Engaging Faculty in Strategic Planning Dr. John Robert Dew The University of Alabama
Engaging the faculty at the College and Department level. UA has a strategic plan for the university as a whole. Challenge is to engage faculty in developing strategies that excite them and are aligned with the institution’s strategic goals. Blitz build the plan.
Seven step strategic planning process. Preparation Reflection Visioning Prioritizing Action Planning Implement Re-Assess
Preparation phase: Work with Dean or Chair to identify meaningful data. Collect and distribute data to faculty for their review. Encourage faculty to read the UA strategic plan.
Reflection: Working together as a whole group, the faculty develop a time line to capture the history of the College or department. Working together, the faculty identify what they consider to be the program’s strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities.
Visioning: Imagine it is 7 years in the future. The College/Department is being recognized as the best of its type in the nation. Describe this future state. Staying in the future, describe what we did over the past 7 years to get there.
Prioritizing: Work with the list of actions that would have been taken over the past seven years. Nominal Group Technique. Discuss the implications of the NGT exercise. Let it soak in.
Develop Action Plans: Organize the high priority actions into categories. (Research, teaching, outreach, professional growth) Identify what steps will be taken, who will be responsible, and completion dates. Use as a drum beat.
Implement: Most actions have turned out to be within the sphere of influence of the faculty. Many actions led to the development of creative alliances with other groups. Keep reviewing progress in faculty meetings. Inform your friends.
Re-Assess: Most strategic plans have run their course within three years. New circumstances require us to constantly re-assess to either adjust, hold the course, or set new goals. Everything changes, so don’t think that one plan is the ultimate cure-all.