A Futurist Approach to Strategic Planning
Dreaming Big for GUS 2033
I never would have described myself as a dreamer (I tend to be fairly practical), but over my time at GUS, that has changed. When passionate teachers share an amazing idea they have for their class or you hear from a grateful parent how GUS has been a safe and nurturing place for their child to learn and grow, it is truly inspiring. Understanding the individual stories and experiences of all who make up the GUS community makes it easy to want to dream of ways to push GUS further. The strategic planning process is an opportunity for all of us to come together to find creative and innovative ways to push our school further, and to bring our vision - to empower a generation of young people to do better - to life. Grounded in our newly launched mission, vision, and values, I’m excited to partner with the Board of Trustees and the wider GUS community to do just that.
I was introduced to the book Imaginable by Jane McGonigal by another school leader and quickly became very interested in futurist thinking. Her premise is that you can teach your brain to imagine the unimaginable - or to envision the future before it arrives. Approaching strategic planning in this way gives us the ability to be bold and brave in shaping a plan that serves the future needs of our school. It also allows us, as my favorite Dream Big poem states, to believe that anything is possible. This is the mindset we need as we tackle planning for GUS 2033. When it comes to GUS and education, what will our children need?
“Thinking about the far-off future is more than an exercise in intellectual curiosity. It’s a practical skill that new research reveals has a direct neurological link to greater creativity, empathy, and optimism. In other words, futurist thinking gives you the ability to create change in your own life and the world around you, today.”
At the NAIS Annual Conference last year, the need to re-think traditional strategic planning was a hot topic, as outlined in this article. Educators are being encouraged to think like futurists, encouraging school leaders to focus on addressing a school’s needs, before exploring solutions. What I have loved about working at GUS is the way we have always been focused on what is best for students, what is most in line with our philosophy, and what furthers our mission and vision. As a result, our futurist thinking has always felt authentic and genuine.
Last year, we reimagined tuition at GUS, and the process was very similar to how we are now tackling strategic planning. We thought of what we wanted for our families and then we worked to find solutions. Today, we are doing the same by re-thinking transportation needs, community service and service learning, and academic support. We aren’t just thinking about how we have done it in the past, but considering, in an ideal world, what do our students need? Focusing on core values and institutional beliefs is at the center of our planning and we are excited and proud of the work that has been done and is still to come.
We relied heavily on the experience and support of the Gordon School as we created Family Individualized Tuition (FIT), and we will look again to other schools for inspiration during this planning process. What does innovation look like, feel like, and sound like in schools across the globe, and how can we find inspiration and motivation from the work of others? I found this article to be particularly fun and this work of dreaming and envisioning is, when it comes down to it, truly fun and uplifting. In so many ways, envisioning GUS of the future means celebrating that which is most important to us.
Now is the time to come together to do better for GUS! As a first step, those of us on the Long Range Planning Committee comprised of faculty, administrators, and trustees, and chaired by Jared Bartok, VP of the GUS Board of Trustees, invite you to participate in the strategic planing process either by attending a community session or completing this brief survey. Together, we will imagine a bright future for GUS.
It is an exciting time to trust and go forward. I hope you will join us!
Best,
