The Oldest Incorporated Academy in the U.S.
Phillips Academy (also known as PA, or Phillips Academy Andover) is a co-educational college-preparatory school for boarding and day students located in Andover, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. The academy serves approximately 1,150 students in grades 9 through 12, including postgraduate scholars. As the oldest incorporated academy in the nation, Andover has built a reputation for academic rigor, innovative teaching, and fostering a community that inspires intellectual curiosity, leadership, and social responsibility. With a vibrant campus life and a commitment to shaping future leaders, Andover continually evolves to meet the needs of its diverse and dynamic student body.
Faced with the challenge of advancing their strategic initiatives and fostering stronger collaboration within their community, PA’s Communications Team turned to ImageThink for support in crafting an engaging, memorable, and effective Retreat. Agenda design and graphic facilitation created an impactful outcome for PA’s session – igniting inspiration, creating alignment on goals across the institution, and leaving the Communications Team with actionable steps to take to continue the brand’s legacy of excellence.
Shaping Brand Identity and Team Purpose
ImageThink’s engagement with Phillips Academy Andover’s Communications Retreat began with a collaborative agenda design process tailored to the team’s specific objectives. PA sought to re-evaluate and redefine their brand, align on a forward-looking vision for the institution, establish a cohesive team mission, and outline actionable steps to bring it to life. With these goals in mind, ImageThink’s graphic facilitator developed a thoughtful and comprehensive agenda that addressed these priorities, ensuring alignment and focus from the start by sharing the agenda with participants in advance.
The retreat kicked off with The SCAN Phase of the ImageThink Method™, where participants were immersed in creative exercises to spark fresh thinking. The first activity, “Brands We Love,” encouraged attendees to analyze well-known brands they admire, distilling the attributes that make those brands resonate. This reflection provided a lens through which the team could consider how their own brand might evoke similar emotional connections and loyalty among their students.
Building on these insights, the session progressed into strategic collaboration on PA’s brand identity. Using tools like brand profiling and empathy mapping, participants visualized their current brand and its aspirational future, and a new team vision was born (and illustrated). To solidify their strategy, the team engaged in ImageThink’s “Start/Stop/Continue” exercise, a reflective activity that identified which actions should be initiated, ceased, or maintained to realize their vision. The retreat culminated in defining the brand’s guiding principles—inclusivity, education, aspiration, and excellence—laying the foundation for a shared mission and a unified path forward.
A Collaborative Vision Developed Through Graphic Facilitation
As a result of PA’s partnership with ImageThink, their Communications Team left the session energized, excited, and motivated. At the conclusion of our session, PA’s Communications Team had a renewed understanding of their brand identity, a solidified team purpose, and a clear idea of what actions to take to realize their team vision. ImageThink produced a tangible digital board outlining PA’s Communication Team’s vision that would act as a reference point, and beacon of light to guide their strategic efforts.
