Independent school boards face a distinct challenge: governing organizations where mission is clear but competitive advantage is not. This toolkit gives you the frameworks and diagnostic tools from the ISCA 2026 Keynote to ensure your strategic work creates real change—not just sophisticated brochures.
Most strategic plans fail not because leaders lack intelligence, but because strategy asks you to disappoint people. Adding is easier than choosing. Every school that tries to be everything to everyone delivers nothing distinctively to anyone.
Strategy is the disciplined set of choices about who you serve, what you offer, and how you deliver — and equally, who you don't serve, what you don't offer, and how you don't deliver. If your plan won't change how anyone spends their time next Tuesday, it isn't strategy.
The real constraint isn't methodology. It's courage. Boards that build institutional courage to make hard choices, stay with those choices, and measure honestly whether they're working — those are the boards that drive real change.
Strategy only exists if it changes at least one: Time, Money, People, or Decision-rights. If none of these change, it's still aspiration.
Culture shapes strategy more than strategy shapes culture. A structural solution can't fix a cultural problem.
Three states: optimize (systems stretched), invent and ready (systems stable), or need to invent but not ready. Match your ambition to your actual capacity.
The board sets direction — what to pursue. The head executes — how to deliver. When these blur, strategy stalls.
"Strategy is subtraction with conviction."
Ten Questions Every Board Should Answer Before Strategic Planning
Two structured worksheets — one for leadership teams and one for board members — designed to be completed independently before the strategic planning process begins. Together, they surface alignment gaps, readiness assessments, and the real questions your planning process needs to address.
Download the Diagnostic (PDF)Each version should be completed independently. Don't discuss responses with colleagues before submitting — the goal is to surface what individuals actually see, not what the group wants to hear.
Further Reading
The keynote ends. The real work doesn't have to.
Ongoing strategy insights for boards and school leaders.
Scan to subscribe
Or visit SubstackIf your board is preparing for strategic planning — or wondering why the last one didn't stick — let's talk about what a culture-first approach looks like for your school.
Get in Touchnishant@mehtacognition.com