Strategic Plan as Story

and Carla Silver

Once upon a time, there was a school and it wanted to evolve to meet the emerging needs of stakeholders in a contemporary context. It wanted to differentiate itself in a competitive market and share its unique qualities and mission with both current and prospective families. It also wanted to build community and co-create an exciting future for the school. And so it embarked on an adventure of discovery, inquiry, and exploration. The school traversed mountain tops, valleys, deserts and busy metropolises. It met new friends and reunited with old chums. It reflected and journaled about what was going on inside the school and it asked a lot of questions and sought to answer them. Through this journey it emerged with an exciting direction. And the school lived happily ever after.

Or something like that. . .

Every fall, schools across the country begin the process of strategic planning and Leadership+Design has the privilege of working with some of those schools on charting a future direction. One of the most common refrains we hear from school is that they don’t want their strategic plan to be a binder on a shelf, simply a detailed but uninspiring to-do list. They want a plan that is a living document and they want to be able to measure and quantify success. This is all well and good, but we wonder what it would be like if we framed strategic plans - both the process of creating as well as implementing the plan - as a story.

The most successful schools that we have worked with have leveraged their plans to tell a story of what the school is today and what it will be in the future. The very best of these plans inspire a community with that vision and engage people to become part of the story. We wanted to share three examples of schools that we have seen successfully use their plans (as well as the planning process itself) to tell a story.

Strategic Plan as a Story of Differentiation

The Steward School, Richmond, VA

We have been fortunate enough to work with The Steward School on not just one, but two, strategic planning cycles so we can definitely speak to how this story has, and will continue to unfold over a full decade. Steward is located in Richmond, VA in a competitive independent school market. Relative to the other schools in the area, Steward is a newer option, having just celebrated its 50th Anniversary. In a sea of historic schools with deep traditions, many of which are very big and also religiously affiliated, Steward used its strategic plan to tell the story of a different option for Richmond families.

Steward is a school that is not wedded to the past, but rather speaks more about the future. In fact, their recent strategic plan is entitled “Compass 2028, Inspire the Future''. Steward is clear that its distinguishing characteristics are its smaller size (700+ students), its non-sectarian affiliation, and its pursuit of modern knowledge and innovation. Its last strategic plan, Compass 2022, was essentially Volume I of a two part story. This was the tale of taking a good school and making it great by focusing on and leveraging those things that other schools in their market couldn’t claim, including a commitment to modern knowledge - systems thinking, design thinking and entrepreneurship - and on a smaller community that could design around inclusion. Compass 2022 concluded last year, not with a perfect resolution but more of a “to be continued” ending and teed up the new plan. Compass 2028 is poised to continue the story with mastery learning as a marker of excellence,, deepening the schools commitment to entrepreneurship, leadership and service in the community, leveraging technology - including AI - all the while attending to the humans in the community through balancing wellness and civil discourse and connection.

Head of School Dan Frank shared with us, “Our strategic planning has helped us to better understand our own story, to confidently predict and steer our community into our preferred future, and to uniquely position ourselves in the greater Richmond and Virginia ecosystem of schools.” Like a good story, this strategic plan has a point of view and a perspective. Steward’s story was very much about being an agile, modern and adaptive option for families This recent strategic plan told the story of what they believe education will need to look like in the next 10-20 years in order to prepare students for a very different world of college and work, and how they can move closer to that vision over the next five years. True to the title of the plan after this year of working with the school, we felt incredibly inspired by their future and by the incredible opportunities they were giving their students.

Strategic Plan as a Story of The Next 100 Years

The Orchard School, Indianapolis, IN

Few schools are able to say they have been around for 100 years, and in 2022, The Orchard School in Indianapolis, IN celebrated its centennial. What an amazing time to partner with Leadership + Design for its strategic plan, and one of the themes of the work was both the privilege and responsibility to think about the next 100 years. What will life be like in 2122? What type of school will not just survive the next 100 years, but thrive? For Orchard, situated in the middle of a state that produces 70% of the nation's food supply, the environment, the climate and how both the school as an institution and the students growing up in the school work and live in partnership with the environment became a central theme. What does it mean to go green? How can a school both teach and reflect a deep and curious commitment to investing in environmental science.

On our first visit to Orchard,we ran into a lineup of rain boots, and they were caked in mud. The story at Orchard is metaphorically captured by those boots. Orchard is looking at the next 100 years as an opportunity to build on its history and impact the future, and the story they are telling is best captured by the mud caked boots on students' feet. These future regenerative farmers, environmental scientists, business leaders are starting their journey in the mud, and this connection to the environment is what progressive, experiential education looks like. We all could use a little more mud on our boots if we are going to think critically and carefully about our planet.

Never Stop Telling the Story

The San Francisco School, CA

Like Steward, The San Francisco School has a long relationship with Leadership+Design, and we have worked with them on two strategic plans and one strategic plan extension, as they prepared for a head of school transition. At the completion of their strategic planning process five years ago, we had created a compelling set of initiatives for the near future. But we also had created what would be the story the then Head of School, Steve Morris, would tell for the next five years. Those five years turned out to be some of the most volatile and challenging times - for all of us in schools - and included a global pandemic, a racial reckoning, and a deeply unsettling election season and political context. But, the story of the strategic plan was never abandoned. It remained a north star for Steve and his team and he never missed an opportunity to talk about the plan with parents, faculty and staff, the board of trustees, and even students. At every school event and in every quarterly publication, he shared the latest installment of the story - what had they been working toward, what had been completed, what money had raised and what was coming up next. He admitted that at times, it felt like surely everyone had heard this story. Was it worth it to keep telling it? But yes, every year there are new families, new trustees, new faculty and staff, and they have to hear the story.

If you were a member of the SF School community during those five years, it was impossible NOT to know the story of the plan and the direction of the school. And even when conversations had to turn to other urgent matters, like masks, social distancing, and vaccinations, the story of the strategic plan beat steadily at the heart of the school. When Steve left in June after 15 years as the Head of School, the story began to wind down, and as one story closed, another story was poised to begin. But Steve would be the first to say, you can never stop telling the story.

Stories have beginnings and endings. They have morals and values. They have heroes, a call to action and obstacles to be conquered. They inspire because they are emotionally resonant and they are vibrant and alive. If you want a strategic plan that is more than just a glorified to-do list in a binder collecting dust, tell a story.