Aug 14, 2026 · 6 min · 4 segments
Today, host John Norlin shares a strategy called Staff Chips, a simple physical system that helps building administrators be more intentional about connecting with every member of their staff, not…
Have you ever noticed that certain people get more of your attention than others? Welcome to the Character Strong Weekly, a quick idea or strategy to help you transform your daily work.
It's called staff chips, or I guess you could replace it also with student chips, whatever you want to call it.
But let's say that you're a building administrator and you have a staff that every day is showing up to serve students, families, each other.
You could be a great manager and a terrible leader or vice versa, but leadership requires the relational work.
And yet there are some staff that naturally, as administrators, we gravitate towards and some staff that we don't.
Well, how can we be more intentional? Staff chips is a simple yet powerful strategy.
This could be some round wood chips, could be poker chips, just something simple.
You can probably buy it on Amazon where you write each staff member's name on one.
And each day, as you start your day, just go ahead and reach in the jar and grab a small handful of chips.
And the challenge is that by the end of the day, take an extra step to connect with each of those staff members.
And instead of just saying good morning, you actually stop and ask a second question.
Maybe it's dropping by after school or lunch and just asking them, hey, what do you need right now? Maybe it's sending an email, asking if there's anything you can do to support them.
Have you ever noticed that certain people get more of your attention than others? Welcome to the Character Strong Weekly, a quick idea or strategy to help you transform your daily work.
It's called staff chips, or I guess you could replace it also with student chips, whatever you want to call it.
But let's say that you're a building administrator and you have a staff that every day is showing up to serve students, families, each other.
You could be a great manager and a terrible leader or vice versa, but leadership requires the relational work.
And yet there are some staff that naturally, as administrators, we gravitate towards and some staff that we don't.
Well, how can we be more intentional? Staff chips is a simple yet powerful strategy.
This could be some round wood chips, could be poker chips, just something simple.
You can probably buy it on Amazon where you write each staff member's name on one.
And each day, as you start your day, just go ahead and reach in the jar and grab a small handful of chips.
And the challenge is that by the end of the day, take an extra step to connect with each of those staff members.
And instead of just saying good morning, you actually stop and ask a second question.
Maybe it's dropping by after school or lunch and just asking them, hey, what do you need right now? Maybe it's sending an email, asking if there's anything you can do to support them.
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