When a new superintendent arrives, the conversation often turns quickly to developing a strategic plan. These plans are launched with great promise—sometimes even fanfare—but too often, they fail to deliver on their transformative potential.
“In most cases, strategic plans are not transformational,” says Richard Lemons, Executive Director of Partners for Educational Leadership. “They’re a tool, and they can be used well—or not at all. Too often, tons of energy goes into creating the plan, and the moment it’s finished, the energy dissipates.”
Strategic planning isn’t just about producing a glossy document. It’s about surfacing assumptions, clarifying priorities, and crafting a resource that supports a district’s ongoing improvement efforts.
Planning as a Verb, Not a Noun
The real power of strategic planning is about the verb, not the noun. It’s the process of pausing to think intentionally about the future, clarifying choices, and deciding where to invest resources and energy.
Kelly Lyman, Staff Associate, Partners for Educational Leadership
As Lemons puts it: “We’d be better off in our marriages if we spent as much time planning the marriage as we do the wedding. The same holds true here—what matters is spending some time considering how you will use the plan to guide improvement, not just creating a polished document.”
Senior PEL Consultant Kelly Lyman, who has led strategic planning processes, echoes this: “Strategic planning only matters if it leads to action. That requires designing systems, routines, and feedback loops that connect the plan to classroom practice. Otherwise, the plan lives in a binder or on a website, disconnected from the daily work of teaching and learning.”
Plans as Approximations, Not Predictions
A good plan doesn’t serve as a step-by-step manual. Instead, it identifies a small set of priorities that provide direction while leaving room for adjustment.
In reality, good planning can exist without a formal plan, and having a plan doesn’t guarantee good planning. Plans are best understood as approximations—our best thinking at a given moment. The pandemic reminded us how quickly unforeseen events can cause circumstances to shift and old plans to become obsolete.
What matters most is that the process encourages intentionality, deliberateness, adaptability, and a shared commitment to improvement.
A Natural Extension of Partners’ Work
Partners has supported school system leaders with strategy since its founding. Coaching has served as the grounding orientation to Partners’ capacity-building efforts. The fundamental coaching questions that guide leadership development—Where are you now? Where are you trying to go? What strategies will get you there? What are the ways your strategies will likely not work? How will you know?—are the same questions that underpin a strong strategic planning process.
As Lemons explains: “We don’t just draft a document. We act as thought partners. We listen deeply. We ask hard questions. And we stay alongside district leaders as they navigate the complex work of aligning strategy with everyday practice.”
At the End of the Day
The real work of a strategic plan lies in implementation. When leaders commit to the process, trust deepens, priorities remain focused, and the capacity for strategic thinking grows throughout the system.
A district’s strategy isn’t about the plan. It’s about the people—their clarity, their commitment, and their capacity to continuously improve in service of students.
