Thinking About Thinking – Let’s Get Started

Ready for a brand-new way of thinking? Emma Gray invites school business managers to embrace the power of structured thinking to drive creative solutions

I’ve been thinking…

It’s not usually something that the school business manager gets much time to do, but I’m going to bravely put this to you – thinking is crucial to your success in the role of SBM, and to your own wellbeing. What? Yes, it sounds bonkers, but it’s true. 2025 needs to be the year that you set aside some time in your diary to just think.

Before your first thought is “what a lot of nonsense!” and you scroll on, give me a minute to explain. I’m not talking about daydreaming (although I do love to imagine what I could buy with unlimited funding), and I’m not talking about staring blankly at the wall wondering where the heck you go from here (I do a lot of that too!)

Structured Thinking

I’m talking about proper, structured thinking. The kind of thinking that results in new ideas, creative solutions, informed decision making, strategy and better communication. The kind of thinking that makes your impressed boss ask, “Where did this come from?”

The kind of thinking the SBM needs to keep a step ahead of change, as well as maintain their own sanity!

Over the next five months, Education Executive has very kindly given me this platform to explain how it works and give you some of the tools to get you started. All you need to do to join me on this journey is to set aside one hour per week and label it THINK.

So, find somewhere you won’t be disturbed, put a timer on for one hour, and let’s get started.

Starting the Process

Firstly, we need to think about what you want from this process as it will be different for everyone. Open the cover of a lovely fresh notebook, and slap bang in the middle of the page write your school’s name. Then, in a circle around your school, write six things you would like to improve this year. From there, you can start to add ideas to promote more thinking, or actions. Be ready to tape extension pages into your notebook because once you start, the ideas will flow and it’s important to capture them!

You are creating a mind map.

As you add ideas, actions and thoughts to the map, remember to keep looking back to the central box – your school. Why does it need those six improvements? Who has the skills to support your ideas? Will you need a team? How are you going to communicate the ideas? Is there a cost implication? Is there anyone in your community who might be able to help? Write everything down linked to the improvement topic as it pops into your head and be creative, include the wild ideas so you can have a real think about them later.

Use That Hour!

Over the next three weeks, use your scheduled hour to keep going back to the mind map and add to it. Really think about your school in its community. What do the pupils, staff, parents and governors want from their school? What do you want? What are the challenges you face and what would your ideas mean for the school? Try not to add any more improvement topics from your original six, but you may find that some of the topics are linked, what ideas does that give you to maximise the benefits of the improvements?

Get Additional Input

Don’t forget to talk to your colleagues and get some ideas from them. For example, ask your caretaker where they think is the biggest cost/benefit refurbishment area, it might not be where you think. Add their ideas to your mind map too so you can think about where they sit in your improvement priorities.

I could go on, but this is your process. It is important for you to take this time to learn how to think productively, as well as see the benefits it will bring to you and your school. You’ll develop your own ideas and some of them will be mad-cap crazy but write them down anyway and give yourself time to really think about them.

When you’ve got your mind map really pinned down, we can then look at the tools you’ll need to turn your ideas into strategies and bring your teams with you on your thinking journey. Next time – Thinking About Thinking – Creative Strategic Thinking!