In a national poll, people were asked if they
could identify the top 3 goals of the organizations and companies they worked
for. Any idea how many said they could identify the goals? If you’re curious,
read on.
As I pondered this, called to action by a
wonderful sermon by Pastor John Fuller at Prairie Lakes Church, I asked
myself, who could identify our top three goals at Hoover Middle School? Could
the kids? The adults? Even the principal? Part of leadership is having the
courage to face the brutal facts and the clear answer to this question was a
resounding “no”. So after some great meditating (snow days are great for this!)
and incredible conversations with many people, it came down to three driving
questions: What is our vision? Who are we? What is our mission? It took me time
to find these answers, but it was around a simple concept; as educators, we
deal in life and death daily. Hyperbole? Over dramatic? Maybe, but as I think
about how the impact teachers have on influencing student lives and drastically
altering their paths for the better, I don't think so. I think that in
education, our mission is truly this vital AND urgent. So with this in mind, it
was abundantly clear what Hoover Middle School's vision is. Equally clear is
who we are, or more concisely, our DNA; if you "cut" us, what do we
bleed? And finally, what is our mission? What are we called to do?
Hoover Middle School
Vision=Influence the world. Serve Others.
Who we are=Excellence. Best for kids.
Leaders. Family.
Mission=Save lives.
The truth is this: we as a school have been
believing and living these values for years. This wasn’t a magical thing that
the principal dreamed up. Rather, it was taking the established core values of
our school and putting them into a concise package that is easily articulated
and lived by in everything we do to serve kids. At the end of the day,
everybody from our new 6th graders
to our 30 year veteran custodians must have a clear “end in mind” and
understand what Hoover Middle School is about. I’m so honored to be the lead
learner at Hoover and after really working on this and having an amazing
conversation with our entire staff recently, I left energized as the mission
and vision of what we do on a daily basis is so clear. Most importantly, if
this is what we believe in as a school community, sending students from our
building with these kinds of core values will definitely influence the world.
The answer to the
question at the beginning of this article? 15%, which is a sad statistic. At
Hoover Middle School our goal is 100% of students and staff knowing and living
our goals of influencing the world and serving others. If we live by this, then
how many lives can we save?
Do you know what your organization's vision
and mission are? Do you know what your organization would bleed? Better yet,
can you answer this for yourself? In the great words of country music troubador
Aaron Tippin, "You've got to stand for something, or you'll fall for
anything."
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