DEC. 2024
Innovation and Strategy for the Small American College
from W. Kent Barnds and Augustana College
Welcome to Issue 4 of Innovation and Strategy for the Small American College.
Nearly a year into implementing Augustana's Bold & Boundless plan, we've gained valuable insights on managing expectations, allocating resources and staying flexible. Feedback from many of you after I shared the last issue served as inspiration to share practical tools and lessons that might support your own strategic efforts.
W. Kent Barnds
Executive Vice President for Strategy and Innovation
Augustana College, Rock Island, Ill.
Nearly a year in, two questions keep coming up:
"When do we start?" and "How are new initiatives going to be funded?"
Augustana's strategic plan, Bold & Boundless, approved by our Board of Trustees in January 2024, is well underway with many initiatives already in motion. Even so, members of the leadership team and Implementation Council continue to get questions about when we will begin and what are the resources available to implement Bold & Boundless.
Those of us closest to the plan have a good grasp of what is in development, but we recognize these are fair questions - folks are still wondering when they'll see things happen and how exactly to move forward big ideas. What these questions revealed is how people want — and need — clarity and transparency into the process of strategic planning.
This feedback also highlighted a need: a clear process for faculty and staff to take ideas — like those generated at an all-campus workshop — and move them toward cabinet-level support and implementation.
To tackle these questions, this fall we developed two resources I'd like to share in hopes they are helpful to our community.
The first resource was a guide to getting an initiative funded. Below is the graphic we developed, to be as clear as possible.
And here’s our guide, which was shared with the entire campus community.
In addition to addressing the funding question, we developed a "dashboard" to track efforts that align with our plan. We expect to update this dashboard quarterly to showcase progress. We shared this chart with our Board of Trustees in October to highlight our progress over nine months.
Key lesson learned: Before launching your plan, establish a clear process for both tracking progress and allocating resources to initiatives that support your strategic goals. Equally important, determine how to effectively communicate these efforts to your community to keep them informed and engaged.
We said from the start that our plan was going to be different.
So, how’s that playing out?
Right from the beginning, we made it clear this wasn't going to be a laundry list of tasks. Instead, we committed to setting the broad direction we believe holds the most potential for Augustana. It's been exciting to see this approach take shape.
Simply put, we set the direction, but it's the creativity of our brilliant and bold community that brings these efforts to life. And this has happened in a big way!
At our August all-campus retreat, we engaged the community to generate ideas that advance our strategic goals — and it worked.
We used this form and engaged the community in table discussions about how to advance Bold & Boundless. The event generated four or five ideas that will ultimately be shaped into full proposals to advance and reinforce our strategic plan.
In addition, we have four design teams (5-7 volunteers) who are developing proposals and recommendations in four specific areas that we believe are going to be critically important to advancing our efforts to win the space we've chosen.
Among the really cool ideas that are emerging or are in development are:
- An expansion of pre-semester immersion programs for new students to reinforce our commitment to engaged learning.
- A Peer Support Recovery Network to expand our mental health support services for our students in an effort to maximize student potential.
- The potential launch of a Family Business/Entrepreneur Center to build capacity in our community and connect through partnership.
It's exciting to see so many volunteers and initiative champions stepping up to bring our vision of Bold & Boundless to life.
Key lesson learned: When defining your strategic direction, make sure there's room for the creative vision and action of members of the community. It might feel risky, but giving this level of trust and freedom can bring a plan to life and set the stage for its lasting success.
A resource worth reviewing
Roger Martin's work on strategy and strategic planning is compelling. This Medium post on the complementary aspects of strategy and strategic planning is a very helpful resource for anyone involved in strategic planning on a college campus.
Professional development opportunities for CSOs
Are you a chief strategy officer? Share what’s guiding you in your work for your institution.
Let's connect.
Connect with me
W. Kent Barnds
Executive Vice President for Strategy & Innovation
Vice President of Enrollment & Communication
Augustana College, Rock Island, IL 61201
wkentbarnds@augustana.edu
This message is sent on behalf of Augustana College