Achieving Strategic Goals while Supporting Operational Needs A Proposal for a Simpler and More Focused Planning Process at COD

Concerns with the Current Process Real strategic planning does not happen in CPC. Annual goals, as currently written, cannot be achieved in a year or even two years. We mix goals planning with operational planning. Goals and objectives are written at the College, Area, and Unit levels, which is redundant and confusing. Clustering of goals takes place at the end of the process. Prioritization does not work. We do not allow enough time for evaluation.

Concept #1 Strategic planning should be the primary job of the CPC. Currently the CPC does almost no strategic planning, but we spent 16 hours at the end of this year’s planning cycle completing a prioritized list that we all agree to support but few of us were happy with or could fully explain. Instead! Let’s put 16 hours into strategic planning at the beginning of the planning cycle and make prioritization much simpler, allowing more time for evaluating progress in meeting goals.

Concept #2: Annual College Goals should guide and focus planning. Currently, we start with college goals that are so broad, we could never fully achieve them (e.g. “Improve Student Learning”). Instead Let’s set measurable annual goals that move forward long term strategic plans but can clearly be achieved in a year or two. Then we can create annual work plans to achieve these narrower goals.

Concept #3: Strategic planning should be separate from operational planning. Currently we try to squeeze operational planning (all the things we need do and have to maintain our programs) and strategic planning (efforts to make strategic change) into one process. Instead Let us have operational planning be the province of units and areas, while narrower and more tightly defined strategic planning involves the entire College and is managed by the CPC.

Concept #4: Strategic planning should develop around achieving goals, not Area & Unit priorities Currently, planning develops in silos and is presented to the CPC as Area priorities that we spend up to 16 hours prioritizing. Instead Strategic planning should develop around achieving each of the annual goals. What gets presented to CPC should not be a list of priorities from each area, but a carefully designed plan to achieve annual goals.

To Summarize  Strategic planning should be the primary job of the CPC. Annual College Goals should guide and focus planning. Strategic planning should be separate from operational planning. Strategic planning should develop around achieving goals, not Area & Unit priorities

Okay-- To make these changes, we propose a change to the planning process. In this revised process there are two planning tracks, one for strategic planning and a second for operational planning. In the following diagram, strategic planning steps appear on the right. These steps are done in the light of PRUs written in the previous year and evaluation of progress on strategic goals. While this strategic planning takes place, PRUs for the current year are being written and brought forward to unit level leadership. Unit leaders, in consultation with faculty and/or staff, determine if any PRU objectives support the strategic plans under development. Such items get built into the Action Plans for those goals. Everything else goes into the operational planning track. It is important to understand that requests for resources can go through either planning track. The only question is whether those requests fit into strategic planning or operational planning.

How To Do It! CPC/Pres. establish 3 to 5 year college goals Strategic Plan CPC/Pres. CPC/Pres. Then write short term College Goals that guide and focus planning efforts for 1 or 2 years. Area/ Unit budgets Area Leadership create objectives to address goals Work Plan New Staff Other Unit leadership create action plans to address objectives. Operational Plan Unit leadership Supervisors/Coordinators/Directors/Lead Faculty PRUs are written

Things to be Determined! The model proposed here still leaves some important considerations unresolved. In this model, operational planning and associated budget decisions stay in the Unit/Area, and do not come to the CPC for prioritization. However, details of how this will work need to be clarified. We assume that Area budgets have to be allocated at the beginning of the process, so everyone knows how much they have to work with. These will not simply be rollover budgets, but exactly how they are determined needs to be clarified. Also, we need to determine how a budget to support the strategic planning track will be allocated.

A rough schedule for the coming year! September: CPC spends up to 16 hours developing strategic goals &provide training on writing objectives and action plans. October: Area/unit leaders create objectives & PRUs are written. November/December: Unit leaders work with supervisors/ directors/ coordinators/lead faculty to develop both strategic action plans and operational plans according to PRUs. January/February: Area and Unit leaders combine action plans and objectives into plans that address strategic goals March: Pres. Cab combines Area plans into coherent institutional plans to address each strategic goal. End of March: CPC reviews and approves strategic goal plans. April/May: CPC assesses progress on goals/planning in the current year & spends 16 hours developing strategic goals for next year.

A likely permanent schedule! April/May: CPC assesses progress on current year planning & spends 16 hours developing strategic goals for next year. September/October: Area/Unit leaders create objectives & PRUs for current year are written. November/December: Unit leaders work with supervisors/ directors/ coordinators/lead faculty to develop both strategic action plans and operational plans according to PRUs. January/February: Area and Unit leaders combine action plans and objectives into plans that address strategic goals March: Pres. Cab combines Area plans into coherent institutional plans to address each strategic goal. End of March: CPC reviews and approves strategic goal plans.

Final Thoughts The schedules presented refer primarily to a sequence of tasks that the CPC must eventually deal with. It does not try to follow out all the steps involved in operational planning, because those would be the province of the Area/Units. Major new expenses (new FT positions, etc.) may emerge from either strategic or operational planning. It is not clear how decisions these expenses may involve CPC. At some point, evaluations and reports about both strategic and operational planning will need to come to the CPC for them to do their annual evaluation of college planning as a whole. How this happens is not clear.