Better communication, more satisfied families
A few words on the 2023 Niche parent survey plus the October link-o-rama
This is Talking Out of School, a weekly newsletter about schools, change, leadership and being a human in the 21st century. Thank you to all the subscribers who support this work!
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Hello readers:
This was a big month for Talking Out of School. Many new subscribers, lots of shares and my interview with Brad Rathgeber on operations plans is well over 1K views - it got to a thousand views in a week! And coming up right behind it was the post on creating harmony between communications, admissions and development.
Thank you, new subcribers, for joining us!
When I was working in schools, I always thought of late October - in boarding school, Family Weekend - as the “end of the beginning.” Later in the year, looking back, those first six to eight weeks felt both jam packed and that everything was barely getting off the ground. I hope it’s been a fall season where you have had a chance to shine and an opportunity to see the fruits of your good work with students and families.
I also know the past month has been hard in terms of war, turmoil and many strong emotions. There’s a lot of pain the world and a lot of people are hurting right now. I know I have often felt sad and helpless. And even in the best of weeks, it’s not as if it’s exactly easy to manage a community where so many people’s hopes and dreams are tied up in the organization. Leaders, I wish you wisdom and grace and some space for moments of peace of mind.
Before getting to the links - and there’s some very good stuff - I wanted to take a minute to say a few words about communications. There is an “s” on the end of that word because I want to again make a case for the absolutely crucial importance of a professionalized, strategic communications function given everything the world is throwing at us and given the significant challenges many schools are facing. A main takeaway from the Fall 2023 Niche parent survey is that families looking for a new school found their current school’s communication falling short.
Communications is a function that can elevate every part of how a school operates. I know recently we have been giving space to crisis response and leadership communications, but that’s just a fraction of a much larger picture. And they all flow together. If you have clear and sharp mission and values in order, that informs brand messaging. That informs both how you communicate and what you communicate. If so many families in the Niche survey are observing they felt uninformed, that they did not feel like partners in the community of the school, the answer isn’t repeat to the faculty they need to return emails within 24 hours.
What’s the bigger picture? One example - how do the mission and values inform other choices, such as how your advisor system works, how they communicate with parents, and what they communicate about? And the same for the faculty/parent relationship. Maybe your mission and values lead you to decide that the faculty/parent relationship is only important twice a year at fall and spring family weekend - but I doubt it!
Communications is about being in relationship with each other. And that can differentiate independent schools from all the other choices for education out there.
Talking Out of School preview and Stony Creek Strategy news
Coming up:
A Stony Creek Diaries essay on middle age-ing and eldercare - but funny! Kind of. Mostly?
Cash (flow) is King - part II of the People Talking interview with Tom Gorman, CFOO at the Foxcroft School - how to get the CFO to say yes to ideas outside of the budget cycle
An analysis of the state of institutional communications
And a really great guest I’m in the process of confirming for a December People Talking interview… stay tuned.
This month, I am reaching out to some selected TOOS readers to gather feedback on the future direction of this newsletter. As more subscribers join, I get more excited about the potential of this project and this growing community.
And come join me at an upcoming webinar - “Creating a Talent Development Model for Hiring and Retention” - for a one day online summit, TransformED from founder and producer Peter Baron - November 7th
Links - Most of these appeared in TOOS posts this month
Barnes and Nobles is loosening up on uniformity - many lessons here for indy schools
The difference between fundraising and advancement
Many employees will quietly groan when they hear you're starting community wide strategic planning
October TOOS posts
Three legged stool of advancement - admissions, marcomm and development
Ten Thoughts for an Unsettled Time plus guiding principals for leadership communication
Interview with Brad Rathgeber on operationalizing your strategy through an operations plan