MBL DESIGN PHILOSOPHY: Our point of view on how we will achieve success
OUR VISION = OUR VALUE PROPOSITION + OUR STRATEGY
STRATEGY = SHARED VALUES + STRUCTURE + STAFFING + SUPPORT SYSTEMS
Our MBL vision for the success of all of our students (vision) is predicated upon delivering a solution to 3 groups (our value proposition): 1) schools (our customers) will exit from turnaround bottom 5% status and become a high performing school; 2) teachers (our users) are equipped to increase their effectiveness in meeting the needs of all of their students through autonomy, mastery and purpose in their craft, and 3) students (our beneficiaries) build autonomy, mastery and purpose in their learning careers to achieve the highest levels of their potential.
This tri-fold value proposition is applied to converting turnaround or bottom 5% schools (our strategy). We do this by structuring our turnaround school management contracts with specific funding, contractual and organization design elements (structure) deployed by principals, teachers and program managers we recruit, develop and evaluate (staffing).
In turn, this is supported by a selection of learning tools and processes that encompasses assessment, coaching, learning management systems, curriculum, community building and stakeholder capacity building (support systems). These are tethered together with a MBL culture of autonomy, mastery and purpose (shared values) found first in our teachers and then discovered and developed in their students. See graphic below describing this philosophy:
OUR VISION = OUR VALUE PROPOSITION + OUR STRATEGY STRATEGY = SHARED VALUES + STRUCTURE + STAFFING + SUPPORT SYSTEMS
Most organizations fail not because of a shortage of vision, unique value proposition or quality staff and systems. No, most organizations fail because they do not tightly align and reinforce their component parts of structure, staffing, support systems and shared values.
It is better to be slightly off in your vision, value proposition or strategy but completely in alignment of your component parts so that all oars in the boat row together and in the same direction. Organizations break apart and fail when they cannot muster enough congruence in their business plan design to achieve momentum.
Reasons such as lack of funding, lack of revenues, etc. are blamed for the demise of most start up organizations and yet, they don’t explain why some start-ups succeed. Our experience in countless turnarounds is that those that do, inevitably have a single mindedness or disciplined alignment of the various parts of its value proposition deployed within its strategy that attract the kinds of funders, revenues, staffing, etc. that lead to success.
