Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/how-can-i/5009806/
Things to DoPlan A: Survive the day.
Plan B: Rework the budget figures for Friday board meeting (present overage costs for plumbing repairs as an opportunity for creative, collaborative problem solving).
Plan C: Conduct extensive search for remaining wooden eggs - one more in the toilet and the resulting clog will certainly break the entire system. Search Marissa upon arrival - last child known to hoard wooden eggs in her cubby!
Plan D: . . . Marissa is here. Put on hip waders. Call plumber immediately. Cancel Plans B and C. Go directly to Plan A.
And so the world turns in child care programs. The best laid plans of competent, hopeful administrators are regularly thwarted by the day-to-day crises embedded in program management. In fact, one of the most needed but least often available resource in child care is time - time to reflect, time to regroup, and time to plan. Administrators find themselves idea rich and time poor, so that planning is often limited either to superficially developed on Thursday/shelved on Friday long-term planning documents or short-term objectives derived and driven by the disaster of the moment.
Yet effective strategic planning is the hingepin on which all other managerial functions ...