Good to Great: The New Strategic Process - Eight Steps of Strategy and Design for Independent Schools

De-motivating Concepts: www.despair.com

  Top Down Leadership: All of us are dumber than some of us.

  Apathy: If we don’t take care of the customers — maybe they’ll stop bugging us.

  Disservice: It takes months to find a customer, but only seconds to lose one — The good news is that we should soon run out of them.

  Mediocrity: It takes a lot less time— and most people won’t notice the difference until it’s too late

  “Gloom Bands” from McPhee & CO:

- set of “7 Deadly Sins” wristbands #3 seller, after bacon-shaped bandages and librarian action figures.

De-motivating Concepts ���(Found on the Internet—Source Unknown)

SIX PHASES OF A PROJECT 1. ENTHUSIASM 2. DISILLUSIONMENT 3. PANIC 4. SEARCH FOR THE GUILTY 5. PUNISHMENT OF THE INNOCENT 6. PRAISE AND HONORS FOR THE NON

PARTICIPANTS.

De-motivating Concepts ���(Dick Chait at LtP, quoting a university president, 2004)

Paths to ruin for school leaders:  alcohol the most painful;  sexual indiscretion the most dangerous;  strategic planning the most certain.

The Purposes of Strategic Thinking: The Big Three Motivators

1. To know, really, how well we’re doing now…. –  “The plural of anecdote is…. data.” ~George Stigler“ –  In God We Trust…. All others: Bring data.” ~Secr. of Ed Spellings

2. To contribute to an ongoing & flexible strategic “vision” & “road map" (rather than a fixed and rigid “plan”) –  “If you want to give God a laugh, tell Him your

future plans” (German Proverb)

3. To move the organization from Good to Great (Jim Collins “prequel” to Built To Last)

–  “Good is the enemy of great.” –  More than “making a difference”: “leaving a

legacy”

Eight Steps of Strategy and Design

1.  Setting a Framework: Strategic Plan vs. Strategic Vision & Roadmap? Scope and scale. 6-month time-frame.

2.  Planning to Plan: Inspiring the Board: Good to Great. The World Is Flat. Populating the Team; Undertaking the Research & Reporting Out; Organizing the Retreat; Testing the Scenario(s)

3.  Assessing the External Factors: Environmental Scanning. (MapPoint; DemographicsNow; NAIS Opinion Leaders Survey: Forecasting Independent School Education to 2025). What are the “inevitable surprises” to address?

Eight Steps of Strategy and Design 4.  Evaluating your School's Current Position: Experiment with

various tools: “SWOT” (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats); “Portfolio Analysis” (via "value proposition surveying"); “War Gaming” (a la economist Joseph Schumpeter); “Customers' Customers Analysis”; Balanced Scorecard (HBR, Kaplan & Norton); NAIS's Six Steps to a Financially Sustainable School.

5.  Identifying the Key Issues: Issue identification ("What are our issues?"); sorting ("How important?"); evaluation ("What if we ignore it?"), relationship to mission "Why do we care about this?"). What are our three most insoluble problems? Brutal facts?

6.  Reviewing your Values & Mission: The Essentialist vs. The Existential approach to mission and values. Mission (the present, the why we exist); and Values (the past and always, the what we believe; the anchoring, resonating "essential & enduring tenets" for organizations "built to last": e.g., NAIS's 4 I's.) What are our unshakeable beliefs?

Eight Steps of Strategy and Design

7.  Creating Your Vision for the Future: Vision (the future; the what we shall become). "Vision-casting" to visualize the desired and preferred future: "Whom will we serve?" "What skills and values will they need?" "What do our customers want? Need?" "What should we be known for in the future that we're not known for now?" Scenario-writing and testing.

8.  Determining Goals, Strategies, and Initiatives: From goals (the outcomes) form strategies (action-oriented approaches, the how) and initiatives (tactical undertakings at the departmental levels, the what and when). Backward design the grid of tasks, timetables, point people. Communicate the vision, “road-map,” and strategic priorities.

Planning To Plan: Good to Great

  Level 5 Leadership

  First Who, then What

  The Brutal Facts

  The Hedgehog Concept

  Culture of Discipline

  Technology as Accelerator

Assess Operational Strength via Collins’ Six Criteria

How To Frame School Planning Survey constituents annually using…   The Balanced Scorecard/Value Proposition approach: periodic focus- group discussion of results, every year.

Assess board and administration using…   The Good to Great Framework: Internal assessments of the “brutal facts” and about the school and external assessment of the “inevitable surprises.”   Identification of and capitalization upon the convictions (“unshakeable beliefs”) on which faith in school is based (Appreciative Inquiry approach)   NAIS/BoardSource Online Assessment (BOAT) for boards and Head Assessment Tool (HAT) for Heads

How To Frame School Planning

Annual Summer Strategic Assessment Retreat   Strategy Team (board, admin, and opinion-leaders from faculty and parents) does a gut-check on vision and mission, assesses immediate strategic priorities and develops 12-month priorities (placing 24- and 36-month projects & possibilities into idea parking lot).

The End!

Appendix

Related Slides

Assessment via The Balanced Scorecard

Use Robert Kaplan and David Norton (HBR 1992) rubric of a “balanced scorecard” to assess current program and operations

  Apply four yardsticks: customer satisfaction; business processes and efficiencies; staff learning and innovation; financials.

  Develop metrics for each yardstick: –  Value-proposition surveying of constituents –  Dashboard indicator comparisons via StatsOnline –  Faculty/Staff learning/innovation built into evaluation

& compensation system –  “Real” cost analysis of programs

Making the Shift in Thinking���(cf. Jeff DeCagna, Principled Innovation jeff@principledinnovation.com)

Strategic planning

  Combines two fundamentally different ways of thinking into a single process (NB. Ike on D-Day.)

  Needs stability/predictability

  Driven by calendars and events

  Does not produce actual strategy, only plans

Strategy making

  Leverages variety and divergent thinking in the name of creating value

  Thrives on instability and uncertainty

  Continuous cycle of learning

  Pushes for simplicity, clarity and focus

Making the Shift in Thinking���(cf. Jeff DeCagna, Principled Innovation jeff@principledinnovation.com)

Strategic planning

  Executes plan by publishing document & implementation schedule wedded to 3 – 5 year cycle.

  Fixed and inflexible goals sometimes fail to reflect changing conditions and priorities.

Strategy making

  Executes “road map” (vision of destination and proposed routes) at a summer leadership retreat (board, admin with invited faculty and parent leaders) by developing five or so 12-month priorities, posted on the website.

  Notes 24-month and 36-month goals, but places them in a planning parking lot for successive R&D consideration.

Built To Last & Good to Great Companies

  James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras, Built To Last, Harper Collins, 1004. Corporations cited who historically have outperformed all others by a wide margin include 3M, American Express, Boeing, Citicorp, Ford, GE, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Marriott, Merck, Motorola, Nordstrom’s, Proctor & Gamble, Phillip Morris, Sony, Wal-Mart, and Walt Disney Corporation.

  Jim Collins, Good to Great, Harper Collins, 2001. Corporations cited who moved from “good” to “great” include Abbott, Circuit City, Fannie Mae, Gillette, Kimberly-Clark, Kroger, Nucor, Phillip Morris, Pitney-Bowes, Walgreen’s, and Wells Fargo.

Sample “Brutal Facts” for Schools   Competition will increase dramatically for students and

teachers: better public schools, charter schools, for-profit schools, home schools, etc.

  Rising costs will alienate current and future customers, make us less affordable and attractive to most of the marketplace and diminishing our diversity. Smaller schools will face survival issues.

  Parents will become more consumer-oriented and difficult to manage.

  Governmental intrusions are likely to increase.

  Resistant cultures will make it more difficult to innovate and lead and preclude creating thinking about 21st C. schools.

Sample “Brutal Facts” for Schools   After a massive investment in technology, we are still

struggling to capitalize widely upon it to accelerate or customize student learning.

  Prosperity and the “long boom” upon which our schools depend will be compromised by global instability, fractious social issues, a larger US deficit, terrorism and war.

  Ethical relativism will become more pervasive and parenting less effective.

  Weakness/confusion/under-performance of many school boards will be a huge liability.

  Equity and justice efforts aside, we are still not ready to live in a world where whites are a minority and Christianity is not dominant.

Sample “Unshakeable Beliefs” for Schools

  Because of our freedom from government control, independent schools can be mission-driven and child-centered.

  Independent schools have the resources and freedom to innovate in the development and delivery of curriculum and to share that innovation for the betterment of the larger education community.

  Independent schools can make individualized decisions in the best interests of the child and can create diverse, supportive environments where children can thrive.

Sample “Unshakeable Beliefs” for Schools

  Independent schools can continue to survive, even in a tough economy, because of independent financial controls and our focus on high quality and on accountability to the families and communities we serve.

  Independent schools provide an ethos and culture that is values-oriented, one that will always attract and provide value to families.

  Independent schools have three sources of capital that have not even begun to be fully utilized: physical capital; intellectual capital; social capital.

“Inevitable Surprises” for Schools ���(cf Inevitable Surprises, Peter Schwartz)

  The face of the student population will change dramatically as varying fertility rates and immigration patterns define the school-age population.

  For private and public schools, demography is destiny.

  A “long boom” economically is no longer guaranteed for the US.

  The “end of retirement” will be upon us in a generation or two.

“Inevitable Surprises” for Schools ���(cf Inevitable Surprises, Peter Schwartz)

  New models of public and private schools, especially lower cost ones, will proliferate.

  Faculty salaries in the public and private sectors will continue to rise.

  High stakes testing will run its course, without the anticipated and hoped for effect of better-prepared and achieving students.

  Schools that successfully integrate technology to customize learning will rapidly outdistance their peer schools.

Eight Strategic Priorities for Schools

•  Affordability & Accessibility: Given that financing affordable schools that are accessible and diverse is an overarching challenge and that trends indicate continuing pressure on raising tuitions...Bentley should....

•  Recruiting, Retaining, Rewarding Talent: Given the demographics of an aging workforce near retirement, a generation in college now not attuned to teaching as a career, and concerns about recruitment, retention and competitive compensation of high quality faculty… Bentley should....

Eight Strategic Priorities for Schools

•  Advocacy & Marketing: Telling the Independent School Story: Given the increase of potential competition for the next generation of students, an increase that will require greater advocacy and marketing on behalf of independent schools… Bentley should....

•  Communications: Given the increasingly demanding nature of parents… Bentley should....

Eight Strategic Priorities for Schools

•  Governance: Given the higher level of partnership and vision required of boards and school leadership… Bentley should....

•  Accountability: Given the increased likelihood of media and governmental scrutiny, intrusion, and demands for public accountability… Bentley should....

Eight Strategic Priorities for Schools

•  Innovation & Change: Given the public’s identification between quality and innovation, its perception of independent schools as traditional rather than innovative, and the resistance to change found within independent schools… Bentley should....

•  The High Tech and Global Future: Given the imperative for schools to create a 21st C. curriculum so that students are prepared for a more technological and global future… Bentley should....

Technology as Accelerator (cf. Collin’s Good to Great)

Old Message New Message Driving Technology

Diversity is important

Diversity is here Access via Internet to heretofore inaccessible viewpoints, practices, cultures

We are child-centered

We are centered Knowledge not hierarchically achieved or delivered; bloggers challenging authority; meaning constucted

We have high standards (for our students)

No excuses: we have high standards for ourselves

Multiple means via technology of the delivery of professional development; enhanced electronic means for benchmarking & surveying

We communicate with parents

We interact with parents

Asynchronous 24/7 access to and communications with parents via email, networks, website, eBulletins

*Adapted from ISTL #61, Feb 2005, William E. DeLamater

Myers-Briggs & NAIS’s Z+2 Model ���I/E (introvert/extrovert); S/N (sensing/intuition); ���T/F (thinking/feeling); J/P (judging/perceiving)���

How do you make decisions?

How do you process info? S (Sensing): What problem are we trying to solve? What are the facts, details, frequency?

N (iNtuition): What are the patterns and theories for why this might be happening? How do we brainstorm solutions?

T (Thinking): What are the criteria by which we should make this decision? What is the logical way to address the problem?

F (Feeling): What is the impact on people? How can we deliver this info in the best way to get results?

6-Steps: Financially Sustainable Schools: High Stakes Planning

1.  Trend Analysis: What are the five- and 10-year trends?

2.  Ratio Analysis: How do your school's "dashboard indicators" benchmark against those of comparable schools?

3.  Financial Planning Assumptions: What are the basic assumptions your school makes about its position in the marketplace, mission imperatives, and expectations for the future?

6-Steps: Financially Sustainable Schools: High Stakes Planning

4.  Data Markers of School Success: How does your school measure success? What are the budget-related factors that function as "proxies" for success?

5.  Re-engineering Strategies: What are the "brutal facts" about your current financial position? Where are you vulnerable now or potentially in the future?

6.  Projecting Alternative and Preferred Financial Futures: What are the likely, possible, and preferred financial futures for your school, and what decisions will you have to make to achieve your objectives?

G2G Principle #1: Level Five Leadership

  Personal Humility + Professional Will –  sublimated egos, focused will: more like Lincoln &

Socrates than Patton or Caesar. The organization’s success is what drives the leader.

  Asks good questions

  Ambitious for the school and its people

  Shares Credit---Takes Responsibility

  Passes the Power—Diffused Decision Making (NB. NAIS’s Z- model of decision-making; The Wisdom of the Crowd: \the Pentagon’s electronic brainstorming; “dotmocracy” exercise for brainstorming)

G2G Principle #2: First Who…Then What

  Who’s on The Bus? –  Getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off

the bus and the right people in the right seats on the bus.

  Recruit…Train…Retain –  Knowing that the only brake on moving forward would

be the inability to attract and keep talent –  Everyone grows

G2G Principle #3: The Brutal Facts

  Honest Assessment—Unwavering Faith – Culture of openness that invites critiques from

all: frequent and healthy debate. – The Stockdale Paradox—having the faith that

you will prevail but disciplining yourself to face the brutish facts of current realities

  Debrief Success AND Failure – End each meeting with, “Where did we

succeed…and where did we fail?”

G2G Principle #4: Hedgehog Concept

  Truly great companies have a simple core concept that drives everything: – What can they be the best in the world at? – What drives our economic engine (and what

could accelerate that)? – What are we deeply passionate about?

(Need all three to be great.)

G2G Principle #5: Culture of Discipline

  Disciplined People, Thought, Action –  Environment of freedom circumscribed by a culture of

discipline. –  With disciplined people, you don’t need much hierarchy

or bureaucracy (since self-disciplined people don’t need to be managed).

–  With disciplined action, you don’t need many controls. –  Combining a culture of discipline with a spirit of

entrepreneurship creates success. –  Discipline is as much about saying “No” to temptations

that are not one’s core business as it is about saying “Yes.”

G2G Principle #6: Technology Accelerators

  Never use technology to introduce a transformation but rather to accelerate it. Technology is not the core concept but can drive it. – Baumol’s Disease: Schools “less efficient not

more” because of technology. – With some notable exceptions, most schools not

yet using technology to “accelerate” core business.