Unlocking the Secrets to Strategic Planning Success in Education

Dr. Jim: [: 00:00:00

This is typical of the process that many K through 12 district superintendents go through when they first start in the district. Now that you've actually built the plan, what happens once you've checked that box off? It's not unusual to see these plans go nowhere.

al High School District since: 2015

Public schools. Under his leadership, the district achieved key milestones through the vision 2020 strategic plan, including transitioning to one-on-one technology, launching the RV Prep alternative program, and enhancing safety and security practices. Dr. Haig is committed to fostering educational equity exemplified by initiating the district's current strategic plan, and he holds a bachelor's degree from Keen University, a master's from the College of New Jersey, and a doctorate from Rowan University.

Christopher, welcome to the show.

Christopher Heilig: Thank you, Dr. Jim. Welcome. Thank you.

Dr. Jim: Pumped to have you on here and as somebody who has a significant bias for action, which is why I typically tend to work in startup organizations.

ke you to share with us some [: 00:02:00

Christopher Heilig: I've been in education for a little over 30 years now, and ear early on as a teacher I think one of the, one of the best experiences that I had that developed my leadership skills was head coach. So I was involved in football and the sports of wrestling. And I was a head coach in, in, in the sport of wrestling.

And that was my opportunity early on as an early educator to in my eyes run a mini organization. I was in charge of that organization. I communicated with all parts of the big school district organization. And that's where I learned early that leadership was super important for our young adults.

into. Leadership educational [: 00:03:00

And, it was always the type of thing as a leader you're always looking to do more for your students. What can I do as a leader to, to be able to. To do the most for my students. So you continue to work your way up, up the ladder. Had an opportunity in the OPPE district in Burlington County, New Jersey to work into the central office.

That's where I started my doctoral work and wrote my dissertation. At that time and at that time I wanted to transition even to a greater role in education and transition to the superintendency which is what I've been doing for the last decade here at Ran Cocus Valley. So it was really early on those leadership.

Experiences that I had as a young teacher and a coach that really brought out the the skills that I developed and, but then also learn the importance of what good leadership in education really is all about.

kground and I appreciate you [: 00:04:00

All by yourself with nobody to help you when you're actually in a match. And the reason why I'm digging into that. Is, I'm curious how that influenced the lessons that you learned when it came to leading teams in education?

Christopher Heilig: Yeah, AB absolutely. A as a former wrestler and then, teaching that to my athletes as a teacher and a coach re wrestling is different, as you said. It's individual which really. Makes it difficult. So you're out there alone, it's individual and it's a team sport.

t hard work ethic, not to be [: 00:05:00

And that's one of the reasons that I really wanted to go into that after. After college after receiving my bachelor's. To relay that to other people as my coaches and teachers did for me.

So when you think about that experience as a, as a. Wrestling coach and as a wrestler one of my former coaches used to say, wrestling isn't life, but it's preparation for life. And I'm curious, when you are interacting with individual teachers within your district, what are the conversations that you're having with them that help them connect with the broader team so that they're not feeling like they're on an island by themselves?

th the new teachers. And one [: 00:06:00

Dr. Jim: However, you're never on an island. There aren't any decisions that you have to make. Totally on your own. It's always collegial and then, all you have to do is look into your department and your colleagues and reach out to your administrators.

You've been in the district for a while and when I look at tenured superintendents within districts. The shelf life, or at least with many of the districts that I've seen, is that you'll see a superintendent be in place for, three to five years.

Dr. Jim: And you've been in this district for about 10 years. So tell us a little bit about the dynamics of the district and some of those factors that you believe are the keys for your staying power within the district.

will tell you that when you [: 00:07:00

To the best of my ability. But what I wanted to do initially, this is a district that I'm in now that's been around for over 85 years. There, there's a long history with this district. And really what I wanted to do with this district was respect the past.

When I started in the district, I initiated an entry plan. And the entry plan was really talking to people, talking to every stakeholder that would talk to me, whether it's inside the district or the community. And I wanted to learn about the district. I was from the area within this county in southern New Jersey.

I think I earned the respect [: 00:08:00

All of the stakeholders and then particularly the community, because I wanted to listen to the history. I know that they were doing really good things historically. Now I wanted to really talk about, okay, this is a really good district. How do we make this a great district? Just to really reference Jim Collins' book, good To Great.

And that's the motto that I had. And I think that earned the respect of the people respecting their history, but also saying, let's do something great here. I.

Dr. Jim: So it's interesting that you describe the journey from going from good to great. And the reason why that sort of phrasing always catches my interest is that one of the challenges that can exist is that if you're already a. District that's performing well, you have the inertia of all of these people there that might be in the district saying, Hey, we're fine.

things that you did in those [: 00:09:00

Christopher Heilig: And one of the things that I said to them when we were talking about going from good to great, to use a, because of my athletic background I used a sports team analogy. There really isn't any team or organization that you would say, you know what? We're about as good as, as bad, as good as we can get.

There's always room for improvement and everybody knows that, and that kind of put in their mind okay, maybe a group that they were involved with somehow, some way, and they know that they need to improve. That's one of the things that I did was try to draw some of those analogies to say, all right, you've done some really good things here historically.

This is definitely a good district. Let's make it a great district. And I told them, I said, to be honest with you, I'm not ever sure if we're gonna call this a great district, because there's always room for improvement. So that's really the mindset that I set the stage with. And I would tell them, the story about, okay, this is what you've done, this is where we are out right now.

out there where we're making [: 00:10:00

Dr. Jim: So that makes sense. When I opened the show, I talked about building, staying power and building a bias for action when you're actually putting these strategic plans together. And I think before you do all of that, you need to get broad commitment from the people in the district that this is something that we all want to do. Tell me a little bit more about how you built that commitment to get to the next level. You went through this listening exercise. What did you learn from that, and how did you leverage that to build the case to that? Yeah, getting to the next level is something that we all need to be focused on.

I wanted to hear what's good [: 00:11:00

This is what the stakeholders, this is what the community says about this district, Francois Valley. And we talked about the things that we're good here. We talked about that data and we talked about some things that needed to improve so to gain that. That, that opportunity to improve with the school district and with the support of the Board of Education, my recommendation was a strategic plan from that point.

Because in, in my eyes, that's the only way to get this district to move in, in the right direction, which is good to great.

locks where moving that plan [: 00:12:00

Why does that happen?

Christopher Heilig: I think there are different models out there. And as I can see with our first strategic plan it was really successful in a short period of time. And looking back on that, I can say a couple of components. Number one was the community engagement. So my first phase was to go back to the community, engage all stakeholders from inside the school district and around the community.

We have five different communities that, that feed into this high school district. And we reached out to everybody. So starting with the community to simply say to them this is what, this is where the district is right now. And then asking them. What's good about Ran COAs Valley? What's good about the district?

people from that community, [: 00:13:00

Talking about from a parent. So I had two children that already went through the district, and I have one coming in. So they have years and years of experience with the district. And talking about teachers that have been here for decades and administrators that have been here for a long time, you're getting that valuable information from those people.

So that's the first part of it. When you're talking about the success of a strategic plan or lack thereof. Was, engage the community right away. If it comes from the community, then you're gonna have their support in the end. And then the second part of it, which is really important, I knew that from my training, with strategic planning and districts, was the fact that, when you get that first phase of the strategic plan done then there's this implementation phase and.

mentation phase those action [: 00:14:00

And that's the part that usually doesn't happen in school districts.

Dr. Jim: So I want to get into the details of the implementation and action plans in a second. But I'd like to expand in a couple of different areas. When I gather what you just said, one of the key steps that you took was making sure that the community was deeply engaged in getting feedback as part of the effort in building that first stage of that that strategic plan.

But the community only represents one. Pillar of your stakeholder pillars when you're building this the strategic plan. So what was your process for engaging the other pillars that go into that feedback loop that informs a well thought out strategic plan?

nts, and then you're talking [: 00:15:00

So we reached out to, the parents of the students. Obviously we reached out to alumni, we reached out to municipal figures. We have sending districts the. Feed their students and their K to eight students into our district. And we reached out to those teachers, those administrators. So when we talk about community engagement, that's what kind of rounds off all of your stakeholders.

And we brought all of them in together to. Because when you would do that separately, so in other words, if we did if we talked to just the board, just administration, just teachers, just students in silos, you're gonna get some different answers. But when you combine those groups to get that engagement, what's good, what's not so good?

What are our challenges and what do we need to improve? You're gonna get those an those true answers of, okay, this is direction that we need to go with these plans.

engagement that you've done. [: 00:16:00

What were the things that you did to get commitment to what was on paper?

Christopher Heilig: Yeah. And the strategic planning process, if it's done it's a natural way to continue to pull in more stakeholders. So we talked about community engagement, we talked about those different stakeholders that were involved in the very beginning. And then, once you collect that data then you're gonna bring it to.

A smaller group of community members. So full community once again. So now we collected all of that data. We funnel that down to what we call a steering committee. So the steering committee is really a mini representation of your district. So you're gonna talk about 35 to 40 people. That represents all of the stakeholders that I've mentioned, board members and teachers and students, and alumni and municipal figures.

the community to say, okay. [: 00:17:00

If I went to the 2300 I don't. I don't know. I wish they could, I don't know if they could oversight the mission. So that's what you talk about. When we start to get into with that steering committee, the development of the mission, which I think is really important. The core values, student-centered goals, and then there's something called strategies and all of that.

t be a group of words at all,: 2300

So [00:18:00] once that's approved with the board, now it's time for action. So now we take everything that came from community engagement to the steering committee, and now we're gonna start to pull in some more people. So with the four strategies in that first phase of the plan that. Really the fulfillment of those strategies fulfill the mission.

Dr. Jim: Now we take those strategies and we create action plans to fulfill those strategies. Once again, working backwards that fulfills those student-centered goals, the core values, and the mission. So that's the part that moves from words on a paper, words on a website, to the action that really has to be done.

Let's move this into motion. So a lot of the conversation that we've had so far has been at a fairly high level, and the issue that we're trying to solve for is taking something that's at the strategic level and moving it into execution.

perspective to implement and [: 00:19:00

Christopher Heilig: So as we discussed, this is that time period in a lot of districts where that strategic plan isn't implemented, and one of the reasons for that is, is now the enthusiasm goes away, so we had this super enthusiasm, okay, let's get all these community members, let's get all the internal stakeholders.

This is the direction of the district, and you. Are gonna be able to contribute to the district and the future of this district. So now you approve that and you have these words on a paper. You have your mission and you have your strategies. Now you have to revive that enthusiasm again, so like I said, it continues to build into different groups, pulling different groups into the involvement. So now. We have these strategies and what I do is take members of my administrative team and I'm gonna put them in charge of a strategy. What revives the enthusiasm at that point is, once again I'll create a sports and athletic analogy.

strategies. [: 00:20:00

So now there's some enthusiasm about. These administrators building their action teams, and now there's another group of people that's involved in this implementation. So you revive that enthusiasm and now that now they go back through with their groups, this is our strategy. How do we fulfill these strategies?

And then what action plans do we need to fulfill that? So there's an enthusiasm piece where it usually stops in many strategic plans, but then you revive that enthusiasm and you start to build your plans.

consistent. But I wanna dig [: 00:21:00

Christopher Heilig: So some of the things that at that point I wrote my dissertation on data-driven decision making. Data is a big piece all the way through, from the beginning of. Current data of your district all the way through community engagement, collecting that qualitative data, but then being able to present that.

egy. So in other words, that [: 00:22:00

That came originally from the community engagement from that, from those community members that they could see, okay, these are some things that we were talking about that f that fall under this strategy, and now we have to be able to build action plans to fulfill those. So I think at that point, one of the pieces is you have to go back to your data.

Now you're separating your data into those individual strategies, and then you show your. Team. Okay, this is what the people said. This is what the community said. These are the examples. These fall under our strategy that we're responsible for. Now let's get to work and let's build some action plans to be able to get this done.

And I always use that, when. In the end, no, no matter what it is, whether it's a, a one-to-one electronic initiative or a major referendum that we're able to accomplish. It's one of those things where I always go back and say, this is what the people said.

t natural funneling process, [: 00:23:00

I.

Dr. Jim: In a lot of ways what you're describing sounds similar to a work breakdown process or a burndown chart that you'll see in project management where you have these big pillars and then you're breaking it into individual discrete pieces and then assigning that out. I think one of the things that I'm wondering about is when you have those broken down into sets of tasks that get assigned out across functional groups or even individuals, how do you revisit progress to those tasks and make that embedded as part of your day-to-day month to month year to year cadence within the district so you don't lose sight of of where you're going and the progress that you've made.

plans, action plans allow a [: 00:24:00

And it can actually. Cross into education where you take your eye off the ball and that ball might be your strategic plan. So some of the things when we get, get to that level, the development of the action plan, so the action plan is simple but not so simple. So that's gonna be a result statement that has to do with your strategy to fulfill your strategy, but then all of the actions, action steps underneath that.

With those action steps is step number one. Who are the people that are responsible for that step? And then what is the date of completion? So that's what keeps your eye on the ball. We know that's gonna be reviewed. So now the next step with that to, to answer your question is. The action plans in the strategic plan are always gonna be part of your annual district goals.

ns one through five from the [: 00:25:00

Dr. Jim: One of the things that's gonna be helpful for us to wrap our heads around is. in a little bit more on the issue of momentum, like it's fine getting that enthusiasm on the front end when you're doing all the community engagement. It might be fine when you start launching the project or launching these initiatives and start to work on it, but a year goes by or two years goes by and people lose track of the reasoning behind why we're actually doing this in the first place. So what were the things that you did to make sure that you had sustained momentum over the course of the entire strategic [00:26:00] plan?

Christopher Heilig: Yeah, and a num number of things go into that. So once you get through that process and you have your action plans, which are very tangible, and that actually keeps some momentum as well because you're starting to see what are those results and what are we gonna get after we accomplish those.

So that enthusiasm can build from there. So now you have this plan. You have, maybe 10, 12, depending on what. What your strategic plan is, action plans to implement, come up with a schedule. It's one of those things where, you know, particularly with your leadership team you can actually outwork them if you don't have an implementation schedule.

So if I come out of this strategic plan and I have 20 action plans, we're not gonna do that in one year. We might not do that in three years. We might not do it in five years. So to map that out with them keeps them from getting burned out. So that you can map those out. So you say, okay, we have these 20 action plans.

d say, okay, you approve the [: 00:27:00

So every district has their annual goals that they wanna fulfill. One of the goals for me as a superintendent, will be the implementation of the strategic plan. So that embeds it into the annual, the annual work that we do from my perspective it'll drive me from month to month through the school year to work with my leadership team to work with this implementation phase, to implement those action plans because we need to report back to the board every single month.

I. And then by the end of the year, we need to show that we fulfilled our district goals, our annual goals, and then, what is that annual goal? It's really the implementation of the strategic plan. So that's really what kept it going for us. So through each stage where you hear often in school districts that, this strategic plan was on the shelf, we never saw it again, and.

really frustrating for those [: 00:28:00

Dr. Jim: No, that's really good insight and I think it speaks to a broader lesson. I think when you're looking at any organization or I believe when you're looking at. Any organization, if you're taking the time to gather information with the intent to do something, the worst thing that you can do is not do the thing that your information gathering uncovered.

And that's where a lot of a lot of frontline folks get disengaged, is that you go through this exercise of gathering the information and never do anything with it, or at least don't do enough with it. So that's real good. That's real good insight and I appreciate you sharing that. When.

are some of those key things [: 00:29:00

Christopher Heilig: Yeah. I think that's the key. So when you go through this process, so looking back at, last 10, 10 years for me, you start out with your entry plan and then you move through this process of strategic planning and you're letting your district, all of your stakeholder, particularly your board of education, this is the direction that you want to go.

And if they don't see that direction, if they don't see any results, any impact in the end. I think that's when superintendents have an early exit because there, there really, there were really no results that they were promised. So the impact for us was huge. We were able to, through, through that process.

And then once again. Keeping our eye on the ball, embedding that into our annual goals we were able to move the district and move the needle really fast. Within five years a couple of things that were from the strategic plan was the implementation of an alternative education.

Program that's thriving [: 00:30:00

Thankfully, because that happened in 2020, right? Right during the pandemic. So for all of our students and all of our staff members we're able to accomplish that. Among other things that the community said, different things like starting an education foundation reviving the alumni association that kind of died on the vine before I started.

And all of those things within five years. When people saw what we were doing and the big things were happening from the community a as you said, people will really get discouraged if they contributed by saying, as a community member or a stakeholder within, whether it's teacher, administrator, board member, this is what the district needs.

, but we're able to see some [: 00:31:00

I'd like you to stay, take a step back and we've had this entire conversation focused on the topic of. Bias for action, moving a strategic plan into accident. Into execution and deliverables. So when you think about that topic and you're advising other superintendents or district leaders who are sitting here listening to it, and they're struggling with putting things into action, what are the key elements that you would say they need to focus on to bridge the gap between a strategic plan that just sits on the wall to something that lives in the district at every level of the organization.

Christopher Heilig: So I think the bookends of the process, fir first thing is always involve the community members right from the beginning. So that they have that support. Board of education approval. You have their support. And then the other end would be that action planning phase.

anning phase and you connect [: 00:32:00

But connecting to those annual goals, I think those are the key pieces with the, this is what the community said they wanted. This is what the board approved because they agree. And then connecting that to your annual goals continues that, and you're gonna get results out of that.

Dr. Jim: If people wanna continue the conversation, what's the best way for them to get in touch with you?

Christopher Heilig: Yeah, the best way to, to get in touch with me is our website has all of the, a lot of the information that we talked about. That's rv rhs.com. And I'm also on LinkedIn, Chris, on LinkedIn.

the gap between strategy and [: 00:33:00

Wrap this up. I think one of the biggest things that happen where organizations get stalled when it comes to moving these strategic plans into action is that they don't take the time to break down pieces into bite-sized chunks and. That becomes an issue because if you don't take the effort to go ahead and do that, you're not mapping each of these things down to the individual job or task level, which creates the roadblocks that you encounter when you're talking about building sustained momentum.

And the other piece that I think is important in terms of calling it out is you build these strategic plans for three and five years, but if you never really. Break it down. And you never really embed that into a topic of conversation that occurs at regular intervals within your organization. If it's not a week to week, month to month discussion that happens, it's never gonna come to life.

t off into other things that [: 00:34:00

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