More Human Admissions
source: sofatutor.com
One of my kids recently started at a new school. Shortly before the first day, I got a call from a member of their Senior Leadership Team asking whether there was anything we needed as we got ready.
It was a completely unexpected touchpoint, one that built a lot of goodwill. The conversation was short, but not rushed; there was room for humor; we commiserated about the challenge of finding school uniforms in an era of supply chain disruption. It wasn’t an interaction led by the admissions office, but it was nevertheless an interaction that led me to feel great about our choice to join this community.
I appreciated it because of what it communicated about them: they see us as a family, they’re organized enough to take time to ask what we need, and there’s someone I can call if there’s a hiccup.
I also appreciated it because of what it spoke to in me: my childhood anxiety about whether I’d be included as one of the group when I enrolled in an independent school as a 9th grader, a still-felt-bodily sense of helplessness when one of my children was bullied elsewhere and the school was unresponsive.
Both of those matter. As part of our commitment this year to help schools #BeMoreHuman, we’d like to explore these human experiences and the role they play in enrollment health.
In my experience, they’re critical. That’s why Leadership+Design offers our Design for Retention program, where we help schools understand these dynamics. (An overview of this approach is available in this earlier blog post.) The schools we’ve partnered with are diverse: they serve different grade levels, in different corners of the country, with distinct educational philosophies.
To start this process, L+D consultants conduct 30-45 minute empathy interviews with a random selection of families. Then, in partnership with each school team, we interpret those interviews to define the needs expressed in their stories.
A few consistent themes have emerged. Regardless of region, grade level, or school philosophy, parents need:
To feel confident in their decision to enroll their child at the school
To understand their child’s progress (academically, socially, and emotionally)
To see their child happy and thriving
To be connected with others
To feel included in the community
To feel that the school is in partnership with them
These needs are big, and they’re not only met by the admissions office. After all, it’s not usually the admissions director who will call a parent about a discipline issue, and it’s probably not the admissions associate who greets children in the morning.
Fortunately, a robust, design-driven process of listening to families and exploring their needs is exactly what helps everyone understand their role in enrollment health. Listening is powerful. It also builds a sense of commitment as leaders become able to attach a story and an emotion to each aspect of the school experience.
That experience is made up of individual interactions, which aren’t always driven by the admissions office. In our interviews, the following were some of the touchpoints that emerged as important to parents:
The ease of use of the school’s portal/LMS
Using the health app or interacting with the school’s health center
Advisor e-mails
Parent group text chains
Knowing the parent name and the kid’s name at the dropoff line
Whether or not the admin are visible at drop off
Chatting with other parents at drop off
When an administrator reaches out about a disciplinary issue
Singing with the community around the flagpole on Fridays (and other traditions)
What you hear from your child on the drive from school back home
How eager a child is to get out of bed in the morning
Hopefully, the interactions with your school communicate quality, care for students, an active presence, and intentional choices. Those are messages about you. But they also summon all the memories that families bring from their own times in school – what one of our clients came to call “the ghosts of their school experience.” The emotions that are under the surface of these touchpoints include pride, fear, relief, loneliness, excitement, grief, and defensiveness.
The adults who enroll their children are generally capable, confident, and fully developed human beings. Like most human beings (including me), there are also moments where they are the emotional equivalent of a little kid standing on stilts wearing a trenchcoat – a worried and anxious child performing adulthood, while wondering if they and their family are liked and okay. Even when that first face of a parent is what we see, that second face may be what’s reacting to our offer of enrollment.
Designing a more human admissions process means exploring these emotions and understanding the basic human needs families bring to our school. When they e-mail the admissions office, there’s a reason – something they are seeking, or running from. How we interact with them communicates whether they’ll find it.
Learn more about our Design for Retention program here. Interested in participating? E-mail us at info@leadershipanddesign.org.
