Have you heard the joke about the logistic-minded bride-to-be?\u00a0 It goes like this.\u00a0 Once there was a man who fell in love.\u00a0 He couldn’t imagine living a day without his perfect wife, so mustering all of his courage he got down on one knee and asked his potential fianc\u00e9 the big question, “will you marry me?”\u00a0 Understanding how important of a question this was the bride paused to think deeply about what she was being asked, and finally replied, “is the chapel available on that day?”<\/p>\n
Alright, I’ll be the first to admit I shouldn’t quit my day job for a new career in comedy.\u00a0 Still my joke has an important lesson, when dealing with matters of the heart don’t think about the logistics.\u00a0 Of course, that’s not to say that logistics aren’t important, in fact they’re crucial, and really what helps the world go round, but our communities suffer when when we allow logistics to determine our school programs.<\/p>\n
Lately, I’ve been reminded by the good work Sherry Miller and her crew at Empowerment Unlimited have done to transform schools to help refresh and discover their core mission, vision, and purpose (check out my interview with her here<\/a>).\u00a0 Core mission and vision?\u00a0 Yeah those things we have written in our admissions literature and handbooks.\u00a0 Often these statements and goals never come off the paper their written on, and at the very least do little to transform and lead the schools for whom they’re created.\u00a0 Of course this doesn’t mean that schools without vibrant mission and vision statements don’t have a powerful decision making tool, because they do, the all-powerful logistics filter.<\/p>\n Which brings me back to my joke and my main point of this blog entry, when an organization lacks a powerful mission and vision, it defaults decision making to a logistic filter, which often asks the wrong question “could we do it?” instead of “should we do it?”\u00a0 The difference between these two words is critical, when you ask “could” first you might forget to ask “should.”\u00a0 On the other hand if you ask “should” first you determine whether “could” even needs to be asked. \u00a0 And if if you say yes to “should” you put logistics back to where it belongs, serving our schools and the program, not running it.<\/p>\n