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August 29, 2006
Information Democracy In Action
Last week I wrote about the Quality Cards of the Dutch School Inspection Board. In the meantime I had the most wonderful conversation with the principal of the school. The conversation quickly revealed some deep insights on transparency, control, leadership and culture.
Master Jan (Dutch children refer to male teachers as master) is the principal of a primary school with 450 pupils, between the ages of 4 and 12. The overall foundation, to which the school belongs has a budget of around 4 million Euro.
Schools operate in a constantly changing and dynamic market, and feel competitive pressures. Only 30% of parents put their children in a school based on the religious or philosophical background of the school. 70% are more pragmatic and actively compare schools to find the best one for their children. Having a bad reputation has almost immediate consequences the next school year, as the budget of the schools (in principle schools of all denomination are financed by the state) is based on the amount of pupils. Less budget will quickly have staffing consequences.
Proactive transparency
Over the years, parents have become very critical. It is not unusual to inquire about how the school spends its budget responsibly and wisely. Often, parents looking for a school visit the school with a copy of the quality card in their hands. At the same time, the School Inspection Board is becoming more critical and hands-on. In the last 6 years Master Jans school has received 4 audits.
These audits were already common in high schools, but as of 2000 also became standard in primary schools. In 1995 Master Jan realized audits would become an important factor for his school, so decided to proactively implement them beforehand. He is convinced the excellent results of the school have to do with embracing transparency through an early implementation.
Apart from the School Inspection Board quality card, the school has its own quality card, much like the balanced scorecard we know in corporate environments. It just doesnt use the financial perspective as the bottom line, but describes the results of the school in terms of pupils gaining certain credentials, just as customers may describe their results based on benefits gained.
The quality cards have had a huge impact on the four schools in the foundation. It forces the board and the principals to explicitly evaluate, on an annual basis. It has led to a strategic plan and a different level of professionalism. Teachers see the value of the quality cards and think about their personal contribution, such as putting together a personal development plan. Together with an external expert, the school principals also audit each other, to make sure they are at all times prepared for an external audit and the external quality card.
Control
The regulatory environment of schools is constantly changing. Recently the finance system changed. Instead of a budget per line item, since 2006 schools receive a lump sum for which they are responsible. The amount is based on the number of pupils.
Like the XBRL standard in the business world, the Dutch ministry has designed a standard for submitting financial results. The school is very positive about embracing this standard. Given the lump sum structure, it is interesting to compare spending with the practices of other schools, a great opportunity for benchmarking. As a consequence the school has actively adapted its own quality card to the performance indicators the ministry uses. Comparing performance indicators is better than trying to distinguish with different metrics.
Leadership
Master Jan is a typical example of Jim Collins Level 5 Leadership, combining a clear vision and a high level of ambition, with great humility. When establishing the school, his style was rather directive, but it has become collaborative over the years. He uses the term colleagues” when he speaks about his staff of 35 people. He has had some management training but also has had the good fortune of working for the same foundation for many years, during which he gained the experience he needed to become a principal.
The school also demonstrates strong ambition. The results of the school and its employees must be excellent and the school will not rest before it achieves excellence on every level. The 80/20 rule is simply not acceptable -- good is not good enough. And it pays off, given the quality card I showed in my previous post on the subject, the school is doing very well!
Culture
As a principal Master Jan is as much a product of the culture of the foundation as he is an influence on the culture of his school. The school has a strong Protestant Christian identity. The values are clear for every teacher: Strive for Excellence, Be Soulful, Behave Respectfully, Treat every person as a unique human being, Raise children to become independent and responsible.
The management culture is one of a shared common purpose, and a long history of four principals who trust each other. With the budget being granted to the foundation and then allocated to the four different schools, this level of trust is needed to avoid budget disagreements. When facing budget dilemmas, the school principals turn to their values in making a decisions about where to allocate financial reserves, or about reallocating budget altogether. Because just good is just not good enough.
What we can learn
Of course, there are differences between primary schools and business life. The competition between schools is not usually cut-throat, and there are no large variable salaries. Still, we should not dismiss the practices emerging from Master Jans school.
Schools today are modern organizations. The principal has a management contract and hard targets. There is competition, the market is quickly changing as is the regulatory environment. The lesson we can learn is that embracing transparency leads to better results rather than mere compliance. Embracing transparency creates a more professional organization, and leads to a competitive advantage where you can be proud and relaxed about sharing your results. This is clearly a lesson most commercial organizations can benefit from.
And it also teaches us something else: if you keep your eyes open, examples of greatness can be found around the corner. I thank Master Jan for taking care of my children.
Posted by Frank Buytenkijk at August 29, 2006 1:05 PM
