Most schools don’t struggle to dream big. They struggle to build a ladder tall enough to reach that dream.

There’s a quiet assumption in education strategy that aspiration is inherently good. That if your strategic plan is bold, future-focused, and energising, you're doing the job right.

But here's the uncomfortable truth: if your goals are too lofty and your resources too thin, you're not inspiring anyone - you're gaslighting your staff.

The trick is finding the Goldilocks Zone of strategy: ambitious enough to stretch, but not so overcooked that your community rolls their eyes.

As Roger Martin says, strategy is the space where possibility meets choice. It's a set of integrated decisions, not a motivational poster. And yet, the pressure on school leaders to set big, visionary goals has rarely been higher. Parents, boards, and regulators all want signs of ambition. But ambition without delivery is reputation without substance.

Strategy Is a Promise

Your school strategy is more than a list of objectives. It’s a promise. A declaration of the value you will deliver to your students, staff, and community.

Michael Porter reminds us that strategy is about delivering unique value in a defensible way. Schools are not businesses, but they do compete—for families, staff, attention, funding, and outcomes. A strategy that mirrors every other school’s aspirations (innovation, wellbeing, community, sustainability) without any clear point of difference risks becoming a generic, copy-paste affair.

Your aspirational goals are your public commitments. If you promise holistic development, what does that mean in daily classroom practice? If you aim to be a leader in student wellbeing, how do you define leadership in that domain? Who are you benchmarking against? How will a parent or a Year 8 student know if you've succeeded?

If your aspiration is the headline, your strategy is the full article. Without the detail, the promise remains hollow.

The Kernel of Good Strategy

Richard Rumelt—in Good Strategy, Bad Strategy—offers a helpful test: good strategy contains a "kernel" of three components:

1. Diagnosis: What is the core challenge we are trying to overcome?
2. Guiding Policy: What general approach will we take?
3. Coherent Actions: What specific steps will we follow?

Many school plans jump straight to goals without diagnosis. They assume we need to be more innovative, more student-centred, or more community-connected, without exploring why those things are currently lacking. Without this insight, schools are left with guiding policies that sound good but fail to address significant issues—and actions that do not address the core problems.

Aspiration without coherence is the hallmark of strategy theatre. And schools, full of goodwill and external scrutiny, are particularly vulnerable to this.

Raising the Bar? Build the Ladder

If strategy sets the bar, then execution builds the ladder. Ambition without infrastructure leads to frustration.

So, what does a credible ladder look like?

1. Capabilities

Do your team members have the skills and mindset to execute the strategy?

• Are teaching staff ready to adopt the pedagogical changes envisioned?
• Do your middle leaders have the leadership capacity to carry out the change?
• Are support staff included in the strategy, or left to react to it?

2. Resources

Do you have the time, money, tools, and partners to execute this project?

• Have budgets been aligned with strategic priorities?
• Are time allocations (especially for collaboration, planning, and review) sufficient?
• Is professional learning treated as a cost or an investment?

3. Systems

Are there established processes and mechanisms in place to support change?

• How will progress be tracked?
• Are feedback loops in place for early course correction?
• Is the executive team aligned around decision-making protocols?

4. Culture

Does the school culture support or sabotage the strategy?

• Is there psychological safety to trial and iterate?
• Do leaders model the behaviours the strategy demands?
• Is there permission to fail fast—or just fail quietly?

Jim Collins' "flywheel effect" is instructive here: success often comes from small wins that compound over time. In strategic terms, that means building momentum through reinforcing systems and behaviours, rather than waiting for a single, transformative leap.

How Far Is Too Far?

Every school wants to be seen as forward-thinking. But how do you know when ambition has tipped into fantasy?

A good rule of thumb: if no one on your team is privately worried, the strategy might be too safe. If no one is asking, "How on earth will we do this?", then you're likely playing in the comfort zone.

But the opposite is just as dangerous. If the staffroom buzz is full of quiet eyerolls, or parents raise eyebrows at yet another announcement with little visible change, the strategy has lost credibility.

Practical Questions for School Leaders

Before finalising your next strategic plan, ask:

1. What is the core promise this strategy makes to our students and families?
2. Can we articulate what success would look like in real terms?
3. Where are the most significant gaps between aspiration and infrastructure?
4. What capabilities will we need to grow—or acquire—to climb the ladder?
5. What are we choosing not to do, and is that choice transparent to all stakeholders?

Roger Martin argues that real strategy requires tough choices. Saying "yes" to everything is the same as saying "no" to clarity.

The Goldilocks Zone

So, what does "just right" look like?

• A strategy that stretches your team but doesn’t snap it.
• A plan that dares to define value for your customer (students, families, staff)—but is honest about what it will take to get there.
• An approach that links vision to daily decisions.

It doesn’t need to be flashy. It does need to be credible.

Final Word: A High Bar, A Real Ladder

Strategy isn’t about grand words. It’s about useful direction. It’s about making promises your community will remember, and your staff can deliver on.

So go ahead. Raise the bar. Stretch the vision. Be aspirational.

But only if you’re ready to build the ladder, rung by rung.