Facilitation Services
Bill Cook and The Cambridge Group, Inc. have, during the past 30 years, facilitated
strategic planning processes for more than 800 educational systems, including
school districts, state and national organizations. Using their exclusive process
and discipline, The Cambridge facilitators ensure the development of a plan that
is:
- Fully participatory: capitalizes on the necessary reciprocity between
- Strategic and operational accountability/authority.
- Based on total-gain decision making: no one suffers loss.
- Student-focused: all decisions made in the best interest of the students.
- Guaranteed implementable: supported by a long-term resource plan.
- Results-based: immediately translatable into school and department plans.
Generally accepted as the premier planning firm, Cambridge guarantees each
district a unique, localized plan that exceeds the expectations of all involved.
Although both the process and discipline are always tailored to the organization’s
existing circumstances and conditions, the basic design, outlined here, is
summarized in the following text.
Strategic Thinking
Basic Awareness Session
This session is an ideal way to introduce your district to Strategic Planning. We
explore and explain the urgent necessity of change, basic planning philosophies, the
process and discipline of Strategic Planning, and the most effective method of
implementation. This session may be conducted in either a two hour or half-day format.
Typically, there are two presentations in a district: one for all administrators and/or
teachers; another for the board.
Systems Capacity and Design
No system can realize its strategic plan with the organization that develops
the plan. Therefore, this session is intended to provide an understanding of the full
implications of Strategic Planning. The subjects include a historical overview of the
development of contemporary organizational theories and practices, a critical assessment
of current ideas of “management” and “leadership;” and the examination of obsolescence
of existing systems and exploration of the creation of new systems through the four
dimensions of organization. This five-hour session is conducted strictly as an awareness
seminar. It is critical that the whole board be involved in this discussion.
Strategic Planning
First Planning Session
The Planning Team consists of 25 to 30 people who collectively reflect all the
values and perspectives of the district. The team is made up of board members,
administrators, teachers, other staff, community members, parents, and students. After
collecting data regarding the organization’s distinctive characteristics, the Planning
Team is sequestered for three days to begin the actual planning process. During this
meeting, all the following components of the plan are developed in draft form:
Beliefs A statement that is a formal expression of the organization’s
(community’s) fundamental values: its ethical code, its overriding convictions, its
inviolate commitments.
Mission A statement that is a clear and concise expression of the district’s
identity, purpose, and the means of action.
Strategic Parameters Limitations the organization places upon itself. They
are things the organization either will never do or will always do. The intent is
concentration of effort on the mission and objectives.
Objectives The planning organization’s commitment to achieve specific,
measurable end results in terms of student success, achievement and/or performance.
Strategies The most important part of the planning discipline. In
particular, the articulation of bold initiatives through which the organization will
deploy its resources toward the stated mission and objectives.
In addition, the team conducts extensive analyses of:
- Internal Factors A thorough, unbiased, tripartite examination of the
organization: strengths, weaknesses, and a critique of the organizational design.
- External Factors An examination of those forces which an organization
has little or no control, such as social, political, economic, demographic,
technological, or educational trends.
- Competition Any other organization providing the same service in
the marketplace.
- Critical Issues Threats and opportunities redefined strategically.
Action Plan Development
After the draft plan is reviewed with all publics, a facilitator begins working
on-site, directing and assisting Action Teams as they develop Action Plans which will
implement the strategies. Each strategy is assigned to an Action Team made up of a
cross section of people who are affected by and involved in the strategy. The
development of Action Plans usually takes 3-4 months.
Second Planning Session
After the Action Plans and Cost/Benefit Analyses have been developed, the Planning
Team meets for the Second Planning Session. During these two days, the action plans
most likely to implement the strategies are selected. The total plan is reviewed,
and the final plan is prepared for presentation to the Board, via the Superintendent,
for approval.
Periodic Updates
In order to ensure that Strategic Planning is a continuing process of creation,
a Strategic Planning team is assembled periodically (usually on an annual basis) to
review progress, re-examine internal and external factors, revise any portion of the
plan, and incorporate new or updated objectives and strategies, or delete those
accomplished or no longer relevant.
Preparation of Final Draft (with resource allocation plan)
Working with the facilitator(s), the chief executive officer will develop a phased
schedule for moving the plans to action and will prepare a five-year projection of
both costs and savings associated with every plan. Existing programs and activities
outside the plan will be abandoned and resources will be reallocated to new action
plans.
Board Approval
The chief executive will submit the final draft of the Strategic Plan along with
the schedule of action to the board for approval. The board has complete
discretion in accepting or rejecting any part of the plan. Typically, if it represents
broad professional and community agreement and support, it is approved in its
entirety.
Strategic Action
The strategic plan provides a completely new context for everything within the
system. Therefore, it is necessary to bring all action into that context. The
facilitator (instructor) conducts sessions with all administrators (two days per
group) and key personnel to develop a practical understanding of strategic intent,
the dimensions of whole-context organization, and the kinds of action.
Strategic Organization
Since a strategic plan cannot be realized with the organization that developed
it, every aspect of the system must be aligned with the strategic intent. The
facilitator (instructor) will direct sessions during which all administrators and key
personnel (three-days per group) establish an understanding of the dynamics of
whole-context organization, develop actual mutual expectations and commitments by all
participants, and discover constant emergence of organization.
Organization becomes much more than a hierarchical chart, reflecting a corporate
model. It, rather, becomes a dynamic process of relationships and action with its
formation constantly evolving.
School (Site) Planning
In order to guarantee that the strategic plan is realized, it must be translated
into individual school plans. The facilitator (instructor) conducts sessions (three
days) to train a school planning facilitator, along with the principals and selected
central office administrators, in the process and discipline of school planning
in a strategic context. The school facilitators then, working with the district
internal facilitator (coordinator) for strategic planning, will facilitate the planning
process for their own school.
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