1. (Workshop Title) Working Pack
Today’s date:
Your team:
Your name:
By completing this pack, you will generate all the components you need for an initial version of your strategic action plan.
Section
Explanation
Page
What could we do together?
Connect assets to define opportunities
Page 2
What should we do together?
Define priorities among opportunities
Page 3
Select an opportunity and define a successful outcome
Page 4
What will we do together?
Develop a "Pathfinder Project" with timeline and guideposts
Page 5
Draft an action plan
Page 6
What’s our 30/30?
Develop commitments to revise, learn and stay connected
Page 7
Wrap-up
Map your strategy on one page
Page 8

2. Strategic Doing Question 1: What could we do together?
Connect your assets together and define up to five opportunities for new collaborative efforts
Time guidance: 30 minutes
Outline up to 5 opportunities to integrate CTE and STEM. From your landscape inventory, identify the key assets that you are linking and leveraging.
What key assets does this opportunity link and leverage?
Example: establish a “makerspace”* in our school that could be used by both teachers and students who want to tinker.
Unused classroom, group of students who keep asking for 3D printers, new teacher who just came from NMSU and keeps talking about their cool makerspace.

3. Determine priorities among your opportunities
Strategic Doing Question 2: What should we do together?
Determine priorities among your opportunities
Time guidance: 20 minutes
The next step involves ranking your opportunities. The quickest and easiest way to do that involves assessing each opportunity along two dimensions:
Impact: how big an impact would the opportunity create if you were successful? All other things being equal, we would prefer to work on opportunities with a larger rather than a smaller, impact.
Implementation: how easy is the opportunity to accomplish? Again, all other factors being equal, it would be better to focus on opportunities that are easier to implement.
Taken together, these two factors help us identify the “big easy.”
Brief description
Potential impact: how big an impact would this opportunity have in integrating CTE and STEM? (1 = low impact; 5 = high impact)
Ease of implementation: how easy would it be to implement this opportunity? (1 = difficult; 5 = easy)
Total Score
Example: makerspace 2 4 6

4. Select one opportunity and define a successful outcome
Strategic Doing Question 2: What should we do together?
Select one opportunity and define a successful outcome
Time guidance: 30 minutes
What would success look like?
Example:
Our Successful Outcome: a makerspace with…
Success Characteristic 1: Interested students
# of students attending workshops run by university students
Success Characteristic 2: Engaged faculty
# of faculty signing up for workshops on how to integrate makerspace
Success Characteristic 3: Students with higher-level skills in STEM.
% of students scoring > ”proficient” on math and science assessments.
Our Successful Outcome:
How will you know if you’re successful? Hint: if you cannot figure out how to measure it, the idea is too vague to be useful.
Characteristic 1:
Measurement:
Characteristic 2:
Characteristic 3:

5. Identify a “Pathfinder Project” to move toward your chosen outcome
Strategic Doing Question 3: What will we do together?
Identify a “Pathfinder Project” to move toward your chosen outcome
Time guidance: 20 minutes
You have many places where you can start. To begin, pick one project that moves you toward your outcome and define it clearly with a handful of guideposts. In short, to move your ideas into action, you want to “run to daylight.” Note: Your project should not be the same as your outcome – it is the first step on the path toward that outcome.
Characteristics of a good starting project include:
Projects with small, easy first steps
Projects that can be accomplished by your core team
Projects that use assets over which you have control (you don’t need “permission”)
Projects with a relatively short time horizon ( days)
Projects that can excite other people and encourage them to become part of your expanding network
Our Pathfinder Project:
Example: Build buy-in/interest in makerspace
Guidepost 1: Identify makerspace to visit
Guidepost 2: Recruit faculty and administrators and go on “field trip”
Guidepost 3: Share experience in faculty meeting
August 1
September 1
October 1
Guidepost 1:
Guidepost 2:
Guidepost 3:

6. Draft an action plan for the next 30-60-90 days
Strategic Doing Question 3: What will we do together?
Draft an action plan for the next days
Time guidance: 20 minutes
An action plan sets out sets out who will do what by when. It outlines a set of transparent, simple commitments that accomplish three important elements in moving a new collaboration to action:
Distributing responsibility: an effective action plan distributes the responsibility for taking action evenly across the team. This improves the probability that something will get done.
“Proofing” team members: like proofing yeast to make sure it is still active, an action plan proofs team members to make sure they are all committed to moving forward.
Creating flexibility for inevitable adjustments: an action plan helps team members make adjustments when circumstances change. It makes it easier to remember, “Where were we?” when a lapse appears.
Action Step
Who is responsible?
By when?
Example: make list of makerspaces within 2-hour drive
Barbara
July 1
Meet with principal to share plan; ask her to join trip
Scott
August 1

7. Commit to a review and staying connected
Strategic Doing Question 4: What’s our 30/30?
Commit to a review and staying connected
Time guidance: 5 minutes
When teams get in sight of their destination, they often get careless and can fail to finish. To avoid this problem, the question “What’s our 30/30?” is designed to trigger a conversation about how the team will review its progress and make adjustments. It “closes the loop” to the strategy process.
Maintaining alignments and connections is a dynamic process requiring continuous (but not constant) attention. What’s been done in the last 30 days? What needs to happen in the next 30? Small amounts of time (1-2 hours per month) can be devoted to revising our strategy. The point is to come back together to share what we have learned, realign ourselves, and figure out our next steps.
30/30 Checklist
Who is responsible for circulating results from this workshop?
Our “knowledge keeper” is:
What are the details of the next in-person meeting?
Date and time:
Location:
Who will be responsible for ongoing “library” management (uploading materials to the Hub)?
Our “librarian” is:

8. Map your strategy Strategic Doing Wrap-up Date
Describe your outcome (page 4):
And how you’ll know if you succeed:
Characteristic 1:
Metric 1:
Characteristic 2:
Metric 2:
Characteristic 3:
Metric 3:
Strategic Doing Wrap-up
Map your strategy
Time guidance: 15 minutes
Describe your Pathfinder Project (page 5):
And its guideposts:
Date
Guidepost 1:
Guidepost 2:
Guidepost 3:
Outline your action plan (page 6):
Who
Does what?
Details of your 30/30 meeting (page 7):