Collaborative Planning

Posted: August 14th, 2013

Collaborative Planning

Name:

Institution:

Collaborative Planning

Introduction

Planning is the process through which the goals and objectives of an organization are outlined through a methodical analysis of the options available and the possible solutions that are available. Planning is carried out with the main aim of finding a course of action. Collaborative planning is a planning process that has been carried out through a collaborative team process. People work as a group or team and together they find solutions to an organization’s problems. Planning is an important process for any institution or organization. Through planning, an organization plots out a clear path forward. With a clear sense of direction, progress becomes much easier. All organizations need to have planning processes regularly.

The situation chosen was a collaborative planning process in a school. The situation will entail a high school struggling with the problem of increasingly poor performances. In this hypothetical situation, my role will be that of the school’s principal, and I will be chairing the collaborative planning meeting. The problem in the school is that performances have been worsening progressively every year. Various suggestions have been made regarding the problem. However, the most likely reasons are substance abuse, hyperactive social lives, prevalent use of social media and negative influences from the media in general. The objective of the meeting will be to formulate a plan that sees the students put more effort into their education.

Collaborative Planner

Goal: To formulate a plan that ensures that students put more effort into their education and raises the overall performance in the school

Evidence

The problem to be addressed at the meeting is the school’s progressively poor performances. The initial analysis holds that these performances are being brought about by substance abuse, hyperactive social lives, prevalent use of social media and negative influences from the media (Mozee, 2012). The aim of the meeting is to find a way to boost student performances and have students put more effort into their school. Three main parties will be involved in the meeting; teachers, parents and students. As opposed to having the entire student body at the meeting, students will have representatives sit at the meeting. This will also help protect the students who contribute from being ostracized by the rest of the student body.

As parties are invited to the meeting, they will be made aware of the agenda to be discussed. Teachers and parents will be assigned some work. The teachers will prepare information detailing the school’s performances over the past two years while the parents will be expected to come up with the possible reasons why the students are not doing well. This will help the meeting advance smoothly. As the meeting is beginning, parties will be informed of the mandated issues and the non-negotiable issues. The mandated issues include teacher performances and students’ social lives. These issues may be discussed in full but without the use of specific people as examples. The non-negotiable issues will be the reduction of student breaks and the increasing of student workloads. The goal will be achieved without reducing the free time that students have.

Parties will take time to review the information brought forward by the teachers so that they can have a better understanding of the school’s performance. This will make sure that all parties understand the gravity of the situation. Parents will also get a chance to share the opinions, particularly on what they think is causing the problem. The meeting can then be moved on to the main part where solutions are found to the problem. Solutions should cover all problems identified in the meeting even if it means dealing with them symptomatically. In addition, parties will work towards the formulation of a contingency plan (Collaborative planning toolkit, 2009). This is a plan that will be followed in the event that the first plan fails to be implemented to completion. The contingency plan will also have details on what will be done if any of the parties fails to fulfill their duties.

The final part of the meeting will iron out the details. First, the agreements will be counterchecked to make sure that everybody understands the issues that were covered. Every party will be expected to have a full understanding of the problem at hand, the agenda of the meeting, the factors causing the problem, the plan that has been set out to solve the problem and the contingency plan in place. Additionally, all parties should have a clear understanding of their role in the implementation plan. Finally, the parties in the meeting will also need to understand the importance of cooperation between all parties in order for the plan to work. It is vital that all parties work together because they all play crucial roles in the full implementation of the plan.