Strategic Planning.
An inclusive, focused process that produces a strategic roadmap your school can actually use.
Our Approach.
Strategic planning in schools has a complicated reputation. At its worst, it is an exhausting process that consumes enormous time and goodwill, produces a document that sits on a shelf, and leaves the community more skeptical of planning than when they started.
Washington Partners designs strategic planning processes that are different: inclusive enough to be meaningful, focused enough to produce clarity, and grounded enough in execution to result in real momentum.
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We work with your leadership team and board to design a process that reflects the needs, culture, and strategic moment of your school. Our approach integrates broad stakeholder input with the focused leadership thinking needed to make real choices—not a list of aspirations, but a clear set of priorities the school can actually pursue.
Strategic planning engagements typically include:
Organizational assessment and stakeholder input—from faculty, staff, students, families, board members, and alumni
Facilitated leadership and board retreats to develop strategic thinking and build alignment
Clarification of mission, vision, and values as a foundation for strategic direction
Identification and prioritization of two to four strategic priorities the school will pursue
Development of a clear, actionable strategic roadmap with defined goals and success indicators
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Many strategic planning consultants are skilled at gathering input and producing a document. What is harder—and more important—is helping a leadership team make real choices: to identify what the school will prioritize and what it will set aside. Washington Partners brings both the facilitation skill and the organizational experience needed to help leadership teams do exactly that.
Engaging the Board.
Strategic planning is one of the most important partnership opportunities between the Head of School and the Board of Directors. We work carefully to structure that relationship throughout the planning process—ensuring the board is meaningfully engaged, appropriately focused, and genuinely aligned with the direction that emerges.
“Tony Daloisio and his Washington Partners colleagues have provided invaluable support to me as a school leader and to the teams I’ve led at two independent schools.
From leadership coaching to improving team effectiveness to strategic planning and execution and change management, Washington Partners’ insights and counsel have enabled us to innovate and succeed in the face of the constant onslaught of challenges schools and school leaders face.”
Peter Becker, Head of School, Taft
