Transcript: How this Christian School Moved from a Toxic to a Healthy Workplace Culture // Steve Anderson, Grace International School

Flourishing Culture Leadership Podcast

“How this Christian School Moved from a Toxic to a Healthy Workplace Culture“

September 4, 2023

Steve Anderson

Intro: Imagine having extraordinary challenges, like being forced to move locations twice, with a very culturally diverse staff located halfway around the world, who recruit school teachers that raise their own support, while dealing with COVID at the same time. Well, listen in to hear how they moved from a toxic to a healthy culture all at the same time that they were experiencing these other challenges, and they're stronger and better than ever today.

Welcome: Welcome to the Flourishing Culture Leadership Podcast, your home for open, honest, and insightful conversations to help develop your leadership, your team, and build a flourishing workplace culture.

Al Lopus: Hello, I'm Al Lopus, the co-founder of the Best Christian Workplaces and author of the book Road to Flourishing: Eight Keys to Boost Employee Engagement and Well-Being. And as you know, I'm passionate about helping Christian leaders create engaged, flourishing workplaces, so thanks for joining us today.

Well, how do you assess the condition of your workplace culture and commit to action that leads to improvement? Well, whether you lead a school, a church, a Christian nonprofit, or a marketplace business, you can have a flourishing workplace culture when you decide that you have a learning posture.

Well, today on the Flourishing Culture Leadership Podcast we’ll learn from someone who has continued to lead well during difficult seasons and who has seen the fruit of their healthy workplace culture. Listen in to learn how you can stay committed to a healthy workplace over the long term and through challenges.

Well, I’m delighted to welcome Steve Anderson to the Flourishing Culture Leadership Podcast today. Steve’s the superintendent of Grace International School in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Well, Grace International School was founded in 1999 to provide a high-quality education from a biblical worldview to children of international Christian workers located in Southeast Asia. In fact, our president and CEO, Jay Bransford’s son graduated from the school while they were missionaries in Chiang Mai. Steve has been at Grace International School since 2017. He grew up, himself, as a missionary kid, and so he has a deep understanding of the needs of the students of Grace, along with the professional credentials of education and leadership.

Steve, welcome to the Flourishing Culture Leadership Podcast.

Steve Anderson: Hey, thanks, Al. Great to be with you today.

Al: Let's start our conversation by helping our listeners understand the setting of your school. Chiang Mai, Thailand, is a strategic location. And why are so many Christian ministries in that city? Over time, I’ve just heard of so many. And what's the reach and the impact of this area for God's Kingdom? Why are there so many in Chiang Mai?

Steve: Yeah. You know, it's really been an amazing story to see in just the short 11 years that I've been here, but to continue to hear how Chiang Mai was such a strategic place for all these different mission organizations who were wanting to impact specifically in the 10/40 window, Thailand, surrounding neighboring countries. It gave a great location, international airport, a lifestyle, and things that were really engaging for families. And then there was just a huge need for a school. And so, yeah, these different organizations came together and helped start Grace International School to meet the need of all these different mission organizations and families. But specifically, it's just really strategic here in the location to get in and around the surrounding countries. Many of them closed. And thankfully, Thailand is very open.

Al: Yeah. Boy, that's great. And I know it's even probably getting tougher in some of the countries around your area.

Steve: Right.

Al: But Grace International School has been participating in the Best Christian Workplaces Engagement Survey for nine years, and I remember those early years. And after some initial low scores, you've made, really, plenty of improvements over time and now have been certified for quite a while as a certified best Christian workplace. And Jay Bransford, the president and CEO of Best Christian Workplaces now, actually lived in Chiang Mai for a number of years, and his son, Graham, attended Grace. Jay is your BCW consultant for the Survey, and he mentioned that when you and your team receive your results from the Survey, your team springs into action. And so I appreciate that so much. Share with us how you and your team take the results and implement action plans each year as you continue with the Survey.

Steve: Yeah, you're right, Al. Thank you. It has been an incredible journey. And I know you were with us in those initial years, coming out of a toxic score and environment years ago and knowing we've got to make some changes and make some intentional steps, and so listening to the BCWI’s results, taking some of the strategies that were there, and beginning to implement. In those early days, it was about leadership, leadership development. And then, as we began to improve on those different circumstances for the school change, and then Jay coming alongside in these last several years, knowing us, knowing who we are, has just been an incredible fit for our school, and so for BCWI to be intentional about who they partner us with to lead us through this.

But our group did. Our H.R. department and others quickly formed some focus groups. We set out a year, you know, 12-month plan to try to execute and see about the improvement. So yeah, it was a very intentional effort, but a partnership with you guys all along the way.

Al: Yeah. I'm looking forward to hearing even more about that.

And Steve, you've led the school through some difficult years. As you say, things didn't start off so smoothly. And you also had a complicated legal issue that resulted in a physical move of the school, first to a temporary location and then to your current location. And we find that some of our ministry partners want to take a break from Surveying when they're going through some tough spots. But I remember those years, and you were still very intentional in making sure that the culture, the health of your culture was strong. And you kept Surveying and continued to focus on a healthy workplace culture. But share about how you kept your staff and your leadership team moving forward even during those difficult times and those transitions and moving from one location to another. What are some of the lessons that you can reflect on as you look back and maybe help someone who is currently leading through a challenging season?

Steve: Yeah. And it's great. It’s been amazing to see how clearly God has kept His hand on our school. I think even just, you know, as the school started, and then it continued to grow and move and flourish. We hit ups and downs. And so continuing the Survey, it just seemed like this was a tried-and-trusted tool that had these drivers, these markers, to kind of say, “Hey, from what we've Surveyed all around globally, these are things that are going to help you move forward.”

So yeah, we were involved in a lawsuit that did cause us to have to lose our school campus. So we were in the midst of having to find property, build, reallocate, go to a temporary location. So the staff, climate, and culture definitely took a hit, as there was those times of uncertainty. And so I think because we continued to Survey year to year, we were able to continue to get a pulse rate on where we are and things that we needed to do to work on.

Specifically, again, the leadership development and how to engage in healthy conflict; our intentionality to strengthen our leadership skills; the role and clarity of the accountability. And then, you know, communication. I think that's a huge one. And so there were just very intentional things that the Survey resulted for us because people were uncertain. “What are we doing? Where are we building? When are we moving?”And so finding those avenues of communication were key.

Al: You know, you're in a unique position to answer this question because you’ve experienced a pretty-toxic culture. Now you're in a much healthier culture. So what are some of the benefits? How do you experience this better climate for education? What are your observations?

Steve: Yeah. It has been an incredible journey for us, and I think we're still a little bit recovering, or at least this year recovered from the COVID effects: the shortage of teachers globally as personally. But definitely our school culture is much healthier now and improved. Again, just listening and taking those intentional steps for—like the focus on inspirational leadership, providing confidence in our strategic plan have all really paid off. And I think our healthy score now reflects a culture of staff who feel heard, valued, and empowered. So we have taken some very hard steps to try to create even margin, work-life balance, to avoid turnover and burn out. But I think this year is almost—I just called it, like, it's been a year of school, without major interruptions and our first year to just really, really be here and engage. So, yeah, it’s definitely a much-better and much-healthier climate.

Al: What a journey you've been on. Well, congratulations for pulling through. Yeah, just as you say, a year of school. So really the first year in, what, seven or eight years, probably, where you can just settle and focus on education for your students. That's fantastic.

So, healthy education is one of those eight FLOURISH factors that we've identified and is really contributing to your healthy workplace culture. This is an area of strength for Grace, and your scores related to healthy communication have increased, certainly, strongly over the years. And this includes asking input from staff, acting on feedback, involving staff in decisions that impact them, explaining reasons behind major decisions. I mean, you've really focused on that. And I know you've got debriefings, and I remember participating in debriefings with, you know, 25 of your officer leaders involved in it. So it's widely participating in even the feedback.

So practically speaking, what are some of the steps that you and your leadership team have taken to improve communication? We've got a number of listeners who are saying, “You know, I keep hearing that communication isn't all that effective or strong in my organization.” How have you been able to see this positive movement in communication?

Steve: Yeah. I think that's a million-dollar question for almost every organization. You know, it's the communication piece. Is it too much? Too little? And the rule of thumb is that you can never overcommunicate, and all. But it has definitely been, the way the Survey allows us to evaluate how people feel like they're being heard, included, engaged, in the conversation, in the dialog, in the explanation for decisions, feeling like they've been able to add to the conversation. So exactly. The debriefings that we’ve had with you and your leadership team, Jay, with my senior leadership team, then they're able to communicate to each of the divisions, “Hey, here's what we're hearing. Here are the steps we're going to take.” You know, it included focus groups from both staff, students of the parent community, you know, how we're externally communicating, how we're internally communicating. So all of those.

I would say, too, like, on our PD days, we've included avenues of cross-divisional communication that invite the staff to provide insight and feedback. We've had a time during those days where they can ask senior leadership questions, and we stand up front, and they turn in questions ahead of time. So that, again, gives us transparency, which is another key component, and helping our staff see and understand the reason behind those decisions has definitely helped.

I think one other practical way is that our principals, our key leaders are implementing avenues or aspects of change by engaging in the meetings. It's not just a one way, “Here's what we think,” and top leadership down. How do we engage all the staff in every question and decision that leadership has to make? And it just feels like there's no way; there's no way to get everybody's opinion. But it's small steps, and it's some things that are just very intentional on, you know, either some of the bigger issues or topics. But communication has been a huge piece.

Al: No, “PD days.” So we're going to have a lot of people that don't know what those are.

Steve: Mm-hmm.

Al: So what does that stand for, and how often do you have them?

Steve: Yeah. So our professional development is what PD stands for. And as a school and educators, obviously, we continue to try to improve our skills, our teaching skills, our learning skills, our equipping skills from all of our staff, whether it's the main classroom teacher, whether it's the support systems. So we do try to look at those professional-development times so that this communication piece is one where we took our staff and engaged in, “Okay. What does cross-divisional communication look like? If it keeps showing up as a score as, ‘Well, we struggle with it,’ then what's ideal?” you know, and listening to them. And we normally get four schoolwide PD days a year, where all staff’s together, but then monthly and quarterly, the divisions meet together and can engage at this level.

Al: Now, Steve, you also mentioned that in these PD days that you'll stand up and answer them. Tell me about that. How does that work?

Steve: It's risky at times to be vulnerable and transparent and kind of off the cuff. But part of it is if you kind of know your mission, vision, your values, where you're headed and what you stand for, and then people can see that when they ask. Some questions are as simple as, why is the dress code this way? Others are, you know, why did we choose this curriculum, or what does biblical integration look like, or why is the bell schedule like this? So the different division leaders then field those questions. We do take the questions a couple of days in advance so that our senior leadership at least has had a little bit of a heads up to try to have a better answer. But it's just, yeah, it's being relational. It's being transparent, vulnerable. And I think people appreciate that.

Al: Yeah. I'd encourage our listeners to think about those kinds of opportunities. And if you're not getting feedback, getting questions from your employees in group meetings, then that's a great way to do it.

I trust you’re enjoying our podcast today. We’ll be right back after an important word for leaders.

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Al: Welcome back, with Steve Anderson of Grace International School in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Now, this is one of the things that I'm just amazed with international staff and teachers. You know, your staff are truly multicultural, and they come from all over the world. And your teachers serve as missionaries. They raise their own support and come to teach at Grace. And so, I know, it's hard enough in the U.S. to find teachers when they're fully paid, but you're looking for teachers who will raise their own support. So you also, though, have Thai staff that work at the school, and they're paid according to the government standards for workers. So how do you bring these diverse groups, people, really, from all over the world? You know, certainly a U.S. group of people, again, teachers from other countries, you intermingle them with a fair number of your Thai staff. And how do you bring this diverse group together and embrace shared vision and values to really make sure that you've got a great education for your students? I mean, I think this is just a remarkable feat. And you can help other leaders by sharing your practical thoughts on how to build trust and lead well in such a diverse setting.

Steve: Yeah. It's incredible to see how God has done it and brought it all together. And what a great team I have to work with. And I'm truly standing on the shoulders of some great leaders that have already set up a mechanism, a place, a culture that embraces all this diversity. Our staff definitely are, I feel, called. That is one of the things that I think sets us apart, because our teaching staff, our non-Thai staff all raise their own support. So they definitely have to feel called to the mission, vision, values. We keep that in front of the staff.

Our Thai staff, I would say, even though they’re salaried, embrace the same atmosphere, where they feel very engaged, very included, very much a part of the called culture here at the school. But it does take the intentionality, again, of trying to blend, diversify. We've often been called a very American setting because a majority of our students and staff come from the U.S. That’s okay.

But, you know, one thing I want to shout out for my deputy superintendent, Joe Crain, a few years ago became in tune to this and listening to stakeholders’ conversations about it. So he started for our school what's called the Belonging Initiative. And over the past three years we've been intentional to engage with different groups, different backgrounds, different cultures, to hear, how can we become more international or more engaging? And so this has been conversations, it's been surveys, it's been little acts of change, but it's just been a huge plus and bonus so that people feel heard; they feel valued. We try to celebrate different things. Our H.R. division, our human-resource division, has been intentional building bridges of cultural interaction, awareness.

Growing up overseas and living overseas and stuff, sometimes you have to remove the mindset of one way’s right and one way’s wrong. It's just things are just different. But you begin to embrace the joys of the culture you're in as a guest, and then, yeah, bridge those and interact and interwoven the different cultures.

So it's intentional, it's a journey, but we feel very, very blessed that how God continues to keep His hand on our school.

Al: I would imagine, Steve, that, you know, there's a number of international schools that serve missionary kids, much like yours. With your culture, that gives you an advantage, wouldn't you say, as you recruit the teachers who want to commit to serving overseas?

Steve: Yeah, absolutely. I think they see this as the ministry opportunity and the mission field. We were intentional a few years ago to make sure we were steering away from tourist teachers, people who felt like, “Hey, I'll just give you a couple of years, or a year. And, oh, in the meantime, during the breaks, I’m going to travel and do this, this, and this.” And no, that they actually see the students here as their ministry opportunity, and then, we try to find those ways for them to engage in the culture locally with ministry. So it's, again, been something that we've had to work at, you know, for years to get there, but I feel like we now, seeing our scores, I feel like we're in a good place.

Al: Yeah. So you're able to actually pick the kind of profile for a teacher that you're looking for, somebody that's not going to just be there for a year or two.

But, you know, another unique feature of your school is that since the faculty are raising their support for their expenses, many of them have made a longer commitment. But that doesn't necessarily mean that they are staying for a longer period. So is there a high cycle of turnover that you've experienced with your teachers? This level of turnover certainly can impact the culture. And even as you said, somebody, I can imagine, coming for a year and they're going to travel. I mean, they're not going to be really focused on teaching. So explain how you even onboard new teachers. What steps do you take to make sure that they can quickly get oriented and embrace the values and the mission of the school?

Steve: Yeah. Again, I think this has been steps along the way, along the journey to listen, try things. I mean, from the minute we try to communicate quickly back to people, you know, quick response time. Several years ago, we spent hours and hours trying to revamp the application process to streamline it so that people could get through the application process quicker, I mean, because there’s a lot of steps with being part of a church or a mission organization, acceptance, the fundraising, the visa information, qualifying, the background checks. So it takes quite a bit of time to even get them to the point where they're ready to get on a plane and land.

But once they land, our H.R. department is incredible. They meet them at the airport, take them straight to the mall, go pick up a sim card, and get their internet hooked up so that they can already just be connected back home and here, making sure there's a little bit of food. There's a welcome basket for them. Their lodging is set up. Air conditioner’s turned on. So when they arrive, it’s, hopefully, already a pleasant experience in that.

And then, our new-staff orientation, we've tried to extend a few days. Responses we've had in the past is, “It feels like you're drinking from a fire hydrant.” So we've tried to break those down and add more days of introducing the necessary conversations that have to happen with whether it's legal or child safety or visa, and then down to the practical things, “Let's go get you a bank account, your driver's license.”

And then, I think it's fitting into your culture groups or people, whether it's divisional, whether it's with your mission, whether it's people in your neighborhood, whether it's with the church, but getting them to feel a part of something is another real key part. Yeah, the trend is definitely different than back when I guess it felt like there were—I'm just going to use this term. It may not be accurate much anymore or differently—but there were about top ten stronger mission organizations that probably supplied most of the teaching staff for many of these schools like Grace, and has their focus shifted to being more intentional maybe for church planting, evangelism, or different things? Less and less dependance on them for the teachers required us to search elsewhere. And so continuing to find those called staff coming from—right now we have 75 different mission organizations represented. So it is a challenge, but, yeah, just the intentionality to meet people where they are, help them feel connected, let them land well, I think are key steps.

Al: Well, I'm just curious for our listeners, what are a couple of the key mission organizations that you find your teachers through?

Steve: Yeah. Again, some of them have just been outstanding throughout the years, and including some of our founders. SIL, OMF, New Tribes, IMB. Cru has been amazing. TeachBeyond, another one. And so some of those that have been—WEC, just amazing for us here. And then we just see the trend of churches actually now taking on the mantle of sending mission agencies. So from our Korean churches to the U.S. to the UK, you know, some of these that might just not be coming from one of those other established organizations, but from strong churches that have been really great.

Al: And you're seeing a trend of Koreans involved in mission work and coming to serve?

Steve: Yeah. You know, certainly, it felt like there was a real wave I'm hearing. It may be plateauing or something different for them. And we're starting to hear the term the global south, meaning those that are coming from south of the equator or actually taking up, “Hey, we want to come be missionaries, but our resources to come may be different than trying to fundraise from the U.S. market or in a different affluent country.” But so we're always kind of looking for what are those trends and differences that are out there. Yeah.

Al: Yeah. That's, well, first of all, you know, a lot of our organizations that are listening are probably scratching their head, maybe smoke’s coming out of their ears, thinking about the work that you have to go through to actually find, recruit, and bring teachers, and then on board them while they get there, you know, not just to meet them at the door of the location, but to actually go to the airport, welcome them, make sure that their air conditioning is turned on, I mean, all those details. That's really helpful. That's great work.

Well, you know, certainly God has brought Grace International School through some challenging times that we've talked about. He continues to use your ministry to train and equip students to serve the needs of missionary families around the world. And I know they're all appreciative. And as you look ahead for the next couple of years, what opportunities and challenges do you see? You know, how are you and your team preparing for the next steps of the school’s education and ministry, really, to your students?

Steve: Yeah. It's always looking forward, it feels like. You kind of have a rearview mirror, also, to look back, you know, at what has been. So it's been amazing to be a part of a network of other Christian schools like Grace, engaging—like ACSI has been fantastic for us to be a part of. Again, these mission organizations. Our board does a tremendous job in its linkage efforts to continue conversations with our moral owners, our founders, and founder associates to hear from them, what are the trends. And then, of course, you know, COVID thrust all of us into, what does online learning look like? How do you do this? What opportunities are there now? You know, we keep hearing, also, the trends of customizing education types of things are in front of us. Schools around the world are beginning to—the old traditional model is being really challenged. And so I think for us as well, we want to look at those and what's out there.

But, you know, our team feels like, as we continue to follow the recommendations from BCWI to focus on some of the drivers that are there for us, Grace, to move towards that flourishing culture, outstanding talent. You know, another driver of developing our fantastic teams, especially the good teamwork across divisions, and then experience giving our staff life-giving work. I think those continue to be indicators for us that we want to project and look forward and seek the help from BCWI as to, “Okay. What is next? What are you guys hearing, and how can we look better to engage, equip our staff, and enable them to provide that quality education that's inspiring, and more importantly, yeah, just moving kids to a closer walk experience with the Lord?”

Al: Yeah. Fantastic. Well, gosh, Steve, this has really been a great conversation. I've really appreciated your describing the journey that you've been on over these years, how you've really made and focused on a better culture, a healthy culture through communication, the way you've described of having people be involved, the focus groups you do year in and year out, just to be listening to employees to understand and engage them into what's happening. The cross-department development, the professional development. And I love the description of the way you solicit questions from your faculty and staff and how you handle that on various professional-development days. And then, how you are able to recruit teachers who are supporting themselves is really phenomenal, and the way you do that, the way you onboard them. And then, of course, the challenges. We think about challenges in many other organizations. But you've got them clearly with international tensions, even. But then, just education overall and what COVID has done with education. And I love your thoughts on even online learning, custom community, and custom communication, and customer education for your students. Yeah. But keeping focused, again, on your culture, moving towards that flourishing level. So I know that you'll get there soon, so keep up the good work.

But is there anything that you'd like to add that we've talked about?

Steve: You know, Al, this has been a real treat for me, and I, again, am so grateful for BCWI, for you, for your leadership, for Jay. I can definitely—this just isn’t, just a plug for BCWI. I mean, this is genuine for us. It has been a real tool for us to help us develop a culture that is healthy and working together, communicating. And so, yeah, if there's anybody that listens and they're questioning, you know, whether or not this is valuable, I would definitely say it's a tool that really worked for us and would be, I think, worth the investment. So thank you for the personal attention that you've given to Grace International School, and yeah, we're continuing our journey.

Al: Yeah. And I'm grateful.

You know, Steve, I really want to thank you for your contributions today. And most of all, from the bottom of my heart, I appreciate your commitment to serving the global church by providing biblically based education and an excellent education of that for students, for families who are serving in the mission field. You know, thanks for taking time out of your day. It's evening for me; it's morning for you as we talk about these topics. And thanks so much for speaking in the lives of so many listeners who are listening with us today.

Steve: Thank you, Al.

Outro: The Flourishing Culture Leadership Podcast is sponsored by Best Christian Workplaces. If you need support building a flourishing workplace culture, please visit workplaces.org for more information.

We'll see you again next week for more valuable content to help you develop strong leaders and build a flourishing workplace culture.

Al: Next week, I can’t wait to hear our conversation with Warren Bird and Leonce Crump Jr. about their new book, The Resilience Factor: A Step-by-Step Guide to Catalyze an Unbreakable Team. I look forward to joining you.