perspectives and not just your own.

"I've got a new invention. It's a revolving bowl for tired Goldfish." Lefty Gomez.