069: Demystifying strategy

In this episode, I strip away the jargon surrounding strategy and discuss what it actually is at its core. I share five statements that I believe summarise a good strategy and share key questions that all effective strategies will answer. Discussions around strategy can often be confusing or overwhelming, the questions below should help you cut through the jargon and make your discussions more strategic.  There are five essential elements that I believe should be considered when developing a successful strategy. 1. It should take a long-term view, beyond the day to day tasks. 2. It should make tough choices about allocating scarce resources.3. The main challenges you face need to be addressed.4. It needs to be thoroughly developed and have a clear outcome.5. It should be implemented in everyday school life.These five essential elements and the key questions below should help to demystify and bring focus to your strategic plan. You can use these prompts to guide conversations surrounding strategy to ensure that all of the questions are able to be answered. References and Resources        Key questions How do these decisions position us for the longer term? Is this the right place for us to focus our scarce time and money, and also are there better alternatives that we could be using this time and money for?What is the problem we are trying to solve? What is the problem where this idea is the right solution?Have we spent an appropriate amount of time considering the evidence on this issue? How can we communicate this decision or strategy clearly to people?  How can we encourage people to take the right decisions themselves?Catch up on previous podcast episodes at www.consultjuliet.co.uk/podcast Download your copy of the free eBook ‘The Strategic Independent School Leader’ at www.consultjuliet.co.uk/ebookThank you so much for listening to The Independent School Podcast. I would be grateful if you could spare a couple of minutes to send me some feedback here. This helps me make the podcast as helpful as possible to listeners. Thank you!