51ÂÜÀò

My View

I was working with the Crescent School District, a small district on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, on a strategic plan, focusing on a critical first goal: teaching and learning. The stakes were high as this goal would set the tone for everything else.

So what was the challenge? The strategic planning team was split between two competing goal statements, and neither side was budging.

The district’s strategic planning committee, consisting of educators, community members, school board members and I, was trying to break the deadlock. Small-group discussions led nowhere. The debate dragged on, and I could feel frustration mounting. As the district’s consultant, I was starting to feel desperate. We were wordsmithing ourselves into a standstill.