Making the Case for Election Planning

A side quest with the Making the Case Response Framework

The Brief Case 📚→💼→📈→📊

In July 2024, we made the case for a response framework to help to steady school leaders and trustees when they are faced with major external disruptions, bad or good. Here’s a quick recap:

• Learning case: Every externally driven crisis or opportunity will offer different constraints, but failing to at least acknowledge that leadership choices exist means you are reacting instead of responding. While reacting might help you to put out an immediate fire in front of you — a positive — it won’t help you to manage through a slower moving situation. The latter requires learning — most likely the coordination of learning among a leadership group responsible for addressing the crisis or opportunity.

• Business Case: A response framework helps school leadership teams to learn into a crisis or dynamic opportunity; it also aims to solidify essential, and sometimes existential, business functions, focusing first on work changes and then on communication and community learning.

• Return on Investment: When leading through a crisis, work first to manage the risk profile and then explore the potential reward. When leading through a dynamic opportunity, work first to explore the potential reward and then manage the risk profile.

• Return on Learning: A disciplined approach to our framework will produce visible changes in practices, introduction of new programs, refined or updated workflows, and confidence in engaging in discussions and leadership.

In August and September, we started to apply this framework, piece by piece, to the rise of Generative AI and its knock-on effects in schools. Given conversations we have been part of in recent weeks, we thought it a timely (and ideally, timeless) opportunity to apply our framework to the upcoming US Presidential election and its intersection with our schools. As such, in order to organize our thinking using our response framework, we are breaking from both our Generative AI coverage (it will return in November) and from our usual Making the Case format.

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Response Framework for Election Planning

What OPERATIONS in the school need to be adjusted?

Determining any necessary operational changes can save money and time or reduce exposure. In terms of the upcoming election and its possible ripple effects, here are some questions to consider: