Every one has a story to tell . . .

On location of Storybrooke, ME from Once Upon a Time

I am a fan of data analytic yet I grow concerned that we rely too much on it. Not because it cannot tell us important information, drive decision making, and increase efficiency through pattern recognition. Rather, my concern is centered around the fact we tend to forget at the end of every data point is a person, a family, or an individual.

And, with that person comes a story, their story. Their very own, individual story. A story they want to share.

Big data has great potential to serve us in the world of buyer behavior. Don't forget though that sometimes an individual story is necessary to be heard in order to better understand the customer we so want to serve.

houston@figment-consulting.com

Figment Consulting announces new training sessions

Over the past few months I have spent time conducting various training sessions that amount to either one-day, two-day, or even online sessions to help clients with specific issues. As this has continued to grow in popularity, I have recently tried to build more structure to it, and now offer it as Figment services on my web site: www.figment-consulting.com.

The most effective training session is the two-day, on site, intensive session to help virtual partners becomes schools that serve. This session, under Training, is the gold level of what I offer. During this session, we cover the Nine Essentials to build virtual schools that serve properly -- teacher-student relationships, investing in teachers, building a retention culture, constructing a remarkable learning experience, becoming a human connection school, finding right-fit students, growing with purpose, launching with success in mind, and developing a specialist mindset.

In addition, we are now offering additional training sessions (under Services) on the following (either on site or online):

One-day Marketing Training: Covering the 15 P words of marketing to help you build a Relationship Strategy that leads to better enrollments and higher retention.

One-day Training Seminar to learn how to become a Human Connection School: This seminar has served as a follow-up to my Nine Essentials training and goes even more in-depth in order to build strategy and tactics to move away from socialization and into connectionalization.

Virtual School Next Gen Training: This one-day training allows us to go in depth to build the learning experience as we work our way towards remarkable. We move to the tactical level and how each person plays a pivotal role in going beyond academics. The result is a deeper engagement by students and families which leads to higher retention.

Customerology Compass: In this 2-hour training session, we cover the Needs, Wants, Stereotypes, and Emotions (NWSE) of your students and families. In doing so we learn how to meet their Needs while serving their Wants. We learn how to overcome Stereotypes and build loyalty as we tap into their Emotions.

Two other popular training sessions allow us to help clients develop their Service Theme and Service Standards. These separate sessions establish the foundation and reference points as we construct a service culture.

Of late, two other efforts have proven popular. The first is where we spend two days in order to help you edit, revise, and rethink your Marketing Strategy in order to reach the right type of students. The second one allows us to focus on your Messaging in order to help you craft the right type of message and utilize the proper channels to convey it.

And, we also offer Leadership Coaching services. We spend one hour a week with your leadership team members to move each one toward the central chief aim, and bring each one together for a more cohesive experience that leads to more effective and disciplined decision making.

The required investment varies with each session, and whether or not it is conducted on site or online. Email us today and we can put together an offer to meet your most immediate needs.

Coming soon -- we are working toward making these services portable by recording them and allowing for downloads.

Until then, keep thinking differently. And thank you to those who have allowed us to be of service to you. Without you, these ideas for the various training seminars might have continued to be overlooked on our part.

houston@figment-consulting.com

"It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards." The White Queen said to Alice

Severing ties with a learning management company because of poor performance then attempting to build exactly what you just left is memory not working properly, as The White Queen would say.

Adding more to the plate of families who are leaving because the prior plate was too full is memory not working properly.

Believing that a new branding message can paint over the rotting foundation is a memory not working properly.

Expecting technology to save the day when families crave interaction is memory not working properly.

While I am not sure The White Queen had any knowledge of virtual schooling when she made the comment to Alice, I am sure that many in the world of virtual schooling are not listening to her words of wisdom.

houston@figment-consulting.com

Bring an umbrella and unasked questions

Vancouver Umbrella Shop in Richmond, BC, Canada

"What's the weather like this time of year?" I asked the hotel attendant over the phone.

"Bring an umbrella," she replied.

Whether she knew it or not, the polite hotel front desk clerk in Vancouver answered my unasked question. In reality I knew what the temperatures were like because I had checked. What I really wanted to know was what she answered, and I didn't even have to ask.

I am traveling tomorrow to Vancouver to speak at a conference on Friday, then making my way down to the coast west of Portland to conduct some training for a client (with a stop at the Pike Place Market Starbucks in Seattle along the way of course).

So, I had done my homework in terms of weather conditions, travel plans, etc. But, when I called to confirm some details with my hotel in Vancouver, what I really wanted to know is how much does it rain there? I had been to Seattle a few times the past several years but first time in Vancouver. While it is just north of Seattle, I was also aware of how that could make a huge difference in weather conditions (having just learned that firsthand in my recent trip to Alaska -- Anchorage was above freezing while Wasilla, which is only 50 miles NE of Anchorage, was closer to single digits).

What's the point to all of this? I simply wonder how many times virtual school administrators fail to answer the unasked questions from their parents. How many times do they assume that what the parents want to know is exactly what they asked? (In reality, a good listener will be able to discern if there is an unasked question that needs to be answered)

Case in point -- the Agora Cyber Charter School is conducting a Board Meeting tomorrow night. In light of the recent layoffs it should prove to be an interesting one. If the leadership is not careful, they will allow many unasked questions to go unanswered.

houston@figment-consulting.com

Know, Accept, Be

Know who you are and you have the potential to serve students in the best way.

Accept who you are and you will recruit students you can best serve.

Be who you are and you will attract more students like the ones you serve best.

houston@figment-consulting.com

What do you want most? (and a note on Agora Cyber Charter School)

We sat around a table in Big Lake, Alaska. We included myself, my wife, my oldest daughter (an entrepreneur herself), and a small group of people where we were in discussion about either partnering with them or even buying their business.

We had been through various discussions on financials, business operations, and all of the other fun items associated with what we were exploring. Then, my daughter began to share what had brought her to the table. Afterwards, she looked at each of us and shared that for her it would be most helpful to know what each person there wanted.

Then, she looked at the current business owner and asked him, "What do you want most?" It was a beautiful and insightful question, and his answer was surprising. He paused, leaned back in his chair, and his eyes followed his thoughts.

"Community," he answered. "I really want community."

I wonder how many families in virtual schools want the same thing? I wonder how many of them have a desire for community? How many of them want to belong to something that lifts them up, feeds them, and encourages them?

Community. We strive so hard to provide a diploma for families when perhaps what they want most is to belong.

houston@figment-consulting.com

A note on Agora Cyber Charter School:

While I admit to not knowing all of the details specifically, Agora Cyber Charter School (PA) laid off hundreds of teachers and family coaches yesterday. Disappointing but not surprising.

Some of the reason falls to the ongoing budget crisis in PA where the new Governor and legislature have not agreed to a new budget that began last July 1. I get that. However, most of the responsibility belongs at the feet of those in charge of Agora.

They talked a good talk but failed to walk it. And, yet again, virtual schooling receives a black eye because of it.

As recently as last week I had noticed an Agora advertisement stating they were a public school so they were always open for enrollment. At the same time, they were not taking care of their existing family -- students, families, teachers, staff.

Agora was and is doing things the old way -- funnel students in to replace the ones leaving and hope at the end of the year more have entered the front door than departed the back door. Then, continue to relegate the teachers to the same status as technology and have them serve as interventionists with the hope that somehow academic results will increase.

At what point do we realize the current model is broken? At what point do we understand that to continue doing the same things over and over while expecting different results is merely pretending? 

This time it was Agora Cyber. Who will it be next time?

It's time to re-imagine the virtual school experience. It's time to craft a model that places the teacher-student relationship at the center and build around it. It's time to build a school worth belonging to. It's time to launch with success in mind, grow with purpose, and build a culture of retention. 

It's time to throw the sales funnel away. 

It's time.

And, this presents us with an opportunity to build a new model. Virtual schooling can realize its promise. It can serve students and families. It can be all that it was meant to be.

Let's begin construction on a model that has as its foundation Relationships. Let's build a model that fosters community. Let's build a model that equalizes the learning experience with the academic pursuit. Let's build a virtual school that is all about Together.

We can do it. We must do it.

Storyboarding the enrollment process

The storyboarding process was developed by Walt Disney Productions in the early 1930s. Today, Walt Disney and Pixar (along with other animation companies) continue to utilize the storyboard process as one of the first steps in the movie development.

A storyboard provides a visual layout of the movie, and allows animators to reconfigure, redesign, and re-imagine scenes and stories before proceeding to the next stage of development. Perhaps moving scenes around, or adding elements will move the story along, or prevent combustion points in the story. Perhaps different camera angles will add to the story.

Storyboarding has proven so beneficial and successful that even theatrical plays utilize it. In addition companies have begun to use storyboarding for the sales process, customer conversion process, and other operational processes that can be visualized.

Over the past few years I have taken several companies I have consulted with through the visual storytelling to help uncover combustion points for customers, to rearrange the experience that streamlined the process and enhanced the experience, and simply to confirm that the current process needed only tweaks in order to improve.

Recently I have had the opportunity of storyboarding the enrollment process for several virtual schools I am consulting with on a regular basis. In doing so, it helped identify a path forward that dramatically improved the customer experience.

Seeing something visually can lead to alternatives that would otherwise remain hidden.

Try it for yourself. Take time to storyboard your enrollment process from a visual standpoint, and see for the first time what has been hidden before your eyes.

houston@figment-consulting.com

iNACOL's New Strategic Plan

This morning I received an email that linked me to the new strategic plan just released by iNACOL.

"Catalyzing transformation in K - 12 education."

I applaud the direction they are headed. Though I admit I had to quickly check the definition of "catalyzing." Why couldn't they just say "accelerating?"

They have their mission, vision, and theory of action within this new plan spelled out for us. My hope is that behind it all there is an unwavering passion that supports this plan on a day-to-day basis by each and every member of iNACOL.

That is where real change will accelerate, or catalyze.

houston@figment-consulting.com

Zero to One: It's time to quit pretending

Peter Thiel's book Zero to One, Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future, states that when we create something new, we go from 0 to 1.

Paypal (of which Thiel was a founder) took online payments from 0 to 1. Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, is an individual focused on going from 0 to 1. Mark Zuckerberg took us from 0 to 1 when Facebook was created.

As Thiel states though, "It is easier to copy a model than to make something new; doing what we already know how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar."

When full-time virtual schools were introduced they took education from 0 to 1. They were an "act of creation, and the result was something fresh and strange."

Now, virtual schools are attempting to move from 0 to n. Remember, it is easier to copy a model, to do what we already know how to do. The problem is that the current n is not worth modeling.

My energy and effort is centered on the desire to have us rethink n and return to creating something new, with the hope of moving us again from 0 to 1.

Let's stop pretending. It's time to create something new in virtual schooling.

houston@figment-consulting.com

The Denver Broncos Virtual School

What if I told you that within the Denver Broncos, winners of Super Bowl 50, lies secrets to a successful virtual school?

Head Coach Gary Kubiak, talking before the Super Bowl victory, "I think every experience is different. We've done it different with this football team and how we went about it. But I feel good about our process. Throughout the course of our season we kind of knew we were all involved, we were all contributing. I think that's brought our football team very close together over the season."

Future Hall-of-Fame Quarterback Peyton Manning when discussing the fact this was Coach Kubiak's first season with the Broncos (again before the Super Bowl victory), "When you have a new coach it takes time to understand his expectations and his philosophies. I think though, it is up to the players to buy in and try to fulfill the role that he wants them to play."

Super Bowl 50 MVP Von Miller speaking before the Super Bowl when asked about his emotions after being drafted a few years ago by the Broncos, "I just wanted to come in and be the best Von Miller I could be. When I was a rookie I had dreams and aspirations. But what got me through everything was just keeping my head down, just focusing on what I needed to do. I just focused in with my teammates."

Within those three quotes lies some wonderful secrets to building a remarkable learning experience, if you know where to look.

Can you see them?

Do you understand them?

Do you know how to apply them to your virtual school?

houston@figment-consulting.com

Do you have Service Values?

If you have not developed a Service Theme, then start with yesterday's blog post before reading this one.

Service Values are the practical plans that allow you to implement your Service Theme through your employees, through setting, and through processes.

They

* Provide each administrator, teacher, and staff member a road map to follow

* Offer you guidelines to give you a disciplined approach to serving your students and families

* Identify those areas of vital importance to you that allow you to define your ethos

They are active, predetermined, aspirational, measurable, and when you take the time and energy to define them you then separate yourself from other virtual schools.

houston@figment-consulting.com

What's your Service Theme?

Define

What do you stand for?

Why do you exist?

How do you want to serve?

A Service Theme is not a mission statement or vision statement. It is deeper. It is real. It is lived out each day with each interaction.

Start here and your students and families will know the difference without you having to tell them.

houston@figment-consulting.com

The cost of tuition-free

Research has demonstrated the powerful impact FREE can have on sales for businesses. It can increase sales on average by 15% or more. The offer of FREE can increase lead conversion dramatically (depending upon what the FREE offer is of course), and convert leads to customers.

But FREE is not free, especially in the world of virtual schools.

The flip side of the coin when businesses lead with FREE is that they are not building loyal customers. They are not attracting customers that will return for more. More often than not, FREE attracts those who are seeking something free.

In the world of virtual schools, most lead their marketing efforts by focusing on the fact they are tuition-free. In doing so, it helps increase leads, and even can help convert leads to students.

But, that cost remains.

The cost of attracting the wrong type of student.

The cost of seeing those students leave who came because it was free.

The cost of finding more students who are attracted to free.

FREE is not free -- neither for the student nor the school.

houston@figment-consulting.com

Rethinking rigor

Virtual schools enjoy touting their "rigorous curriculum" as a selling point. But, should they?

Our friend Merriam and Webster tell us that Rigor is defined by words such as:

harsh inflexibility
strictness
severity
cruelty
strict precision
rigidness

Oh, I know that is not the intent of the schools when they use this term Rigor.

In the Glossary of Education Reform, the authors give a more accurate definition of Rigor as applied when educators use it. In education, rigor is commonly applied to lessons that encourage students to question their assumptions and think deeply, rather than lessons that merely demand memorization and information recall.

My suggestion is that parents (your customers) apply the Merriam-Webster definition instead of the Glossary.

Every time you say rigor parents hear strict, severe, rigid. If that is your desire, then continue to use rigor.

However, those who understand what it means to be a virtual school that serves, and apply the principles of customer service will seek to better define the true meaning they want parents to grasp. They will better explain what they have created. They will toss aside rigor.

houston@figment-consulting.com

Going the extra mile . . .

. . . is sometimes not far enough.

When it is not, are you willing to go the next mile beyond the extra one?

If not, you may find you never traveled the extra mile in the first place.

houston@figment-consulting.com

Do what matters

Start your day with what matters most, and do it.

Don't choose busy work,

or easy work,

or mindless work.

Do what matters.

Of course this requires you to give thought to, to consider, to discipline your mind, in order determine what does matter.

Then comes the discipline to do it first.

houston@figment-consulting.com

3 Ways to Get Virtual School Students to Engage

Each time I visit with either a new client, or even a prospective client one of the first questions I am asked is "How do we get our students to engage more?"

Student engagement is just below better enrollments, less attrition, and higher retention. Taken together these are the four pedestals upon which virtual schools either stand or crumble. What about academics? If we improve our enrollments, reduce attrition, and increase retention, my argument is academics will improve.

So, how do we get students to engage?

Here are three ways to do it:

1. Give them something worth engaging in

2. Give them a place to belong

3. Demonstrate how much you care for them

Oh, I know these are not the tactical plans you might have hoped for but the lack of engagement goes much deeper than mere tactics.

Remember, some of these same students who don't "engage" in your school spend hours playing video games like Call of Duty, or hours playing iPhone games like Clash of Clans. Those two have given kids something worth engaging in.

These kids also engage in Instagram and Snapchat consistently, especially if they sense they belong.

Then, do your students know you care about them? Do they know how much you care for them? In what ways do you demonstrate it daily?

Think about engagement at this level far more than which tactics or latest gadgets to deploy.

houston@figment-consulting.com

Two questions on the K12 quarterly report

Thursday morning K12 released its quarterly report. Shortly thereafter my inbox was flooded with emails from people who have both agreed and disagreed with my assessment of the K12 ship is sinking (wrote several blogs about it over the past year).

Two of the dominant points common to each email I received are found in these two questions:

Q1. In reading through the transcript it would appear K12 is taking some ideas from your playbook -- focusing more in teacher and student interaction, spending more attention on retention, and using some of the terms you have proposed over the past year. What do you think?

Q2: With the latest report and the stock price soaring upward now, are you willing to say that you might be wrong in your assessment of K12, and that indeed it is turning a corner?

I had numerous emails noticing the use of terms and intense focus on the teacher-student relationship that I posit is THE most critical element in virtual schooling. I also had numerous emails wanting to say I have been wrong about the K12 ship. It was a fun day to read emails.

As for being wrong, I am always open to that possibility which is why I refer to myself as a Specialist and not an Expert in virtual schools. Specialists are always improving their game, learning, and growing. Experts believe they know all they need to know. So, yes I am willing to admit to being wrong.

Not sure though that is the case here just yet. One quarter of seemingly positive news doesn't make for a different story. I am not going to spend time picking apart the report -- in time it will either prove to be true or not on its own. But, this quarterly report does not alter my assessment of the overall ship.

As for K12 borrowing anything from my playbook -- while potentially flattering, I am not one to believe that is the case.

I continue to lead the charge in focusing on students as customers, placing the teacher-student relationship at the middle of it all, and building a remarkable learning experience (emotional and academic). If anyone wants to borrow it, that is perfectly fine.

We need a new virtual. Remember, sometimes when you "turn a corner" it means you may be on your way to going in circles.

houston@figment-consulting.com

The middle

It's safe here in the middle with everyone else.

We hang out with friends who go by the names of: Incremental Gains, Basis Points, Closing the Gap, More Focused, Churn Rate (and his brothers Attrition and Retention).

We pat ourselves on the back for what we call improvements while failing to realize we are only comparing ourselves to everyone else in the middle.

But, it's safe here. And, we like safety.

houston@figment-consulting.com

Building a remarkable learning experience

Author, blogger, and mentor Seth Godin describes remarkable as something worth talking about. In other words, the service you are rendering is so remarkable your customers cannot help but share it with others.

We have the potential to build a remarkable learning experience in virtual schools -- one that is worth sharing, one that your students and families cannot help but share with others.

Remember though, remarkable encompasses far more than just academics.

You can read more about this in my Virtual School Manifesto: Nine Essential Ingredients.

houston@figment-consulting.com