Hi
I trust you are starting your long weekend off well. I am about to head down to our family cottage for the weekend with the kids after sending this out. My wife has headed off to
We are getting ready for a drastic improvement in our weather here for the long weekend (Victoria Day on Monday). We expect to have temperatures in the 90’s F. That is a swing of about 40 degrees from last week. Vancouverites joke about rusting rather than tanning! But we are in good spirits here. With the upswing in hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics, there is construction everywhere; we are even getting a new retractable roof for our downtown sports stadium.
Today in my eNewsletter I am going to talk about the pitfalls of developing a strategic plan. I was contacted by a Head of School last week who had started the process right, but had hit a wall and was not able to formalize her ideas into a working action plan that would move the school forward. I am going to share with you some of the key points that included in my Strategic Planning Toolkit, which you can purchase from my website’s Online Store.
Enjoy the eNewsletter,
Doug Halladay
President and Founder
Halladay Education Group Inc.
www.HalladayEducationGroup.com
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In This Issue
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1. Services Your School Needs
2. Make Your Strategic Plan Work
3. Products To Invest In To Start And Lead Your School
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1. Services Your School Needs
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>>> (A) STARTING YOUR OWN SCHOOL
Starting a school can be very challenging and you never have a 2nd chance to make a first impression. This is why you need a firm that has experience starting schools in
1. One-Day Comprehensive Overview Session and Report
2. Formal Feasibility Study
3. Detailed Business Plan Development
4.
6. Ongoing Consulting Services and Retainer
7. Ongoing Management and Operations Services
If you would like more information about my services and range of fees related to help start your school, please call me at 1-604-868-0002, email me at info@halladayeducationgroup.com
>>> (B) Strategic Planning
Do you want a plan to improve your school? Then you need a Strategic Plan. I can develop a comprehensive Plan that will build consensus, motivate donors, and define critical priorities and strategies for your Board and Administration to improve your school.
Click on the following link to download my brochure on our Strategic Planning process, or call me at 1-604-868-0002, or email me at info@halladayeducationgroup.com
>>> (C) BOARD GOVERNANCE WORKSHOPS
Do you want your school or non-profit to have better leadership? If so, my full-day governance workshop and online survey helps your trustees to fine-tune their performance and refocus their mandate. Please email me at info@halladayeducationgroup.com or call us at 604-868-0002 to find out more about how we can help you.
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2. Make Your Strategic Plan Work
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Successful strategic plans do not just happen; they are based on an inclusive process, coordinated facilitation, and sequence of steps to clearly identify where the school is now, where it wants to be, how it will get there, and how it knows if it has gotten there or not.
A capable Strategic Planning Committee begins to identify what the school is and what the school wants to become and then identifies the needs, goals, and objectives necessary to attain that preferred future. This is one of the most critical stages in strategic planning. It focuses your attention on what the needs are for the future and the vision of the school within the community, and what is necessary to attain those needs. This stage can not be underemphasized since it sets the direction for the remainder of the strategic plan.
Leaders need to determine the best future direction for the organization, developing a vision, mission, values, philosophy, critical issues, and goals or strategies needed to move the organization in the envisioned direction. With it the school understands the direction in which it is heading and is not distracted by uncertainties. It is the glue that holds the organization together and produces consistent excellence.
But first you must take stock, reviewing your history and current situation, and begin to identify future possibilities and choices. From this analysis, you will identify the most critical issues or choices concerning your organization’s future.
1). Assess current situation in the school (values audit)
2). Identify and clarify Mandates (externally imposed formal and informal mandates – policies/bylaws, provincial/state policies) to avoid conflicts
3). Collect base-line data (performance audit)
- Admissions statistics; standardized testing results
-School finances
- Student-related data
- School-climate data
- College entrance profile
- Accreditation
4). Perform an internal/external assessment of current issues and forces impacting school
- Changes in family structure; demographics
- Finance-related data
- Attitude-related data
- Politically-related data
- Staffing and compensation
- Competition
- Micro/Macro economies
- Student performance, school climate, finance, human resources, program, facility, tradition
5). Perform S.W.O.T.’s (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats)
6). Identify trends, events, and attitudes from the scan
- Analyze supports and constraints
- Relate external opportunities and threats to internal strengths and weaknesses
7). Re/define the Mission Statement (statement of purpose)
8). Re/define the Vision Statement (compelling, conceptual image of the desired future)
9). Develop your Guiding Core Values (common beliefs and values)
10). Re/define your Educational Philosophy (optional)
11). Identify the issues and needs of school, comparing “what is” to “what should we be” (identify gaps)
12). Develop and prioritize Goals (what must be accomplished to achieve the preferred future) and Objectives (means by which the goals can be achieved) based on long-term vision of “where we are” and “where we want to be” and overcoming your issues and gap
13). Board adopts plan and publicizes
Most school do not even make it to this stage. However, the next stage is even more important!
The planning group must now move from the long-range planning to operational planning; embodying the goals into realistic steps that can implement the plan. This stage focuses on medium and short-range plans that examine the means rather than the end. This stage determines routes to take to arrive at the desired destination. The planning team and sub-teams (if needed) switch from the role of leaders to managers; focusing their concerns to how the organization can achieve the goals, rather than what the goals should be. Stress is placed on the operational efficiency and short-range planning of the organization; doing things right rather than doing the right thing.
1). Develop Action Plans (who, what, where, when, how much) or Work Plans to achieve each goal and objective
2). Meet with the Board and related stakeholders to:
- Order the tasks by priority and chronologically
- Identify person(s) responsible for the tasks
- Identify resources required
- Determine the measurement to be used and success indicators
- Determine costs
3). Develop a management system
Or course you still need to figure out how to implement the plan and integrate it into your annual budget, board goals, and the Head of School’s operational plan, but that is in another email. But it is the most critical stage, or the whole effort is wasted and pointless.
I can facilitate the development of your strategic plan from start to finish, with the development of your SWOTs, goals, objectives, action plans, and finished document. Email me at info@halladayeducationgroup.com if you would like to make preparations to develop your strategic plan for the coming school year.
If you would like to comment on this eNewsletter article please click on the following link and add your comments on my blog.
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3. Products To Invest In To Start And Lead Your School
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Do you want effective tools to help start and manage your school? These 2 products will make a difference.
>> (A). STRATEGIC PLANNING TOOLKIT (#1 BEST SELLER)
Learn How To Develop Your Own Strategic Plan Like An Expert With This Easy To Follow, Step-By-Step, All-In-One Strategic Planning Toolkit and Manual.
>> (B). WEBINAR SERIES – DISCOVER FROM EXPERTS HOW TO START A SCHOOL (#2 BEST SELLER)
Are you still struggling with starting your School, College, University, or Institute? You are not alone. I share with you how to start a school from the words of those who have been in the trenches and understand how to put a school together efficiently and cost effectively. These include:
1.
2. 9 Secrets To Starting A
3. 8 Golden Rules of Starting a
4. Starting a Successful
5. 10 Steps To A Winning Strategic Plan
6. The Whole Enchilada - All 5 Webinars at 40% Off
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To your success,
Douglas Halladay
President and Founder
Halladay Education Group Inc.
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P.S. Do not forget to check out our secure Online Store for ways to invest in improving or starting your own school or non-profit. Click here.
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