Mimesis Is Where Strategies Go To Die

We often hear from those leading strategic planning processes at schools that they want the result to be bold and innovative. These board members and administrators accurately perceive that the challenges facing their schools require bold solutions--more of the same will not yield a different result. Why, then, are so many strategic plans distinctly not bold? Most strategies point toward incremental change or simply burnishing what already exists. Why, too, do so many plans sound alike with similar strategies and tactics?

The answer lies in two almost irresistible impulses that will befall strategy committees and governing boards sooner or later. The first is an impulse to crowd-source strategy-making, meaning that every interest group, from alums to administrators to faculty to parents, pushes to see itself reflected in the plan. This something-for-everyone approach invariably leads to (marginal) incrementalism rather than boldness. Anything else would be a bridge too far. Do you need to transform teaching and learning? Good luck once middle administrators and faculty get their fingers on the word-processing keys.

The second impulse is the most serious: the mimetic tendency of leaders and boards. Few, if any, school leaders want to be first movers; in fact, more than one has pointed out that the "bleeding edge" is called that for a reason. Whenever something genuinely bold comes up, someone invariably asks for an example of where it has been successful at another school. This mimetic tendency plus incrementalism is not a recipe for innovation!