“An organization doesn’t become healthy in a linear, tidy fashion,” Patrick Lencioni writes in The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business, “Like building a strong marriage or family, it’s a messy process that involves doing a few things at once, and it must be maintained on an ongoing basis in order to be preserved.”

This messy process, he explains, “can be broken down into four simple disciplines:”

1. Build a Cohesive Leadership Team

2. Create Clarity

3. Overcommunicate Clarity

4. Reinforce Clarity

In short, there needs to be a theme.

More specifically, there needs to be an overly communicated (and clarified) theme that is tangible, actionable, and timely.

A yearly theme provides the clarity every healthy organization needs, for both students and staff as well as the surrounding community members. It also provides unity.

In contrast, a weak or sloppy theme can - quite unintentionally - create confusion, frustration, even destruction.

If you’re working on creating a theme for your school year, here are a few do’s and don’ts to consider.

The Do’s:

When thinking of a theme, envision entering a stranger’s house. You take off your shoes, hang your hat on a hook, and notice, somewhere in the entryway, a saying. Be it painted and framed on the wall or etched in the doormat, it might say something like, “Live, Laugh, Love,” “Gather,” or “Welcome to the s*** show.” Whatever it says, those words were put there intentionally because the owner of the house believes they are important, believes it says something about them, their house, and their expectations. It also sets the tone for how you should act and the things you can say.

Schools are no different.

Therefore, when creating a theme for your school, one that will literally or metaphorically hang by the door and proclaim who you are and what you hold dear, keep the following in mind.

Make it Clear Enough for Unity, Vague Enough for Autonomy

I was once in a district leadership meeting where the superintendent of twelve international schools was trying to create some consistency between us all. Of the twelve, one principal was finding it difficult to get on board, “We are all different,” he would argue, “With different staff, different students, and different needs. We cannot possibly be the same!”

And he was right. But he was also wrong.

A healthy organization understands that in order for people to be motivated, each individual needs three things: Mastery - the ability to get better at things, Autonomy - the freedom to be self-directed, and Purpose - the belief that they are making the world a better place (from Daniel Pink’s DRIVE: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us).

A purposeful theme, then, allows for individuality. It promotes ideas, allows for uniqueness, and encourages growth. It embraces uniformity and combats conformity.

Remember, years ago, Lance Armstrong and his, “Live Strong” campaign? If we forget all the mess around him, we can learn a lot from his slogan and why it was so popular. Largely, because it invited growth and hardships and encouraged us to be better - however that means for us, individually. It was fully inclusive (because everyone needs to endure difficult times), but it was also deeply personal. You could apply Live Strong directly to yourself.

A theme that encourages conformity is restricting and destructive. It prevents questions and squashes creativity, individualism, and advancement.

A theme that encourages uniformity, however, provides safety and growth. It allows individuals to be uniquely themselves under the safety net of a group, a tribe.

When creating your theme, consider the following questions:

Does it provide unity?

Does it allow for autonomy?

Make it Timely. Make it Personal:

This one is perhaps a no-brainer, but that does not mean it does not bare repeating. Yearly themes need to represent your school and community. What they need, who they are, and where you need and want to go. A theme that is disconnected or unfamiliar will be a source of irritation rather than inspiration. “What does that even mean?” they might say, or “He/she clearly doesn’t know us.”

Suddenly, instead of being a rallying cry that brings your staff and students together, it will be a mockery, the source of watercooler gossip, and a potential banner for the opposition.

I experienced this in one of my previous schools with the theme of “Prove You’re Alive.” It didn’t inspire a boycott or rouse any deep or elongated frustrations, but it didn’t inspire us either. Nor did it bring us together. It was just banners in the hallways and me with a megaphone with a few isolated cheers and awkward claps. The purpose of the theme was legit, so too was the goal. The process of creating it, however, was entirely flawed. It was my conviction, my idea, and my vision. And because it was mine, it was not ours. Which made it shallow and impersonal.

In order for a theme to mean something, in order for it to grab hold and move the school community in the same and unified direction, it needs to be personal. The staff need to not only understand where it comes from and what it means, they need to believe that it is important. The best themes come from the staff. As leaders, we can help guide the discussion and provide insights and ideas, but it is the staff that need to build it for they are the ones that will live it.

In order for a theme to stick it needs to be personal. In order for it to inspire change it needs to be timely. In order for it to be both it needs to come from the staff.

Was your theme inspire by the ideas and words of your staff?

Or,

Was it curated and hatched in isolation?

Make it Actionable:

In his book, Deep Kindness: A Revolutionary Guide for the Way We Think, Talk, and Act in Kindness, Houston Kraft warns against the use and public display of cute and playful - albeit well-intentioned - quotes and themes. “While they make for great products and posters,” he writes, “they can do more harm than good. Without paying proper attention, we’ve started to ‘fluffify’ the thing” rather than give it life and meaning and purpose. We’ve oversimplified it, watered it down, and made it a catchphrase rather than a lifestyle.

“The practice of Deep Kindness doesn’t happen just because we believe in kindness,” Kraft continues, “It’s something to strive toward, and a skill set that has infinite room for improvement.” It requires daily and purposeful action.

So too do our yearly themes. Instead of fluffy, intangible ideas or phrases, our themes needs to be something that has substance, that calls people to do something. It needs to be actionable.

In 2021, the year after our nation shut schools down because of COVID, my schoolboard decided to bring students back to school. The problem was we didn’t know how long that would last. We had all the safeguards in place - masks, social distancing, contact tracing, etc. - but no one knew for sure what would happen or how long we’d be in school. Our theme that year was, “Make it Count,” and I loved it because it was a daily reminder that we just didn’t know what would happen tomorrow, so Make it Count today!

And it resonated with everyone. Be it staff members, students, or community members, “Make it Count” directly applied to life. In conversations with family and friends, creating lesson plans, participating in after school activities, and in disciplining behaviors, the reminder to take full advantage of the opportunity was there, each and every day.

Does your theme inspire action for you, your school, and your community?

For teachers, when they are exhausted or frustrated, does your theme remind them to keep moving? To stay the course? Does it bring them back to what matters?

For students, does your theme guide them in the way that they should go? Is it something you can point to when celebrating success or when providing redirection and discipline? Does it help them become better students? Better people?

Does your theme call people to action?

Or,

Does it imply that you’ve arrived?

The Don’ts:

A poorly crafted theme, although often created with good and purposeful intentions, can have negative consequences. Especially if the theme isn’t explained or coupled with actionable do’s and don’ts.

When creating a theme, here are a few easy pitfalls to avoid:

Don’t Make Vague Proclamations:

Themes that make a proclamation about how great we are without a roadmap to gettering there not only keep us stagnant, they create entitlement. “We’re great because we’re great.” And if we’re already great or the best or out of this world at something, then what are we working on? What are we working towards?

Themes that make proclamations without specificity are like farmers planting with Brawndo. “Because it has electrolytes!”

Themes that involve statements such as, “We are out of this world,” mean nothing. Although good intentioned, they don’t lead people anywhere. If it isn’t tangible, actionable, or quantifiable, how will people know what to do? How will they know why they are Out of the World or the Best in the West?

Vague proclamations also, unintentionally so, create entitlement. We are AMAZING not because of what we’ve done, but because of what we are. And what are we? We’re amazing.

But why? And how does our staff, our students, or our community hang their hat on that? Vague proclamations tell us what we are without guiding us on what to do or how to do it.

And if they don’t know how to do something or why they do it, what’s the point?

Don’t Make it Personally Personal.

Themes that are used by leaders to passive aggressively make a point are devastating to the moral and growth of a school.

For example, a theme of “No Complaining” may seem like an obvious bad choice for a school as it is not only aggressive, it is negative and scolding. It’s passive aggressive counterpart, “Good Vibes Only”, however, is not so obvious a bad choice largely because it is sold on t-shirts and stickers and comes with bright colors and wavy fonts. But it is essentially saying the same thing, “No Complaining,” and a staff that is struggling, that needs help and support, and that foresees pitfalls or wants to improve and grow, they will learn pretty quickly that anything other than smiles, compliments, and Good Vibes will be seen as the opposition.

True leaders have hard conversations, clear expectations, and constant communication. They deal with conflict personally and carefully. They take care of their staff rather than abuse or manipulate them.

Themes that are passive aggressive, however, that are personally personal to the leader and are used to manipulate behaviors are not only wrong, they are devastating to a school culture. It handicaps the growth of the school, destroys the bridge of trust between the leadership and the school, and creates (or enhances) a very toxic environment.

Don’t Assume Everyone Understands:

Most any theme can have a positive impact on a school and it’s culture if it is clearly explained. In contrast, any theme created with the greatest intentions but without explanation can fall flat on it’s face.

No matter the theme, explain it. As Patrick Lencioni argues, in order for an organization to be healthy, leadership must create clarity, overcommunicate clarity, and reinforce clarity.

So break it down. Give a rationale, a goal, and steps to achieve that goal. Better yet, have your staff do it for you (or with you), then come back to it time and time again.

Purposeful themes are more than words printed on t-shirts or banners in the halls. They are a vision, a roadmap, and a battle cry for the year. They proclaim who we are, what we value, and the direction we are headed.

They provide clarity. They create unity.