(This is a summary of a portion of a talk I gave at the NCEA Conference in Dallas, April 12, 2023)
A good friend of mine is in the restaurant business, which is brutally competitive. The average new restaurant lasts only three years before it folds, but my friend has been in the business over 25 years and runs five delis, partly a testament to how hard he works, but also a testament to his wisdom. Every 4-5 years, he reinvests significant monies in his restaurants to give them a complete makeover. He changes the menu, the color schemes, the storefront, and even remodels the interior. It must cost him quite a bit. I was curious this last cycle, so I asked him: “You have great brand recognition around town. Your food is good, your service is top notch. Business is booming. Is it really necessary to spend all this money sprucing the place up, when it’s not “broken?”
His answer? “Absolutely. “In the restaurant business,” he explained, “everyone likes NEW, fresh, clean. If I didn’t re-present us to our customers every few years, we’d lose them quickly.”
I’ve been thinking about our Catholic schools this way lately. We are inclined to talk about the “tradition” of our school and how we’ve served our communities for decades or even centuries, but we’re not too good at re-inventing and re-presenting ourselves to our communities. And perhaps that’s why, in addition to demographic changes outside of our control, our schools are declining in enrollment and even closing. We could learn a lot from my friend!
Realizing, however, that we don’t have the money to do major capital improvements, I am proposing we can do “make-overs” to our school with very little money.
What’s the key? How we talk about ourselves!
Our language is critical. As a young principal, if you had suggested to me I needed to be more reflective of the language I used, I would have responded with some sarcasm: “Language? What planet are you living on? I don’t have time to waste time! I am putting out fires, solving problems, implementing programs.” In other words, I understood my job as principal almost purely in functional terms—what I did, not what I said.
But as I’ve become older, I’ve realized that language, if used carefully and consistently, helps build a school culture.
And what’s the importance of a school culture? EVERYTHING! It shapes the kind of teachers we attract, the kind of families that apply, and the student’s self-understanding of who they are and what they should be doing. It determines how hard people work, whether they hold each other accountable and whether the community supports the direction of the school. In the words of Peter Drucker, author of 39 books and the guru of modern management, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” It doesn’t matter how clever the initiative, how advanced the training, how well we execute the plan. If the culture doesn’t support it, the initiative will fail.
So how should we talk about ourselves to create a culture that is optimistic, confident and pushes kids and teachers to excel? I’ve worked the last ten years or so to upgrade how I talk about our schools in this way, and I offer perhaps my best 25 iterations here. Feel free to use whatever works for you. Summarizing, I have six general points of emphasis:
1) We should focus on our “why” and not so much our “what.” I recommend Simon Sinek’s video, “Start with the Why" which has over 20 million views on YouTube.
"How did Apple become a multi-billion dollar corporation?" he asks. Not by telling us what great computers they make. Not, he contends, by explaining how their computers were different from their competition. Rather, Apple makes this striking claim, "Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently.” And the implicit appeal? If you also “Think Different,” then you’ll want to invest in our products—not just computers, but iPods, IPads, IPhones, watches, etc.
I think Sinek is spot on. People are not moved by our eloquent descriptions of how we operate or what we do—our test scores, our 1:1 technology program, our curricular requirements. What resonates most is the “why!” And here’s the most powerful way I’ve found to talk about our why, from C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity:
“Imagine we are a living house, and God comes in to make repairs. At first, we understand what he is doing—fixing the leaky faucet, cleaning out gutters. We knew those things needed doing, and we appreciate it. But presently he starts knocking about the house in a way that hurts abominably: tearing down walls, putting out gardens, erecting towers. And we say, “What on earth is he up to?” The answer is we thought we were building a nice little cottage. But he’s building a palace! He intends to come live there himself.”
Lewis is not talking about Catholic schools specifically, but he could be. We believe that our schools help build palaces in the life of our kids—cathedrals, even!--places where God will reside. If we start talking about this vision that we have for students, that we believe in the power of God's grace to elevate and transform our students' lives, then like a string that resonates when it is matched with a musical note of the same frequency, so too will our “why” resonate within the hearts of our prospective parents.
At Prince of Peace, I’ve asked our choral director to sing one stanza of “Lord Prepare Me" every week as the last song at communion time during our school mass. The lyrics are simple: “Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary. Pure and holy, tried and true. With thanksgiving, I’ll be a living, sanctuary for you.” Hearing 770 kids sing that each week reminds everyone present of the essence of our mission: to become sanctuaries for Jesus. I get choked up almost every week it's so beautiful.
2) Be simple and direct. I was told the story of two high school principals who were invited by a large diocesan elementary school to “pitch” their school to parents of 8th graders. The principals were given 15 minutes to speak, with a question/answer session would follow. The first principal used all of his time, talking about the school’s spiritual, academic, athletic, and artistic offerings. Parents listened, but began to fidget toward the end. They were going to have to listen to this all over again! But the second principal stood up and simply said, “The purpose of our high school is to work with you to form disciples of Jesus Christ. I’d be happy to answer any questions you might have.“ Then he sat down. Were it not for politeness, the parents would have cheered. Which principal do you think was asked more questions?
People like simple. They like “white space.” If a paragraph is too long, they may scan it, but they won’t read it closely. Alas, it’s a twitter world! Every day, marketers estimate we see between 4,000 and 10,000 advertisements! They’re all noisily clamoring for our attention, and if anything calls us to focus and concentrate, we’re likely to gloss over it. So getting to the point is crucial.
Let me apply this insight to school mission statements. When I first arrived at Prince of Peace in Dallas, this was our mission statement:
Prince of Peace Catholic School is devoted to instilling strong Catholic values, fostering a life of faith and servant leadership, providing a challenging academic environment, and inspiring each student to shine to the fullest extent of his or her God-given potential.
I contend there is no part of this mission statement which is wrong. But, no one can remember it! I also contend, about half way through reading it, the average person begins drifting away from thinking about what they’re reading. As a result, it lacked any practical utility in the life of our school.
I am a big believer in the power of “three.” School House Rock from the 1970’s used to have a song called "Three is a Magic Number" (see clip). Marketers agree that people can remember three things in their mind—the shortest number of things required to establish a pattern. I believe that school mission statements should focus on three words or phrases as the “essence” of what the school is trying to do. Here are few examples of what I consider effective mission statements using this principle:
Montgomery Catholic High (Montgomery, AL) aims to create “students of faith, virtue and wisdom.”
St. Michael Catholic High (Fairhope, AL) seeks to form “scholars, leaders and disciples of Jesus Christ.”
Moeller High School (Cincinnati) says simply: Catholic. Marianist. Forming our students into remarkable men.”
Montgomery Bell Academy (Nashville) aims to create “gentlemen, scholars and athletes.”
I worked with the teachers and Council at Prince of Peace to rewrite our mission statement according to this principle. Here’s our new one:
The mission of Prince of Peace Catholic School is to form students who are faithful, prepared, and confident that they can do great things through Christ who strengthens them.
The words “faithful, prepared and confident” are now everywhere in our school and school materials.
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