The Future of School Strategy: A new method for Principals and Boards to plan for the unknown
A new method for Principals and Boards to plan for the unknown. Dr Amanda Bell AM, Advisor at Future Leadership, discusses trends-based futures planning for schools.
“As we progress through 2024, we are seeing shifts in the national mood that are impossible to ignore. Businesses and their boards face a rapidly changing economic, social and political landscape where a range of new macro trends are starting to emerge.”[1]
Just as the trends impacting a sector shift and change, grow and ebb, so too do the possible futures developing as a result. By employing an interrogation of possible futures, we create the opportunity for a school to develop a robust map of their preferred future.
The spectre of a looming strategic planning day is often a source of mixed feelings for principals and board chairs. Should the day hinge upon an up-date of progress on the existing strategy, a refresh of priorities, or has the existing plan run its course and a whole new blueprint is needed?
In fact, all of these options benefit from employing a futures focus to planning. One informed by sector trends and predicated on all participants having curious, aspirational and courageous mindsets. Utilising this methodology underpins a new way of approaching board planning days and can remove the principal’s and chair’s anxiety about setting an agenda that ensures a productive and creative use of everyone’s time in the best interests of the school.
Recently, Future Leadership was invited to facilitate a half day session for the board and senior leadership team of a large, multi-campus, high performing metropolitan school. The brief from the principal noted that the school enjoyed an engaged, high-functioning board with diverse skill sets and experience. While the engagement by the board was routinely one of trust and intelligent discussion, the principal sought to achieve an increased level of good questions to provoke new ideas for ambitious strategic outcomes.
At first, this seemed to be a tricky brief to address. To disrupt thinking too radically risks irrelevant rabbit holes and/or impossible pathways. To merely focus on questioning techniques could land heavily on the uninspiring side of “so what?”.
Future Leadership worked with the principal to devise a program that featured:
- a quick review of good governance hygiene factors;
- a provocation by sociologist and futures theorist, Dr Liam Mayo;
- a discussion around current trends in education;
- an activity based on actual events where better questioning techniques were investigated; and finally
- a themed group workshop that utilised the information and practices of the morning with a futures trend-based methodology to arrive at possible and preferred futures for the school.
“According to the SEC Newgate Mood of the Nation report, the overarching sentiment in the community is rising pessimism and distrust… The prevailing pessimism calls for a rethink of organisations’ strategic communications, based on a research-based approach…”[2]
Future Leadership utilised ground-breaking global research in futures thinking that employed a trends-based methodology to assist the school board and senior leadership team to practice positive and robust ways of improving their strategic thinking, planning and, importantly, questioning techniques for better results in school governance and strategic planning.
Sessions such as these are highly personalised to each school: the strategic maturity level of boards and senior management, and incorporating unique requirements to ensure success. We encourage any school principals and/or chairs seeking to take a trends-based futures-focused methodology to their approach for strategic planning to contact us via abell@futureleadership.global for a discussion on how we can assist your board and senior leadership team achieve a highly successful, targeted session.
[1] Brian Tyson, “Directors urged to implement megatrend strategies”, AICD Company Director, March 2024 Vol. 40 Issue 02
[2] Ibid
Just as the trends impacting a sector shift and change, grow and ebb, so too do the possible futures developing as a result. By employing an interrogation of possible futures, we create the opportunity for a school to develop a robust map of their preferred future.
If you would like to discuss a targeted session for your school please contact me to arrange a conversation.