History | Going from Good to Great

In June 2004, Girl Scout leadership enlisted the services of Willie Pietersen, a professor of the Practice of Management at Columbia Business School, to help Girl Scouts develop a strategy to ensure our future success and growth. After identifying Girls Scouts' strengths, challenges, and imperatives for success, we zeroed in on five strategic priorities that now represent our organization's focus:

1. Program Model and Pathways: Building the best-integrated personal leadership development model that defines activities and outcomes, differentiated by age-level, for girls 5-17, and offers flexible pathways for participation.
2. Volunteerism: Developing a nimble, state-of-the-art model of volunteerism that mobilizes a variety of volunteers committed to the Girl Scout Mission.
3. Brand: Transforming the Girl Scout image with a compelling, contemporary brand.
4. Funding: Substantially increasing contributed income to fund a vibrant Girl Scout organization.
5. Organizational Structure and Governance: Creating an efficient and effective organizational structure and democratic governance system.

IMPLEMENTATION: The Gap Teams
Six Gap Teams – comprised of a variety of Girl Scout members from all levels, functions, and geographic regions of the organization, and totalling more than 60 people – set our transformation in motion. They gathered feedback from many of you and analyzed our work in order to identify any “gaps” between how we do things now and the ideal ways to accomplish our objectives now and in the future.

The Gap Teams were charged with identifying the transformations needed to move Girl Scouts from the organization it is now to the organization it will be. Five of the teams focused on one of the strategic priorities. The sixth team focused on ways to improve our organization's culture, making it a key component of the broader transformation of Girl Scouts.

PROGRESS: The Road Ahead
The Gap Teams began meeting in January 2005. They conducted research, explored options and models, worked with an external content expert, initiated early actions, and formulated a plan for the future.

The six teams came together on July 6-7, 2005, to share their work and brainstorm ways to coordinate their efforts and move their work into Girl Scouts at large.