Student Activities

Define your institute or initiative

Most of the times, the educational institute wants to be professional, but the traditional form of managing the administrative tasks come in its way. The issue is that traditionally, education was never a business. Thus, the practices are also very removed from what a brick and mortar business would have. But if real quality is to be achieved, real value needs to be given. Business or not, education needs to be run like one.

Here comes the need for Defining your institute. I can safely assume that education is the main line of activity in your organization. Now let us, for ease of communication, call our educational organizations as our 'Workplace'. Even this small step is one taken in the direction of professionalism.

1. There are various kinds of workplaces: Kindergartens, Schools, Grad Schools, Colleges, Not for profits, Universities, Education Boards, Coaching classes, Tutorials and even some Content Developers. The first thing you need to do is define which kind of setup you belong to.
2. Secondly. you need to know the history of your workplace. If your workplace is a recent establishment, chances are you will get the below mentioned facts right from the horses' mouths. If your workplace is an old establishment, ask your peers and seniors for real stories of development. If none are available, dig up the old magazines, annual reports, yearbooks and calendars for a timeline view. It is not enough to know when the institute started and the one or two popular stories that have been doing the rounds for ages. You must dig deeper to know (in the order of importance):
   
   • WHO started the institution
   • WHY - the purpose of starting
   • HOW did they start it
   • WHEN did they start the ground work and when did they finish
   • WHERE did they start (if there are many branches)
   Now, to answer the question of why one should know all this? The single most thing lacking in many organizations is a strong sense of the management values and beliefs. In many cases, education is still run as a family venture as this is one field wherea bad product cannot be recalled from the market. When you find out WHO started the institution, you learn whether it was one man/woman, a trust, a community, a religious establishment, a board or the government. Dig deeper and you will know if the founder was a charitable person, a business-minded person who saw it as a good opportunity or a person who was doing it as part of his job. This will give you an insight into what the purpose of your workplace was in the first place, which takes us to the next point.
   The actual purpose and the stated purpose are never more apart than in an educational institute. Many assume that by being in this noble profession, they are automatically doing something noble, even if their fees cannot be afforded by millionaires. By knowing WHO started the institution, the actual purpose can be gaged. At the same time, one must not lose sight of the stated purpose because all decisions need to be backed by the stated purpose. It would also be a good idea to check the institute records to see if there has been any major change of management and take overs that will make the above facts less useful.
   
   
   Knowing HOW they started the institution helps in understanding if it was a group effort with trusts and board of members or money was raised from the community or self-earnings were utilised.
   Knowing WHEN helps in understanding if the institute was a one day decision of a chairman or a long cherished dream of a futurist.
   Visit the original branch or establishment if you can to get a feel of WHERE
   
   
3. Once you know the history and the timeline of your workplace, you are halfway there. Now that you know who you are, define what you mean to the society or environment that you operate in. This involves taking stock of all the stakeholders of your workplace. Stakeholders of a typical institution will be teaching staff, non teaching staff, management, students, families, communities, suppliers, board, university, etc. Is your workplace an important part of the stakeholder's portfolio? What is the place it has? Is it the newest, oldest, best, worst? Place it in a fictitious Top 10 list and see where it comes.
   
4. All the while that you were knowing more about your workplace, random thoughts of how good or bad it is would have crept up. Now is the time to list them down. Jot down the strengths and weaknesses of your workplace. You can add Opportunities and Threats and make it a SWOT Analysis. You may be surprised, but it may be the first SWOT for your workplace.
5. Find out who your customers are? Yes, we should get into the habit of calling them customers. Unless we talk business, we cannot practice business. Are they rich, poor, good, bad, of one community, what were their majors, do they work? What defines your customers? If your workplace is a mix, see the pie charts and learn their profiles. Once you know who they are, it is easier to find out what their needs are. But more on that later.
   
6. With all this information, in not more than 20 words, describe your workplace. Use the pointers above to make your final description. For instance: Our college is a 50 year old institution that boasts of good infrastructure and the best teachers in the city. OR Our school is a newly opened dynamic set of energetic individuals who want to make new waves in special education.

Next week

Next week, we shall look into positioning your college and ingraining it in the students' minds. You can email me your college name and the description you have coined and I can take a look at it. Communication is key and we can come together to make your workplace a more effective and well-managed environment. Do write in with queries and comments at edvantage@workscool.com

Next Week: Student Activities - Positioning your institute >>

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