Back in October of 2001, Jim Collins published one of his most well-known works: “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t.”  It’s been one of the staples in the library of those leaders who want to take their companies to the next level, from being a good company, to being a great company.

Interestingly, with hindsight being 20/20, there are three key insights which I’ve gleaned from reading this text, finding excellent texts on suggested business practices, and the change in the faith-based and private school market that has recently taken place.

What do I mean by a change in the market?  The people who are investigating your school as a potential educational environment for their children make up your market.  Those people are members of a new generation which you’ve heard so much about in recent times – The Millennials.

2016 was a milestone year, because the first of Millennial parents had children entering 5th grade…which is the grade level high schools should begin their recruiting processes.  It’s important school leaders become aware of who The Millennials are, since, quite frankly, leadership missed the change in the market that happened about 29 years ago.

That was when Generation X began to enroll their children in faith-based and private schools.  Schools marketed to them just like they did to Baby Boomers…and then wondered why enrollment declined, then eroded, which led to shrinking, merging and closing schools.

Shifting demographics and difficult economic conditions were blamed, and, while there was some truth in the rationale, there was little that many felt they could do about it.  However, there were some school leaders who realized that their processes, procedures and thinking had to change to permit their school to continue fulfilling its mission…and if you haven’t changed your thinking to understand the mind of the Millennial, your next few years are going to continue to be awful.

Here are five key insights gleaned about the current tuition-charging school market, and the resultant principle created by their interacting as a system:

• • “Who” (or, perhaps, “Whom”) is of primary importance, certainly before “What” as Jim Collins states, but also “Why” and “How” as posited by Simon Sinek in 2009, who suggested in his landmark text to “Start With Why.”  Therefore, the progression goes Who, Why, How, What, then Where, and only then, When.

• • Also, the “Who” must be asked of multiple stakeholders:  The marketplace (parents of both current and prospective students), the donors, the board, and your staff!  It’s a necessity to know who will support your vision, who will deliver the service to your students and customers, and who will be your greatest cheerleaders.

• • You may ask, “Shouldn’t ‘Why’ be determined first, and then, you can figure out the ‘Who’ from there?” and you would be correct…if you were starting something from the ground up.  For instance, “Why do we need a new school in the first place?” would certainly need to be answered before getting people engaged and involved in a significant project…but, notice the third word of that sentence: “We,” which assumes there is more than one person participating in the conversation;

• • Your school needs to be “Good” to get to “Great.”  But if you’re charging tuition today, more than likely, that tuition is in the four- or five-figure range.  It’s not “good enough” to be “Great” anymore.  Today, you need to be “Excellent.”  It’s not even a “want” of parents of children in your school, it’s an expectation: and

• • In today’s marketplace, brands are created by the “experience” customers have.  Customers will then share that experience on their social media channels.  The folks that are responsible for “creating the experience” of your school are your school’s employees…not just the teachers, but the administrative assistants and the maintenance workers as well.  Which, interestingly, brings us back to “Who.”

The resultant principle is that change is not a process.  Transition is a process.  Change is also not an event, since one change will lead to more changes.  A shift is an event.  As Jim Collins puts it change is, “a framework,” rather than “a plan.”

Change is omnipresent and perpetual.  As The Eagles put it in “Life In the Fast Lane,” it’s, “Everything, all the time.”

Take a look at the article from Jim Collins here.  While it provides a great synopsis of “Good to Great” without all the examples of the corporations he analyzed, you’ll realize how “change” is a recurring theme in the article: http://www.jimcollins.com/article_topics/articles/good-to-great.html

Many of the schools I visit have claimed, “But we’re different!”  And that’s a great thing, especially when it comes to marketing a school.

Indeed, it is the unique, distinctive and remarkable traits of a school which emotionally engage parents of children, leading them to make the cognitive decision to enroll their children.

Interestingly, one of themes which I hear at some of these schools isn’t different from the others.  That theme is, “That’s the way we’ve always done it.”

There no arguing that habits are difficult to break…even if they’re bad habits.

“Change or DIE” appeared in FAST COMPANY magazine in May, 2005, written by Senior Writer Alan Deutschman.  Due to psychological principles and complex social theories, not to mention the physical characteristics of the body’s neurons building myelin sheaths around nerves to create “express lanes” for communication throughout its nervous system, we can know we need to change, but even when the possibility for change exists, chances are we won’t.

And that’s a frightening message to hear with all the unrest in the world.

Visit this link to read the complete article.