Note: The aim of this nine-part series is to define and describe the basic structure and components of a system. This is the third post in the series, which is excerpted from Chapter 4 of my recently published book, Win-Win: W. Edwards Deming, the System of Profound Knowledge, and the Science of Improving Schools.

At United Schools Network, we recently added a system aim as a complement to our vision and mission statements. Taken together, USN’s vision, mission, and aim statements help align the work of everyone in the network.

USN’s vision, mission, and aim are listed in Table 1 below. 

Table 1. USN’s Vision, Mission, & Aim Statements

Each statement articulates an important aspect of the core purpose of the United Schools Network. The vision statement is a picture of USN’s desired future. “For every child, an open door” implies both a welcoming environment as well as an education that opens future doors. The mission statement is the why behind what we do, USN’s reason for existing. It states for what, in the end, we want USN to be remembered. For us this is “Transforming lives and our communities through the power of education.” The aim statement, which provides direction and long-term constancy of purpose to the USN system, has been added as a part of the network’s most recent strategic planning efforts in order to guide and coordinate organizational improvement efforts. The aim statement is: “USN aims to create and continually improve high-quality learning systems that enable joy in work for staff and joy in learning for students, so that everyone can access opportunity-rich lives in our society now and into the future.”

This aim should be utilized by subcomponents within the system such as grade levels and departments to guide their work. For example, there is a dean of students at each USN school. One of the elementary schools is currently working on improving various aspects of school culture. The first step for the improvement team working on this project was to write an aim to guide this work. USN also has an alumni services department that assists our 8th grade students and families as they make the transition to high school. This work continues as alumni move through high school and even as they explore college and career options after graduation. They too are working to improve their services and wrote an aim for the department. The aims for both the Dean’s Office as well as the Alumni Services Department were written to align with the overarching system aim. This alignment between system and subsystem aims is illustrated below in Figure 1.

Figure 1. USN’s System & Subsystem Aim Alignment

USN is a system, an interdependent group of people, processes, and resources working together toward a common purpose. Alignment between the whole system and all of the subsystems is a critical component of thinking in systems, the topic for the next article in this series.

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John A. Dues is the Chief Learning Officer for United Schools Network, a nonprofit charter management organization that supports four public charter schools in Columbus, Ohio. He is also the author of the newly released book Win-Win: W. Edwards Deming, the System of Profound Knowledge, and the Science of Improving Schools. Send feedback to jdues@unitedschoolsnetwork.org.