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The Five Essentials of Organizational Excellence
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The Five Essentials of Organizational Excellence
Maximizing Schoolwide Student Achievement and Performance


June 2003 | 184 pages | Corwin

"Marazza offers a prescription for how essential skills can empower school organizations that can ultimately lead to higher student achievement and stakeholder satisfaction."
John Pieno, Chairman
Florida Sterling Council

"Marazza's book displays both practicality and relevancy in school leadership, and examines leadership theories that triangulate his own methods of transforming today's schools."
Frank Rudnesky, Principal
Bellhaven Middle School, Linwood, NJ

"The Five Essentials of Organizational Excellence offers and explains what every administrator should know about collaborative leadership and the benefits for student achievement."
Nancy Noeske, President and CEO
PROACT Search, Inc.

Redefine leadership and engineer improved student achievement!

Educational reform. Organizational development. Increased diversity. Accountability. The climate in education today demands an understanding of key concepts. More important, educators beg for answers to important underlying questions. How can we reform education in order to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student population? How can we develop an alliance that holds itself accountable to the success and failure of every school, every student? This guide leads you on a path of surprising answers and unorthodox solutions to the problems facing schools today.

The Five Essentials of Organizational Excellence explores the necessity for building strong relationships among administrators, teachers, parents, and the community by:

  • Planning strategically
  • Benchmarking for excellence
  • Leading collaboratively
  • Engaging the community
  • Governing by standards

Leading a school to excellence involves more than just the principal--every member of the community must be involved in order to make a difference in a school's success.


 
Preface
 
Acknowledgements
 
Introduction
 
1. The Missing Essential Connections to Educational Excellence
Unconnected Systems

 
Thinking and Planning Strategically

 
Benchmarking for Excellence

 
Leading Collaboratively

 
Engaging the Public

 
Standards-Based Governance and Quality Assurance

 
The Integrated Essentials

 
The Power of Consensus

 
Random Acts of Improvement

 
Summary

 
 
2. The Power of Thinking and Planning Strategically
Commitment by Governance

 
Preparing for Strategic Planning

 
The Power of Conversation in Public Education

 
The Politics of Strategic Planning

 
Training the Stakeholders

 
The Mission and Building Principals

 
Personal Investment in the Plan

 
Public Engagement in Communicating the Plan

 
Summary

 
 
3. Benchmarking for Excellence Using the Sterling System
Benchmarking, Intelligence, and the Sterling System

 
Student-Results Benchmarking

 
Benchmark for Organizational Success

 
Integrated Management Systems Designed for Student Excellence, Using Benchmarking and Competitive Intellgience To Achieve Excellence

 
Summary

 
 
4. Leading Collaboratively for Combined Wisdom
Transforming Leadership

 
Transformationg the Principalship

 
Change Comes From the Edge

 
The Role of Personality Preferences in the Restructured Organization

 
The Interpersonal Dynamics of Collaboration

 
Retro-Programs, Sacred Cows

 
Collaborative Organizations

 
Organizational Characteristics of a Personal Bureaucracy

 
At the Core of Collaborative Success

 
Leadership and Followership

 
Leadership Needed Today

 
Principles Governing a Principal's Work

 
Legitimate Followership

 
Local Leadership Academy

 
Systems Thinking

 
Summary

 
 
5. Engage the Public in a Productive and Proactive Manner
Nine Factors of Engagement

 
Public Involvement

 
Building Principals and the Nine Factors

 
Deeper Public Involvement

 
S.W.A.T. Teams: Schools Where Achievement Thrives

 
Kitchen Talks

 
School Block Talk

 
Principal-Led Parental Collaboration

 
Summary

 
 
6. Govern by Standards Developed With the Stakeholders
Building Principals and the Need for Standards of Excellence

 
Developing Standards of Excellence Consistent With School Vision

 
Govern by Standards

 
The Governance Model

 
Summary

 
 
7. Empower Integrated Management Systems With Five Essential Skills
The Sterling Criteria for Organizaitonal Performance Excellence

 
Principals, Five Essentials, and Sterling

 
What Drives Organizations to Sterling Excellence?

 
Sterling Core Values

 
Summary

 
 
8. Integrate the Five Essentials
Simultaneous Development

 
The Cycle of Implementation of the Five Essentials

 
Cost-Benefit Analysis

 
Administrative Arrangements versus Curricular Concerns

 
Justify or Eliminate

 
Summary

 
 
9. Chaos, Essentials, and Learning Organizations
Five Essentials and the New Science

 
Information, Relationships, and Chaos

 
The Five Essentials and School Culture

 
The Five Essentials and Learning Organizations

 
Summary

 
 
10. Conlusion
The Leadership Trap

 
The Discipline of Dialogue

 
Have You Told Them That?

 
Changing Times, Changing Challenges

 
Captain Education

 
What Now?

 
Summary

 
 
Epilogue
 
References
 
Index

"The Five Essentials of Organizational Excellence offers and explains what every administrator should know about collaborative leadership and the benefits for student achievement."

Nancy Noeske, President and CEO
PROACT Search, Inc.

"After a long and distinguished career as a local school superintendent, Lawrence Marazza has laid out the precepts and practices that guided his success."

Richard Boyd, Visiting Professor, Education Leadership
The University of Mississippi

"Readers concerned about improving their school district will find the material applicable and adaptable to almost any situation."

Robert Blake, Principal
Mainland Regional High School, Linwood, NJ

"Marazza’s book displays both practicality and relevancy in school leadership, and examines leadership theories that triangulate his own methods of transforming today’s schools."

Frank Rudnesky, Principal
Belhaven Middle School, Linwood, NJ

"Marazza offers a prescription for how essential skills can empower school organizations that can ultimately lead to higher student achievement and stakeholder satisfaction."

John Pieno, Chairman
Florida Sterling Council

"This book . . . will help busy superintendents who are searching for integrative frameworks that bring together difficult concepts from various leadership literature into one overarching model."

The School Administrator, August 2004

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