Strategic Planning

Dear EARCOS School Heads:

We are in the process of putting together our strategic planning retreat. We will be working with Teresa Arpin, a Strategic Planning facilitator. As stated earlier, Ms. Arpin and I have worked together in the past at the school site and for NESA.
Currently, we have reserved our usual Spring Heads Meeting for this process. We will work with the EARCOS Board and all others who are interested in assisting with the future directions of EARCOS on April 20th through April 22nd of 2006, trying to complete the process for presentation at the Fall Administrators Conference in Bangkok. The Planning Team should be comprised of a sampling of members from the varied EARCOS constituencies. We are looking at a Planning Team from a minimum of 10 or as many as 30 individuals. This process will take 2.5 to 3 days. April 23 is currently scheduled for the EARCOS Bd. Meeting. However we are structured we/you will go through the following time frames and steps:

Click each stage title for quick reading:

STAGE ONE: VISIT FROM EXTERNAL FACILITATOR
STAGE TWO: EXTERNAL FACILITATOR WORKING WITH INTERNAL FACILITATORS
STAGE THREE: VISIT FROM EXTERNAL FACILITATOR IN CONCERT WITH INTERNAL FACILITATORS FOR UNVEILING AND PRESENTATION IN BANGKOK.
STAGE FOUR: UNVEILING OF PLAN TO GREATER EARCOS AUDIENCE AT THE ADMINISTRATORS’ CONFERENCE AND THEN TO ALL FACULTY IN EARCOS

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STAGE ONE: VISIT FROM EXTERNAL FACILITATOR

First, we will form a planning team reflecting the diversity of the EARCOS community. This group will develop the draft core values, mission, vision, objectives, strategies and a draft list of actions. This Core Planning group would be comprised of the EARCOS Board, Connie Buford, Linda and Robert Sills, and a representative group of EARCOS school heads up to approximately 30 members. A larger group offering greater EARCOS Community “buy-in” is preferable. This group would remain together through the unveiling process next fall. Linda and I along with Teresa (our facilitator) will work this summer to develop the Action Plans and the Metrics, all the while offering this information to the Core Planning Team in draft for comment. The Core Planning team will come together for the unveiling as we present a unified front regarding the future direction of EARCOS.

This initial Core Planning team will then disband and only the EARCOS Board and administration will monitor the implementation process. This smaller Core Planning group will continually be kept current and review the plan annually for the three to five year cycle of the Strategic Plan.

THE CORE PLANNING TEAM COMPOSITION:

We will enlist the current EARCOS Board, the A/OS representative, selected EARCOS Member representatives (to include a number of participants for Spring Heads Meeting-via self-selection [as much as possible] coupled with encouragement of attendance of others to achieve desired balance of representation. This would also include the Executive Director and Associate Director as planning team members; looking for a total of 10-30 members. This is the group that will do the initial work and the unveiling. It should be noted; this event with the larger Core Planning Team will only take place once for the generation of the original plan. Then there will be a brief review and analysis of the process and potential change of direction at the Spring and Fall Board Meeting.

The external facilitator will lead Core Planning Team for three days to develop core values and beliefs, and mission/vision statements, establish strategies and/or objective and culminate with some very basic actions to be further developed by the EARCOS administration.

The core values, mission/vision statements, and strategies and/or goals will then be passed through the original Core Planning Team in draft form for two to four months for comment/discussion via the email.

The Core Planning Team will charge the Executive Director and Associate Director and any other Board Member/s who are interested to work with Teresa Arpin during the summer to begin the process of developing action steps in order to achieve the EARCOS stated goals and plans discussed in stage II.

Lastly, it should be noted that this is a process and as such, will require a serious effort to keep the Planning Process on the “front burner”.

As we think about the size and make up of the initial Strategic Planning Core Planning Team, allow me to offer some key concepts:

1. The members of the Core Planning Team are selected to reflect the diversity present in EARCOS. We use the word "reflect" vs. "represent" very deliberately. As part of the protocols the team is asked, to not "represent" anyone, but to reflect their own thinking. Thus, you are not representing the schools of Japan or small schools, rather to think about the whole organization while representing yourself.

2. We attempt to build the "conflict" into the team. We'd like to see people with different perspectives "in" the conversation rather than second guessing the team later. This also makes for a more robust process and one that produces something that will be supported later.

3. We want team members to be seen as "leaders" in their sphere of influence, so that when the planning is done, the people on the Core Planning Team are listened to and seen as having reflected the interests of others like them.

4. Finally, we want all team members to be people who will put personal interests aside for the good of the whole organization. We call them "people of good will."

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STAGE TWO: EXTERNAL FACILITATOR WORKING WITH INTERNAL FACILITATORS

After the development of the core values, a mission/vision statement, and strategies and/or goals, along with rudimentary action steps, which have been circulated throughout the original Core Planning team, the next phase asks for a “relook” and then an adoption.

Concurrent with stage II is the formation of an Action Team to develop a set of action-steps and a timelines for completion of such actions. This would be carried out by the EARCOS Executive Director and Associate Director and other interested Board Members working with Teresa Arpin during the summer.

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STAGE THREE: VISIT FROM EXTERNAL FACILITATOR IN CONCERT WITH INTERNAL FACILITATORS FOR UNVEILING AND PRESENTATION IN BANGKOK.

Along with the specific action steps for EARCOS enhancement, metrics will be designed to determine levels of success.

After the development of the action plans the external facilitator will revisit EARCOS in Bangkok to view the process and insure that all fits together. The Action Plans and Metrics completed in the summer months will be discussed amended if necessary and ratified in a meeting in Bangkok before the Fall 2006 Administrators’ Conference where the EARCOS Board and as many of the initial Core Planning Team members as possible would meet before the annual EARCOS administrators conference for an unveiling at the conference itself.

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STAGE FOUR: UNVEILING OF PLAN TO GREATER EARCOS AUDIENCE AT THE ADMINISTRATORS’ CONFERENCE AND THEN TO ALL FACULTY IN EARCOS

The Strategic Plan will be shared for ratification with a large group meeting on the first or second day of the conference.

After ratification by the larger group, this information would be disseminated to all and posted on the EARCOS webpage


OUTLINE OF TASKS TO BE COMPLETED WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF EXTERNAL FACILITATOR

1. ORIENTATION OF THE Executive Director and Associate Director (Internal Coordinators) and additional ongoing services for objectives and measurement activities
This requires a series of conversations in order to fully orient the person who will take the lead on the internal coordination of the strategic planning activities. This is a modification of a three-day training held in the states. This information would be passed on to the CORE PLANNING TEAM as well. The deliverables for this step include the following:

A. Providing electronic copies of the Internal Coordinator Course Notebook as well as teaching visuals.
B. The necessary number of telephone conferences to ensure understanding of the strategic planning process, the preparation activities and the responsibilities of the Internal Coordinators, and others as deemed appropriate.
C. Ongoing coaching and support relative to the planning process.

2. DEVELOPMENT OF THE STRATEGIC PLAN
This step in the process requires a three-day retreat attended by the Core Planning Team. The deliverables for this step include the following:

A. Assistance with the preparation, which must be completed before the planning process can be undertaken.
B. A long-range, system-wide and consensus-based strategic plan draft consisting of core values, mission, strategic objectives, strategies and delimiters.

3. DEVELOPMENT OF THE MEASUREMENT TOOLS
The measurement process is focused on developing tools and methods for tracking progress toward the strategic objectives and ultimately the mission. The deliverables for this step include the following:

A. Training the Executive Director and Associate Executive Director in the process of designing rubrics that clearly describe the desired organizational behavior as expressed in the goals and objectives.
B. Facilitating the creation of measurement tools and/or instruments for goals and objectives.
C. Organizing and supporting Executive Director and Associate Director in the development of rubrics to identify organizational change.
D. Support the Internal Coordinators in the development of plans of action for implement.

4. DEVELOPMENT OF THE PLANS OF ACTION
The plans of action are short-term plans essential to achieving the strategies and eventually, the objectives and mission. The action plan development process is spread over several months, enabling the action plan development teams to conduct best practices research.

The deliverables for this step include the following:
A. Training Executive Director and Associate Director on the intricacies of the action planning process.
B. Providing all necessary materials and telephone support for this step.
C. Facilitating the meeting of Executive Director and Associate Director in the US at a time and date mutually convenient for both parties for the action planning.
D. Facilitating the 2nd planning meeting of the core planning team during which draft action plans are reviewed and feedback given by the core planning team to the action planning teams.
E. Offline support (via e-mail and telephone) to the internal coordinator and action planning team leaders during the action plan development process.

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