How do schools translate their mission to practice and align school operations? Successful schools depend on more than strong individual departments, they require a shared organisational culture where academic and business operations teams connect, communicate, and align decisions to support student learning.
My work in schools address BRIDGING THE GAP (to align school operations between academic and business administration staff, as well as governing bodies) and MISSION AND VALUES ALIGNED OPERATIONS in schools.
The upcoming EARCOS Leadership Conference in Bangkok https://sites.google.com/earcos.org/leadership-conference-2026/speakers/member-regional-speakers provides opportunities for me to present/facilitate discussions with a focus on;
- bridging the gap through communications and admissions (Thursday),
- bridging the gap for understanding school finances (Friday, in partnership with Amanda, the Director of Finance at Beijing City International School) and
- looking at how schools can translate mission and values into conceptual curriculum documentation with Tania Lattanzio (https://www.innovativeglobaled.org/) on Saturday.
Using the school mission values, staff can identify the actions associated with each value and use them to align how they work together, that is from mission to practice; aligning school operations. For example, let us say that RESPECT was a school value and the staff agreed that it meant ‘Treat others the way you want to be treated’, the actions could include:
Actions for living the value of ‘respect’:
- being respectful means that we need to be curious as well as helping others feel that they belong in our interactions with each other
- knowing that we are all unique and different from each other (cultures, countries, backgrounds, experiences and personalities) and being able to work with all, no matter the differences demonstrates that we can be and are respectful.
- Knowing how to use and deliver feedback to others in a way that will promote learning opportunities
- Use protocols that will enable different viewpoints and perspectives to be shared when working with each other
- Creating psychological safe spaces for others to learn and grow
Discussing what the mission and values mean, and co-constructing with your staff about how this translates into observable actions and behaviours in schools can align school operations and ‘live the school mission and values’. The impact of all staff sharing the same purpose and being on the same page for what is needed for school operations can be transformational.
On the last weekend in January 2027, I will be at KIS International School Reignwood Park and facilitating a workshop that will help school leaders and managers from both academics and business administration work together for moving from mission to practice: https://kis.ac.th/earcos-workshop/
Maybe I will see you in Bangkok – either October 2026 or January 2027?