STRATEGIC PLANNING
Approach to the planning process
Most strategic planning processes have basic steps: define the mission, create a future vision, set priorities, and outline actionable steps with accountability, involving relevant stakeholders. However, having too many stakeholders can slow down the timeline, while too few can limit perspectives. There's also a risk of groupthink.
The process:
Individually interview a handful of stakeholders to get a sense of the organization, some of the strengths and weaknesses, and aspirations for what it can be. This also helps determine the non-negotiables.
Bring diverse groups together and assign tasks
Mission
Organizational priorities
Values and beliefs
Findings are shared, feedback provided, and the groups improve their original work
Finalized drafts are shared and the large group collectively works to craft a vision
Upon approval of the drafts we set to work on creating strategies and plans for achieving the organization’s priorities
However, many strategic plans only add to the work, they don’t get at the important issues of setting priorities and action plans in a systematic way. If you have 100 priorities, you really don’t have any. Therefore, throughout the process we ask and answer four important questions:
What do we want to START doing?
What do we want to STOP doing?
What are we doing well enough that doesn’t need to change?
What are we doing that should be improved?
Deliverables
An actionable strategic plan that includes the vision, mission, values and beliefs, organizational priorities and the plans to accomplish it.
Description of Previous Work
As an educational consultant I led the Minnesota Association of Secondary School Principals (MASSP) to a new five year strategic plan that included an organization review and created the road map for the foreseeable future.
As an educational consultant I led the Minnesota Rural Education Association (MREA) to a new five year strategic plan. This focused on proactive steps to improve the organization’s strengths and outreach.
As superintendent of Mahtomedi public schools we worked with MSBA to craft our strategic plan which drove us to outstanding student success
As an executive director of teaching and learning in Minnetonka I was part of the core team that used the Cambridge model (Bill Koch) that helped propel Minnetonka to outstanding student achievement including a language immersion program, gifted and talented magnet, embedded high school health, and an elementary fine arts program
As a middle school principal I was part of a small core team that worked on a strategic plan for the Minnetonka school district in which a focus and shift to the middle school model was the signature outcome.
As a high school principal I worked with an outside consultant (Doug Thomas) to create a strategic plan for Glencoe-Silver Lake school district in which school district consolidation was one very successful outcome and product of the work.
As a teacher I served on the strategic planning team for North Branch Schools where the work produced a restructured curriculum and delivery system
Email Mark to arrange a no obligation consultation session to answer questions and discuss pricing.