Meeting Number Three

Our second action planning meeting with the Senior Management Team was just six days after the first, and was only three hours versus the eight-hour retreat we had as our first meeting.

The purpose of this meeting was to finalize the BHAG categorization and begin to map strategies over time. While we did not create a workbook for this meeting as we did for the previous two, we created a facilitation guide that mapped out the different activities for the meeting along with the intended facilitator of each.

Discussion of Latest Goals & Strategies and Theory of Action

  • Purpose: Allow time for team members to read through and react to the latest goals and strategies and settle any lingering questions or issues.
  • Activity: Team members were given some time to review the goals & strategies document as well as the theory of action/conditions for success document. There was then a full group discussion during which questions and concerns were addressed, and some adjustments were made to the documents.

Mapping Strategies Over Time

  • Purpose: Determine the ideal sequencing of activities in order to best fulfill the school district's new mission.
  • Activity: The team broke into 4 groups, with each group discussing one of the new BHAG categories. Each group answered the following questions and taped strategies to flip chart paper corresponding to each timeframe (i.e., 1-2 years, 3-5 years, 6 years and beyond, and eliminate): 
  1. Which strategies are near-term and can be accomplished in the next 1-2 years?
  2. Which strategies are medium-term (3-5 years)?
  3. Which strategies are long-term (6 years and beyond)?
  4. Which strategies can be eliminated (if any)?

Each breakout group was then given about 10 minutes to report out on the timing they came up with for their BHAG. This was followed by a brief full group discussion, and the meeting was then closed.

BHAGs

Big Hairy Audacious Goals
A Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) is a strategic business statement similar to a vision statement which is created to focus an organization on a single medium-long term organization-wide goal which is audacious, likely to be externally questionable, but not internally regarded as impossible.
Wikipedia

BHAG