Remember the book, “Good To Great” by Jim Collins, which was published in 2001?\u00a0 The complete title is, “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t” (since every management text today must have a colon and an independent phrase its title).\u00a0 Here are the first four chapters:<\/p>\n
If you look at this book as a planning tool, it’s a step-by-step process.<\/p>\n
The first step is “mindset.”\u00a0 Change it.\u00a0 Don’t accept “Good.”<\/p>\n
As education professionals, we shouldn’t.\u00a0 Good is a “B”.\u00a0 Great equates to achieving to our potential as leaders of an organization…and as educators, we want all our kids to get “A”‘s, right?\u00a0 But only if they earn them and achieve to their potential.<\/p>\n
As leaders of a faith-based school, why should we accept anything less from ourselves, right?<\/p>\n
But upon further examination, “Great” is really B+ or A-.\u00a0 Most school administrators I know would claim “academic excellence” is a hallmark of their school, or an attribute that is constantly being pursued.\u00a0 After all, when parents are comparing education environments for their children, you can see the what can happen if the “great” educational program has a higher tuition than an “excellent” education program.<\/p>\n
Also, once again, “good,” “great” or “excellent” is not really something you as an educational administrator establishes in your school.\u00a0 While you can provide logical benchmarks delineating these attributes, a parent or guardian will investigate your school, and make their own emotional and highly subjective assessment of what is “good,” “great” or “excellent” for their<\/em> child.<\/p>\n Perhaps those thoughts have made you think a little differently about “best” as an absolute, and to begin seeing it as subjective.\u00a0 Best is best until the “next best thing” comes along.<\/p>\n If you agree, that’s good, since we’re going deeper into the murkiness.<\/p>\n Chapter two follows through with a study of what Collins calls “Level 5 Leadership.”\u00a0 Chapter three is “First Who, Then What” – which discusses having the right people in the right places within the organization.\u00a0 Only then can we confront the brutal facts (Chapter four)\u00a0of the problems we have to solve or the concerns we have to correct.<\/p>\n Notice how all these things build upon one another.\u00a0 You cannot expect total success without success at the different levels.\u00a0 The organization requires a solid foundation on which to stand.<\/p>\n Now, let’s consider a Marketing Matter from just several weeks ago – one where Simon Sinek encourages us to “Start With Why.”\u00a0 After the “why” is known, then the “how” can be focused on, which can result in focusing on the “what” our organization does.<\/p>\n Taking the cue from Jim Collins, do we look at “Who” first, then “What,” or do we consider “Why” first, to lead us to “How” and then “What”?<\/p>\n Now let’s throw in the Strategic Planning Process, which asks three questions: “Where Are We?,” “Where Do We Want To Go,” and “How Do We Get There?”<\/p>\n And allow me throw in another one – “How Do We Know When We’re There?”<\/p>\n And let’s muddy the waters a little more.\u00a0 “The Little Blue Book of Marketing” by Paul Kernit and Steve Lance (published in 2009), agrees with Sinek, and suggests starting with “Why Are We Here?” as a springboard, and then refers to the “Vision” for the organization.\u00a0 But then, they skip over the “How,” and focus on “What” you do and “Who” you are. Then and only then, after you, according to\u00a0Collins, “Have the right people on the bus,” can you proceed to the “How” you’re going to do what you need to do.<\/p>\n Both Sinek’s model and Kernit\/Lance might be correct, but the model depends on the organization.\u00a0 If you, as the leader of the school, can craft a vision and determine a plan of action by yourself, as some people can, then you’re following the “Why –> How –> What” model.<\/p>\n However, if you have a vision of what you’d like to see as the leader of the school, know why your school is important and worthy of support, you may need to bring some very good people on board to figure out how you’re going to create the vision…especially if your school is governed by a board.<\/p>\n “Why” almost assumes there is a\u00a0vision.\u00a0 Think about it – when we ask ourselves “why” we do something, the answer starts with “Because,” but then is followed by a statement that is related to an outcome.\u00a0 On an organizational level, that would be the vision of the organization.<\/p>\n For instance, “Why should my school use a tuition management system?”\u00a0\u00a0“Because it automates the tuition process, helping you to capture virtually all your tuition, and so that you can focus on enrollment and development activities in order to grow your school.”\u00a0 This answer assumes that growing your school is a part of your vision for your school.<\/p>\n The danger is assuming that “Vision” and “Case” (that is, “Why”) are the same, and is why many strategic planning models speak to Mission (“Who” and “What”) first, then Vision (“Why”) and Values (“How”).<\/p>\n These are the same organizations that have difficulties developing Case statements, since “Case” speaks to “Why;” “Vision” actually speaks to “Where” you want to see your school in three years, five years, or even ten years into the future.\u00a0 If your school has difficulties developing Case Statements and Vision Narratives, your Development efforts may be lackluster at best, doomed at worst.\u00a0 Notice that Vision statements look 3 to 5 to 10 years ahead.\u00a0 Development is also a long-term approach to raising funds.\u00a0 With a compelling “Case” statement, and vivid “Vision” of where the organization should be down the road, Development needs to start now so that the vision can be shared and others can be brought into relationship with the organization.<\/p>\n The “Ask” then generates the revenue to fulfill that vision.<\/p>\n When the conversation moves to “We need $30,000 to balance the budget, so let’s get the Development folks to do some fundraising,” the focus has been derailed since short-term operational costs are now the matter at hand.\u00a0 Now the “Who” and “What” questions play an important role, since if you don’t know “Who” to contact and “What” to do to put out this fire.<\/p>\n This is why it helps to know if your school is operating from a “Why”–>”Where” –> “How” –> “What” model where the “Who” is at the beginning of the process, or the “Who” happens after the “How” has been determined.<\/p>\n Notice that “When” is not included in either of these strategic models.<\/p>\n That’s because “When” is both immediate and future oriented.\u00a0 It must be considered all the time, yet focusing on it all the time can stifle, frustrate and cause undue stress to the organization, its leadership, and the people it serves.\u00a0 The most concrete example is the expectation of results when it comes to “Fund raising.”\u00a0 (Note the space between the words.)\u00a0 Most organizational boards think that once a development professional is hired, money will come flowing into the organization.\u00a0 When it doesn’t, a new person is brought on board.\u00a0 The unfortunate thing is that development requires relationships to be built before significant funds can be raised.\u00a0 Unfortunately, boards don’t want to hear that, and because they don’t, organizations continue to suffer.<\/p>\n What does all this have to do with marketing?<\/p>\n Knowing the answers to these questions (Why, Where, How, What and Who) relative to your school will help you when talking with parents, donors, church and parish supporters, local businesses and community members.\u00a0 As for revisiting “Good To Great,” you may be able to get “the right people on the bus,” and even get the those people in the right seats, but it really <\/em>helps to know where the bus is going.\u00a0 If you’re going uphill, that’s great, since you can see the road ahead of you.\u00a0 When you can’t see the road ahead, there could be a great chasm that lies between where you are, and where you want to get to.\u00a0 Referring back to the full title of “Good to Great,” you just might have to “make the leap.”<\/p>\n \u00a9 Michael V. Ziemski, SchoolAdvancement, 2010-2025 (Original Publication Date: 20100801)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Remember the book, “Good To Great” by Jim Collins, which was published in 2001?\u00a0 The complete title is, “Good to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8119,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marketing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/schooladvancement.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/MM-Purple.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2ggCS-Gk","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2624"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/schooladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7867,"href":"https:\/\/schooladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2624\/revisions\/7867"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}