The Trusted Authority for Starting, Improving, & Selling Private Schools: Strategic Planning Is Critical To Guiding Your School In Today's Challenging Times

Strategic planning when done right, does not have to be frustrating, unproductive, costly, or divert the energies of your school's leadership. If facilitated properly, the process will stimulate support in your community and focus resources for your school's continued development.

The purpose of your strategic plan is to lay out a road map to achieve your mission and

vision; moving away from being "reactive" - solving today's problems - towards being "proactive" - eliminating problems in the future and taking advantage of opportunities. Your plan should provide the framework that enables your school to focus and coordinate your resources, work towards common goals, assess and adjust as you move forward, and focus your board's priorities and inspire your staff and community.

A school is most effective when its resources are aligned by a common vision, mission, strategies, goals, and action plans. Simply operating your school by calendar or crisis is not acceptable. You want your organization to move from being reactive to being proactive; rather than responding to unexpected changes, you want to anticipate and plan for them. The best way to predict the future is to create it!!

HEG's planning approach provides a practical and proven model for mission-based management. Our step-by-step process provides concrete objectives and deliverables that can be implemented and measured to dramatically improve the performance of your school. It allows you to accurately gauge the progress of your plan and school performance, as well as linking it to your governance model and CEO's annual operational plan. Very simply, it is the process by which your board can envision your future, identify a picture of the future based on current data, and control the forces that affect you to reach that vision, making adjustments as you move forward. This will allow your school to:

Identify areas of operation needing consideration using it as a springboard to strengthen performance;
Identify and reach consensus on issues before they become a crisis (e.g., finance, funding, enrollment, marketing, HR, academic programs, student performance, facilities, educational program, governance);
Articulate a uniform, shared vision, providing a clearer focus, producing efficiency, participation, and ownership by your stakeholders;
Allocate resources to opportunities and improve finances and projections;
Build trust, respect, team-work, and communication amongst all stakeholders;
Create a framework to guide decision making and ensure that members are working towards the same goals, even if the environment around the school changes;
Gain credibility and identify critical projects to focus your resources;
Inspire your community to invest in your strategic goals through focused fundraising campaigns;
Ensure that board members understand their roles, responsibilities, and board-wide priorities; and
Monitor performance and provide benchmarks from which progress can be measured.

We have considerable experience developing strategic plans for K-12 private and public schools and districts internationally and can bring that same expertise and results to your school. Our approach as a rule encompasses a series of steps, including our proprietary surveys and on-site retreats over a five to seven month period to develop a comprehensive strategic plan and action plan. The resulting plan will maximize your school's strengths, foresee threats, reduce weaknesses, and take advantage of future opportunities. This is achieved through the following steps, which are tailored to your requirements:

Provided below is an overview of the methodology and steps we would use to develop your school's strategic plan.

The following is a quick snapshot of our Strategic Planning process and approach:

Click here to read comments by our clients on our services as well as our planning process.
Click here to review our strategic planning options (customized to your organization).
Click here to download HEG's Eight-Step Strategic Planning Process.
Click here to invest in our Strategic Planning Toolkit.

Provided below are links to strategic plans that Doug Halladay has engaged in the development of. Click on the school to open a downloadable copy of their strategic plan.

Next Step

If you would like to find out more about how we can help your board to develop your school's strategic plan or advise on the implementation of your current plan, please contact Doug Halladay directly to find out more by sending an email to info@halladayeducationgroup.com or call directly at 1-604-868-0002. Doug Tie