What is it about planning anyway?

I have learned that the problem with planning has little to do with making a plan.  In fact, making a plan or "the" plan is actually both easy and simple to do.  There are critical processes to making a good, actionable plan.  These are well known.  Teetering on the obvious, there is and always will be room for process improvement in making a good plan.  However and I repeat, the biggest problem with planning is seldom the plan itself.

Rather, a plan is only as good as the implementation, monitoring, measuring, and adjusting or correcting processes that are essential to achieving the expected or desired output of the plan.  Wavering on being over critical, much of the failure associated with planning is directly influenced by the lack of awareness, understanding, and application of "systems thinking", "continuous improvement" and "process management" – terms are often thrown about as if “all” know “what” they are, “why” they are, and “how” to use them effectively and efficiently.

The problem – our problem is that the aforementioned three concepts and practices have to a certain degree been ill legitimized by those who “thought” they knew what they were especially to education.  Hmm … how many innovations have gone down this path?  Too many!

Education is for the most part absolutely terrible in how they approach planning as well as executing their plan.  Consider, most schools and school systems utilize a planning practice that literally works against the very outcomes they seek to achieve.  Educators have long practiced a "start and end" mindset.  Arguably, this is not their fault.  The entire American education system was structured around the agrarian calendar to ensure children would be able to assist in the summer months with the "harvest".  As a side note, less that 2% of the American population is actively working in agriculture.  

We all know that learning can only take place late August or early September to June, right?.  Sarcasm aside, this start up and shut down practice has heavily influenced how schools and school systems approach planning - year-to-year.   To suggest that planning must be more comprehensive, vertical as well as horizontal, and continuous is contrarian to most points of view and practice.

Putting the plan and its content aside, as I mentioned, the real problem with planning is not the plan.  Rather, it is the implementation, monitoring, measuring, and adjusting or correcting processes that are lacking.  Akin to the classroom teacher developing a lesson plan, it is the execution of the plan that matters.  The well-crafted lesson plan will have tangible, measurable learning outcomes.  The plan will articulate not only what the teacher will do (input) but also what the learner will learn (output).  If you prefer, substitute "cause" for input and "effect" for output for a better alignment to the teaching and learning process.  The point, we expect teachers to thoughtfully create meaningful teaching and learning plans every day.  We measure, judge if you will, their ability to implement or execute their plan daily.  Yet, most schools and school systems leaders don't employ the very concepts or constructs they expect from those they depend upon to improve student performance to their organizational growth and performance. 

Why?  A simple answer is we don't know "systems thinking", "continuous improvement" or "process management" well enough to drive the deep, enduring habits or practices to sustain individual as well as organizational performance improvement.  

In the weeks ahead, I will unpack each just enough to hopefully create a sense of curiosity as to how we can authentically achieve what our best hopes are for each learner in our schools.