How do you improve your vision and mission with feedback from stakeholders?

The notion of measuring success solely through academic metrics is undergoing a profound shift, as educators recognize the need to foster a more connected, community-oriented approach. Traditionally, success in school administration has been measured by standardized test scores and academic achievements. However, these narrow metrics fail to capture the holistic impact administrators can have on their communities. By embracing a more inclusive approach, administrators can enrich the educational experience by opening the doors to community involvement, fostering partnerships, and creating a sense of ownership among stakeholders. Our goals aren’t SMART if they omit the communities we are to impact.

I often start with running an offsite, (virtual or in person), and sending prompts like "What do we want to achieve as an organization for our students?" ahead of time, so people have time to brainstorm. Then I facilitate a brainstorming session and take notes of all the ideas that come out of values, goals, and vision wording that resonate with the employees. You can then synthesize those into a vision, and a mission statement, with 3-4 clear values that everyone will agree to embody. Ensuring those values are defined and understood by everyone is important, for example "Communication" is too vague, but "Transparent top-down communication" would be better defined. Instead of "Be a Leader", it could be "Be an Inclusive Leader", and so on.

I'm not sure I agree with this. Having a clear and concise vision and mission statement essentially means that one person already made all the key decisions without really seeking input from anyone. What if instead we asked our communities, "What values should our students 'live out loud' as a result of their time here?" Another question might be, "What do you believe our school is for?" The answers we get are more useful before we develop any clear/concise vision/mission statements.

I disagree. If you first create a vision and mission statement and then ask for feedback, you are missing an opportunity for community ownership. You are starting with trying to "sell" your idea in search of buy-in. That is a low bar. Learn from community organizing approaches to elevate participation, seeking the thoughts of stakeholders so that they can be a part of the first draft vision and mission statement.

I ask the teams that interact the most with external stakeholders, students, prospective students, alumni, employer partners to share phrases and expectations that they've heard frequently in their conversations with those people, to ensure we're hearing their preferences and voices. Having a couple "personas" can also help with this exercise, to ensure you're considering all perspectives and being inclusive. You can then also share your rough draft mission statement with a couple trusted stakeholders and ask for their feedback on wording.

One thing I find helpful is to ask stakeholders to define the vision or mission from their perspective without looking at the website or other materials. That will sometimes reveal interesting differences in how constituencies see the institution. Similarly, you can ask, "In ten years, this school will . . . " and have people fill in the blank.

Unless, of course, our stakeholders are co-developing the vision/mission with us. If the process is inclusive, then the kind of feedback we're seeking changes into something more transformative.

When collecting feedback in a community forum, use large group facilitation approaches. Allow participants time to think and jot down their own responses first, then discuss with a partner and then two partner pairs join. This allows slower processors time to think and participate and gives a chance to test and refine ideas.

Keep the vision and mission visible in each report to the board. Use it as a framework for reporting or for school newsletters or updates. The vision should be memorable enough that everyone can repeat it.

Find a couples places where your mission and vision can be accessed by all, and bring it up when possible in organization-wide meetings. Be transparent about the changes, and how the mission will be used to guide things going forward. If the mission statement includes values, one good way to utilize that is keeping them visible, for example designing desktop wallpapers that have the values on them, or a Values Committee, or Values-based events etc.