Many of our clients spend a little time at the outset of a strategic planning process reflecting on their past plan. It is healthy and reflective to remind an organization where they have been, what priorities they recently set for themselves, and how they fared in accomplishing them. And, to be honest, it also is a good homework exercises to get people grounded on the work at hand. It is hard to think about the future without an understanding of the past.

That reflection phase is always helpful and typically bears some fruit of understanding. But, undoubtedly, a few on the client team will make an obvious observation about the last strategic plan: it did not prepare them for what major cultural and environmental shifts occurred in the past five years. And, that is a valuable lesson to learn early in a planning process.

From my view, the past five years had three major themes with significant impact:

Identity - Individual identity, and the rights associated with it, entered in a new era in the past five years. This includes all of the basic and foundational elements of identity, from race, ethnicity, and gender. We are in a time of redefining identities and the role of the individual within that context.
Tribalism - The further fracturing and division of culture and society has accelerated tribalism, where people gravitate only to their groups. The includes geographic migration where people move to other regions, social and news media consumption where people only engage with channels that affirm their beliefs, and clubs and organizations that share values. The net effect is a cultural “echo chamber”, where people do not want to build community with others that they do not believe are similar.
Environmental Disruption - The pandemic was a fierce force in nearly all industries and it had a profound impact on eduction. It was an environmental disruption and, from the looks of things, we will continue to have more of them. From earthquakes to hurricanes to wildfires to terrorism to medical crises, education will need to remain flexible and adaptable to a constantly changing environment.

As clients go back and look at their past plans, they start to understand that they were largely unprepared for the three major forces from the past five years that drove the cultural narrative. I’ve always believed that the largest threats to the future of education do not come from within the classroom but from the changing landscape. Best to read the tea leaves of culture and build plans around these trends.