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Writer's pictureDavid Brake

How one Ohio School District used a Time Machine to Develop Their 2030 Strategic Plan

Imagine being able to travel into the future and see your school district in the year 2030. That's exactly what the West Clermont School District in Ohio did when they built a Time Machine to take them there.



A futuristic image of schools

Traveling Through Time via the RoadMap Report


At the heart of West Clermont's time-traveling adventure is their RoadMap Report, an aspirational vision brought to life, showcasing what their 2030 Strategic Plan could produce by showing what their students and the school community would look like in 2030.


Key Segments of the RoadMap Report:


  • Superintendent's Message from 2030. Setting the tone with a twist–a forward-looking perspective based on a look back to 2024

  • Celebratory Sections. Highlighting achievements and milestones from 2024–the foundation they built the future on

  • Challenges and Realities. Addressing obstacles and current realities faced in 2024

  • Community Engagement Stories. Demonstrating collaborative problem-solving and support from stakeholders

  • 2030 Strategic Plan. The blueprint for success

  • How Are We Different in 2030? Aspirational stories of future impact

  • We Did It Together. Acknowledging community efforts and a culture of collaboration


West Clermont Road Map Report by The Grandview Group

You can click here to see West Clermont’s actual RoadMap Report, but before you do, you might want to consider how you can build your own time machine for your school district.


Building Your Own Time Machine


To build your own time machine you’ll need to master the art and science of stories and the process of strategic engagement. Not only are these key components in your time machine, but they can help you develop and validate your strategic plan. Keep this in mind: your time machine isn't about predicting the future; it's about creating the future you want to see. 



Two Kinds of Stories


a graphic image of the brain
  1. Stories you tell about yourself are essential for these reasons:


    • Stories shape how others see you.

    • Stories persuade; they can move people to action.

    • The human brain is hardwired to remember and respond to good stories.

    • Good stories can trigger the release of Oxytocin, a hormone associated with TRUST.

    • Certain kinds of stories cause the brain to release excess dopamine, making it easier to remember the details of a story with greater accuracy.

    • Stories make up 65% of all human communication; we have an instinctive ability to hear and process information through stories.


  2. Stakeholder stories are “data points” that give you insights into the feelings, motivations, and sentiments of your stakeholders. Your collected stakeholder stories can reveal patterns and community sentiment, attitudes, and behavior that can be used in the following ways:


    • To inform your strategic decisions

    • To predict the likely success of new programs, policies, or practices

    • To better understand the perspectives and motivations of your stakeholders



Strategic Community Engagement


Effective Community Engagement is not a check-the-box strategy. Rather, it is a process whereby you are collecting and associating information from different data collection activities. Using a mapping tool to diagram the process and aligning questions/responses is a best practice. Essentially, you are developing your surveys, focus group discussion guides, and town hall activities knowing what information can be cross tabulated and what data can be shared and used by stakeholders in subsequent activities. For example, some of the response data from a School Safety & Wellness Survey might be used as part of a tabletop activity during a town hall meeting.


The process of engaging your stakeholders in these activities can also create stronger relationships with them and build or enhance a culture of collaboration in your district.



  1. Surveys: Every survey should be thematically linked to other surveys you have done or plan to do. Surveys should also master the art and science of follow-up questions that can capture sentiment, mood, bias, preference, and intent. 

  2. Focus Groups: There is no substitute for talking to people, hearing the inflections in their voices and observing their body language. The key to getting the most out of focus groups is to design an effective Discussion Guide and to use a neutral moderator.

  3. Town Hall Meetings. Town hall meetings are ubiquitous to political campaigns and many government (including school district) community engagement plans. Imagine, however, turning these events into interactive sessions where participants work in small groups using table-top exercises to ideate and innovate, to be participants in the solutions rather than captive listeners.

  4. One-on-one Interviews. A conversation in the parking lot or at the football game can be very valuable, but it doesn’t match the value of a carefully designed Interview Guide that allows you to quantify and qualify what you hear across a group of people being interviewed. In one sense, these interviews combine elements of a good survey with the benefits of an effective focus group.

  5. Story Curation. If you subscribe to the stories as data points philosophy, you can create special opportunities to curate stakeholder stories, even to the point of teaching or guiding stakeholders in how to tell their stories.



How Can We Help You?


The Grandview Group specializes in Stakeholder Engagement using a variety of complimentary techniques, including storytelling. Whether you are launching new products and programs or trying to create a collaborative culture of inclusive, democratic involvement, we can help.


Reach out and tell us what you aspire to achieve, and we’ll be happy to recommend a program that can work for you.



ABOUT THE AUTHOR


David Brake is the founder and CEO of The Grandview Group, a consulting firm that helps organizations engage their stakeholders and elevate impact. We would love to talk with you about how your organization is engaging stakeholders and elevating impact.


David Brake. founder and CEO of The Grandview Group









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