Joseph M. Porto is superintendent of Avoca SD 37 in Wilmette, Illinois
When Jim Collins' book, Good to Great, was published in 2001, it quickly took the business world by storm. Soon, educators were clamoring to find connections that would also be relevant in the social sector.
Responding to this need, Collins issued a monograph in 2005 to accompany his book: "Good to Great and the Social Sectors." In the monograph, Collins was able to demonstrate that the six major tenets of Good to Great could be adapted for social sector institutions.
Many educators, myself included, found "Good to Great and the Social Sectors" lacked a bit of the specificity and punch of the first book. However, in spring 2007, while preplanning for Avoca SD 37's strategic planning process, it became clear that the power of the concepts revealed in both books could best be unleashed in the world of education through that process.
I was determined that the most effective means of moving Avoca from good to great was to meld the most time-tested components of the traditional strategic planning process with the basic tenets associated with moving organizations from good to great.
Basic tenets
In Good to Great, after first defining greatness in a company using a mathematical profit formula, Collins then determined the six characteristics that all great companies shared:
Good to Great and education
In his 2005 monograph, Collins states that all the Good to Great tenets are applicable in the social sector. However, the key difference lies in the definition and measurement of greatness. With no profits or stock returns to assess, greatness must be defined and measured in much more complex and diverse ways.
Collins presents a three-pronged matrix that could be useful to educators and others in this endeavor. Greatness in the social sector is a combination of superior performance, distinctive impact and lasting endurance.
Although he illustrated use of the matrix with a strong example from the Cleveland Orchestra, the correlations and relevance to his original tenets remained more difficult to grasp and implement for educators.
If clear connections are going to be made between strategic planning and the concepts in Good to Great, it is imperative that all committee members have a strong knowledge base on the topic. Well in advance of our first strategic planning session, all participants received a copy of Good to Great and were asked to read and keep the book. Then, in the first session, a concise overview of the basic tenets of the book was presented.
Each step in Avoca SD 37's planning process is described below, with its connection to Collins' work.
Recruit a representative committee
The first step is to recruit a committee of representatives from the following stakeholder groups: teachers, support staff, administrators, school board members, parents and non-parent community members. Unlike some strategic planning models, I recommend that the committee consists of no more than 25 members, as genuine consensus-building is difficult to attain with a larger group. This step makes certain that the right people are on your "strategic planning bus."
Revisit or create mission and beliefs
If the district already has a mission and beliefs statement, the committee will need to decide whether to keep it, tweak it or do a total rewrite. If this is the district's first strategic plan, the committee has the opportunity to build its new vision together.
Either way, the essential point is that the mission and beliefs become the district's "hedgehog concept" — according to Collins, the idea it is most passionate about and can be best at in the world. As such, the mission statement should be a concise, single sentence that describes what the district will do and accomplish.
To accompany the mission statement, there should be no more than five belief statements, which are clear indicators of the district's values and the principles upon which it makes it decisions.
To be a true "hedgehog concept," the mission and beliefs need to be unique, powerful and inventive. There is no place for the trite, familiar phrases seen in countless school district missions and beliefs.
In the Avoca process, these strategic planning clichés are strictly off-limits. If developed properly, the resulting mission statement and beliefs will become an innovative and powerful "hedgehog concept" to guide your future.
In many traditional strategic planning models, the creation of the mission and beliefs becomes an arduous task involving countless hours of word-smithing and debate. In the Avoca model, the whole committee begins this task and provides specific direction. However, a representative subcommittee then forms outside of the scheduled committee process to work on drafts that consolidate ideas generated by the whole group.
In this way, the time-consuming and sometimes frustrating work involved with creating the mission and beliefs does not derail the entire process.
Conduct data analysis
Now it's time to delve deeply into the district's current reality. In order to attain its mission and achieve greatness, a district must "confront the brutal facts" and be willing to build upon strengths and improve upon weaknesses.
The first source to review is the district's previous strategic plan or goals. It is crucial to identify what was successful and what remains to be completed.
Next, the data analysis should have many sources. I strongly advocate that a current reality (i.e., satisfaction) survey be developed and administered prior to the start of the strategic planning process. This survey should be given to staff, parents and, when appropriate, students and should seek their insights on curriculum, instruction, services, security, communication and a host of other relevant topics.
During the planning process, a complete analysis of the results will provide a rich source of data for the committee. Other critical data sources include achievement test score analyses, the results of focus group sessions with stakeholders, school/state report cards and any other sources that might be unique to the district.
Define "greatness"
This is the step that represents the furthest departure from traditional strategic planning and forges the closest link to the Collins' model. Now that the mission and beliefs are identified and the current reality thoroughly analyzed, planners focus on clearly defining what greatness will look like in their district and, specifically, how it will be measured.
The Collins' matrix from "Good to Great and the Social Sectors" serves as a valuable organizational tool, as committee members identify the desired indicators of "greatness" for their district and the means in which to measure results. Avoca SD 37 developed seven unique greatness indicators from the three main matrix categories. More importantly, specific descriptions of the indicators were written along with three to four innovative means in which to measure progress.
Identify the gap
In keeping with the Collins' principle of "confronting the brutal facts," a gap analysis must now be conducted. In this step, the district's analysis of its current reality is compared to the mission, beliefs and definition of greatness. The gap between the reality and the vision must be firmly identified and articulated. Once accomplished, the gap analysis becomes fertile territory for the development of general theme areas, which eventually lead to strategic goals and specific action plans.
Identify emerging themes
If the previous steps are completed properly, various themes and goals should naturally emerge. While one could skip directly to goal-setting, I advocate conducting the intermediary step of identifying broad theme areas first.
By identifying broader themes, planners may be able to better focus on other valued tenets of the Collins' model.
For instance, a theme of "recruitment and hiring practices" could assist the district in assuring that later goals address "first who, then what." A theme of "leadership development" could spawn goals for developing and supporting "Level 5 leadership."
Collins' "technology accelerators" may receive attention when goals are created for themes, such as "curriculum and instruction" or "educational technology." The chances of achieving greatness increase when several of the Collins' indicators become embedded in the emerging themes and subsequent goal-setting process.
Develop specific goal, timelines
This time-tested component of strategic planning — setting specific goals and timelines — remains the bedrock of the Avoca model, as well. The key concept at this phase is "connections."
It is critical that seamless connections are established among the mission, beliefs, definition of greatness, themes and goals. In the Avoca model, "connectedness" is stressed when each new step is begun. By the time the actual step of goal-setting is embarked upon, the connections are established, and the goals seem to write themselves.
Once goals are established, a three-year timeline for completion must be set. The committee should strive to avoid the normal inclination to place too many goals in the first year of the plan. While it is a natural desire to correct all problem areas and implement all new innovations as soon as possible, an imbalanced timeline will hinder and frustrate the teachers and administrators who will work diligently to complete the goals. Here, the key word is "balance." The goals across the three-year period should be relatively equitable in importance and scope.
Create action plans
After goals and timeline are developed, the formal work of the planning committee is completed. The task of turning goals into specific, targeted action plans must now be delegated to appropriate groups of administrators, teachers and other stakeholders. The people most closely responsible for implementing the goals must be intimately involved in the creation of action plans, which are the "how to" component of the process.
Before delegating the creation of action plans to various new stakeholder groups, it is critical that they, too, become familiar with the Good to Great model and all the steps previously taken in the process. In this way, vital connections will remain intact.
Also, it is in the action plans that "technology accelerators" and the "culture of discipline," two more of Collins' tenets, may become prominent and generate an impact.
An exciting synergy exists between traditional strategic planning and Collins' work in Good to Great. When the best features of both are melded together, a new, hybrid strategic planning model emerges to provide a tangible means of translating Collins' concepts into the social sector.
More importantly, the new model provides a blueprint to launch schools on the path toward greatness.
References
Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't, New York, New York, Harper Collins Publishers Inc., 2001
Jim Collins, "Good to Great and the Social Sectors: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great," 2005