I was in a conversation with my colleagues yesterday about ways to improve our college. The talk quickly shifted to focus on three key ideas:
- Lowering the student-to-faculty ratio
- Reducing class sizes
- Increasing research funding
It struck me that these aren’t actual goals. The goal is an amazing educational experience for our students. The goal is to prepare our students for success. The goal is contributing ground-breaking ideas to the community.
These are the same people who complain about students’ preoccupation with grades, student who ask questions like “is this on the test?” and students who only come to office hours when they’re trying to get points back.
As goes the leader, so goes the organization.
When you pursue a measurement, you can only achieve a shallow level of success.
You can drop weight, but that doesn’t mean you’ll look amazing in a bathing suit. You can get good grades, but that doesn’t mean you’ve become a subject matter expert who can create things while working in a professional environment.
The bottom line is that we need to focus one level deeper. What do grades try to measure? Focus your attention on achieving THAT goal, and the grades will naturally follow.
If you’d like to be a part of a community that is working on deeper goals, you should join the Intentional Academy. It’s free. Sign up today using the form on this page.
