Being Strategic
About Strategy
What does strategic planning look like
in independent schools? What
approach should you take to guide your
school into the future?
History of Strategic Planning in Industry
1920s-1950s
1980s
Today
“When Alfred
Sloan conceived the
modern corporation
at General Motors, he
based it on hierarchical
military organizations….
Business strategy
started to look more
like military planning,
with thick books filled
with reams of market
intelligence, tactics and
procedures.”
“When Jack Welch took
the helm of General
Electric, he largely
dismantled the strategic
planning process,
because [although plans
became more
sophisticated,] none of
that improved how the
company performed.”
“Planning has
become even less
tenable … as the
speed of business
continues to
accelerate
and technology
cycles outpace
corporate planning
cycles.”
Greg Satell, “The Evolution
of Strategy,” Forbes (Sept.
14, 2013)
History of Strategic Planning in Higher Ed
Strategic planning as a
proactive solution to
environmental changes
Reinforced by
accreditation
requirements
“The emergence of strategic
planning in higher education
coincided with the difficulties
experienced in all of education in the
1970s and 1980s, as enrollments
began to fluctuate, student
demographics started to change,
and funding became inconsistent
… [Planning was assisted by] the
rise of technology-enabled data
collection and analysis.”
In order to meet external
demands on the government for
accountability in educational
outcomes, “the accreditation
commissions began to insist
institutions have a strategic
plan and an assessment plan.”
Karen E. Hinton, Society for College and
University Planning, A Practical Guide to
Strategic Planning in Higher Education
(2012)
History of Strategic Planning in Higher Ed
Changes in the education space have caused many to
rethink traditional approaches to strategic planning.
• “The constant and constantly changing barrage of challenges and
opportunities facing higher education do not lend themselves to a long
strategic planning process.
• “Traditional strategic planning models underestimate the political
realities of planning and execution in today’s environment of scarcity.”
Robert A. Sevier, Stamats Communications, “Pretty Good Done: A More Elegant Approach to
Strategic Planning”
Evolution of Strategic Planning in
Independent Schools
From long-range plans to strategic plans to strategic
process
“For decades, [long-range planning] worked well enough, but in the late 20th
century, as we watched most of those plans crumble short of their goals, we
shifted to ‘strategic planning,’ with its curtailed three- to five-year
planning cycle. But given the increasing volatility of the economic and
social landscapes, even a five-year planning cycle turned out to be
problematic.…
“The new strategic process … requires that we remain in a strategic
posture at all times…. A process of projecting and implementing in shortterm steps allows the team to periodically reconsider the original list of next
steps based on … external and internal exigencies that weren’t anticipated.”
Patrick Bassett, “Strategic Planning Is an Oxymoron,” Independent School magazine (2012)
Evolution of Strategic Planning in
Independent Schools
A move to plans that are simple, shorter-term, and
focused on fewer targets
“True strategic thinking favors pragmatic, flexible approaches to key
challenges …. It favors plans that are simple and that concentrate on a
very few targets over a relatively short period of time. It anticipates the
likelihood that changing conditions may call for changing targets.”
Robert Evans, “The Case Against Strategic Planning,” Independent School magazine (Fall
2007)
Does Strategic Planning Work?
Businesses with strategic plans are
12% more
profitable
Erica Olson, OnStrategy,
“Leaders: Success Takes Strategic Planning”
70%+ of
companies
with a strategic plan don’t execute it.
Balanced Scorecard Institute
Determining What’s Right
for Your School:
Implementing a Full Strategic Plan or
Adopting an Ongoing Strategic Process
Determining What’s Right for Your School
The Case FOR Strategic Planning
The Case AGAINST Strategic Planning
Gets boards focused on the larger issues
facing the school
Can be a ritual with little relevance/we
already know what the issues are
In times of great transition, it can help
create and drive needed change
Can be too time-consuming/too
expensive for the outcomes
Can focus energy/resources during crisis
Focuses on means rather than ends
Reconfirms the school’s values
Can reflect current management fads
Educates boards & leadership teams
about internal & external pressures
Moves too slowly, while change is
constant
Can help in building a team culture
Flawed results can occur from flawed
planning processes
Identifies critical information that
otherwise could have been overlooked
Not a good fit for the school world/never
really gets completed
Robert Evans, “The Case Against Strategic Planning,” Independent School magazine (Fall 2007)
Determining What’s Right for Your School
Transitions, turmoil, and desired change in market
position are among the reasons to conduct a full
strategic plan.
“…major transition points, such as after a new head follows a long-serving
predecessor, or when there has been significant turmoil in the school or a
serious downturn in morale, enrollment, or finance.
“Also, when a school needs to change or improve its ‘market position,’ a
full plan may be indicated.”
Robert Evans, “The Case Against Strategic Planning,” Independent School magazine (Fall 2007)
Determining What’s Right for Your School
Lack of resources/commitment and recent negative
experience with strategic planning are among reasons
to not conduct a full strategic plan.
• “If the organization lacks the skills, resources, or the commitment of key
decision makers to complete an effective strategic planning process…
• “If the campus community had a recent experience with strategic
planning that was destructive…
• “If the campus community has undergone a series of negative events
and they need the assurance that leadership understands the situation
and is taking immediate action.”
Ron Mahurin, Stamats Communications, “Sometimes the Last Thing You Need Is a Strategic
Plan” (Feb. 9, 2016)
Determining What’s Right for Your School
Questions to ask yourself about strategic planning
“Before proposing a new full strategic plan, a school’s head and board chair
might ask themselves:
• Is it really necessary?
• How much of our last plan did we complete?
• Do we not already know what the school’s key needs are over the next
few years?
“Often, the answers to these questions suggest the value of a strategic
thinking process, which may occur over a series of faculty meetings and a
board retreat.”
Robert Evans, “The Case Against Strategic Planning,” Independent School magazine (Fall 2007)
Strategic Planning vs. Strategic Thinking?
Strategic plans and strategic thinking don’t rule each
other out.
A strategic thinking approach — “a flexible learning process that relies
on school managers constantly listening and synthesizing what they hear
and learn from all sources” — “does not necessarily rule out a formal
strategic planning process, but it assumes that any formal plan is
open to change and refinement so the school leader is always open
to responding to rapid change. The strategic plan arises from
pragmatic, flexible strategic thinking that relies on judgment as much as
on spelling out action steps and the measurement of benchmarks.”
Strategic Planning for Schools website (https://strategicplanning4schools.com)
Conducting a Formal Strategic
Planning Process
Strategic Plan: Basic Steps
1. Define and review vision, mission, and values.
2. Conduct an environmental scan.
3. Collect constituent feedback.
4. Identify strategic issues.
5. Develop strategic goals and objectives.
6. Create implementation plans.
7. Develop markers of success.
8. Monitor, evaluate, and update as new information dictates.
Conducting a Formal Strategic
Planning Process
Strategic Plan: Steps to Avoid
Arbitrarily selecting who will be on the team/committee
Solution: Select members who have the expertise needed.
Thinking of it as an event rather than a process
Solution: Build in a mechanism for checking data and making course
corrections.
Not educating team members about the process
Solution: Document process; discuss and gain buy-in from team before
moving forward.
Failing to gather data before holding strategy sessions
Solution: Ensure that collecting constituent feedback and conducting
environmental scans are part of the early stages of the process.
Conducting a Formal Strategic
Planning Process
Strategic Plan: Steps to Avoid
Not allowing enough time
Solution: Be realistic about how much time every step will take.
Biting off more than you can chew
Solution: Limit yourself to no more than five broad goals.
Setting “what” goals instead of “why” goals
Solution: Create a vision statement at the beginning of the process so that
you know why you want to achieve something.
Not addressing the underlying problem or issue that needs to be
solved
Solution: Ask: Is this a resource problem? A people problem? A process or
system problem? An organizational problem?
Conducting a Formal Strategic
Planning Process
The importance of
measuring
performance
Making measurement
meaningful by tying it to
behavior and decisions
“Any strategy is a hypothesis.
Performance measurement
has to be built in and applied
to see if what you are doing
has the desired effect.”
“As Douglas Hubbard, a specialist in
applied information economics asserts…
‘If we can’t identify a decision that could
be affected by a proposed measurement
and how it could change those
decisions, then the measurement simply
has no value.’”
Donna Orem
John Gulla and Olaf Jorgenson, “Measuring Our
Success,” Independent School magazine, Spring 2014
Adopting an Ongoing Strategic Approach
Creating an infrastructure to be strategic: Collect
and analyze data in an ongoing fashion
• Create a leadership or board group to drive data collection and
assessment.
• Identify what you need to know.
• Establish a research agenda and calendar.
• Determine the best, most cost-effective method of finding the
information: Outside consultant or school staff? Method: Focus
groups, online survey, interviews, literature or research scan,
telephone surveys, etc.?
Adopting an Ongoing Strategic Approach
Creating an infrastructure to be strategic: Questions
to guide your data collection and analysis
• What are our priorities?
• How well are we doing?
• What global, national, and local trends do we need to be aware of
that might affect our school?
• Will local demographics sustain our school in the next 5 to 10 years?
• Where should we apply our financial resources?
Adopting an Ongoing Strategic Approach
Committing to generative thinking
Generative Mode
Strategic Mode
Fiduciary Mode
Board’s central
purpose
Reconcile value
propositions; manage
accountability; discern
challenges; think
creatively; make sense
of circumstances
Scan environments;
review strategy;
monitor
accountability
Oversee operations;
ensure
accountability;
select and assess
head; ratify policy
CEO-board
relationship
Think-tank peers
Strategic alliance
Hub and spoke
Strategy
Board and head think
strategically together
Board and head plan Set by head; ratified
strategically together by board
Power source
Ideas
Expertise
Relationship with
head
Governance Futures Project (adapted from Chait et al., Governance as Leadership)
Ways to Think Strategically:
Approaches Organizations Use Both
in Preparation for a Full Strategic Plan and
in Adopting an Ongoing Strategic Posture
Ways to Think Strategically
Design Thinking: A “building-up” of ideas
A process “of creating new and innovative ideas and
solving problems…. It can be as effective in technology
or education as it may be in services or manufacturing….
“Unlike critical thinking, which is a process of analysis
and is associated with the ‘breaking down’ of ideas,
design thinking is a creative process based around the
‘building up’ of ideas.
“There are no judgments in design thinking…. Wild
ideas are welcome, since these often lead to the most
creative solutions.”
Fast Company, “Design Thinking… What Is That?” (March 20, 2006)
Ways to Think Strategically
Design Thinking
Ways to Think Strategically
Design thinking in
managing change
… and in re-imagining
strategic plans
“Instead of seeing change as the
implementation of fully formed ideas
on a grand scale, we are allowing
ourselves to ask big questions,
explore different options, and then
rapidly prototype changes. An
essential part of the process is
iteration and an openness to
pivoting and/or rethinking solutions
as we move forward.”
“We began by re-imagining the
whole concept of ‘strategic plan,’
seeing it less as a list of goals and
more a set of shared, memorable
experiences. The planning
process included more than 40
creative visioning sessions …. And
the resulting plan, in addition to the
traditional printed booklet, took on
a variety of interactive forms.”
Mark Silver, Hillbrook School Head,
Leadership + Design’s The Monthly Recharge
(Dec. 2014)
Matt Glendinning, Moses Brown School
Head, Leadership + Design’s The Monthly
Recharge (Nov. 2014)
Ways to Think Strategically
Appreciative Inquiry: “Identifying the positive core”
“Appreciative Inquiry [AI] is a way of being and seeing. It is both a
worldview and a process for facilitating positive change in human
systems, e.g., organizations, groups, and communities.
“Its assumption is simple: Every human system has something that
works right — things that give it life when it is vital, effective, and
successful.
“AI begins by identifying this positive core and connecting to it in ways that
heighten energy, sharpen vision, and inspire action for change.”
Center for Appreciative Inquiry, “What Is Appreciative Inquiry (AI)?”
Ways to Think Strategically
Appreciative Inquiry
Ways to Think Strategically
Balanced Scorecard: A “balanced” view of
organizational performance
“The balanced scorecard is a strategic planning and
management system that is used … to align business
activities to the vision and strategy of the organization,
improve internal and external communications, and monitor
organization performance against strategic goals.
“It was originated … as a performance measurement …
framework that added strategic non-financial performance
measures to traditional financial metrics to give managers
and executives a more ‘balanced’ view of organizational
performance.”
Balanced Scorecard Institute, “Balanced Scorecard Basics”
Ways to Think Strategically
Balanced Scorecard
Tools
• Strategy map
• Scorecard (goals,
measures, target)
• Dashboard (visual
representation of
goals, measures,
and targets)
Ways to Think Strategically
Jobs-to-Be-Done Theory
“The secret to winning the innovation
game lies in understanding what causes
customers to make choices that help
them achieve progress on something
they are struggling with in their lives.
To get to the right answers … executives
should be asking: What job would
consumers want to hire a product to do?”
Dina Gerdeman, “Clayton Christensen: Customers
Don’t Simply Buy Products — They Hire Them,”
Forbes, Oct. 4, 2016
“When we buy a product,
we essentially ‘hire’
something to get a job
done. If it does the job
well, when we are
confronted with the same
job, we hire that same
product again. And if the
product does a crummy
job, we ‘fire’ it.”
Clayton Christensen, author of
Competing Against Luck
Ways to Think Strategically
Jobs to Be Done: How to define “jobs” so as to
generate bold ideas for new solutions
“1. What are the high-level jobs to be done?
2. What are the current approaches and what pain points result?
3. What benchmarks exist in the full range of competing offerings and
analogies?
4. What performance criteria do customers use?
5. What prevents new solutions from being adopted?
6. What value would success create for customers?”
Stephen Wunker, “Six Steps to Put Christensen’s Jobs-to-Be-Done Theory Into Practice,”
Forbes (Feb. 7, 2012)
Ways to Think Strategically
Embracing the discomfort of strategy making
“Adopt a discipline about strategy making that reconciles you to experiencing
some angst…
Rule 1. Keep the strategy statement simple
Two choices determine success: the where-to-play decision (which specific
customers to target) and the how-to-win decision (how to create a
compelling value proposition for those customers).
Rule 2: Recognize that strategy is not about perfection.
For that to happen, boards and regulators need to reinforce rather than
undermine the notion that strategy involves a bet.
Rule 3: Make the logic explicit.
The only sure way to improve the hit rate of your strategic choices is to test
the logic of your thinking.”
Roger L. Martin, “The Big Lie of Strategic Planning,” Harvard Business Review (Jan-Feb 2014)
Ways to Think Strategically
The importance of the questions asked
“’In a world of rapid change, answers quickly become
outdated or obsolete. But great questioning leads you to new and
better answers.
“Questioning is … a critical starting point of problem-solving and
innovation.... Thoughtful inquiry can help us begin to see and
understand the challenges around us more clearly. Questions
also spark the imagination…. Learning how to act on our
questions can lead us toward solutions and creative
breakthroughs.’”
Warren Berger, quoted in Scott Goodson, “Warren Berger Tells How to Ask a
‘Beautiful Question,’” The Daily Beast (March 8, 2014)
The Role of Vision
in Any Strategic Approach
The Role of Vision
Vision as a “north star” for
strategy
“Too often, we [approach strategy
making] with a collection of needs instead
of a north star to guide us, that is, a firm
vision statement of why the school exists.
The former approach almost always
results in enhancing what we know while
the latter can open new thinking.”
“A vision statement tells
everyone the type of
community or world the
school envisions for its
constituency as a result of
the work of the
organization.”
Donna Orem, “Your School’s Big Dream: Creating a
Vision for the Future,” NAIS Independent Ideas
blog (April 18, 2017)
The Enterprise Foundation,
Effective Strategic Planning
The Role of Vision
Questions to guide school
vision statements
Why vision statements
are important
• What do we do best?
• What is our core business?
• What needs can we satisfy that others
can’t?
• What kind of image do we want?
• What do we want to be known for?
• How big do we want to be?
• What are our ethical and social
responsibilities?
• What value do we want to have to our
customers?
• What do we want to be in 5 years?
• They keep the entire school
community focused in the
same direction.
• They serve as a guide
against which to make budget
decisions.
• They keep schools futurefocused.
The Role of Vision
Making your vision statement “sticky”
•
•
•
•
•
Articulate your organization’s “core idea.”
Don’t zoom out, choose.
Make the vision concrete.
Show why faculty, staff, students should care about it.
Consider the virtues of single focus.
Chip Heath and Dan Heath, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
Resources
Greg Satell, “The Evolution of Strategy,” Forbes
Karen E. Hinton, A Practical Guide to Strategic Planning in Higher Education
Robert A. Sevier, Stamats Communications, “Pretty Good Done: A More Elegant Approach to Strategic Planning”
Patrick Bassett, “Strategic Planning Is an Oxymoron,” Independent School Magazine
Robert Evans, “The Case Against Strategic Planning,” Independent School Magazine
Erica Olson, OnStrategy, “Leaders: Success Takes Strategic Planning”
Balanced Scorecard Institute, “Balanced Scorecard Basics”
Ron Mahurin, Stamats Communications, “Sometimes the Last Thing You Need Is a Strategic Plan”
John Gulla and Olaf Jorgenson, “Measuring Our Success,” Independent School magazine, Spring 2014
Strategic Planning for Schools website
Richard Chait, William P. Ryan, and Barbara E. Taylor, Governance as Leadership: Reframing the Work of
Nonprofit Boards
Fast Company, “Design Thinking… What Is That?”
Mark Silver, Hillbrook School Head, Leadership + Design’s The Monthly Recharge
Matt Glendinning, Moses Brown School Head, Leadership + Design’s The Monthly Recharge
Center for Appreciative Inquiry, “What Is Appreciative Inquiry (AI)?”
Dina Gerdeman, “Clayton Christensen: Customers Don’t Simply Buy Products — They Hire Them,” Forbes
Stephen Wunker, “Six Steps to Put Christensen’s Jobs-to-Be-Done Theory Into Practice,” Forbes
Roger L. Martin, “The Big Lie of Strategic Planning,” Harvard Business Review
Scott Goodson, “Warren Berger Tells How to Ask a ‘Beautiful Question,’” The Daily Beast
Donna Orem, “Your School’s Big Dream: Creating a Vision for the Future, ” NAIS Independent Ideas blog
The Enterprise Foundation, Effective Strategic Planning
Chip Heath and Dan Heath, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die