Cast your mind back to when you were first sitting in a secondary classroom.

We could explore earlier times, but if your memories of primary school are anything like mine, they might be a little too sketchy for this activity. So, we’ll draw from the well of times less distant.

As a high-school newbie, you were back at the bottom of the social pecking order. New teachers, classmates, routines and timetables, locker rooms and home economics were foreign at best… overwhelming at worst.

But it didn’t take long to settle into the humdrum and find your groove.

With that experience firmly held in your amygdala, like a treasured charm reminding you of better days, consider how different it is for today’s student entering high school for the first time.

If we’re honest, it’s probably not too dissimilar.

Classes led by a single teacher. The central focus is set on achieving a high grade to enable exploration of preferred tertiary options. The shape of the day is broken into multiple periods. Assessments. Homework. Co-curricular activities.

This format of educating our next generations hasn’t changed for more than 100 years. Sure, we’ve tinkered around the edges, but is it possible to name one cataclysmic change that’s moved education forward in that time?

(Note: ICT doesn’t count. It’s just a tool the system embraces.)

Some might argue whether it is even a desirable outcome. Do we want a cataclysmic change?

Over a century of automotive innovation has brought us from Ford’s Model T to Elon Musk’s Model S, and the difference between them is truly remarkable. Over the next 100 years, we’ll adopt autonomous vehicles, do away with fossil-fuel-powered cars, and innovate with flying machines.

Yet, it’s likely that education will look, smell, and feel the same as it did when Henry Ford’s son, Edsel, attended.

Maybe it’s time to be bold and fix school strategy.

Repairing School Strategy from Scratch

Adam Grant, in his book titled Originals, inspires us to see that original thinkers don’t simply accept the world as it is. Instead of asking how they fit into the existing system, they wonder what it would be like if we started designing the system from scratch. This perspective encourages us to think creatively and challenge the status quo.

As mentioned earlier, we’ve achieved some admirable tweaks.

100 years ago, student discipline looked far more macabre than it is today. Student and staff well-being is prioritised. There’s less teaching from the front and more focus on participation and collaboration.

Yet, essentially, the proverbial wheel has been discovered, and education continues to improve it rather than seek a different approach.

I’m not about to espouse how I think the system should change. While I work with Principals and Executive teams, I no longer take an influential seat at that table. There’s no skin in the game for me at a local level.

However, I do believe that a paradigm shift in education is coming – and it’s not 100 years away.

And those who have the foresight to pursue that shift will enjoy the rewards. Those who don’t may become the farriers of yesteryear.

So, I see my role as a facilitator. A single voice in the cosmic whirlwind that envelops schools and keeps their eyes focused on a new horizon.

However, I've also realised that while strategy consultants can provide valuable assistance, true strategy needs to be developed from within the organisation itself.

Developing Your Strategic Muscle

Strategy in schools is not at the forefront of educational leadership development. At best, it’s a side note. At worst, it's spruiked as an annual action plan. But the current system doesn’t require more than that, hence why changes in education move more slowly than a three-legged tortoise.

Where are the innovators? The pioneers of a brave new world in education.

Sadly, they’re busy.

They’re placating irate parents, entitled students, and managing staff who are keen to distance themselves from both.

But we need them. Society needs them. The need to drive change and flex their strategic muscle – the ones they’ve developed through engaging conversations with original thinkers, or by reading their books and journals while practising their new skills.

Roger Martin, in a recent article titled Fixing Strategy observes several conventions that require adoption by leaders and their teams. He refers to The Future of Strategy, and it’s no longer the domain of consultants.

Strategy is Performed by Managers

Leaders must become great at strategy – or be replaced by a leader who is.

Strategy is a skill that can be learned, developed, and mastered. It’s not an activity behest on some from birth or permitted to those with charismatic virtues. Becoming adept at strategy requires a disciplined focus and tenacity.

And it is here where I believe strategy consultants can set themselves apart. I, too, have been involved in schools that engaged a consultant to develop a strategic plan. And that’s where their involvement ended.

School leaders should demand more from their consultants to ensure the strategy remains sustainable. Essentially, consultants should provide a succession plan to replace themselves, empowering leaders to continue developing strategy long after the engagement ends.

Fixing Strategy Is Driven By Imagination

Albert Read, author of the acclaimed book The Imagination Muscle, challenges leaders to stop treating imagination as a luxury.

We applaud it in our children, but as they and we age, society instils a sense that the algorithmic mind is far more valuable. This kind of thinking can really hold us back from coming up with fresh, original ideas.

Read illustrates this beautifully based on Picasso’s foray into music, where he became “a beginner” in another field. Imagination feeds on unfamiliarity, and leaders should step outside their normal disciplines to strengthen their creative muscles.

Surprisingly, imagination is not encouraged in formal education – unless, of course, one is completing a music or fine arts degree. It is not cheered in leadership development, but it should be.

Guiding Strategy by Principles

Most schools, if not all, have developed a set of values that help them craft and nourish culture. These values can help leaders define their guiding principles - a notion espoused by the author of Good Strategy/Bad Strategy, Richard Rumelt.

These principles guide judgments when making strategic decisions.

As an example, the oft-adopted value of Respect might be reflected in your school’s heuristic: we value and accept everyone – until we don’t. When some fight against that value and seek to disrupt its cultural benefits, judgment must prevail, guided by it rather than held captive to it.

So, strategic principles define the guardrails, but the key word is that they’re used as a guide.

Fixing School Strategy Is Iterative

For the leader who prefers a set-and-forget solution, strategy will not fit in that box. Sure, we’ve been told it will, and often unscrupulous consultants will provide a report that sits on your shelf while charging exorbitantly for the privilege.

I’m still amazed when leaders ask me to develop a 5-year strategic plan and get upset when I suggest their schools are more likely to require something more agile.

Leaders who want to develop their strategic muscle should adopt an iterative approach. What’s true today is unlikely to be true tomorrow. Instead, ingrained feedback loops and review periods complement a 'permission-to-fail' perspective.

School leaders should view their strategy as an opportunity to learn and adapt.

Distributed Strategy Is the Secret Sauce

But it shouldn’t be secret, should it? Leaders often talk about being collaborative and empowering their staff – unless, of course, it involves strategy.

Many still adhere to the outdated view that strategy lives and breathes in the school’s leadership inner sanctum. It can’t and it shouldn’t.

Martin provides the illustration of a Matryoshka doll (incorrectly referred to as a Babushka doll). The largest doll provides the context, size and position for all other dolls nested inside. The next can’t be bigger than the first; it reinforces the first's shape and perspective.

This is a brilliant illustration, as it doesn’t diminish leadership’s responsibility to define strategic direction and vision. Instead, it highlights how each part will play in that arena.

Where Does the Next Change Come From?

It must come from school leaders.

Although strategy consultants might still influence how school leaders develop strategy, this process must go beyond just ticking boxes.

School leaders need to strengthen their strategic muscle, primarily by focusing on nurturing their imagination.

Looking back in 100 years, it would be heartbreaking if we saw that education hadn't changed much. It’s an exciting moment for brave leaders to step up, embrace their role, and work together to reshape school strategies for a brighter future.