Sponsored by Ministry of Education & Cyprus Society for Quality CySQ TRNC September 3, 2007

1. Bringing Your Strategic Plan to LifeExecutive Briefing for Leaders in Higher EducationPresented byKathleen A. Paris, Ph.D.Consultant, Distinguished, EmeritusOffice of Quality ImprovementUniversity of Wisconsin, Madison U. S. A. Sponsored by Ministry of Education  &  Cyprus Society for Quality CySQ   TRNC September 3, 2007

2. What is Strategic Planning? A process for: • Establishing a limited number of major directions for an organization and • Focusing resources on those directions in order to • Maximize benefits for stakeholders. Paris (2003)

3. UW-Madison’sPlan Priorities • Promote Research • Advance Undergraduate Education • Accelerate Internationalization • Amplify the “Wisconsin Idea” • Nurture Human Resources All colleges and departments (academic and administrative) use these priorities to guide their planning. See http://www.chancellor.wisc.edu/strategicplan

4. Sample College-Level Goals • Improve student advising • Increase interdisciplinary research • Reduce time to degree for students • Improve hiring process • Increase outreach classes to community and professions • Add space and equipment • Add new programs/phase out outdated programs • Strengthen assessment of learning in the majors • Support asst. and associate professors Note: These could occur at department levels too.

5. Sample Strategic Goals--Departments • Identify intellectual gaps—use to determine what kind of faculty candidates to look for • Identify learning outcomes for all programs (What should students know, understand and be able to do when they graduate in our major?) • Correct salary inequities among faculty • Ensure every major student has an advisor • Establish key campus partnerships

6. MoreDepartment Goals • Begin enrollment management • Build a new building! • Plans for space and equipment to do X (What we will do with these new resources) • Add new programs/reduce programs no longer in demand or outdated • Diversify faculty and staff in terms of race and culture

7. Sample Administrative Unit Goals • Create on-line application process (Graduate School) • Improve coordination with various campus entities and offices • Update skills of key office personnel • Make more services available on the web • Streamline processes to reduce time, errors, complaints, etc.

8. Elements • The Process of Creating a Plan • Evaluating the Plan • Communicating the Plan • Implementing the Plan

9. The Process of Creating a Plan • Involve the whole staff in some way. • They need to understand the priorities (and see themselves in them) in order to carry them out well. See p. 3 Involving People in Planning

10. The Process of Creating a Plan • Have a small planning committee (5-12) or group with multiple ways for many people to have input. • Not everyone needs to be involved in every step. • Consider having members designated to represent key groups (faculty, staff, students, administrators, etc.).

11. The Process of Creating a Plan • Involve stakeholders in the process (campus and external). You need information about their needs for plan creation and you need their support later for implementation. • See p. 4 Determining Stakeholder Needs

12. The Process of Creating a Plan • Involve students in your planning process. They add immeasurably to the process.

13. The Process of Creating a Plan • Link the planning process to accreditation, program review, site visits, other certification exercises --as a starting point for planning or --create the plan as part of the self-study process

14. The Process of Creating a Plan • Study together data from student learning outcomes assessment (academic departments) • Where are we strong? • Where are the gaps? • What action is suggested? • This source of information is • often forgotten

15. The Process of Creating a Plan Bring fresh air into the planning process—outside speakers, faculty and staff from other departments or institutions, the Dean, the Provost, the Chancellor. • It is difficult to think in new ways with the same people • Making planning more public makes it harder to ignore the plan later

16. The Process of Creating a Plan Look at other plans (related departments, other institutions, etc.) • What are the trends? • Where are we leading? • Where are we behind? • Where is the innovation?

17. The Process of Creating a Plan • Identify what we can stop doing or do differently to redirect resources.

18. The Process of Creating a Plan Have a plan website or BLOG that includes outcomes of all meetings and input sessions, supporting documents, names of planning committee members (so people can contact them) calendar of events, timeline, etc.

19. The Process of Creating a Plan Hold formal hearings, informal review sessions, e-mail or web-based sessions on proposed plan to ask people: • What they like about the proposed plan and would not want to see changed • What causes them concern • What was missed? DO NOT JUST ASK FOR “COMMENTS”

20. If you have several feedback sessions on the draft plan: • Divide up the duties for hosting various feedback sessions among the planning committee members. • Not every member has to be at every event.

21. The Process of Creating a Plan • Keep things moving and efficient so people don’t get so tired out with creating the plan that they don’t have energy to implement. • Set up all planning committee meetings in advance to ensure optimum participation in a limited timeframe.

22. The Process of Creating a Plan To implement an existing plan, hold an event where people in the department, office, or college, can discuss: • What the plan means for the work they do every day • What action steps are needed to implement • What resources they foresee needing for implementation (technology, policies, staff time, information, meetings with other campus entities, etc.)

23. Evaluating the Plan The plan should have both: • A longer term strategic component (3-5 years) • Annual operational or short-term goals and objectives.

24. Evaluating the Plan Is the list of strategic longer term or priorities “doable” in the timeframe? • The list of priorities should be short enough to reasonably remember.

25. Evaluating the Plan The plan is a contract between the leader and the organization. The contract commitment is this: • The leader will ensure resources to accomplish the stated goals and • All others will do their part to achieve the stated goals.

26. Evaluating the Plan The annual goals should be SMART • Strategic • Measurable • Actionable • Realistic • Time bound

27. Evaluating the Plan • Do you have the right people to accomplish what you are setting out to do? • If not, how will you get them or develop them?

28. Evaluating the Plan Do you have the right structure or organization to achieve the long-term priorities? • May require reorganization

29. Evaluating the Plan • Are the goals REALLY goals for the whole department or office or college or has someone’s “to do” list taken over?

30. Evaluating the Plan • A department or college plan should show how and where it’s aligned with the larger structure of which it is a part as well as the campus plan. • The alignment does not have to be perfect.

31. Evaluating the Plan The plan should be officially adopted by the decision-making body.

32. Communicating the Plan Is the plan where people can find it? • Home page • One page handout • Flyers • Booklets

33. Communicating the Plan • Have several different versions for different audiences (faculty recruitment, donors, staff, etc.). • Faculty and staff who will implement the plan need more detail than external readers.

34. Communicating the Plan • Make the plan look as appealing as your resources allow. • Fancy packaging will not do much for a poor plan, but poor packaging can detract from a good plan.

35. Communicating the Plan The priorities of the department, school, college, office should be championed in public speaking opportunities whenever possible.

36. Implementing the Plan Each goal and/or priority must have a point person. The point person: • Makes sure the goal is moving forward • Connects people who are working on it • Reports on progress.

37. Implementing the Plan • The point person does not necessarily have functional authority over those implementing. • Avoid “co-point persons” • The point person can be a committee. • See p. 7 Don’t Forget the Point Person

38. Implementing the Plan Use existing structures as much as possible for implementing and avoid creating new committees or task forces

39. Implementing the Plan Break down big goals into manageable pieces: • Identify a launching step for each goal and/or • Create a 90-day implementation plan to create immediate action. See p. 5 for action planning format.

40. Implementing the Plan A tree diagram can break a big effort into more manageable parts. See p. 14.

41. Implementing the Plan Create step charts to identify responsibilities and timeline(p. 15)

42. Implementing the Plan • Structure regular staff meetings around individual priorities or goals to provide time to focus. • Set up a schedule at the start of the semester or year.

43. Implementing the Plan The whole organization needs to hear progress reports at least once a year. Top leadership needs more frequent progress checks. • See p. 9 What to do at a Check Meeting.

44. Implementing the Plan Show progress toward goals visually • Charts • Graphs • Maps • Lists

45. This graph from the 5th annual progress report on the campus strategic plan shows how the number of faculty and staff participating in professional development workshops and seminars rose from 2591 to 15,762 in five years.

46. Implementing the Plan Link the plan to activity reports or performance appraisal: • Update position descriptions based on the plan • Use the plan to help set individual performance goals • Use the plan priorities to structure how people report.

47. Implementing the Plan • Use the plan to make professional development decisions. See p. 6 Personal Professional Development Plan.

48. Implementing the Plan Someone besides the chair, dean or administrator should be the point person for the planning process overall to ensuring that: • “Check meetings” are held • Time is made available for planning work • Progress is monitored • The plan is kept up to date and visible.

49. Implementing the Plan The plan should guide budget requests and decisions: • Ask for goals first, budget line items second • See pp. 10-11 Planning & Budget format • See pp. 12-13 Strategies for Discussing Budget Priorities and Reductions and Budget Discussion Matrix.

50. Implementing the Plan Across-the-board cuts are antithetical to strategic planning.