Crafting a solid strategic plan

flickr cc zenera

Strategic planning actually makes some people excited!

Others, however, find something else to do.


The key to a usable, practical, inspiring strategic plan is to have the final product resonate with both kinds of people. 


  
1.  Be clear about what a strategic plan is BEFORE you begin.
Not every plan is a strategic plan. A strategic plan is a tool or map to fulfill your mission with efficiency and impact. If it is to be responsive and useful, it should articulate specific priorities and describe the strategies and resources needed to accomplish them. Commonly, most strategic plans are reviewed and rewritten every three to five years.

"Because it is impossible to do everything that needs to be done in this world, strategic planning implies that some organizational decisions and actions are more important than others - and that much of the strategy lies in making the tough decisions about what is most important to achieving organizational success." Carol Munro (friend and colleague - www.carolmunro.com)

Don't confuse a strategic plan with an operating plan. This is a coordinated set of tasks for carrying out the goals of the strategic plan (usually a 9 or 12 month timeline). The operating plan is the who, what, where, when kind of information to help people hit the ground running. Very important... but created after the strategic plan!


2.  Consider a realistic time frame in which to create the plan.
A day just won't cut it. If the next 3 to 5 years really matter to your team, invest more than a day in designing how to make the best use of your efforts. Here are a few of the reasons why a one-day, isolated attempt is not effective.
a) people are absolutely exhausted after 6 hours of serious thinking, planning and dialogue, by the end of the day any big decisions will be compromised.
b) some people need time to process - often making great connections and innovations when they allow their brains to percolate with information.  Rushing a group process will deny you the gifts of these kinds of thinkers.
c) it is highly unlikely that you will capture all the necessary perspectives in one day. Consider breaking the process down into a few steps which encourage and allow people to have a voice in different ways.

At the same time, don't drag a strategic planning process out too long. People will lose enthusiasm and momentum.



3.  Take ownership of the process and the plan.
If a team hires a consultant (or in our case consultants) to facilitate a strategic planning process, avoid the trap of transferring too much responsibility to them. It is the team... the participants... the USERS of the plan that require a vested interest in crafting a strategic plan that holds meaning. The consultant can provide invaluable assistance in designing a planning process, involving key stakeholders, listening with an objective perspective, and synthesizing key issues that arise out of an often messy, creative process. But you're not hiring a consultant to do the actual planning or make the tough decisions - that's your job!


Have some fun with this...why not!?!?
We've shared some ways to add some laughter and team building to strategic planning efforts in previous blog posts; The Right Brain Approach,  Tips for Group Toys, and the Strengths Compass Activity.
We're on the lookout for more ideas too!

What was the most fun/inspired/creative strategic planning activity you have been involved in?

Your project is over...now what? Where will that next step lead? What direction to take?

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. ~Lao Tzu~

You’ve just invested a boat load of energy into a meaningful project and you’ve evaluated the learning (see last week’s blog). Yes, the project is over. Now what? Where will that next step lead?

In the case of the North Island College ECCE “Community through the Eyes of Children” project the coordinators (Alanna Miller and Theresa Gereluk) immediately wanted to explore the potential in the next steps.

Here are some of the things we noticed from observing their process.

When exploring next steps consider...

1) The learning (in this case, learn from previous projects and participant/coordinator feedback)
2) The research (in this case inspired by Reggio Emilia and Emergent Curriculum)
3) The themes that emerged (how to nurture children’s CREATIVITY popped)
4) The potential next directions (they decided on - “Creativity through the Eyes of Children”)
5) The ways to re-ignite the vision and celebrate the previous project success! Give updates too!

This was done by gathering the participant centres’ to explore how the new direction might strengthen and align with their work and build off of the previous project. They listened to people’s thoughts and reactions and further developed the direction as they went. Picture a dialogue rich evening focused on “What does CREATIVITY mean to you?” complete with hands on interaction (goop and overhead projector painting – we are talking about creativity here). Total experiential learning.

It seems from our Raising the Village observation lens, that the next steps continued to reveal themselves in the act of doing. They came both in having a plan with directions and goals AND in the openness to see what would emerge.

Village Raising Questions:
What do you consider when taking next steps?
What does creativity mean to you? What does this add to your work and life?

(p.s. The “Creativity through the Eyes of Children” project continues. Interested in more details? Contact Alanna or Theresa via North Island College http://www.nic.bc.ca/ ).

Land the Luscious Learning

Land the Luscious Learning ... with reflection and evaluation of your Project.

In last week’s blog we learned from children through their illustrations and views on community. This week we invite you to the land of luscious learning from a different lens... that of project reflection and evaluation.

We created a learning journal full of questions for the coordinators of the “Community Through the Eyes of Children” project and were enriched by the succulent gems of wisdom that they expressed. We have not included their responses here, but have included some of the questions so that you can take the time to land YOUR own learning around any project that currently has your attention.

Reflect on the objective:

How would you describe the purpose and objective of the project?
On a scale of #1-5, was the objective received? Describe.

Reflect on the process:
What got done? How did it get done?
Did the objectives and priorities remain the same through the process? If yes, how did you stay focused? If not, what emerged to change them?
Who was involved? (place a star beside the name of any person or organization that was a surprise contributor/participant)

Reflect on:What communication, resources and activities were needed to make this happen?

Reflect on accomplishments:What do you want to celebrate? What went well?
What were the most valuable parts of the project?

Reflect on learning and name any challenges:
What challenges, if any, arose? How did you handle these challenges? What have you learned?

If an organizational partner or colleague wanted to do a similar project, what advice would you give them?

Reflect on impact. Build on what you’ve created:
Where do you think the time and energies should be focused if this project was repeated?
If you could expand on this project in a “secret wish” kind of way...what would happen?
What impact did you notice (add detail for all participant and target groups)?

Often projects take a great deal of time, energy and resources. Once you are finished you may feel like taking a breather and letting it all go. Perhaps do that for a time... then come back to tap into the wisdom you hold. This will provide you with reflection, completion, possible next steps and a format to articulate the process to others.

So...what project have you been a part of that could use some luscious learning?

Village Raising Questions:
How will you tap into the learning of a project?

What different approaches might you take to capture coordinators learning from participants learning?

When your project is complete...what questions still arise?

Through the eyes of our children - part 2

Alanna beamed as she told us how a grandmother, unknown to her, stopped her in the hall of the local community centre and asked with obvious awe, "Have you seen the displays from the children?"

For two weeks, wildly creative displays transformed the public library, the community centre and City Hall. The art and writing was much more than a celebration of what children are capable of accomplishing - they were powerful, visual displays of the voices of children - their perspective about what community means to them.

“If we allowed children to show us what they can do rather that merely accepting what they usually do, I feel certain we would be in for some grand surprises.”   Mem Fox

Sixteen child care programs participated in a comprehensive Reggio Emilia inspired project - supported by early childhood care and education instructors Alanna Miller and Theresa Gereluk. Children (from toddlers to 12 years old) led their care providers along a unique and collaborative learning journey to express their thoughts about "community." Most centres took children on walking field trips to see what they noticed, what they were interested in and what was important to them. From there, the children's educational odyssey emerged as they asked questions, explored certain areas and expressed themselves through play and art.

In this small, resource dependent city some common themes seemed to emerge; trucks, fishing and the steam train. How the children depicted these things shed light on how these elements affect their lives.

 

Issues such as housing, the built environment, community identity and "village" relationships emerged into stories, 3-D objects made from recyclables and even rice krispie squares!

Children expressed important aspects of their lives. "I live at Mom's house, it's too long to walk. On bus we go to Ahousaht, its too long to walk. We go on a boat past Nanaimo." Delylah

In one situation, the caregivers noticed how more in-tuned with community events the children were. For example, on a walk the conversation led to discussing a recent apartment fire tragedy.  The children came up with the idea to stop at the grocery store to get food for the families who were now out of their homes. Social responsibility requires being connected to one's community.

Children became incredibly enthusiastic about their ideas being listened to and their ideas taking shape into displays for the whole community to see. This interactive aquarium stood outside the Mayor's office beckoning City staff to take a peak at the stories that the children told about the environments they highly value.

What are the issues that children in your community would highlight?

How can we increase opportunities for a child to actively shaping his or her own learning?

How can we, as adults, apply what we hear from children to community planning and policy making?

Through the eyes of our children - part 1

How does a child's perspective change the way we see community?

Let us take you to Italy, 1945 - the second world war has finally released its grip of oppression. Reggio Emilia is a town in the north where the people sought to recover from the physical and psychological destruction caused by the war. One of the first areas of reform was the creation of schools, physically built and run by the parents and teachers in the community. Local workers, farmers and the Union of Italian Women gathered their strengths to build unique learning environments for their young children. Loris Malaguzzi, a local teacher who worked together with these courageous and insightful women and men to build these early schools, is considered to be the founder of the early childhood approach.  He writes;



A simple, liberating thought came to our aid, namely that things about children and for children are only learned from children.  (Loris Malaguzzi, 1993).

Children are seen as protagonists, collaborators, and communicators.
Teachers are guides and partners.
The environment acts as the third teacher.
By following the lead of the child, learning is grounded in strengths and honours the rights of children.

So what do you imagine happens when children (not in Italy, nor in a "reggio" learning setting) were involved in conversations focused on what they noticed about their community?  What was the result of their expression of "their" community through words and art? What was it that WE learned from seeing our community through the eyes of our children?

What do you think?  Write your comments!

The project that we will highlight over the next few weeks is the brain child of Alanna Miller and Theresa Gereluk, two early childhood education & care college instructors. Along with their phenomenal group of students and a community of willing child care centres, they set about to follow the lead and learn from their children... and boy did we!

photo by ianimmortal available under a Creative Commons Attribution license

Everyday Items Yield Extraordinary Dialogue

The intention of dialogue is to reach new understanding and, in doing so, to form a totally new basis from which to think and act. William Isaacs. *


And often this level of dialogue can be reached by using everyday items that shake regular routines and thought patterns up!

For example, what could you do with...

• Stones


• Straws


• String

...to promote dialogue and multi person perspective sharing?

Over our years of facilitating groups we have used all of the above items (and many more) to craft and host a variety of team experiences filled with extraordinary dialogue that leads to collective action and learning.

Stones : pass around stones to a group as a check-in or check out. Whoever holds the stone has uninterrupted time to share their thoughts and ideas.

Straws : work together to build collective straw towers - debrief and land the learning by asking the group... How were decisions made? What did people notice about the role they played in the building? What kind of dialogue took place? How might this apply to the work they do together?

String or rope: toss a ball of string around the room until everyone holds a piece and has had their say. We have also used rope in activities like this one: http://www.teambuildingportal.com/games/rope-knots-game

There is no end to the things you can do. Challenge yourself and grab a random everyday object right now. Take a moment to brainstorm all the ways you could use that item to foster extraordinary dialogue.

Village Raising Questions:
What makes extraordinary dialogue?
What everyday item will you use in your next group meet?

We know you have good activity ideas - so please share them with us and others! Post your activity idea on our Raising the Village Facebook page. The post that gets the most "LIKES" between February 14 and Feb 22nd will be highlighted in one of our books and as a bonus, recieve a free copy when it is released!











* Note: William Isaacs quote from his book: A Pioneering Approach to Communicating in Business and in Life – dialogue and the art of thinking together.

Take ANY Data & Make Sense of it in 4 Village Raising Steps!

Is your group spinning data circles?


Chasing your research tail?


Getting no-where statistically fast?


Time to change that up! We’ve been there and we’ve found ways to move beyond.



Maybe you have a slew of information resulting from an interactive group dialogue session (like a world cafe) or the latest socio-economic statistics or EDI results for your community or a focus group report. Take ANY of these sources (or even better take all of these) and put your data into informed meaningful action.


Follow these 4 Village Raising Steps:


Step One: Gathering
This is the process of “becoming” aware. Consider your data’s origin. What information will help give you a well rounded (or multi dimensional) view of the issue at hand? Consider more than one source of information and many perspectives. This step will increase individual and collective awareness and might include things like focus groups, interviews, stories, and statistics. This is an optimum time to learn together and increase awareness.



Step Two: Sorting and Making Meaning
This is the time to chunk up complex data and simplify what you have gathered in Step One. Here you discover and seek clarity that leads to priorities and a shared understanding.


Step 3: Generating Ideas

You have gathered information and made meaning form it.  Now is the time to switch thinking to generative and innovative possibilities.

Step 4: Making Decisions
This is the process of moving forward with action. Here your group sets goals and visions and commits to them. Make collective decisions that are rich and full and informed. The discovery of group strengths feeds the sustainability of the action.

That’s it. Really. Truly. These 4 steps can provide you with the outline needed for your meaning making journey. Now, of course, you are likely wondering about the HOW behind these steps. Just you wait...we are almost there. Our “GO-TO Action Guides” are shaping up and will cover these very steps in detail. Soon Village Raisers, soon. In the meantime, stop spinning data circles and look at your data using the 4 steps above. Let us know what emerges.