This was a great day, with the highlight being the debate. It was fun, and we all seemed to enjoy it, having a laugh and starting to really relax amongst each other.
DAY 2
"Strategy Risk and Other Stuff"
Strategic planning is a key technical skill
Risk is the flip side of opportunity.
How well is the school delivering on it's strategic vision?
How can we extract the potential within the school to optimize achievement within the strategic vision.
What constitutes a good strategy?
It needs to understand our current position, where we want to eventually be, and the pathways we want to go to get there.
What are the tests I need to apply to ensure that a strategy is a good one.
A clear purpose and rationale
A plan that has evaluated risk
Targets are measurable and achievable
Enables change and shapes practice
Responds to external environment ( threats and opportunities)
Timely- suits the needs of the organization at that point in time.
Is sustainable
A lot of current thinking about strategy has been derived from the military over time.
The are of contested markets has been the other significant influence on strategic thinking Professor Michael Porter is the guru.
Return on investment
If we are to make an investment in this strategy, what outcomes should we expect.
What resources do we need to put into this strategy? How will this effect other elements of our school. Are we better off to invest resources we have invested in one area and realign them to support the strategy?
Meeting needs
Is it truly responsive to the needs of the students in the school and emerging education expectations
Effective delivery
Does it shape learning processes to achieve best outcomes. This is the efficiency test
Unique positioning
Choosing where to invest to get the best outcomes
Trade offs
Deciding what not to do
Leverage fit
Linking everything a school does to achieve best practice and outcomes
System fit
Does it make a contribution to the system overall
Appreciating the impact of external influences
Porters five forces.......
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter_five_forces_analysis
- 1 Threat of new entrants? Will there be a new entrant into the market place. Could be a school that all of a sudden begins succeeding, a new VET provider such as SEDA etc.
- 2 Buyer power. How strong is the position of buyers? The students and the families choices in the area. How are we working with the parents ( our buyers) to get it all right.
- 3 Competitive rivalry - existing rivals doing well that are effecting our enrollments.
- 4 Threat of substitutes. How easy can what we do be substituted?
- 5 Threat of suppliers power, Government, feeder schools
Are we extracting the maximal potential from our strategic direction?
Success is a dynamic concept and should not remain static. As you reach success, you need to re define success and set the bar higher again and find new strategies to achieve that success.
Over time, a strategy matures and the potential gain from it is limited. This is when you need to look for a new strategy.
If success diminishes you are in decay and some dramatic strategies need to be implemented.
Professor Gary Hamel
How do we use innovation to spark success? Page 35 manual.
http://www.managementexchange.com/
Strategic Resources
The key strategic resource is your workforce. How you do your workforce planning is critical. Aligning it where you most need it to deliver on our strategy.
Your budget, cash, SRP, your buildings and grounds, intellectual property are resources.
Value Network
Local relationships with local business, tafe, your network ( primaries)
What advantage are we extracting from these relationships.
What makes a good vision statement
" building the next generation of community leaders" is a good example.
" one student at a time"
" everyone everyday"
- to set this statement, get the staff, students and parents to describe the school that they most want to attend and work in. The process you take people on is almost more important than the statement.
- Accessible language and clear to understand (not to clunky)
- Aspirational and that stretches the organization
- It outlines what we want to be, not what we do. A mission statement sits under a vision statement and it stipulates what we do ( AIP)
- instills curiosity
- has a sense of endurance. Lasts for a number of years.
- needs to be embedded into the culture of the environment
- it builds a picture
- it evokes emotion. A simple, powerful and evocative set of words that is written in the present tense.
Looking at the Strategic Plan
In leading responsibly does the strategic plan reflect quality thinking to push our thinking on the strategic choices we make in order to best position the school?
Risk
"Constant Vigilance"
When risk dominates your thinking you operate in a conformance model.
You need also to look at the opportunities to perform.
Risk. Opportunity
Fulcrum
This is a see saw, balancing act and you need to strike the right balance so that you are not too risk averse and missing opportunities, yet also mindful of the risks when pursuing opportunity.
A school needs to ensure effective risk management.
As a leader you need to be mindful of risks that may eventuate and be responsive when they do.
Are there procedures in place to ensure risk is eliminated, whilst opportunities are engaged and realized.
Risk management
There is a DEECD risk management framework.
Risks that are identified as high impact/ high likelihood require planning for, resourcing, evaluation, planning, well drilled responses.
Stakeholders need proactive communication and assurance to high impact/ likelihood risks.
On an annual basis, a risk assessment process needs to be done at the school to identify the risks most likely to occur and a plan of action to eliminate them.
A Balanced Scorecard
What gets measured, can also get managed
Are we delivering on our strategic goal?
- How do we appear to our community/ students/ parents/ feeder schools/ network? Enrollment data, student and parent opinion surveys
- How well are we doing the work to produce good outcomes? How effective are our processes internally? How effectively do our staff plan?
- Is there evidence of innovation, research and development? How well does our organization hang together and function? How well have we aligned our workforce with our vision? How effective is our information system functioning?
Lag time vs lead time
Financial measures are all lag time. They are reflections of what has happened. You need a blend of lag and lead time measures.
In a school you need to look at lag data ( opinion surveys, VCE, Naplan data) with lead time data such as formative assessment, changing demographics, to answer the questions provided on the balanced scorecard pp 55.
What are some lead measures we could use
- Financial
Feeder school numbers/ SFO details etc
Hire facility opportunities in the future
Network school fees and charges
Future funding initiatives DEECD
Region and DEECD budget papers
- Internal processes
- Learning and growth
Future PL needs of staff
Building teacher capacity
Workforce planning profile for future staff profile
- Clients
Out of catchment leakage- how many kids are traveling out of zone to attend school.
Workshop 2 preparation
1 coaching
2 complete strategic plan audit ready for peer assessment at next workshop
3 team climate survey
Pre reading
Pp 38 - 44 school governance kit
Making the partnership work DEECD
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