JUST THE WORDS “STRATEGIC PLANNING” are enough to make some board members and school executives feel swamped. The process is usually long, boring, and largely without results—unless you count a five-inch-thick vinyl notebook collecting dust on a shelf as an achievement. Don’t mire your board and executive in writing a plan that is tedious, dull, and loaded with administrivia—three adjectives that could have been invented to describe the typical strategic plan. This book offers another way—The Seven Outs.

Inside, you will meet the board and executive director of Breezy Palms Charter School, a fictional school that is in trouble with its authorizer. You’ll gain an insider’s perspective on the root causes of the school’s problems, as well as an overview of The Seven Outs. The ending may surprise you.

In the second part of the book, the author unpacks The Seven Outs so that your school will have a step-by-step recipe for conducting strategic planning. Once completed, the board and executive will know what the students are to accomplish and how well they are to accomplish it, and the board will know how to evaluate the outcomes.