Culture Wins

"From the first moment that a student sets foot in a Catholic school, he or she ought to have the impression of entering a new environment, one illumined by the light of faith, and having its own unique characteristics. The Council summed this up by speaking of an environment permeated with the Gospel spirit of love and freedom."

- The Congregation for Catholic Education, The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, para. 25, 1988

At the risk of giving sports too much credit, I offer the following quote from Riley Leonard, the University of Notre Dame's starting quarterback, for our consideration as Catholic school leaders.

After Notre Dame's win in the Orange Bowl last Thursday against Penn State, Leonard preached:

"What I think the country is learning about our program, I think the biggest thing is just culture wins. You see a bunch of talented guys across our locker room, but you can see that anywhere in the country. I think at the end of the day it's which guys are putting their bodies on the line and doing everything they can for the man next to them. Nobody is thinking about draft stocks or next year or anything like that, any type of individual glory. We're all thinking about the man beside us. I think we kind of proved throughout the season.”

Not only did Riley propose the reason for the team's success - that culture wins - but he described the type of culture that has the Fighting Irish in a position to win it's first national championship in football since 1988:

• The team and its success is more important than individual acclaim.
• People are more important than points, playing time, percentages, or products.
• Hard work beats talent.

Leonard also - another component of the team and university's culture - emphasized faith in Jesus Christ, ending his interviews on Thursday as he has throughout the season with the words, "Jesus bless."

Yes, one could attribute all of these polished and feel-good sound bytes to a competent public relations team and strong training sessions for a 20-something year-old college student who will have a microphone and camera in his face at the conclusion of just about every game. The fact that this type of advanced preparation undoubtedly takes place stands as another facet of a culture that wins: Excellence happens on purpose.

In a study of corporate culture and its impact on revenues, Kotter and Heskett (1992) found that over an 11 year period companies with strong cultures "grew their stock prices by 901 percent versus 74 percent...and improved their net incomes by 756 percent versus 1 percent" (p. 11).

Culture wins.

The same holds true for our schools. Schools with strong cultures will yield significantly higher academic achievement, improved behavior, higher employee satisfaction. The normative culture of a school - the ways we do things here - impacts academic performance, social behavior, and moral behavior (Hallinan, 2005). A strong culture acts as one of four main levers identified as the way that principals have a positive impact on schools (Grissom, Egalite, Lindsay, 2021). The other three include: high-leverage instructional activities, collaboration, and management of personnel and resources.

Again, culture wins.

In sports. In business. In schools. In Catholic schools. 

Culture wins. 

Flourishing

"It was a life-changing decision for me. In fact, it was a resurrection experience for me, and it was life-giving. This is what I pray for all of you. Jesus came not so that we might cope; Jesus came so that we might flourish. Jesus said, 'I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly' (Jn. 10:10)."

- Bishop Edward Malesic, A Flourishing Apostolic Church, p. 4, 2024

Merry Christmas - it's technically still the Christmas season through this upcoming weekend - and Happy New Year! I hope and pray that your Christmas break filled you with hope, restored you with joy, and rejuvenated you with love.

Emmanuel - God is with us!

Over the past few days we've celebrated the feasts of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (1/4) and St. John Neumann (1/5), and the Solemnity of the Epiphany of our Lord (1/5). As such, I have reflected on the connection between and among these heroes of Catholic education, the great mystery of the Incarnation, and the Epiphany of our Lord.

A through-line: God sent us His only Son so that we might flourish.

Our Catholic schools should make Christ incarnate to our students. Students should encounter and develop a relationship with Jesus through our teachers and staff members. They should know the Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of Christ through our classes and programming. They should hear Christ's call on their lives through faith formation opportunities at our schools.

In a sense, every interaction within our schools should be a sort of Christmas during which Christ bursts into the lives of our students and sets them on a new path. Every day within our schools should be an Epiphany in which Christ is "made manifest" to our communities.

Let us invoke the intercession of Sts. Elizabeth Ann Seton and John Neumann and the countless other women and men upon whose shoulders we stand in Catholic education. They acted as missionaries, visionaries, strategists, collaborators, analysists, and professionals that established and expanded the system of Catholic schools across our great country. May we follow in their footsteps as we seek to develop, implement, and tweak systems and structures in our schools so that we, too, can expand our reach and enhance our missionary impact on our communities.

The Christmas season may be coming to an end in our Church, but let us make every day Christmas day in our schools, where Christ is made known, loved, and served. Let us make every moment in our schools incarnational, where community members see Christ in each other and in every class, program, and activity.

Christmas may be coming to an end, but this is precisely when the work of Christmas begins:

to find the lost,

to heal the broken,

to feed the hungry,

to release the prisoner,

to rebuild the nations,

to bring peace among the people,

to make music in the heart (from Howard Thurman's poem, "The Work of Christmas").

Merry Christmas, today and everyday, in our Catholic schools and everywhere. 

Never Stop Never Stopping

At a recent meeting with Catholic school leaders, I offered a framework that undergirds my work and our collective efforts to create systems, structures, programs, policies, and procedures that will help us advance the mission of our schools. Taken from a part of change management known as improvement science, I have been using cycles of continuous improvement to help direct and guide my efforts throughout my career. 

Chances are good that you have employed a similar system during your leadership as well.

As noted by the graphic, this cycle - or more appropriately stated - these cycles are intended to engage a number of leadership traits (missionary, visionary, strategic, collaborative, analytical, professional).

To start, we design a PLAN that is rooted in our mission, inspired by our vision for the future state of our school, and designed collaboratively with a specific strategy for us to employ.

Once crafted, we execute the plan with professionalism. We DO what the plan states with magnanimity, striving for greatness for our God, our students, our faculty and staff, our community, and ourselves. We rally others to play their part in this scheme, integrating, differentiating, delegating, and empowering across personnel and community members.

The next phase of one of these cycles demands that we humbly analyze the efficiency and effectiveness of our intended progress, helping us to identify affirmations of work that should continue and recommendations for how we can continuously improve. This STUDY must be thoughtful, so that the data we construct - leading vs. lagging indicators, low vs. high inference observations - actually informs us about how we are doing.

From there, we start the cycle again, taking ACTion to either stay the course while continuing to monitor our ongoing progress, or make adjustments with a new plan, implementation, and analysis.

This cycle of continuous improvement creates iterative improvements. While not intended to create instability across organizations, these cycles allow us to methodically and incrementally improve and enhance our schools.

As we continue to move throughout the 2024–2025 school year, may we CONTINUE to use this framework - Plan, Do, Study, Act - to propel us forward in advancing the mission of our schools.

Give What You Have

Last weekend's first reading mirrored the Gospel. The first reading showcased a widow who offered the remainder of her flour and oil to the prophet Elijah. The Gospel also showcased a widow who offered all that she had - two coins - into the temple treasury.

In both cases, the widows give God what they have. 

In return, Elijah informs the widow and her son that they will have an abundance of flour and oil: "the jar of flour did not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry" (1 Kings 17:16). 

Similarly, Jesus praises not those who gave from their abundance, but the widow who, "from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood" (Mark 12:44).

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brooklyn_Museum_-_The_Widow%27s_Mite_(Le_denier_de_la_veuve)_-_James_Tissot.jpg

Give God what you have. 

As you consider your efforts as Catholic school leaders to be missionary, visionary, strategic, collaborative, analytical, and professional, how might you hold back on offering what you have to God?

Maybe we hold back because of a feeling of inadequacy - we aren't smart enough, skilled enough, we don't have enough time, or enough financial, structural, or personnel resources. Blessed with a poverty of time, experience, and/or resources, how often do we let perfect be the enemy of done? 

Or, blessed with an abundance of any of the above, we can fall into the trap of only giving God our extras. How often do we keep God and His influence on our ministries relegated to just the moments where it feels safe and easy?

Given 15 minutes in between meetings, give God what you have. Get out to a classroom. Write a thank you note. Read an article that you bookmarked. Visit the Blessed Sacrament.

Of course, don't do all of these in 15 minutes. Instead, pick one and give God what you have.

Similarly, don't wait until you're perfect at something before you start to do it. As you're learning how to conduct observations and coaching sessions, do them anyways. Instead of waiting to begin work on a project until you have the perfect plan devised, take an initial step. 

It's apostolic to build the plane while it's in the air. 

Magnify God's greatness by giving Him what you have. In turn, He will magnify your efforts.

Don't worry about what you don't have or what you can't do. Instead, thank God for what you do possess and have the courage - like the women from last weekend's readings - to give all of it, even if it seems insignificant, back to Him.

______________________________________

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered;

Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;

Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;

Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;

Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;

Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;

Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;

Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;

It was never between you and them anyway.

- this poem was found written on the wall in St. Teresa of Kolkata's home for children in Calcutta 

Get Small

Over and over again throughout the past year, God has reminded me to get small. 

Far from a statement about God's assessment of my worth - I am wonderfully made; wonderful are God's works (Psalm 139:14) - this message brings me great encouragement and hope. 

I often feel overwhelmed with the volume of work on my desk. I frequently find myself frustrated with having a lot of responsibility but limited power. I routinely doubt that anything I have or can do will have any sort of impact on the world. 

Thankfully, in these moments I have heard God whisper to my heart: Get small. 

Minister to the people that God has put in my life right now. Love and serve and lead and encourage and support and guide those in front of me right now. Like St. Teresa of Kolkata exhorted in her 1979 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, "And if we really believe, we will begin to love. And if we love, naturally, we will try to do something. First in our own home, our next door neighbor, in the country we live, in the whole world." 

Use the resources that I have - gifts and talents, positional authority, experiences - and allow the God of the universe to use them for His glory. He can feed thousands with five loaves and two fish. He can surely use my feeble efforts and assets to accomplish His work. Similarly, regardless of the amount of power I can wield, I have the ability to thoughtfully communicate and purposefully inform those in decision-making positions, influencing them in life-giving and mission-advancing ways. 

"Given the smallest things / It’s wild what God can do" (https://youtu.be/-soTNi3XZbM?si=MvR26JESwDmc1PWe).  

Do the work that God has entrusted me to do to the best of my abilities. God has called me to be the best Associate Superintendent for Secondary Schools that I can be. As such, I am called to lead and serve schools in the Diocese of Cleveland by designing systems and developing leaders. God hasn't called me to be the presidents or principals of our schools. I'm not called to evangelize the entire diocese. I'm not being called to cure cancer or ease our country's political tensions. 

Get small and watch what God can do. 

This isn't defeatist. It's apostolic. 

"Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible" (St. Francis of Assisi).

Of One Accord

One of my weekly faith formation activities includes listening to the weekly sermon from Levi Lusko. A Protestant preacher at a church in Montana, I appreciate Levi's gift of connecting scripture with history and culture. In my estimation, he masterfully intertwines relevance with orthodoxy. 

This past week, being a few episodes behind, I providentially listened to his message entitled "There's No 'I' in Awesome." The main takeaway follows: "There's no 'I' in awesome, but there is a 'we'."

There is a "we" in awesome. In fact, the only way for us to be truly awesome necessitates unity with God and others.

Focusing on Psalm 133 (see below), Levi exhorts us to recognize the incredible power of communion.

How good and how pleasant it is, when brethren dwell together as one! Like fine oil on the head, running down upon the beard, upon the beard of Aaron, upon the collar of his robe. Like dew of Hermon coming down upon the mountains of Zion. There the LORD has decreed a blessing, life for evermore! (Psalm 133)

When we come together in collaboration, uniting around God's mission for our schools, amazing things result: oil - a sign of anointing - overflows in abundance; dew travels over 100 miles of desert conditions to bring "life for evermore!"

Mount Hermon in the north down to Mount Zion, about 120 miles. 

This type of unity takes effort. Levi encourages us to fight to stay tight with the right people.

This type of unity isn't easy, but it is worth it. 

Anchor and commit to communal prayer. 

Communicate your mission, beliefs, and values. 

Communicate them again. 

And again. 

With great clarity in both your words and the actions of both you and your organization. Operationalize your mission, beliefs, and values in your school's policies, procedures, and programs. Allow people to know what you believe by watching and listening to what you do and say.  

Like the apostles huddled in the upper room, waiting for the gift of the Holy Spirit, remain united in prayer to the great call - the Great Commission - we have received through Christ. "All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer" (Acts 1:14). "When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together" (Acts 2:1).

And, like the apostles filled with the Holy Spirit, let us go out and "accomplish far more than all we ask or imagine, by the power at work within us" (Ephesians 3:20).

United. Of one accord. To Christ's mission. For the glory of God.

Anything is Possible With God

One of the many poignant aspects of yesterday's Gospel included the reminder that: "All things are possible for God" (Mark 10:27).

At the risk of making too strong of a connection between our faith and sports, our Cleveland Guardians reinforced this message this past Saturday and have been doing so all season long. In fact, the Cleveland baseball organization has defied the odds for quite some time. Despite having the 28th largest payroll out of 30 teams in Major League Baseball, the Guardians fought their way into baseball's final four. It's worth noting that the other three teams remaining in the MLB playoffs boast the top three payrolls, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd out of 30 teams.

Riches, as we witnessed yesterday when the wealthy young man walked away sad from Christ because he had many possessions, do not lead to success. Money can't buy eternal life and it doesn't guarantee victories on the baseball diamond.

Instead, the Guardians stand as one of baseball's elite because of a solid work ethic, a disciplined commitment to strong fundamentals, and outstanding selection and formation programs for coaches and players.

Known as Guards Ball, the Guardians' approach to winning stresses sound pitching and fielding, aggressive baserunning, and hitting for contact. Fold in an investment in developing players in these key areas and you have a recipe for success that goes beyond the sum of the ingredients.

Put more simply and disconnected from the world of sports: the Guardians selflessly commit to the fundamentals of the game of baseball.

As we proudly cheer on the Guardians through the American League Championship Series, may we embrace our own Catholic School Leadership version of Guards Ball.

Focus on the fundamentals of formation, of teaching and learning, and of leadership:

• Faith Formation: Disciples create disciples. In this way, do small things that demonstrate discipleship and invite others into these practices: pray, celebrate the Eucharist, read scripture, learn about your faith, perform acts of stewardship for the Church and others, keep the Sabbath.
• Teaching and Learning: We are made in the image and likeness of an omniscient (rational), omnipotent (creative), and all-loving (collaborative) God. Endowed with the gift of curiosity, we all seek to better understand and interact with the world around us. Our wonder-full minds take us outside of ourselves and into relationship with our surroundings and other people. Foundationally, classrooms should have clear purpose and relevance, methods for learners to collaboratively interact with content and test skills, and frequent checks for understanding with feedback to gauge progress in knowledge and abilities.
• Leadership: Invest time and energy into the recruitment, selection, onboarding, development, and performance management of our employees. Follow strong HR practices, ensure our employees and volunteers meet our standards of conduct, set goals, monitor performance, and provide feedback.

Work hard. Stay committed to the fundamentals of our ministries. Develop others.

Apostolically, we only need five loaves and two fish to feed thousands. Regardless of our resources, we - like our beloved Guardians - are capable of amazing things.

Remember, with God anything is possible.