Strategic Planning and Implementation
Why Strategic Planning is Necessary?
Our Process
At EduLogic, we believe “simple systems lead to complex thinking.” We support organizations to create processes that are not overly and unnecessarily complex. Our arc of Strategic Planning is
- Kickoff Meeting with Superintendent and Leadership Team
- Select Members of Stakeholder Committee
- Conduct Needs Assesment
- Iterative Stakeholder Meetings
- Create Working Draft
- Graphic Design
- Final Draft For Board Presentation and Approval
- Launch Communication Toolkit
- Proactively Communicate Internally and Externally
- Optional: Data Dashboard
- Align Benchmarks across Departments and Divisions
- Measure Progress Toward Goals
- Revise as Necessary
- Optional: Additional Alignment and Implementation Support
Prepare:
We begin the strategic planning process with a Kick-off meeting to finalize the timeline, survey needs and deliverables and identify the crucial committee members. As part of the early preparation phase, EduLogic typically works with the superintendent and/or the district leadership team. We encourage the district to select a Primary Point of Contact (usually not the superintendent) to collaborate directly on logistics, feedback, and project management.
During this phase, we conduct a thorough review of the district as part of the Needs Assessment. Using existing district plans and assessments, qualitative data, and quantitative data, the EduLogic team conducts an in-depth analysis of where the district currently is, where the district wants to go, and impediments to reaching those goals. The information collected in this review vis-a-vis focus groups, surveys, and interviews along with performance data, previous strategic plans, major learning plans, communication channels, current goals, and implementation steps is the basis for our comprehensive Needs Assessment. Our process utilizes both in-person as well as virtual options for focus groups and interviews recognizing the need for multiple modalities. Our experience is that the virtual option is often more conducive to community members’ schedules, and our team will utilize a variety of communication channels with the community including, but not limited to, social media to ensure all voices are heard in the process. EduLogic will work with the district leadership team to customize the process and adjust proposed timelines. It is vital that the process of Strategic Planning value where the district currently sits within its own continuous improvement cycle with respect to plans and processes currently in place.
Plan:
At EduLogic, we support districts and organizations with 3 or 5 year plans. The planning always begins with ensuring the Mission, Vision, and Core Values align to the organization via surveys and focus groups. Our facilitator guides a group of stakeholders through an iterative process to create organization goals and the sub-goals or KPIs which will aggregate into the success of the overall goals. This process typically requires 4-6 stakeholder meetings, ideally, in-person. We believe all voices should be heard in this process and our facilitation is designed to create buy-in among the stakeholders, who in turn become the initial key communicators. Effective facilitation is critical in the iterative process to ensure all voices are heard, all stakeholders have contributed, and everyone has buy-in for the final plan. Adept facilitation is key, and EduLogic’s facilitators are experienced in the work because they have done the work.
Communicate:
As the plan is finalized, EduLogic recognizes the group of stakeholders who wrote the Strategic Plan are the key internal and external communicators and proponents of the plan. We provide a communication toolkit for partners to effectively leverage stakeholders in the broader community. Additionally, EduLogic’s data dashboard is a great way for the Superintendent to access realtime updates for the Strategic Implementation of the plan and keep local Boards of Education informed of progress.
Implement:
As part of the strategic planning process, EduLogic supports organizations as they create implementation or project plans for how to accomplish the goals and subgoals. Our experience with implementation highlights the need for Supportive Accountability to ensure each item on the project plan has an owner/champion, a due date, and a process to raise yellow flags early enough to mitigate potential barriers and adhere to the due dates.
Align:
Our experience has shown that silos are often difficult to break, so EduLogic also supports districts with standing-up and facilitating Cross-Functional (i.e. departmental or divisional) Teams to create alignment across the organization as part of Strategic Implementation. This “horizontal” alignment across departments highlights the inter-connections and interdependence across those departments.
Measure:
Our team helps create aligned metrics across departments or divisions (horizontal) and into schools and classrooms (vertical). These metrics can be monitored via EduLogic’s dashboard as all of the data roll-up into updates on the goals, in real time. The measurements are updated in realtime on the EduLogic Dashboard.
Revise:
We recognize plans may need to be revised based on many factors. Our Strategic Planning and Implementation arc is intended to transform what is too often a static plan or document into a PROCESS. As more and different data become available, EduLogic supports district leaders through efficient revision processes to ensure the plan adapts as necessary to remain relevant.
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