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Compass PD Podcast with Dr. Carrie Hepburn
Compass PD Podcast with Dr. Carrie Hepburn
Compass PD Episode 44: Strategic Planning Creates a Unified Vision for Success
Prepare to unlock the secrets of seamless strategic planning in educational districts with Dr. Chris Greiner, a veritable sage in the realm of educational strategy. This episode promises to equip you with the tools to foster a shared vision narrative that's penned hand-in-hand with families, staff, and community leaders who help shape the educational landscape. We unravel how engagement strategies like surveys and focus groups can be a game-changer in this collaborative effort. Dr. Greiner's insights underscore the necessity of bringing every district member, from operations to non-instructional teams, into the fold to ensure that post-pandemic priorities such as student belonging and social-emotional learning are addressed with the gravity they deserve.
Expect an invigorating conversation with Dr. Greiner as we chart the path to achieving 'wildly important goals' across an educational organization's diverse spectrum, extending from the cafeteria to the custodial closets. We dissect "The 4 Disciplines of Execution," a revolutionary framework that paves the way for educational leaders to navigate through daily challenges while keeping strategic goals in sharp focus. As we dissect these principles, you'll discover how to transform a strategic plan from a static document into a dynamic, living promise to your stakeholders. So, whether you're at the helm of a district or you're an educator with an insatiable thirst for knowledge, let this episode be your guide to fine-tuning your strategic planning prowess.
Episode 34: Delving into What is Strategic Planning Pt. 1
Episode 37: What is Strategic Planning Pt. 2
Hello, hello, hello. Dr Keri Hepburn here from Compass PD and I am joined once again by a very special guest, dr Chris Greiner. Dr Greiner was recently here talking about strategic planning in episodes 34 and 37. Both of those episodes were really rich discussions about what is strategic planning and helping build the foundational knowledge of what strategic planning is. If you haven't listened to those episodes, I'll make sure that they're linked in the show notes below. But, based on the feedback we've received, strategic planning is clearly an important topic to district leaders right now. Those episodes are some of our most popular episodes over the last few months. So thank you, chris, for talking about this and welcome again. We're so happy to have you.
Speaker 2:Thanks, Kari. Appreciate the opportunity to be with you.
Speaker 1:Great, great. Our organization has been working with districts nationwide and recently we've noticed that the issue of strategic planning lack of strategic planning is something that we really wanted to address and in some of the things that we're noticing are that districts have too many initiatives happening and they're finding themselves being more reactive than proactive. And what we know is that Dr Greiner is one of the best when it comes to leading districts through the process of setting and achieving goals. It's not easy and him talking through the process, I can tell you, has been enlightening for me and that I've been blessed enough to work alongside him bringing that strategic plan to life. So to let you know that this is part of a series and we're in the second part of this series. We hope that you walk away with information to support you as the district leader. Building on our previous conversation, Chris, basically you stated that strategic planning is a promise a district makes to its stakeholders. How do the different parts of the organization align their goals with the strategic plan?
Speaker 2:Kari, I think it begins first with that mission, vision, values, conversation. That founded those foundational discussions that you have to have with your stakeholders in the district. And so leaning into the vision narrative that you have established with your district, with your stakeholders, is really the first step. So ensuring that Families, students, staff have business partners in the community, community leaders, they have input, they've co-authored that preferred future within that vision narrative, certainly you're going to use tools like a survey, focus groups, the ways in which you engage your stakeholders. Typically I've seen districts utilize open house and parent-teacher conferences, events around in the school district throughout the year where you're gathering Typically people want to come to the school You're adding in that element of engagement and gathering opinions. So I think alignment of goals really starts with that vision narrative and you have to make sure that it is co-authored by all the stakeholders that make up your school district. And then, when you sit down to figure out, once you've gathered this feedback, you start to establish some themes and those themes really help you ensure that the entire organization is in the game and that they have skin in the game, that they're chasing wildly important goals that are going to help show the improvement, the change that that vision really reflects. So I think, typically, organizations.
Speaker 2:A lot of what the strategic plan centers around, understandably, is teaching and learning, so it really focuses on the business of our business in school districts, which is student achievement. You also, though, have other components of a school district that are very important, and so, when you're intentionally bringing in all aspects of the district, many people that work for a school district aren't necessarily directly involved in the daily instruction of students. So, yes, teaching and learning are very important, but you also have to consider the ways in which you're pulling in your community, the ways in which you're pulling in your operations teams. So, again, thinking about how a strategic plan comes together and looking at that vision narrative of a preferred future, you should see language in that vision narrative that includes teaching and learning, and, of course, it focuses in on research-based instructional moves, adult behavior. So, you know, partnering with organizations like McCrell or Marzano Hattie, all of that sort of best practice around instruction is really important to be intentional around that, and how are you intentionally memorializing these important instructional practices? So I think, again from an adult, in the classroom perspective, that strategic plan really must address how do we look into improved instruction.
Speaker 2:Of course we're also considering how are we intentionally wanting to improve student outcomes, because it can't just be about the adult input, it has to be about also what are we expecting from our students differently and I mentioned earlier, achievement is the centerpiece of a strategic plan, but it's not just about student achievement, it's also about student attachment. How are we intentionally trying to grow the belongingness of our students? And I think what is emerged in the last, at least post-pandemic, is the need for districts to be intentional around how they're building student belonging and how are they growing the social-emotional learning skills along with the academic skills that students need to demonstrate. And then there is an awareness that we're building in students. So not just their achievement, not just their attachment, but also the awareness of our students as citizens in society, whether that's their own self-awareness, their own personal responsibility, their ability to have social awareness. You know the context of working with people and developing empathy. Those are the types of skills that are also important and we're learning, that have to be intentionally baked into a strategic plan Again. So from a district perspective, you can have this lens of teaching and learning.
Speaker 2:But how does it actually happen inside schools, day to day, week to week and so building the capacity of your school leadership around school progress plans. So how do the you know smaller learning communities in your district, those school-based communities, how are they setting goals? How are they monitoring progress? How are they adjusting, pivoting in the moment? How are they creating this collaborative culture to actually ensure that these teaching and learning outcomes happen? There's a school progress planning that is sort of a mini strategic plan that has to play out in all of your schools and there has to be a leadership framework that really ensures that that happens. And so, again getting back to an organizational, how does the organization ensure that it's really important that schools are developing progress plans that mirror some of the key priorities of the strategic plan, and so we'll talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 2:But I think, from a teaching and learning perspective, that's really important that we are not just relying on the district level oversight. We have those supports baked in and we're intentionally growing our leadership to help them plan for and execute those school progress plans that again are smaller versions of that district strategic plan that they are working through on a day-to-day, week-to-week basis I mentioned. You know it's got to be more than teaching and learning. So how are we intentionally engaging our community and, again from that vision narrative, being able to tease out some themes what are the things that our community is interested in becoming growing towards? And you'll find that a lot of at least I have found a lot of those conversations are centered around workforce development.
Speaker 2:How are we meeting the demands of workforce development locally so that our students can leave us and have those opportunities to move into the high-wage, high-demand careers in our own backyard? And so how are we intentionally building relationships and partnerships with our community, our local businesses? And that's really important, that we are intentional to pull in community partners and engage in a regular cadence of communication to understand what are the, what are those emerging demands, what are the skills that graduates need. So a lot of times within a strategic plan you'll find something called a portrait of a graduate, and that's a really important conversation to have with your community because it really it represents. What are the things that graduates need to be successful here in our community, in our, in our district, so that they, those students, can then move on and can pursue, you know, work and family and can stay here in the community again to meet workforce demands of high-wage, high-demand careers in our own backyard. So I think that's an important connection to make.
Speaker 2:And then, finally, I think, just governance and operations at times tends to get lost in the shuffle. So how are we intentionally, for example, our nutrition technology, finance, maintenance and grounds custodial teams? How are we intentionally engaging those employee groups for them to develop wildly important goals that allow them to chase excellence and really look to grow? So, again, I think it's important that, yes, teaching and learning are the centerpieces of a strategic plan. But how are we intentionally bringing in our community and also other employee groups within an organization so that they can set meaningful goals and chase excellence in the same way? We are trying to accomplish that for our students with the teaching and learning components of a strategic plan. But the challenge, as I mentioned earlier, is not writing the plan, although that's work that has to happen and it takes some time to pull together. But how do you actually execute a plan at a high level? And I think again back to your question about organizational alignment Once the plan is built, then the real work begins. And that means how do you build in a cadence that allows you to effectively monitor your progress, make adjustments when necessary and maintain the momentum of the plan? And I'll tell you that we've leaned into the research around the four disciplines of execution. It's an excellent book. I'd recommend it. Sean Covey, lynn Kazinsky and Meg Thompson published a great book Again four disciplines of execution for educators. But the key is those four disciplines really play out in allowing a district to not only develop a plan but to establish a winnable game for that strategic plan, focusing on the wildly important, so setting goals that are measurable. You hear the acronym SMART, so that SMART acronym is sort of parallel with this idea of a wildly important goal. The thing I like about the wildly important goal language is it really simplifies that. From X to Y by win, here's where we are now, here's where we want to go and how long is it going to take us to get there. And we really use that idea of developing goals for the organization using that template from X to Y by win, here's where we are now, here's where we want to be and here's our timeline to get there.
Speaker 2:So focusing on the wildly important. It also means you can't have 70 different goals within a strategic plan. You've got to really hone in on and be focused around a few key themes within a strategic plan. Then you need to create a way to make commitments towards those goals you need. The book talks about those being lead measures. So the key behaviors that you're committing to routinely that are going to move that goal from X to Y. That's a really important component of the plan that you have regular commitments you're making and you're able to reflect on whether or not those commitments are moving the needle to get you from X to Y.
Speaker 2:A compelling scoreboard is also something that's really important to create. That alignment is for people to understand how are we doing, and districts utilize a dashboard. That's something that we have developed in our district. Part of the process of strategic planning is a compelling scoreboard. So how do you have a place to go and it's very clear and easy to read through and discern. But a scoreboard of the goals you've set and progress you're making. That's a key point of some of the research they bring out in the four disciplines.
Speaker 2:And then, finally, a cadence of accountability. So we've got, you know, we're making commitments on these lead measures Towards our goals, but we've got to do it in a way that is very transparent and a way that creates a sense of accountability so that we don't lose momentum. So, again, those four disciplines focus on the wildly important. Act on lead measures, keep a compelling scorecard, great a cadence of accountability. Those are all things in my mind, from my experience that we've utilized, that have really helped us not only create an alignment but also maintain momentum To see growth over time and not lose some of the, the steam that maybe the development of a strategic plan creates, that excitement, that inspiration, but then it sort of drifts and becomes part of the whirlwind and it loses its focus, it loses its luster. So that's a way, through those four disciplines, that a district can not only create alignment but also maintain momentum.
Speaker 1:Based on your recommendation.
Speaker 1:A few years ago, I had read the four disciplines of execution.
Speaker 1:I do believe it is a game changer, because some of the some of the language and other resources that many of us have read can feel really high level and complicated, and I love how the four disciplines of execution simplifies things and can bring it to a level that feels doable.
Speaker 1:Now, as you mentioned, developing the strategic strategic plan is work and it takes time, but it's really the execution that's the hard part, and so those four disciplines of execution can help you set that up but still putting it into practice.
Speaker 1:You have to have accountability systems in place to be able to do that, and that really is, I think, one of the hardest parts that I see districts you know bring to life to stay focused, to keep their focused narrowed, because there's a lot of great things that are happening all around us. But the strategic plan is really meant to help us narrow our focus so that when all of these great ideas come to us, we're like, nope, this is our plan, this is where we're headed. This is what we said. As an organization and as a community, we wanted to ensure that we provided for ourselves and for our kids. I guess it's to me a way of helping us make sure that we have the time, the people and the resources to do something excellent. To reach those at high levels of excellence versus kind of not even achieving anything really Is what can happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's an organizational drift that can occur if there isn't that intentional focus and energy, keeping the strategic plan really top of mind and that so it doesn't get lost in what you know.
Speaker 2:Covey and his colleagues talk about that with the whirlwind, because there's. There's plenty for educators to figure, there's plenty of problems to solve and many of those problems pop up on a day to day basis and that really becomes the whirlwind of you know your day and those things have to be addressed. Those fires have to be put out. However, you have to have the wildly important work and you have to have the time set aside to commit to that work so that the organization can improve and you can achieve the goals of your strategic plan. Otherwise, that strategic plan becomes no more beneficial or worthwhile than the paper that it's printed on. You know the posters, the flair that show up in districts around strategic planning. That's all great, but if the real work isn't happening and leaders aren't being intentional around that work, then it just kind of fades into the ether of the busyness of our lives.
Speaker 1:When we can sit down with district leaders and talk with them about the whirlwind, they start to see how many things are pulling them away from the important work that they need to be doing. First of all, thank you so much for again coming and joining us, and we'll be back together again to continue this conversation, helping districts learn more about strategic planning, and I want to remind everyone that Compass PD has a big goal of impacting the learning of 1 million students during the 2023-2024 school year. A couple of ways that you can help us reach this big goal is by sharing our podcast with a fellow educator. Another way you can do that is hit that follow like subscribe button and our podcast will drop right into your Spotify, your Apple, whatever you're getting your podcast. Thank you for serving in education. Your work is incredibly valuable and important. Take care and stay inspired. Compass PD community. Have a great day.