Transformative vs strategic: reflections on distinction

As a management tool borrowed from industry, the discipline of strategic planning often receives muted support from post-secondary education enterprises. Scholarly literature – as well as the archives of many prestigious institutions – are littered with strategic treatises that reflect honorable intent and good faith effort but marginal impact on daily or long-term operations. In some cases, the marginal outcome may be attributed to overly-ambitious expectations; in others, the disappointment may derive from aiming too low, proceeding too cautiously or recoiling in fear from the implications of putting into action a truly transformative initiative.

These considerations are fundamental to and continuously inform the resources and services offered by the Transformation Collaborative, LLC.  We continuously review and evaluate contemporary attitudes toward considering, initiating, delivering and implementing institutional and organizational transformation. Consider the observations of Lee Gardner, writing in the Chronicle of Higher Education. He inventories a robust list of deficiencies attached to strategic and transformative change initiatives. More significantly, he applies the contemporary context of the post-pandemic environment to characterize the importance, risk and opportunities of transformation:

“Many colleges now face a landscape more challenging than any current leaders have ever known, and need adroit strategies to steer toward thriving futures,” Gardner writes. https://bit.ly/2WKToNu

Indeed, strategic planning in the “next normal” has higher stakes than ever. And greater opportunities for institutions with the courage, intelligence and audacity to transform themselves into robust, forward-leaning enterprises that pay tribute to their values, mission and fidelity to student success.

On Gardner’s short list of strategic plan deficiencies:

·         The transformation team is too insulated from the greater institutional community.

·         The initiative is disconnected from internal and external data, research, survey results.

·         The process is devoid of a methodical process for measuring and tracking results.

An effective transformation initiative enlists and engages key segments of the campus to keep the process grounded in reality, and to ensure the prospective impact honors and respects the contribution of the broader community. In addition, under the Transformation Collaborative program of work, data and other forms of objective information are gathered, reviewed and integrated continuously with the reinvention process. Data and accountability through measurement inform the process and the final product.

The effective strategic planning process embodies other attributes as well. Gardener’s inventory includes:

·         It cultivates relationships across the institution and aligns resources accordingly.

·         It provides faculty and staff the “ability to see themselves in the plan and to feel like they themselves have a clear role and responsibility.”

·         It is written and shared in a vernacular that all key constituents can understand and support.

The inventory of “Dos and Don’ts” of planning for transformation is broad and wide. Prioritizing the inventory and giving it appropriate weight in application reflect some of the rigor and methods of the Transformation Collaborative. The gravity of the process of transformation cannot be exaggerated. The alternative – defaulting to status quo behavior, processes and activities – has no demonstrated capacity to effect transformation.

“If you don’t have a plan, the budget ends up becoming the plan,” Gardner writes. “Short-term financial considerations — not the mission” wind up shaping decisions.

The foundation for transformation – versus other strategic planning exercises – involves a deep review of leadership intentions. The Transformation Collaborative is guided by awareness of and attention to precursor dynamics, motivations, aspirations and values. Transformation of the enterprise is preceded by a change of operations and behaviors; transformation of behaviors is derived from transformation of intentions, attitudes and outlooks. In essence, a change of heart is often required.

Strategic plans that simply offer “more cowbell,” or doubling down on existing tactics and programs, are quite common. Leveraging current initiatives to achieve transformation, however, likely marginalizes the opportunity for the new, the innovative, the truly transformative.

Look to www.transformationcollaborative.net for periodic updates and reviews of contemporary trends in transformation planning and execution.

Anthony S. Bieda   |   10.5.2021