Reflection 3 _ Pioneering RCC-WBLS, The OLPS Story (Case Study #1)

EDM690D G71: Strategic Planning and Management

DLSU, Graduate Studies, DELM
Summer Term, 2015
Submitted by: Gina Sy-Luna

Submitted to: Dr. Onin Agoncillo

The strategy to school reform initiated by Sr. Felicitas of Our Lady of Peace School
(OLPS)

is

something

that

is

worth

emulating for me. The adversity she and

the

teachers

experienced

during

the

process of changing the past image of the

institution is nevertheless a proof that
planning is a disciplined effort that help
identifies

the

future

direction

of

an

institution and maps the way the direction will be reached.

Reading OLPS journey to success made me aware that as a leader if you want your
organization to be great, you must envision great plans for its status sustainability. However, I
would like to note also that mere planning has difference from what is strategic planning.
Luxton (2005) in her booklet entitled Strategic Planning in Higher Education differentiate those
two words. According to her, Planning demands preciseness and detail. An institution can
have a plan which outlines the best organization of time and personnel to reach institutional
objectives. This has value, but by itself does not necessarily include strategic thinking
Strategic thinking focuses on the larger picture, recognizes the external and internal factors
that impact on a campus, and identifies shifts of direction that better place the institution within

that larger picture. Peterson (1989), wrote that strategic planning is "aimed at total
concentration of the organization's resources on mutually predetermined measurable
outcomes." An effective plan, by this definition, encompasses an organization's entire
resources and purpose. It must be constructed deliberately and thoughtfully. Luxton,(2005)
also differentiate strategic planning from long-term planning. Long-term planning tends toward
making future plans and projections, based on history. Strategic planning is more concerned
with analysis of the environment in order to make choices for planning. I guess, Sr. Felicitas
combined strategic planning and long-term planning in her situation during that time. Strategic
because she was able to modify the school mission why it exists, what its purpose is, what it
now does. Her strategic thinking was evidently successful through the end result of the
process;
1. She clearly defined what she wanted the institution to become and articulated that vision
through an institutional direction. She identified the flaws and weaknesses of her institution (i.e.
decrease in enrolment, quality of education, teacher salary, and professional growth of the
teachers) and made the necessary resolution to fix them.
2. She made an evaluation and prioritizes things and issues that requires immediate plan of
action. According to the Foundation for Community Association Research (2014), evaluation
plays a very important role in strategic planning. In planning, the traditional steps like analyzing
strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT), competition, and available
resources are of significance.. They further guide the decision making on what and how to
plan.. As Rumelt notes, "If you fail to identify and analyze the obstacles, you don't have a
strategy. To illustrate what Rumelt meant, he further elaborated:

Probably the greatest example of bad strategy in schools is mistaking goals for
strategy. "We will be the school of choice in [name your city/market]." Or "We will
delight our community with innovative curricula." Or again, "We will work to
support the surrounding community." Or perhaps, "We will research ways to offer
increased benefits to our faculty and staff." Is there a point of leverage here? "A
strategy is like a lever that magnifies force." Yet, in the aforementioned examples,
it is clearly absent. They are not bad things, per se, yet they're not strategies;
rather, they are aspirational goals. An actual strategy might read, "We will
increase faculty and staff salaries by 10% within two years by increasing Annual
Giving by 5%, with the result of increased attraction and retention of faculty."
I guess what he meant by this statement is for us educational leaders to formulate a strategic
plan at its best when we see opportunities, challenges and the need for changes and not see
consider strategic planning as like a clockwork to be visited and fix every five or ten years. Sr.
Felicitas was able to unfolded strategies to solve the problem because she was able to identify
what needs to be fixed at that moment where change has to be done in her institution.
3. Sr Felicitas has the ability to respond thoughtfully, but

quickly, to new

challenges. She promptly met Dr. Morato to orient her

with his Whole Brain Learning System (WBLS) curriculum
thinking that this is the curriculum needed by her
school. I am certain that as 21 st educational leaders, we
should anticipate future trends. We must understand the difference

between

urgent and important, and know what to prioritize. We should also be wise to pay particular
attention to the things that will strengthen our curriculum and we must fully utilize the use of

instructional technologies so we can cope with the rapid change that is happening in the
environment. This is also to prepare our students on what is really happening in the real world
when they are ready for their work.
4. She constantly focuses on the plan with all constituent groups. She knew that she
cannot do the make shift of change alone and that she needed the help of the people involved
in the institution, especially the faculty members. It was very humble of her that she did not
assume what seem to be the problem was but she let the teachers recognized were lacking
when she asked them the questions, What is your dream for this school? and How can each
one contribute to achieve this? Right there, it was clear that she wont do it alone because her
subordinates perceived the problem also. We all know that school leaders make thousands of
decisions. I can strongly sense that her initiative became a success because she involved her
teachers in the execution of the planning and it helped build trust with and confidence in her
leadership. All school leaders must understand that when teachers are supported and
consulted, they typically enjoy their jobs which translate to better job performance. Increasing
their salary was a major factor she wins the cooperation of her teachers.
5. As a leader, Sr. Felicitas knew that she was accountable for her plans and actions. To
me, she showed true leadership because she was able to explain the rationale behind the
decisions she made including which factors she took into account- the students and the
teachers and how her decision will affect them.
6. Although the school has no enough funding, Sr. Felicitas was very visionary that she
was able to strategize resourcing plans to back her up to the path of her strategic directions.
Through critiquing of this case, I learned a lot about strategic planning. Now I know that
is more than an event. Its a process. Once Ive developed the plan, my work just begins. I

understand that if planning is a hard task, it is a more tedious work during the process of the
implementation of the plan since this is where Ill spend the bulk of my time and resources. To
have measurable goals are important so I can track and communicate my progress towards
my goals. But the most valuable principle I learned from this reflection is that a leader/planner
should not over-plan. Each plan has its time and place (Rumelt). You dont overdo it. I learned
that this is a mistake a lot of leaders commit when they plan. They often outline some goals
and mislabeled them strategies. Rumelt further noted educational leaders mistaking goals for
strategy - "many bad strategies are just statements of desire rather than plans for overcoming
obstacles." Educational leaders keep on adding details to the plan. Keep on revising and
updating the plan until planning becomes an endless exercise in just thinking about doing
something (Reh, 2014). By doing this, I agree with Reh that leaders never actually doing
anything. Like what Sr. Felictas did, after the implementation of the plan became successful,
she shared it to other institutions. As Sr. Felicitas stated, We did not consciously plan to
transform the school from this to that. In the process of doing that, we discovered one day that
we ourselves were transformed. The culture in the school also changed.
Mission does not equal strategy. This thing I should always remember.

References:
Peterson, David. (1989). Strategic Planning. ERIC Digest Series Number EA 41 ERIC
Identifier: ED312774 . ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational Management Eugene OR.
Luxton, Andrea (2005). Strategic Planning in Higher Education. General Conference
Department of Education
2014. Strategic Planning. The Foundation for Community Association Research. 6402
Arlington Blvd., Suite 500 Falls Church, VA 22042
Rumelt, Richard (2011). Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters.