As part of our work at SchoolPad, and working with a few groups of schools, we’ve realized that managing smooth operations across all the schools of a group brings its own set of unique challenges that need to be addressed with solutions that are customized and focused. One such issue that we keep hearing about from various group management is standardization across branches.
The idea to have standard processes, document formats, designs, and protocols is simple and appealing to any school. But on the ground, creating these standardized benchmarks is never easy. And it becomes even more difficult when this standardization is needed across multiple branches of a school.
The Hurdle
On paper, creating a standard process for operation seems straightforward. Most groups of schools have a main branch or a head office that has experts and where processes are defined and standardized. For example, let’s take a report card. For most groups of schools, the format, design, and layout of the report card would be designed and finalized at the main branch or the head office. This standard prototype would then be circulated across other branches which adopt and replicate it.
Sounds simple? In an ideal scenario, it is. But the reality is a lot trickier. More often than not, standardized benchmarks have to deal with last-minute changes and hurdles. This may be because the heads of all the schools of the group may not have been consulted. Or they may not have agreed upon the finalized process because it doesn’t address their specific needs or concerns. Or there may simply have been a communication gap that led to wrong expectations about the final format.
The reason behind this gap is human subjectivity. When we think of standardization, we think of it as a very process-driven operation with proper paper trails, solid frameworks, and written understanding.
But in reality, due process is rarely followed. Often the discussion happens verbally and informally with flowcharts, texts, screenshots, and speculative ideas. The school heads may like them in principle but without a proper prototype, they have no idea what the final process or outcomes would look like. The visualization of the process for them is hard and subjective. In such cases, even though they agreed initially, they may reject the finalized processes or formats because it does not match what they visualized. This happens all the time and is the reason why despite their best efforts, a lot of groups of schools struggle to standardize their processes.
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The Solution
One of our partner schools came up with an interesting solution to this problem. This was specifically in the context of Schoolpad’s implementation. But we believe we can use this same technique across the board for all processes.
The technique is simple and based on a reliable prototyping approach. Our team and the school’s team at their head office along with all the school’s heads had extensive discussions where ideas were shared in the form of screenshots, texts, pointers, and flow charts about the specific feature we were planning to create for them.
Once everything was locked, the feature was created using real data from one or two randomly chosen classes and students for one of the schools. Once this prototype was created, it eliminated the possibility of subjective visualization. It made sure all the stakeholders knew exactly what the feature would be and how it would work on the ground. We circulated the prototype which was much closer to the real outcome than just visualizing the outcome through diagrams and sketches. After this, heads of all the branch schools shared their feedback, one final time which was incorporated. This was further circulated for final approval from all stakeholders and once it was acceptable to everyone, the same got replicated across all school branches from one school on which the prototype was created with real data.
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The illustration above is just an example. This very same technique can be used for all sorts of processes and operations. For example, before finalizing a report card design, an actual prototype can be created basis real data from randomly selected students. This prototype can be circulated and based on inputs from various school heads, standardized benchmarks can be finalized.
Simple and obvious as this technique may be, it has a profound impact on standardization and benchmarking in terms of execution, adaptability, and replicability. It ensures that everyone is on the same page before the benchmarking standards are finalized, eliminates confusion, drastically reduces the margin of error, and promotes easy adaptation of the finalized benchmarks across branches. In other words, this tried and tested technique allows you to achieve your school’s standardization goals with ease and efficiency.
Standardization of processes is essential for smooth operations when it comes to any group of schools. It is not a choice but a compulsion if a group of schools doesn’t want to be left behind and desires to stay ahead of the competition. Ultimately, this is nothing but another important technique to boost and fuel your school’s growth story.
Want to understand how Schoolpad can help achieve your school’s standardization goals? Want to know how we can help your group of schools get the much-needed edge? Please feel free to get in touch with us at connect@schoolpad.in . You can also click on the request a demo link and one of our coaches will get in touch with you
