Planning with vision
Contents
If you fail to plan, you plan to fail
Framework for Success
A successful organization requires good planning. The Watson Wyatt Work study reports that when employees understand the vision and mission of their organization, there is a 29 % greater return as compared to other firms. An educational organization with specific and attainable goals that are annually measured ensures improvement in performance. Hence educational managers have to be trained to
- express the goals of their institution
- periodically evaluate the performance of the organization
- nurture personal growth aligned with institutional growth
An organization ought to feel the need for success. Employees need to visualise what their successful organization will look like. For this we need a firm vision.The next section leads you to framing a vision for your institution.
Creating A Vision Statement
A vision is a statement about what your organization wants to be. It should be in synchronization with all the thoughts of members of the organization. It should make them feel proud of their organization. A vision should stretch the organization’s capabilities and image of itself. It gives shape and direction to the organization’s future plans. In an educational setup it shapes the lives of the students and thus empowers the nation.
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Activity One:You as an educational leader have to help your team create a meaningful vision statement.Imagine that your school is celebrating fifty years of its existence.The newspapers are reporting the event. What sort of a report would you like to read. Write a gist of the same in about ten lines. Invite a few of your team members to share the same.Alternatively all reports can be displayed on a felt board. Activity Two: Imagine that you as team have all resources required to create an ideal school. What would your school look like? Portray your dream school through words, a picture or if you wish create an advertisement for a newspaper highlighting the features of your school.Display all creations.
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Now that you have done the activities mentioned above,
you have to form your own vision statement.
Pick, from the outputs of the activities,key words and phrases
that you think should describe your institution.
Before you formulate your vision statement,you might need to indulge in some reading.
| Read through this link: Writing a Vision Statement |
| Formulate a Vision Statement for your institution on the basis of your activities done previously and bearing in mind criteria for a good vision statement.Invite your team to consider the same and suggest modifications.Then elaborate on what you mean by the Vision Statement. This becomes your Mission statement.
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Display the finalized form of the Vision Statement or give a copy of the same to all team members.
Utilizing a Vision Statement
A Vision Statement is good enough only if it is translated into action. But before you do so, you need a plan of action. So let us spend some time formulating a plan of action.
| Review your Vision and Mission statements and write down various programmes you can carry out within your institution to actualise the vision. Have a mind map with different heads as academic programmes, cocurricular programmes, enrichment for staff, enrichment for parents, enrichment for students, community based action programmes and so on. Divide the team members into groups and draw a plan to give concrete shape to your plans. Bear in mind factors as time on hand, resources, priorities, requirements from the management or affiliating body of the institution(Board/University). You may create a Project Timeline Template and transfer the action steps, in time sequence, to the Project Timeline Template. For each step, indicate who will be responsible for doing it and when it will be done.
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See an example for a Project Timeline Template
