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Strategic Planning

Ah yes, the words “strategic” and “planning.” Worse yet, the words “strategic planning” used together in the same sentence. These simple words have been known to frighten administrators the same way that the phrase “cumulative examination” frightens students. You know the glazed look, contorted facial expressions that must just hurt, and overall loss of sanity that I am talking about. Will you be ready when the vice president approaches you and says something like this: “I look forward to the receipt of the strategic plan for your division by next week. That won’t be a problem, will it?” Regardless of your knowledge in this area, you will, of course, respond, as any good administrator lying through his or her teeth would, with something like, “You bet” or “Can’t wait to drop that off!”

Again, fear not. I am going to provide you with Strategic Planning 101—or subtitled “Saving Your Sanity 101!” Strategic planning is perhaps the most important aspect of your new job, and we will devote much of this module to the development of a good, solid planning document.

First, we begin by defining the term “strategic plan.” A strategic plan is:

A step-by-step guide created by a business or organization to map out how it will reach goals;
A foundation for the entire organization so everyone knows what will happen and what is expected of them in the process;
A “recipe” for achieving a stated vision; and
A systematic management tool for:
- Problem solving
- Market planning
- Product development
- Preparation of business plans

If we break the above information down, a strategic plan simply provides a roadmap or a sense of direction for your organization. A strategic plan is a great tool to “drive” an organization, and it can give everyone involved a sense of worth and make them feel like a stakeholder. I use the word “stakeholder” because you want to foster an environment in which everyone feels the overall success of the organization is dependent to some degree on each individual and that more importantly, they have a personal stake in creating a positive outcome.

Before we get into the five essential elements that any good strategic plan should contain, I want to briefly touch on some strategic planning “do’s” and “don’ts.” First, do involve all facets of your area in the planning process. You should have a good cross-section that is representative of your division/department. This does not mean one should invite all persons who report to them. A large group is not helpful when you are trying to build consensus. As a general rule, five to eight people work well for the strategic planning process. Once the planning process is over, you will definitely want to involve everyone in the unveiling of the plan and, yes, make them stakeholders at this time. Also, be flexible throughout the planning process. You need to be as flexible as possible but, at the same time, set and hold people to deadlines. Another good idea is to use someone as an outside facilitator. Jot down this rule: The administrator should never take on the role of facilitator. You need to be an integral part of the design team and cannot achieve this while facilitating the meeting. Also, as a new administrator you may not have the experience necessary to lead such an intense process. (Later on in this module we will talk about how to hold effective meetings.) An outside facilitator is a person who can effectively watch over and guide the planning process. A good facilitator will know when to allow conflict, how to resolve conflict, and how to bring the group to closure through consensus. Think of the facilitator as a custodian of the planning process. Choose this person very carefully because bad facilitation wastes everyone’s time. Believe me, no one will be a stakeholder in your camp after spending all day in a meeting and getting nothing accomplished! If this should happen, my advice is to simply RUN!

When talking about “don’ts” in the area of strategic planning, there are a few steadfast principles. First, don’t expect overnight success. Not many organizations have the ability to create a relevant strategic plan in a short period of time. Be honest in your assessment of how long the process will take. There is no magic number of days or meetings needed to complete a strategic plan. However, you should always have a focus and be action-oriented in your planning sessions. Perhaps the most information I can pass on to you is this: Never exhibit a “top down” attitude. This type of an attitude can and will destroy the camaraderie you want to build with your design team and make team members feel their input is worthless, thus making your strategic plan a worthless piece of paper. Another tip to remember is to leave the writing of novels to such qualified folks as Leo Tolstoy. Don’t attempt to write or revise War and Peace. Some of the best strategic plans I have seen were accomplished in fewer than eight pages. I will give you some web links that will allow you to look over good, short strategic plans at the end of the strategic planning section. The last strategic planning “don’t” is this: Once you have written your strategic plan, think of it as a living, breathing entity. It is not a document set in stone, never to be revisited. You should review your strategic plan at least once a year to determine its continuing validity.

Now, let’s talk about the five essential elements a strategic plan should contain. These are:

Vision
Mission statement
Critical success factors
Strategies and actions
Prioritized implementation schedule

We will break down these elements and talk through each one. Are you still with me? If your head is slightly (or even moderately) spinning, this might be a good time to get away from your computer and grab a quick break. I tend to believe we think better and retain more information when short breaks are integrated into learning activities.

Refreshed? Great! Let’s begin by talking about the vision statement. Your vision statement should be a brief statement that describes your organization’s overall direction and plans for growth. In other words, it is a concise statement describing what you want to accomplish. Although there is no minimum or maximum length for a vision statement, the phrase “less is more” definitely applies. Ten to forty-five words is best for a vision statement. Your vision statement is the most important step in your strategic plan because everything will flow from this point. Be sure you have formulated the vision statement in a concise and thorough fashion and that it plainly states what you want to accomplish. Here are some questions you can use to help shape the formation of a vision statement:

What is our vision (what do we see)?
What do we do best?
What is our business?
What kind of image do we want/have?
How big do we want to be?
What is our philosophy?
What are our ethical and social responsibilities and values?
Where do we want to be in five years?

Examples of vision statements always help me when I’m trying to form a new vision statement. Here are a couple of vision statements I really like:

LONG JOHN SILVER’S VISION STATEMENT:
“To be America’s best quick service restaurant chain. We will provide each guest great tasting, reasonably priced fish, chicken, and seafood in a fast, friendly manner on every visit.”

Do you see how they communicated their vision? They want to provide the best food at the best price in a fast, friendly manner. Also, note their use of “quick service restaurant chain” as opposed to the normal connotation of fast-food. They are trying to craft an image around quick service as opposed to proliferating stereotypes that may be associated with fast-food chains.

Here’s another good example:

GENERAL MOTORS’ VISION:
“Our vision is to be the world leader in transportation products and related services.”

Simple, but effective language. As you begin to fashion your vision statement, here are some phrases that might help you to complete your thoughts:

High performance
World class
Empowerment
Everyone’s job
Diversity
Exceeds
Puts the customer first

Planning tip: Don’t be verbose. Write concisely and your message will be much more meaningful and will also be received better by your constituent groups—thus making you a great administrator in their eyes!

Our next subject is the creation of a mission statement. The mission statement should flow from the vision. It should accomplish the following:

Communicate the essence of your organization to internal stakeholders and the public
Become the yardstick for measuring success and progress
Identify accomplishments that are critical for success of the organization

Any mission statement worth its salt should contain the following elements: First, a purpose statement that tells why the organization exists and what it seeks to accomplish; second, a business statement that communicates what activities the organization will undertake to accomplish its purpose; and third, a value statement that encapsulates the beliefs of the organization. Again, a mission statement should be brief, much like the vision statement; ten to forty-five words is a good range.

Here is an example of a mission statement used by the American Red Cross:

“The American Red Cross is a humanitarian organization, led by volunteers, that provides relief to victims of disasters and helps people prevent, prepare for, and respond to emergencies. It does this through services that are consistent with its Congressional Charter and the principles of the International Red Cross Movement.”

Notice how they have said why they exist, what activities they undertake, and what values they hold by referencing their Congressional Charter and the principles of the International Red Cross.

The following mission statement is one of my all-time favorites. It is from Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, more commonly referred to as 3M:

3M’S MISSION STATEMENT:
“To solve unsolved problems innovatively.”

If you know anything about 3M’s culture, this mission statement is a perfect fit for their organization. 3M is a company devoted to three-dimensional problem solving processes. From these processes come inventions that are intended to make your life and my life easier. Ever heard of a little 3M invention called “Post-It Notes”? Enough said. To wrap up mission statements, I want you to remember that the mission tells both your internal and external audiences why your organizations exists, what it is you do, and what values your organization holds sacred.

Ok, you have a vision and now you are well on your way to a mission. Now what? Hold on to your hats, race fans. It’s time to identify critical success factors. Critical success factors are key issues to address if an organization is to achieve what is set forth in the vision and mission statements. These factors might include achieving credibility, finding needed resources such as external funding opportunities, research, cost-effective operations, and continuous improvement policies. An easy way to remember critical success factors is to think of them as indispensable items that are necessary to the success of your organization.

So, at this point you say, “Great, I can see that you need to identify these factors, but how do you go about doing this?” Listen closely, grasshopper. Grab your management instructor and prepare to initiate a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) Analysis. By examining what you do well (strengths), what you would like to do better (weaknesses), what is out there your college can take advantage of (opportunities), and what could have a negative effect on your institution (threats), you have just identified factors critical to your success. You can now add these to your overall strategic plan. After identifying these factors you need to review them for practicality and achievability. For example, you need to look at controlled variables and uncontrolled variables in relation to your critical success factors. Controlled variables are those, usually within your organization, over which you have some control, such as allocation of human and financial capital. Uncontrolled variables, such as declining tax bases or declining state revenues, are variables outside your organization that you cannot control. The importance of controlled and uncontrolled variables is that you must keep these in mind when adding critical success factors to your strategic plan. If you identify critical success factors that are predicated on uncontrolled variables, you will have difficulty in writing an effective strategic plan. Focus on what you can control, not what you cannot control. Finally, document and word your critical success factors so that they will flow into our next section, strategies and actions. What a segué!

We now move on to strategies and actions. Strategies and actions are the steps involved in implementing your strategic plan. Strategies are general statements while actions are specific to how the strategies will be carried out. Here’s an example:

Strategy: Increase student headcount by ten percent over last academic year
Action: Implementation of the new Business Administration Certificate by the Management Department prior to the start of the fall semester

Did you see how that worked? Not only did we identify what we want as a strategy— increase student headcount by ten percent—we also said how we are going to accomplish it and who was responsible for the strategy, in this case the Management Department. Also, the strategy did not just simply say to increase student headcount. We made sure to quantify the increase by specifying an amount. Strategies and actions are probably the most important aspects of your strategic plan because they lay out what you are going to do and how you are going to do it. The more specific you are in writing strategies and actions the more effective your strategic plan is.

Yes, this has been a long section, but hang on; we are just about there. The last part of writing your strategic plan is prioritization and implementation. You should prioritize the critical success factors and corresponding strategies and actions. Once this has occurred, you can implement your strategic plan! A strategic plan, if used correctly, is a powerful management tool you can use to effectively lead your division or your area of the college.

For a look at some strategic plans online, follow these links: www.fourh.umn.edu/foundation/about-strategic.htm and www.asu.edu/it/fyi/strategic/plans/2001.html. Remember what we have been talking about throughout this module; these areas of concentration are all intended to make you a better administrator and ultimately allow you to provide a better educational product to students.