Case Study #7: Master Academic and College Strategic Planning Alignment

ISSUE:

Strategic planning is the linchpin of successful institutional progress. In many colleges, a strategic plan permeates all levels of the organization, and each area of the college must show how their individual plans link to the overall institutional strategies. In many cases this results in a hodgepodge of visualizations that is difficult to present to upper administration and the governing Board. Therefore, it is desirable that a structured college-wide approach could be developed that would clearly demonstrate this hierarchy of connected strategic tactics.

SOLUTION:

While the application shown below is not really an automated tool, Excel can be used to simply organize and visualize hierarchical information in a more cohesive manner. This spreadsheet was developed to communicate the alignment between a college’s overall strategic plan and the related master plan for the Academic Affairs area. The “X” inputs show how the master academic plan supports the strategic plan principles. A spreadsheet similar to this can be created for each of the institution’s main organizational areas. The worksheets can then be compiled to display the combined support for the strategic plan. If one theme of the strategic plan is not endorsed (or weakly endorsed) by any initiative from the organizational areas, then a review of all strategic plans should be undertaken to address the apparent misrepresentation and reestablish the desired alignment.