16 Trends: # 8 continuous improvement

I'm halfway through looking at the 16 trends that will impact education and society in the coming decades, and Trend 8 is one that is close to my heart.  There are schools that are striving for continuous improvement, and there are others that don't want to admit that they need to improve as this implies that they are not as good as they tell people they are.  Several times I've looked at websites or visited schools in person that claim they are excellent, outstanding and wonderful, but when you scratch the surface you see a very different picture.  They think they are successful and effective and so don't see the necessity for change.  My feeling is that I'd much rather work at a school that is always trying to do better, than one that tells me that it is already excellent and that this is as good as it gets.

Gary Marx writes "Continuous improvement should be be one of the prime values embedded in the culture ... a commitment to becoming even better tomorrow than we are today."  I think this is why I love working at ASB - I so often hear people saying "this is the best place I've ever worked - people know what they are doing, they care about quality and about people" and at the same time we are continually looking to see how we can do things better.  At the weekend we opened our doors to the world - and educators came from places as far away as Brazil, Australia and Europe.  At the end of the conference one of our visitors said to me: "Not many schools have the set up you do, if any."  At ASB people really go the extra mile - they are loyal and caring and committed and because of that we are able to offer a top quality experience.

Trend 8 is about the movement away from the status quo and towards continuous improvement.  Schools that aren't able to make this shift will fairly soon become obsolete.

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