A theory of change means little without an operating system built to carry it. Innovate needed decision rights, an operational plan, and a meeting cadence that could hold up across a growing, multi-region team, not just at headquarters.
Innovate Public Schools, a California power-building organization that helps parents and families organize and advocate for higher-quality schools, had grown into a multi-region operation, including Los Angeles, San Jose, the Peninsula and San Francisco, and a statewide program, without the shared mission clarity, org structure, or decision-making systems to match. Leadership had relied heavily on individual relationships and informal norms to get things done, a workable model at a smaller scale but a growing risk as Innovate expanded into new regions and took on a more ambitious agenda.
Staff and board had not aligned on a renewed mission, vision, and core values, or the strategic priorities flowing from them, leaving different teams sometimes working from different assumptions about the organization’s purpose and direction.
As Innovate expanded into new regions, there was no documented framework for who recommends, decides, and is informed on org-level and regional decisions, leaving national and regional teams without a consistent way to align.
Plans and progress monitoring lived in individual staff members' heads and ad hoc check-ins rather than in a shared operational plan, org structure, or meeting cadence, exactly the kind of dependency the organization needed to reduce as it grew.
Led a multi-month, staff- and board-inclusive process to articulate a renewed mission, vision, belief statements, and core values, and to set the strategic priorities and OKRs flowing from them.
Defined six functional pillars spanning the organization and built a RAPID decision-rights matrix spelling out who recommends, decides, and is informed across org-level strategy, regional campaigns, staffing, and finance.
Built a shared operational plan, tracked by initiative, owner, start date, and due date, and defined a recurring meeting structure, including strategic progress monitoring, programmatic strategy, alignment and tactical, all-staff, and quarterly step-back meetings, to keep the organization accountable to its OKRs on an ongoing basis.
A growing mission needs more than a plan. Innovate Public Schools now has the decision rights, operational plan, and meeting rhythm to run as a system, not on any one person’s memory.
Stronger Consulting partners with mission-driven organizations to turn complex challenges into clear, practical action, from strategy through implementation.
