Leadership Network Event Values - Tool or Token

In this episode of the ACT Podcast, we share a recording of our recent leadership webinar with Joe Lowther on setting vision and values in schools. Drawing on both practical leadership experience and a biblical perspective, Joe explores how leaders can shape school culture, establish meaningful values, and help both staff and pupils flourish. We hope you find the discussion encouraging and helpful.

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Transcript

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Welcome to the ACT podcast. I'm Lizzie Harewood, and this episode is a recording of a webinar we hosted this week on values and vision in schools. We hope you enjoy listening to Joe Lowther present, and I pray that as educators, school leaders, and ultimately Christians,, that the questions about the values that shape our schools can be answered in this episode. One of our exciting upcoming events is in October, we've got our conference, on Saturday, the 10th of October, which is our annual conference where we'll be launching our new resource called Living for Jesus in Education- Mm which is an updated version of this, produced in partnership with the Evangelical Alliance and the Lawyers Christian Fellowship. But it'll be curated precisely for teachers- Mm and for those working in education, so any member of staff working in education. And the conference is on the same theme, so quite broad. But on the Friday evening we'll be having a leadership track, so for head teachers, deputy heads, assistant heads, anyone involved in the leadership and vision of a school. And that'll be at Fulham Boys School, which i- the same location as the conference on the Saturday. So, uh, please do keep your eyes and ears out for that. It's gonna be a great time, and hopefully you'll be hearing a little bit more. If you don't already receive our updates, please do make sure that you, you, uh, you give us your email address and we can send the appropriate information to you. Great. Well, I think we'll make a start. Hopefully, we might get a few more people who signed up join us at some point. But as I say, you are very welcome. We're gonna be thinking today then about the role of values in shaping school culture and I vis- in my time visiting schools, we've seen I see values all the time in ethos statements, in posters on the walls and I found that it can either be very, very connected to daily practice, or they can sometimes remain a bit abstract. But when they're done well, they really do help to form something deeper, which is a shared culture, and it really does shape how a school community works together. So today, we're gonna be hearing from Jo, and we'll be thinking about whether Christian leaders can legitimately draw on biblical values, and I think we would agree they can to influence and shape that culture. But what does that mean? What does it look like for those values to be lived out in practice? How can it be meaningful, even in schools without a Christian foundation or any form of Christian character? So I'm delighted to be joined by Jo. Jo, it'd be great to just get to know a little bit about you before we dive into the main content. So Jo, can you tell us a little about, little bit about who you are, where you're from, what your kind of background is in education? Absolutely. My name is Jo Lowther. I was previously a principal of an outstanding school in Tower Hamlets. I was there for nine years, and then I felt called out of that and into mission, and so I came across the CIC that works with schools. Uh, when I joined CIC, we had seven staff, and today we have 97. Uh, so it's been a really exciting journey of growing out of six boroughs in London to now eight regions of the UK, and yeah, I've, I've really loved doing that. I'm married to Laura. We've been married for nearly 20 years this July, and we have three sons Theo who's 15, Seth who's 13, both of whom are at Fulham Boys with s- under Sam's tutelage. Oh. And very proud to be there, as well as Joshua, who's 10 and in year five. I'm also a church leader now. I we have a, are part of a free church evangelical in Richmond upon Thames, and so yeah, we have an eldership model there. So I've, I became an elder about 12 months ago, so yeah, excited about that too Excellent. And Jo, the reason that you are particularly well qualified to speak into this is because you've done a lot of thinking about values in school, haven't you? I, I presume that you're gonna be diving into that in a moment so I don't want to preempt anything you're going to say. But is there anything you want to give us for context for that, or are you just gonna speak about that in a moment? Yeah I don't know about you and what your determination of mission, vision, and values looks like. Lots of people have lots of different definitions. Uh, to make it really difficult an American definition of vision and mission is exactly the opposite of a British version of mission and vision. So, uh, I ran a school for a long period of time and had a hazy understanding, and if I'm honest, a misunderstanding of mission, vision, and values when I ran a school. And so when I came to KIK about 11 years ago, I chose to go on an outstanding leadership program by Cass Business School. Well, it's now called Bay's Business School. And in that they had a really clear expression of mission, vision, and values, and that really helped me in the origins of KIK to lay those three things down very, very clearly as foundational pillars for the organization. And so I... It re- it helped me so much have a clearer understanding. It was almost like a eureka moment for me, where the penny dropped. That, that f- n- now, for example, all of the policies at KIK are based through our mission, vision, and values. Mm all of our recruitment is based on mission, vision, and values. All of our decision-making goes through our mission, vision, and values. So it's very much alive and well. E- even our service is designed by our values because of our mission and vision. And so, I've helped maybe five or six schools reshape their mission, vision, and values. I've, uh, I've recently gone through that process with our church- Mm um, to arrive at our mission, vision, and values. So as I go through today, I'll try and give different examples of, of both my experience at KIK, but also in a church context, and also in a, another school context to, uh, just sort of try and bring those things to life. And as I say, we mustn't get bogged down by semantics. I- if I did it again, I might f- like desire that we talked about virtues than values- Mm-hmm. Yep in a church or Christian context. Um, but values is such a widely understood term now. I think that's fine. I mean, you c- could even describe values as character. Mm-hmm. Mm. So for example, when I've recently done this with our church, I said, "If our church was a person, what would their character be like?" "How would you describe them?" And essentially I, I tried to explain it and that equals our values. Mm-hmm. What is valuable to us in our- Sure personality as an organization. So for organizations to be organisms rather than just merely organizations, you wanna get to know their character, understand them, their ways of doing things. And so again, hopefully that will shed a bit of light on that. Brilliant. Thanks. I'll very briefly pray for you just to commit this time to the Lord. Then we'll have about 20, 25 minutes. And then after that we'll have an opportunity to ask some questions. Okay. So I'll just pray. Father, we thank you for this time. We thank you for these leaders who are making an impact in their school communities or in different ways in school communities around our nation. Pray now for Jo, that you would guide him as he speaks, that that it would be helpful, a blessing to us, that it would be inspiring and even challenging, Lord. So please, Father, just help this time to be of real use for the folks here, but also of real use for for your kingdom ultimately, Lord. So yeah. We just thank you and commit this now. It's time to you now. Amen. So in terms of today, I will take us through these three things looking at organizational culture, vision, mission, and values, as well as building cultures for the future around those three things. And as I go, what, what I'll try and do is introduce the topic and introduce some questions to maybe make you think a little bit. Please do jot down pot- potential questions or ideas thoughts or feelings that you have, and we'll pick, we'll have time at about, uh, 4:40 to, uh, look at those together. So please do pick up questions, thoughts, feelings, ideas as we go through. Love to hear those as we c- as we go through it. So we'll look at the first one, which is culture, and these are some of the questions to ponder. What do you think makes up organizational culture? Does culture just happen, or can it be directed? So just again, ponder these things in your own context. Do you feel at sea amongst cultures? Nothing I can do to change it, it's just the way it is. Do you feel like sometimes the people that have been there longer than you have that authority that you maybe h- don't have and you're just waiting for them to leave and then you'll be more in charge of saying, "Well, I've been here the longest, I can determine the culture," et cetera, et cetera. Have a think about that as we go through today, and how that you might want to Perhaps some of what I'll share hopefully will, will jog some thoughts or ideas. And we can look at, look at various things later on. So what is culture? Culture is often described as three areas: community, collaboration and communion. So community, time together. Founding culture together. Collaboration, working together. Uh, sharing, b- bringing the different gifts that we have. And as Christians we believe, don't we, that it was not good for man to be alone in the Garden of Eden. Community and collaboration are important. Eve is described as being a, a helper. And so again, human beings are to work together in a collaboration. And then communion. Really important, isn't it? You know, the Trinity is fully comp because it has communion and fellowship with one another. And so again, that opportunity to experience culture through community collaboration and communion. Breaking bread, eating together are often described in, you know, the Alpha course, Christianity Explored, eating together and then studying. A- again, these are important aspects. And so there are seven spheres of culture that are often discussed in management theory. Family, religion. Ooh, family's on there twice. Must be so important. Please excuse me, I must have missed one. Education, uh, media, arts and politics. I must come back to the seventh one. I'll, I'll try and find it. If anybody else has a good idea, let me know. Um, but, uh, but there are seven aspects to ponder around this. And so again, if you think about what defines a culture, the arts have often have a lot to say into this, uh, topic. Yeah. Again, again, the arts and the media often combine to impact education. But equally, education can really impact politics. You know, I was at a, a Church in Wales conference recently, and they chose at that conference to have It was a Church in Wales conference. A, a Muslim come and talk about chaplaincy and how best to do chaplaincy and, uh- And so it was interesting, interesting choice of uh, speaker, uh, I felt. But again, a cultural shift perhaps for them of investigating multi-faith as to delivering Christian chaplaincy in Church of Wales schools. So interesting. Again politics, education, religion, all, uh, different cross-sections and, uh, again, fascinating to look at. And you may well have seen this very famous kind of image, but cultural, around cultural design. You know, the tip of the iceberg is the tools, the programs, the language, the preferred behaviors. But underneath the surface are shared beliefs, values, and assumptions. And so how do you design a culture w- with, without recognition of what's beneath the surface? And so getting inside, what are the shared beliefs, the values, the assumptions? And then either addressing things that you want changed or working within that to move things forward. When I first came to CIC, uh, we only had, uh, seven staff. So I ran a session, uh, with six people and I asked them, "What are our values? Uh, what are our shared beliefs? What are our assumptions?" And we got them all out onto a big wall, and we wrote them all on down on Post-It notes, and then we started to piece them together, and we had this really powerful moment where we arrived at our, at our values, which I'll talk a little bit about later and it was who we were. And it was really powerful to look at the character of the organization that I had joined as a new person. And from that, we then started to design tools, programs, language, behavior so that we didn't lose what was good about that culture that we had and wanted to build upon and add to and see grow. And so, again often values and culture are under the surface. So as leaders, we wanna bring that to the surface, so we can see it and articulate it and then induct new people into that if that is a preferred culture So what is culture? Uh, it's often described as the intrinsic motivation more powerful than extrinsic, uh, motivation. Uh, so it's, it's really beats at the kind of inside, the kind of soul of an organization rather than merely the kind of like, do this because you get paid to do it type mentality. Uh, it's what you believe in and, and it's one of the things at Kick, you know, we, we, all of our staff are committed Christians and that's very much by design because we wanted an organization that had intrinsic motivation rather than just extrinsic motivation. So it wasn't just a job, it was a calling. And so again, that, I appreciate that's unlikely to be the case for many of the organizations here exactly, but where you can have those deep beliefs and values that are shared, that can be a very powerful rallying point for culture. Uh, Nietzsche said "He who has a why to live to live for, uh, can withstand almost any how." And so again, the why is so crucial, and we'll look a bit at the why today. So moving forward, um, we've started to unpack culture a- as an overview. A- and culture somebody once explained to me, it's like the atmosphere or the weather, uh, that we experience. But in terms of vision, mission and values, these are almost like the foundations of an organization that you can define and then start to help at... you'll start to see these things impact the culture and hopefully improve the weather. So again, as we start to think about these things what do you think is the difference between mission and vision in your contexts? Is there any difference at all? Is there an understanding about the importance of these two things? Can you you don't need to tell me this if you're nervous to, but do you remember what your school's mission and vision are? Uh, you know, I remember when I first became a governor of my son's primary school their mission statement was a whole paragraph. It was nine sentences. And even the headteacher couldn't verbatim tell me what the mission of the school was. A- again, it must be memorable. A- and so when you think, and it's a horrible thing, this it, it's a horrible thing to many people. It might not be to you actually, but, uh, what is Donald Trump's vision? Uh, or, you know, uh, I think we all know it, don't we? It's make America great again. We all know it, and he beats the drum for it. It's memorable. It is a single sentence. It can even fit on a baseball cap. We all know where he wants to go. And so again, it's one of those things that if your mission and vision are not memorable they are lost. If you as the leader cannot remember your own mission and vision or articulate it easily or repetitively, it's might as well not, not exist. And so again, really, really important to own that, make it as easy as possible for all of your staff to own it too, and drive it forward as the why of where you're going. And then just ponder again, how are culture and values distinctive from each other? What are the differences? What are the similarities? They are interconnected, but how do they, how are they distinctive? So have a think about that So I wanted to set a sort of biblical framework really around what, where... What and where, sorry. Uh, vision, mission, and values. And so if we look at Moses, God met Moses and I love that moment at the burning bush. You know, he meets Moses, and he tells Moses that he's on holy ground at the burning bush. And I think at that moment Moses drops to his knees because he thinks he's gonna die. He thinks he's gonna die because he's an unconvicted murderer, and he's just met a holy God. And the guilt that fleeing for his life into the wilderness for 40 years, a, ironic, he was there for 40 years before leading the people 40 years, has spent most of his life in the wilderness is that in that moment, as God met with him, he thought he was gonna die. But what was really powerful was God didn't address his sin of murder he addressed his heart's desire, which was to let his people which was to see the Israelite people set free and brought out of captivity. And so God gives this, uh, vision to Moses to see them set free, and he gives him a mission to go to Pharaoh and set my people free. And so again but how Moses was to operate was to be reliant on God and not to behave in taking the law into his own hands, but to allow God to do that through the through, through the plagues, et cetera. Or Joseph. You know, Joseph incredible life story really that that, went through real hardships, and his character perhaps changed from being arrogant and puffed up to being humble enough to save not only his family or his immediate nation, uh, but also- A, a range of nations surrounding Egypt where he ended up becoming prime minister. And so again God gave Joseph vision and a mission of the storehouses and, and making sure the grain was kept for the seven years and seven years of famine. And so again, these two things worked side by side, but how Joseph behaved was very important to the Lord, and he developed that humility in him. Or Daniel, you know, again, taken into captivity but used n- numerous times with four different kings. Or Jesus himself, J- oh, goodness me, Jesus, what an incredible, You know, h- h- his vision to be, uh, the savior of the world in his name, God saves. And his mission to go to the cross and live a holy life through those values of, of holiness. Uh, again, an incredible example to us. Or even the, the churches in Revelation, those first three chapters of Revelation, they- their character mattered to the Lord and their their mission to not lose their first love, for example. Uh, again, these different aspects were important for the way God spoke to those seven churches in Revelation. So why? If it's There are biblical examples of mission, vision, and values, why should we have them today? This is, uh, some of the thoughts I shared with our church recently. We said it was a new season where we needed clear direction, solid foundations for growth, learning from previous feedback as well as clarity for external communications. You know, if you think of a church context or a school context, you know, people are gonna be looking at you without you knowing about it on your website. And so again, what are the values of this school? Uh, what are what is the vision of this church? Again, important to set externally. And then to reveal ultimately the character that's already there. So character that maybe you wanna change, as well as character you wanna preserve and an actual character you want to aspire to. And so again, vision, mission, and values are key Garten talks about how vision is an imaginative picture of where an organization will be, why that positioning will be transformational. And so again, think of vision as if you like, with binoculars. Where are you going? What is the distance you are seeking to travel in the next five, five or 10 or 15 years? What is the dream that you have? And, you know, Martin Luther King didn't turn up and go, "I have a strategic plan." He had a dream. And again, a dream is a powerful way of communicating that. Grant builds into this. You know, dreaming builds mot- momentum, but to succeed you'll need a collective conviction to commit to courageous change. And so dreams that can't be articulated into a vision are left in the clouds. Vision takes a dream, and it sets a SMART goal of when you're gonna get there. And so again but we m- organizations without vision ultimately become blind and don't go very far. So have high aspirations and communicate them i- in vision from the dreams that you and your staff and your boards have what I'd love you to think about in your school context, you know, what does the world we hope for look like for those we serve in our school? I'll read that again. What does the world we hope for look like for those we serve in our school? And again I know on the call there are some free schools here. There are some independent schools. Uh, there might be some state schools. And so in different contexts, uh, across the country, uh, you, it- that will apply in a very different way. But what do you hope for your children? And it, and I'm, I'm sure a number of them will be at different levels. My, my eldest son has been selected to try out for Oxbridge, which again, I can't I have to pinch myself. I can't quite believe it, but he's very academically clever. My middle son y- you know, is, is more in those middle sets, and he's not an academic, uh, but he's very physically gifted. And so again, our children are all different, aren't they? But what is the world we hope for for the schools we're in at a range of different levels? And so again, have a think about that. What is the longer term with the goggles on, looking ahead, or, or the binoculars, sorry, looking ahead to the future so moving into mission. If vision is where we are going, uh, looking at those binoculars Simon Sinek in his book Start with the Why this is so important for defining mission. And mission is different to vision. If, if vision is where are we going in the future mission is why, how, and what are we gonna need to do to get there. And so, we often talk about this at Kick. People could ask you, "What do you do?" And you could say to our coaches, they could say, "We're a coach," or, "We're a chaplain," or, "We're a mentor," or, "We're a manager." But more powerful than that is to say why. And so our mission at Kick is to transform young people's lives with God's love through sport and support. And so that's a much more powerful response to that conversation of what do you do, is to say why you do it. I- you know, my, my job is to transform young people's lives with God's love through sport and support. That is the why, transforming young people's lives. That is the how, with God's love. We don't do this alone. We do this with him, and he is the one that brings the change. And that is the just so happens, uh, that we do this, what, through sport and support. And so think about if you have mission statements looking at this architecture of why, how, and what, and starting with the why. So a question for you around mission. Uh, why do you exist as a school? And what is distinctive about how your school operates? Does it have, for example, a Christian ethos? Well, that's really important. You know, I, I love Fulham Boys school. They, they talk about three things. You know, boys... I hope I got this right, Sam. Boys, enterprise and faith. A- and it's Christian mission, is it? I'm sorry if I those three things wrong, but, but those are three very, very clear things, and they articulate part of the mission of the school. If we get those three things right, we will see our vision realized of seeing them progress into the future. And so, again, thinking through that mission question around why and what is distinctive about your school is important. So we've looked today so far at culture as an overarching piece. We've then looked at vision and introduced that as where we're going. We've looked at mission, which is the why, how and what, and then we'll look at ethos, values and behaviors. Now, again, when I first came to KiK, again, I struggled to understand. I think I mentioned part of this earlier on. What is the difference between ethos, values and behaviors? And I now have a clearer understanding of that. The ethos is like the heart of your organization. It is right inside that intrinsic, uh, set of beliefs- so at CIC, our staff are committed Christians. They have that at their heart, our Christian ethos at their heart. But then we talk about the core values. So if at the heart, the ethos is there, then what is going on on the inside, in the core? Uh, what, w- what are the choices, because of your ethos beliefs, you're going to make, or you aspire for your school or your staff to make? And so your values are a bit like Blackpool rock. You I- I'm sure we've all been to the seaside and destroyed our teeth with Blackpool rock over the years. A- and so here, Blackpool rock, you know, what are the, what is the stick of rock the words that go through the core of your school? And so we talk about at CIC, if, if we crack open one of our coaches, mentors, or chaplains, we want it to say ACE2, which is the summary of our values. And so again, values are like the core of your organization. So if you've got, you know, again, the ethos is your core beliefs, the values are your core uh, virtues, if you like, your character, and then the behaviors are what therefore everyone else should see. They are what people should experience because of the ethos and the core values that you, uh, that your staff believe. And so then your people, your teachers, your receptionist, this is so important for reception, that first point of call in your schools should experience a different type of person to what they might otherwise experience elsewhere, because the ethos and the values of your people is measured and important to you So this is an example of Holy Trinity Primary and a piece of work I did with them. They determined that God, they wanted the Holy Trinity of God at the heart. That was their ethos as a school, was to be Holy Trinity. And then as part of that, they wanted Trinitarian v- values. And so they decided that they wanted a school that, that loved God and loved each other, that had community as, as crucial in the way that they operated with one another in school, but also in the whole school with parents and carers, and that they wanted to aspire for their children's success, both personally and socially academically and, and pra- practically. And so this was a very simple piece of work, but very powerful piece that then really determined a lot of their choices moving forward. And so again, that was a powerful way of looking at, um, ethos and values. At KICK as I mentioned earlier, we arrived at these ACE2 values, to be aspirational on behalf of our young people, compassionate towards them, excellent in our service delivery, intentional in our relationships, and integral in our decision-making. And as part of this, we commissioned one of our coaches to create a piece of artwork. And so this is a silhouette of... I don't know if you remember this, uh, when Kaká won the Champions League final, and he took off his, his top, and he pointed to the heavens with a T-shirt that said, "I believe in Jesus." And so as a, a sports ministry ourselves, uh, we could really identify with that image. And so we took a silhouette of that and, and built, If Jesus Christ was our ethos, and then aspiration, compassion, excellence, intentional, and integral were, were our ACE2 values, and then in black some of those behaviors were then important to us. And so it was lovely to Oh, somebody's phone's going off. Hello. To create a a, an approach here that, uh, brought those values to life. So just finally building the culture that you desire. We're tight for time, so we won't read this today, but I'd love you to have a read of Romans 12:3-21. It just sets out a number of character traits and virtues that Paul challenges the church in Rome to behave in as a result of, of transforming their minds and, uh, and offering their lives as a, as a living sacrifice to God. And so again, please read through Romans 12. It's a brilliant passage on values think through which ones resonate with you in your context and which ones are missing. Can be really fascinating to think through not only the ones that we have, but the ones that are missing and we want to include. So this is just a journey of this that I did with our church. Uh, we had a kind of leaders meeting where we looked at values. We then had one where we, we met with the women's night and also the men's night. And so we really surveyed all of the church really looking at these different aspects, and through prayer, reflection, and consultation we arrived at what I called our home vision. Our mission, which remember is our why, how and what, was to know God and make Him known. And then our values were to be Christ centered, and it was just wonderful to realize that when I pulled these all together, they spelt Christ. It was a miracle, really. Had to be committed, uh, in prayer and humble in the way we relate to one another, to be relational like a family, an extended family. To be involved, to uh, serve one another to be sincere in our, uh, love for God's word and walking with the Holy Spirit, and then to be together, uh, with others in the community, other churches and organizations to, to do mission. A- and so these Christ centered values, because of our deep desire to know God and make Him known through our mission, would then lead to our future vision, to be a home where people thrive and God is glorified. And so again, as I say our you can see laddering up that hopefully some of that is memorable. And again, it's something we repeat regularly now in church to help remind our people of essentially who we are and where we're going So have a think about in your contexts whether you could have a similar laddering up of, three to five values a mission statement as, as to the why, how and what, and a vision statement of the where you're going and, and when. And as I say, that might really help bring clarity. At KICK we did a similar process, and this is our strategic roadmap, all building towards our vision which is again, uh, in- oop, sorry, inspired by our Christian ethos to follow Jesus' example and the way that he loved young people and was relevant in the way he communicated with them. By our ACE2 values, our Blackpool Rock, if you like, that's how we wanna behave with one another and with others. And then in terms of our mission, uh, we do activities such as coaching, mentoring, KICK camps in the holiday periods, chaplaincy, holi- uh, KICK academies with churches. And our impact, we want to have a personal impact, a social impact, and a spiritual impact with children and young people in order to transform their lives with God's love through sports and support so that we can reach a vision where we have aims to grow, have the funding to do so, partnering with others, developing our quality, keeping our Christian ethos central. We aspire to reach 35,000 young people a year this year, fundraise 200,000 pounds have discipleship pathways with other organizations, et cetera, et cetera. All building towards a vision to reach a generation of young people within a generation of time. So through our values by our mission, to reach our vision And I think I'll, I'll just close today. I had a few other things to talk to you about, but I'll just close today just introducing our cultural alignment framework. And this is something that we've taken. If you Google cultural alignment framework, you'll find very similar models to this. But this is just in academia, this is a, a really helpful tool that we've found looking at mission, consistency, involvement and adaptability. And, and so again, around culture, if you have strategic direction, goals and objectives and vision, people, your people will know you have a purpose and you care about them. If you have core values, cultural artifacts, which essentially are like uniform or a building or if there was... If all the people died and they came back and looked around, what would be the expressions of your school, if you like? Um, the physical expressions. Core values are intrinsic, but the extrinsic cultural artifacts are like, as I say, uniform and emblems and website, et cetera. And then coordination and integration, how you take these two things and integrate them. So then they'll feel ordered, and they'll feel safe. And then around involvement, uh, if you have empowerment, team orientation, and capability development, they'll feel that there's an authority and results-driven approach together, which can be crucial. And then around creating change, a customer focus, and organizational learning, uh, you'll create an organization that is adaptable because there'll be enjoyment and learning built in baked in, if you like, to the culture of your organization. Yeah, I think I'll stop there because just because of time. But, um, I hope that gives you a bit of a flavor and, uh, 15 minutes for questions thoughts, feelings, ideas. Please do ask questions. Go for it. Oh, thank you so much, Jo. It's really inspirational, really helpful. I would love it if you would actually perhaps just go back to Romans 12. I'm just wondering whether- from a biblical perspective, Romans 12 or any other Bible passage help us as leaders perhaps consider what core values might be foundational because I think you've left it very open and I think that's wonderful in, in terms of, you know, schools, school leaders will know their own school community and have their own priorities, you know. We pray that, you know, God has given them. But are there any particular kind of biblical themes or virtues that do translate especially well into school culture? Hmm. I, I think hope is so crucial. If I was to pick three it would be hope, faith, and love. Again- A, a little bit like an arrow. Love pierces our heart. Faith is like the kind of shaft of the arrow, and hope, it's like the guiding feathers that direct it. Uh, we- the hope of eternity, the faith of our, long journey of, of our lives, the sanctification along, long, a long, long period of time. But that love that God expresses and the justification by faith that we receive pierces our heart. So I think those three are very important. I mean, if I, if I was to pick my favorite one This was two, if I can be cheeky and- and write what I love. Never lacking in zeal I think that's excellent. Really strong zeal. What a powerful sat ve- verse 11. And verse 10 be devoted to one another in love. I, I think those are great aspects. So you're So verse 10, be devoted to one another, and then never lacking in zeal for the Lord. I think those are two really piffy expressions of value. or virtue, if you like. But again when Moses addresses the people in Deuteronomy 6, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength," and Jesus takes that forward in Luke's gospel, and then goes on to say, "And love your neighbor as you love yourself." I think those two things if they're in the wrong order, can make a lot can make a, mess a lot of things up. Mm-hmm. Put God first, loving Him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, ha- enabler, enables us to love people really, really well as ourself. Mm. It, otherwise we don't really understand what loving people should look like if we haven't put God's ways first. Yeah. So again I think It's why I think ethos is really important, and if your school does have a Christian character, do all you can to preserve that, because that then defines how you best educate or love children and young people. Yeah. Without at the front, you can get into all kinds of- Mm strange ideas, at least to God, as to how best to do that. Sure. Well, I've got lots of other questions, but I will invite any questions. I mean, we're a relatively small group, so if there are any other questions, I would invite you just to unmute yourself and then ask Jo. And if there aren't, I can just ask more questions. Yeah. Please do. Please do ask any questions. I'll try my best to answer. Or there, or there may be further ideas or insights from the group. Ah, Sam Got one Uh, yeah. Thanks, Jay. That, that was really helpful. I guess mine's a bit of an observation, which is just about common language. Yeah. That I think things like, Yeah, you can have, like, values that are like compassion and kindness and love that are all sort of the same, although not exactly biblically. But they're used interchangeably. But I think it's really useful to really just narrow it down on specific words. Um, we, we were inspected by SIAMS two or three weeks ago- Yeah and one of the things that really... Uh, yeah, you would've got the report today. Yeah, I did. Today. Um, yeah. And one of the things the inspector was really struck by was actually our use of common language. That people just articulated spirituality, which we, we... Is a phrase we never use. But articulated it in a very specific way, because we used the same kind of terms. Now, we could use different terms, and that'd be completely valid as well. But I think organizations and, and schools need to just choose certain terms for their values, and then stick with them. And then from the moment new staff arrive, new boys, uh, or girls, or open evening, or parental engagement, or... You just keep doing the same words again and again and again. Because I think there are so many values floating around, British values, there's lots of different things, skills students and staff and parents can just get overloaded. Yeah. So yeah, common language I think is really, really important. And repetition is so crucial, as you're saying. Mm. Make America great again, we all know it, 'cause he never stops talking about it. And, and so again, just so important that there's that repetition and common language. So it's just... And m- and as I say, it's memorable. Keeping it short and simple is so crucial. So yeah, I, that's a really imp- common language, short and simple, and repeat it as often as possible. You cannot- Mm-hmm under-repeat your mission, vision and values. Mm. Very important. Yeah. That's really helpful. I can't see anyone else with a question. I've got, um, another question which is about how... Do we have some kind of metric for perhaps measuring that the values or the vision or the virtues are, are working, as it were? And I suppose the question I've got is when can there be signs that maybe there's been an element of performance rather than the vision and the values being formative? Because w- a- at the end of the day, we want them to be living and active rather than- Yeah yeah, so are there any kind of warning signs? So at basically, most, in most organizations, sadly these things gather dust. They're written on a piece of paper- And they gather dust and- people forget where they are, and they might be buried in a website and. But if, if they're not alive, they're dead. Mm. Um, w- at KiK at interview, probation, midterm review, and annual appraisal, we measure everyone on our values as well as their work objectives. The behaviors that you should be able to see, we document off the back of our ACE2 values. So there are maybe five behaviors per value. So about 25 behaviors that we expect to see from our people. And we measure people on their performance, and they measure themselves. There's a self-assessment which we, uh, well, then the line manager will then review back on, back to that person so that those are alive and kicking rather than buried and dusty somewhere else. Sure. Uh, we run as I say, all our policies are based in our ACE2 values. And all of our services are mapped to our ACE2 values. So these things are just it, but it's very easy for them to get lost in the ether- Mm and build, uh, on a shelf if they're not measured because it, it means they're not as, not as valuable to us. Sure. Thanks, Jo. Thomas, I noticed you had a question. Yes, I, I do. In fact, I, I have three questions, but I think Sam's question... Hello, Sam. Good to see you here. I think Sam's question and your question answer two of them, so I, I suppose I would, I would ask the, the last one. Um, y- first of all, thank you. I think that was really clear. What... You mentioned written policy. So what do you think are the role of a written policy in reinforcing that culture? And how do you use the written policy in order to help establish that culture and mission and vision? Oh, sorry. Could you just repeat the question? Sorry. Just very quickly. Yeah. How what role do you think written policies- Yes uh, play in this process? Uh, really important. If your policies speak to different values then there's a question of integrity about your organization. So i- if I re- review a policy from our HR director and it's not aligned to our values it may well be aligned to a different set of values, in which case, is that really true of your organization? So I think it's absolutely essential. Essentially, your policy is saying, "This is how we do it and this is the these are the strategic choices that we're making for our own organization," and if you can't make them through your values, I think there's a, a range of problems there. So I would say it's so important. Uh, and it also gives credence to the values being important. You know, like scripture, Is a plumb line for us all, isn't it, as Christians? And every book of the Bible doesn't contradict the other. Uh, it just gives greater insight, and it's also aligned 'cause it's ultimately got 66 books but with one author. And God's values are the same throughout the whole thing. I would say if you have policies that are written outside of your values or with alternative values, that's where you, dare I say it, you start writing the apocrypha. Yes, thank you and guilty. So- Can I quickly sneak in a, a- Sure cheeky s- follow- up question as w- Please as well. I, I was thinking, you know when you were... I think there was really, I think it's really clear how you lay out the differences between mission, ethos, value. That's really, really helpful. Good. I was thinking sometimes I think y- when... I think by and large people we work with would agree with the ethos and fundamental values. And I think we're broadly in agreement. How would you handle disagreement even when... So how do we... So sometimes people disagree on how best to implement or- Yeah arrive at the vision or a mission. And I may have a view of the, if we do these things, that will lead us to the vision. My colleagues may have a different views of how we go about achieving that. How would you try to resolve that and, and sort of harmonize that in order to achieve a, like, a good teamwork- Yeah that we're pulling in the same direction? I like ideas come in and uncover the values that exist, and consult with everybody, and arrive at some form of consensus around no more than six, no fewer than three values. Ideally around, you know, any- anywhere between three and six Once you've got that locked in, then you hold people to those. And so if there is disagreement after that, it's too late. These are the values. And so if they're in disagreement with the values, that's a problem around the, their f- their value fit to the organization. Should you hire that person if they disagree with the values? If they're out of step with the values, that's something to address at appraisal, for example. Um- Mm-hmm I like the idea of competing values. So for example, we care about compassion at KIK, as well as integrity, truth, and love. Mm. And sometimes we know they can... Th- there's a tension there. Oh, you're telling me the truth that I need to turn up on time, but are you being kind or compassionate that I was running late because of X? Those are in tension, aren't they? Are we too loving and we give up on the truth or... These intention. But actually that's where behaviors are really important, and to lead through the values. No, no, no, I'm telling you the truth because I want to show compassion for the sake of the children and young people, and yourself. Make sure you're on time next time, et cetera. So again, value, uh, to have a good value set, there should be some tension built in. But once you've landed those, y- you'll be dysfunctional if you, if people keep coming up with new ones or alternative ones, or even worse, ones that are not a part of your values. Uh, and therefore it might be that's the wrong place for them to be working at That, that's really helpful- Right. Thank you Jo. Thank you. Pleasure. Pleasure, Thomas. No worries. So David, our chair, who is headteacher, he, uh, he just, uh, sent a message. "Thanks so much for your insight. We have some work to do on our mission and vision." So I'm sure that he was, um, he was inspired and challenged. Um, and do you know what? I just really love that point you made about competing or perhaps values that you can hold in tension. I think that's, that's really interesting. I've got... There may be other questions, but I've got one last- Yep question. Um, and I suppose this is, Thinking now from a student's perspective, how What can you do as a leader to help move those values, or whatever term you use, from these kind of, this abstract idea to something that a student sees around them in the everyday rhythm of school life in their lessons? Yeah. Well, I, I think, um, at Kik, we have values heroes. So with our staff team our, you know, like employee of the month, it can only be determined if they've met two of the five values. Mm. These two va- So for example, our most recent one, uh, Danielle was values hero of the month because she expressed excellence and integrity. And so again, and we, we talk about those stories, and those are important stories to us. So with one of the things at, at the school that I used to ran, uh, run, we named different meeting rooms after the values that we had, and so that was the inspiration meeting room or the innovation, uh, meeting room. And so again, it just brings those things to life. Mm. Uh, where you pick house uh, a h- you know, how, how people name their houses after certain characters in history or And again, being able to articulate why, because they align with our va- ethos and values. Mm-hmm. Brilliant. Mm. I mean, again, at Fulham Boys, uh, I think, um, oh, goodness. Oh, goodness, I've just Oh, Eric Liddell. Again, what an incredible faithful man of God. Meets with the ethos, who was into sport and the gospel and- Mm and ultimately gave his whole life to- Mm integrity around those two things. And so again, what a brilliant example based off the val- based off very clear values. So again- Mm using different moments to bring these things to life. Mm. You know, for example, your assemblies or at Kik, we sometimes have at a number of schools, they have like a, a half term focusing on one of their six values. A- and so again, it just invests in that, brings that to life and shapes the culture and the character of the school through- Mm virtue. And- Mm and that's something that is sometimes missing, absent, or enables organizations to be rudderless without. Mm. So yeah. Again, young people care a lot about this stuff. Uh- Mm children really care about values. And so I think that's something that as Christians, we have a lot of if you look at eldership in scripture- In Timothy, where Paul is talking about eldership, there are 11 things that God requires of an elder, and only one of those is a competency yeah. That's interesting. Yeah 10 of them are character traits. So character is nearly 10 times more important than, than competency. And, and so if in your schools you have teachers that get great results but they screw people over to get them, and they're very, very difficult people to work with, and they bring down the culture Really question whether they're the right people to stay in your school. It's really hard, because you think, "Oh, they get, they get good results," and we just compromise, and it, it affects everyone. But you think, "Oh, no." Be values driven and have Be clear in your culture for everyone's benefit, not just selling out to the results. Th- these are difficult choices, but, um, it's why at KiT we care about c- competency with work objectives and character through the values assessment too. Well, thank you, Jo. That's a real inspiration, and it's also, uh It's helpful for those of us who lead organizations that aren't, you know, necessarily schools Um, so yeah. Yeah. Really inspiring and helpful, and very grounding bringing it back to what God's word says as well. So, thank you so much. Um, we are going to hopefully turn this into a recording that can be accessed at a later date as well so more people can benefit. And I'll have a word with our Jo Bourne about how we do that. Um, so if you don't want your question to be include, included as in if you don't want yourself I think Thomas, you, or, or Sam, um, do let us know. Um, we don't want to, you know, u- use your, your voice without your permission. Um, I, yeah, just want to say a massive thanks to Jo. Um, you can go and read more about Jo and about KiT, 'cause you've written a book, haven't you, Jo? I have yeah. It's just here. And it's based entirely around our five values of ACE2. Yeah. It's f- 40 case studies of our work, bringing to life our ACE2 values. And and each chapter also has a theological application to- the five values we have, bringing that to life through the life of Moses, as I referred to earlier today, as well as King Solomon and David, and right the way through to Christ himself. And so again it's a book entirely designed around Christian values. Mm. Mm. And, and again, it's a, a cultural artifact. Mm. Uh, the book is example of that. So yeah I put that together 18 months ago, and, uh, that was published. So yeah. Please That's fantastic. Yeah. That's fantastic. We'll have to do a review of that, I think, for one of our upcoming journals. That'd be great. And just to remind you as well, if you're not already a member, please do go and have a look at our membership options. It's very easy to even trial being a member for £5 a month if you're not already. And do have a look at our conference details. In the link Are bookings actually open yet? Jo. I can't remember if they've opened yet. The bookings are open, yeah, they are. Excellent, great. So that's in October, and as I said, there will be a leaders track on the Friday evening. I think that's all from us, but thank you so much. I'll pray so that we can, commit all this to God. There's a lot to digest, a lot to think about. But we're very, very thankful you've joined us. Father, I just thank you for Jo. I thank you for a godly and mature perspective on, on what it means to enact values, to have vision and mission what it means to have integrity and see those values lived out and worked out in the day-to-day humdrum of school life, as well as the envisioning work that goes on in the boardroom or the head teacher's office. Lord, I just pray that you'd give each of us a vision that is aligned with what your word says, that we would value virtue and character over effectiveness, Lord, al- albeit that is important, Lord, but that overall we'd put on these virtues that, that the Bible talks about and that we would value godliness with contentment, that we would have yeah, s- a self-sacrificial attitude, that we would have love and joy, Father. Yeah, so please help us as leaders and we pray that our schools and our places of work would be organizations that, that do honor you through godly vision and values, whatever that looks like in our own context. Amen. Amen.