Open-Studio Management

At the beginning of the month I started reading a book called Open-Book Management. It's a concept that has been around for at least 10 years where a company gets all of its employees involved or aware in the finances of the business.

That gave me a wonderful idea to start a similar concept in my studio. I'm calling it Open-Studio Management.  I posted a spreadsheet in the studio with all of the names of my students on the left column of the chart and the lesson week dates in the first row.  I told my students that their goal for this progress chart is to get a sticker (I use happy face stickers of assorted colors) at the end of each lesson.



They have to meet two criteria:

1)  Come to their lesson prepared (i.e., homework completed and practiced their songs).

and

2) Show me that they are prepared (i.e., they stay focused with no distractions during their lessons).

If the student misses the lesson for the week, obviously s/he will not get a sticker and cannot make it up and I will mark "absent" in their square.

So far it is working.  Out of the month, I had only 1 student who did not get a sticker the first time around.  The second time around she worked harder and I was able to give her a sticker.  This system works especially well for young ones because they LOVE getting stickers and for competitive students because they get to see how everyone else is doing in their lessons.