1. October 2004 Strategy Forum Academic Quality Improvement Program The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools

2. PURPOSES OF STRATEGY FORUM Support your institution in adding value for your students and stakeholders Stimulate your institution to refine its Action Projects and strategies for accomplishing them Get everyone started on using the System Portfolio to appraise and improve your institution Clarify what AQIP will expect of participating institutions for the next 3-5 years

3. BROADER, LONG-TERM GOALS Inspire, encourage, and celebrate quality pioneer institutions that stretch for outstanding performance in pursuing their goals Nurture personal and organizational learning about quality by sharing knowledge, experience, needs, and goals Foster community and collaboration among those working to deepen their institutions' commitment to quality

4. THE STRATEGY FORUM FLOW  Thursday: BIG picture  Stakeholders, Alignment, Vision  Friday: FOCUS  Systems Thinking, Analysis, Measures  Saturday: SYNTHESIS  Planning and Communicating for Success

5. WHAT MAKES A GOOD ACTION PROJECT? Have beginnings, middles, and ends Are focused, but strategic Will be engaging and involve a significant number of people. Will create infrastructure and capacity for future improvements and result in culture change.

6. AQIP ACTION PROJECTS Tentative agreement on the 3 - 4 Action Projects that will serve as institutional rallying points for the next three years -- due three months from today –January 13, 2005. Includes at least one Project primarily related to the Helping Students Learn, AQIP Criterion 1 Incorporates institutional resolve to communicate your goals and maintain clear focus on your improvement Specifies process and outcome measures which your institution will track and report for the goals it selects

7. AQIP PRINCIPLES OF HIGH PERFORMANCE ORGANIZATIONS Focus Involvement Leadership Learning People Collaboration Agility Foresight Information Integrity

8. AQIP CRITERIA 4.Valuing People 5.Leading and Communicating 6.Supporting Institutional Operations 8.Planning Continuous Improvement 9.Building Collaborative Relationships 7.Measuring Effectiveness. 1.Helping Students Learn 2.Accomplish ing Other Distinctive Objectives 3.Understand ing Students’ and Other Stakeholder Needs

9. WHAT ARE WE DISCOVERING ABOUT OUR ACTION PROJECTS? Have we selected the right vital few? Importance to our mission and purposes Appropriate level of focus Pragmatic for early successes Value with respect to establishing a quality culture What else have we learned? About AQIP About our institution About how we function as a team

10. WHAT’S A STAKEHOLDER? The people and groups that have a critical stake or investment in the institution’s operation and future. These include: Students Students' Families Employers Funding Agencies Oversight Agencies Collaborators Serving Your Stakeholders is Your Reason to Exist!

11. WHO ARE YOUR STAKEHOLDERS? Students Other External Stakeholders Internal Stakeholders Employers Parents State Board Alums HLC High Schools … Night students Adults retooling Freshman Seniors Blind Students Transfer Student … Tenured Faculty Non-tenured Faculty Adjuncts Hourly Employers Branch Campus Employees …

12. SEGMENTING STAKEHOLDERS Helps you identify specific or unique requirements Helps you determine who you really want and/or need to serve

13. BALANCING THE NEEDS OF STAKEHOLDER SEGMENTS No institution can meet the needs of all potential stakeholders Some stakeholders will have competing needs The relative size of a stakeholder group may give it significance, but is not always the deciding factor Your Mission is Your Best Guide

14. CRITERION 3: UNDERSTANDING STUDENT AND OTHER STAKEHOLDER NEEDS Distinguish between Needs or Requirements and Wants or Desires While you can probably guess needs and wants, you should confirm your guesses

15. WHAT IS CULTURE? Patterns of behavior Values Shared beliefs Underlying assumptions Norms Rituals, artifacts

16. CHANGE MODEL Renewal Chaos Status Quo

17. CULTURE CHANGE Recognize that not everyone “gets it” in the same way or on the same schedule Motivate people: they can change if they see a chance for something better -- but they don’t change to avoid things getting worse Don’t let people forget what they already know Welcome early debate Pace & space your changes to avoid collisions Expect change to take longer than you expect

18. Systems thinking is a discipline for seeing wholes, recognizing patterns and interrelationships, and learning how to structure those interrelationships in more effective, efficient ways. -- Senge & Lannon-Kim

19. SYSTEMS THINKING: Iceberg Model Mental Models Systems Trends Events Behavior More Automatic, Resistant to Change

20. WHAT’S A SYSTEM? It is a series of functions or activities (sub-processes or stages) within an organization that work together for the aim of the organization. (W. Edwards Deming)

21. UNDERSTANDING PROCESSES What produces performance results?

22. Suppliers Providers Funders Supporters Processes Systems Subsystems Activities Stakeholders Recipients Beneficiaries Customers Constituents INPUTSOUTPUTS Input Requirements Output Requirements

23. SYSTEMS THINKING PRINCIPLES 1. Systems are made up of interrelated processes 2. Systems serve a variety of stakeholders; you must consider multiple perspectives 3. Processes and tasks affect one another in a variety of complex ways 4. Improving a process requires understanding everything that affects it 5. You must consider how any “fix” affects other system components 6. Individuals and departments at any institution must always remember that they are interdependent parts of a larger system

24. SILOS vs. SYSTEMS

25. PUTTING SYSTEMS THINKING INTO PRACTICE Realize that most problems are not isolated... they are interrelated View the organization as a whole, not as a series of parts Apply a team approach to decision-making Encourage improvements that cross standard organizational lines Identify root causes Recognize balancing and reinforcing loops (another conversation on another day) Utilize systems models (such as the AQIP Model)

26. WHAT PROCESSES ARE INVOLVED IN YOUR PROJECT? 4.Valuing People 5.Leading and Communicating 6.Supporting Institutional Operations 8.Planning Continuous Improvement 9.Building Collaborative Relationships 7.Measuring Effectiveness 1.Helping Students Learn 2.Accomplish ing Other Distinctive Objectives 3.Understand ing Students’ and Other Stakeholder Needs

27. MEASUREMENT MYTHS 1. Measure “hard” results and the “soft” stuff will follow 2. Measurement is for Bean Counters (or IR staff) 3. Measurement is too rear-view oriented 4. Measurement distorts reality 5. Measurement stifles creativity 6. Measurement is anti-humanistic 7. More measurement is better

28. MEASUREMENT “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted” (Albert Einstein)

29. SOME OF THE MANY VALUABLE ROLES OF DATA Diagnosis: What is the real problem? Progress: How are we doing now? Prognosis: How serious is the problem? How do we compare to others? Benchmarking

30. MEASUREMENT CONSIDERATIONS 1. Reliability: consistency among measures 2. Validity: congruence between description and assessment 3. Scalability: allows comparison to be drawn 4. Utility: system can be implemented

31. MEASUREMENT CONSIDERATIONS 1. Objective vs. Subjective 2. Direct vs. Indirect 3. Retrospective vs. Prospective

32. TYPES OF MEASURES Input: indicators of how effectively inputs and supplies meet the needs of a process. (leading indicator) Process: indicators of whether a process is operating the way it is supposed to. (leading indicator) Output: indicators of whether the services and products of a process meeting the requirements you established. (lagging indicator) Satisfaction: indicators of whether the services and products a process produces satisfy the needs of stakeholders. (lagging) Multiple measures allow you to balance multiple requirements, obtain timely indications of how you’re doing, and obtain converging evidence

33. AQIP 301: ACTION PROJECTS & SYSTEMS PORTFOLIO

34. Systems Appraisal Annual Update System Portfolio Strategy Forum

35. NEXT STEPS Taking Action: Committing to your Action Projects Taking Stock: Building your Systems Portfolio

36. SUBMITTING ACTION PROJECTS Declaration of commitment to Action Projects, measures, and performance targets due January 13, 2005. Projects, goals, and measures can change, but institution should explain the rationale for and effect of changes, both for AQIP and others.

37. UPDATING ANNUAL PROGRESS Simple, brief updates, flowing naturally from an institution’s quality improvement activity, due beginning of autumn (September 14). Share Action Project changes, completions, launches, and problems with AQIP when they occur. If progress slows or stops, AQIP will consult with an institution for additional information and a course of action.

38. SYSTEMS PORTFOLIO 75-page public portfolio describing fundamental institutional systems Covers the nine AQIP Criteria, describing processes, results, and improvement in each system Builds shared understanding, consensus, and support for the institution and its quality improvement efforts

39. SYSTEMS PORTFOLIO Portfolio created once (within the first three years after a the first Strategy Forum) and then updated with changes in systems and results Valuable for other accreditors, state agencies, and other stakeholders In three years, this portfolio will be thoroughly appraised, by a team of appraisers, resulting in a feedback report to the institution

40. existing data reports evaluations surveys databases descriptions perceptions policies procedures processes Inputs Creating the Overview and each Portfolio chapter Analyzing and describing current goals, practices, and results Actions faculty staff administrators students trustees employers focus groups complainers public Suppliers Completed published System Portfolio Agreement on current goals, practices, and results Outputs AQIP (HLC) funding agents parents students employers faculty staff administrators Stakeholders

41. SYSTEMS APPRAISAL Systems Appraisals were begun in 2003. AQIP’s web-based Systems Portfolio Dialogue is a valuable resource. AQIP needs more Systems Appraisers next training to be held in fall 2004-5. To apply to be an Appraiser, go to the AQIP website.

42. Systems Appraisal Annual Update System Portfolio Strategy Forum

43. GETTING ORGANIZED TO IMPLEMENT YOUR PROJECT A Project can be thought of as a “one- time” Process Systems thinking and tools can be applied to Projects InputsStakeholders Indicators ProcessesOutputs

44. SYSTEMS APPROACH TO A PROJECT PLAN How much detail is necessary? Useful? For what purpose?

45. ACTION PLANS Many tools, of varying formality are available, all of which: Ensure that everyone has a common understanding of expectations Provide a way to check that all necessary tasks, inputs, outputs, contingencies are identified Ensure that appropriate resources are assigned Allow you to track progress and rapidly identify issues

46. ITERATE Start from the beginning and work forward Start from your target end-point and work backward

47. NEXT STEPS Communicating with Stakeholders Increasing buy-in; reducing skepticism Refining and planning Action Project Beginning your Systems Portfolio …