This is a response to Marcelo’s blog post here:
Marcelo’s honest and heartfelt sharing of his education ministry is very humbling to me. As the principal of his school, I really do sense the challenges that he faces, yet I can sense his undying perseverance and hope that he has for the school and the staff. In Marcelo’s post, he described the many challenges the school is facing and one of them is the fact the institution is still in its infancy and just celebrated their fifth year anniversary. Marcelo continues by stating a young institution can be fragile and unbalanced and it is essential to find the right path that will lead to healthy growth and bring the institution into full maturity.
Reading the above description reminds me of many new emerging businesses that are trying to succeed in the market. When I was in high school, I worked for one such retail store in Vancouver. This business specialized in importing and retail small car accessories such as air fresheners, light bulbs, decals, and other decorations that one would put in their cars. For the first few years, the business was booming and the owner decided to quickly expand from one retail location to three high profile locations. However, nothing is for certain in this volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world (Ungerer, M., Ungerer, G., & Herholdt, J., 2016, pg. 3). After working for this business for a few years as a part-time job, I have left to pursue other opportunities and continued with my undergraduate studies. A few years after I left, I noticed the business started to deteriorate, closing one location after another until eventually, all retail locations are permanently closed.
While I have no concrete answer to prevent from such an event from happening. I do believe fostering a culture of agility is one way of strategic acting in the face of uncertainty and turbulence (Hughes, R., Beatty, K. & Dinwoodie, D., 2014, pg. 127). From Marcelo’s description of the recent events with staff turnover and other uncertainties, the ability to make a fast and effective action in these types of events. Hughes et al. (2014) state “agility involves more than an organization’s time to act” (pg. 127) and may include acting outside of the organization’s and cultural norms in order to create an effective strategy. I remember reading Marcelo’s previous post and he indicated how the culture has greatly influenced how the institution and staff operate, I wonder if there is an opportunity to be creative and able to find solutions that could be effective in managing these challenges? Hughes et al. (2014) further suggest “even if you can’t change the culture of the whole organization, you can take steps to change the culture and the behaviour of the people in your part of it” (pg. 128).
Thank you Marcelo in sharing your journey with us. God knows your heart and love for the people and the students and I will continue to pray for His work to be done at your school.
References:
Hughes, R., Beatty, K. & Dinwoodie, D. (2014). Becoming a strategic leader : your role in your organization’s enduring success. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Ungerer, M., Ungerer, G., & Herholdt, J. (2016). Navigate strategic possibilities: strategy formulation and execution practices to flourish. Randburg: KR Publishing.
Having read this I thought it was rather informative. I appreciate you finding the time and effort to put this short article together. I once again find myself spending a significant amount of time both reading and commenting. But so what, it was still worthwhile!