The primary reason to undertake strategic planning is to enable your organization to make decisions based on sound research, empirical data, and purposeful thinking, all of which become even more important in turbulent times. In addition, strategic planning ensures alignment among all stakeholder groups and gives the organization better control over external factors.
There are advantages to undertaking a strategic planning process when an organization is in a relatively strong position as leadership may feel more confident in conducting a serious, in-depth examination of programs and services. Alternatively, if an organization is in a state of transition there may be more openness to a process that seeks renewal and a more well-defined identity.
Regardless of circumstance, our position is that the school's board and administration always need to be on a strategic footing. As it unfolds, this means integrating strategy-making with the regular business of the school.
We start with the end in mind – when do you want to have the plan ready for ratification by the board? Once we know that, we can work backwards to make sure you meet that date. The process can be as telescoped as from a few months to the whole of an academic year.
We are happy to make this as easy on you as possible. While only you have access to some information that we will need, we can guide you through organizing the data and will handle gathering the rest. We want to conserve the energy of school leaders as much as possible since we know you have a school to run at the same time as we are making strategy.
We can certainly write a draft of the plan coming out of any strategy conversations you have. We believe that the final version of the plan needs to be written by people at the school to reflect school language, mission and culture.
There are numerous ways to involve stakeholders ranging from on-line surveys to in person focus groups to town hall meetings, just as examples. We work with each school to ascertain who needs to be involved at what stages in the process.
Financial planning is the task of determining how an organization will manage its resources to achieve its strategic objectives. A financial plan is typically developed as part of the strategic planning process, usually after the vision and strategic objectives have been set.
Typically a mix of leadership and staff members are engaged in operationalizing and implementing the strategic plan. What is most critical is the level of involvement that stakeholders have while the plan is being developed. In general, if people are involved in the process in meaningful ways, the implementation of the plan will be successful and sustainable.
We are happy to consult from afar, only being directly involved at places where we are value-added. Since each school’s process is unique, we work with you to find the best use of our expertise.