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Strategic
Planning Brings Focus to Your Housing Program
By Patrick Connor,
Executive Director of Residential Programs and Services Indiana University
Housing
programs across the country are faced with a myriad of critical issues
as we enter this first decade of the 21st century. Should a deeper connection
to the academic mission and faculty of the campus be developed? How might
the housing program create more focused living/learning communities? Where
should current housing dollars be re-invested in facilities? Can each
of the employees within the housing program articulate how their job fulfills
the mission of the department? Do the current residential facilities meet
the needs of today’s students and summer conference programs? Does
enough space exist on campus to meet the next crest of college bound students
headed to university? This only scratches the surface of the issues.
Most housing programs have a mission statement and a set of goals that were developed based on that mission. But if those goals are only used as lofty principles that are not incorporated into daily activities of the department, they are only window dressing. If this is the case, or if the department wants to reinvigorate its staff by a process that explores what should be important, strategic planning can be the answer. For strategic planning to be successful, the director of the housing program must endorse the project, other central office staff must buy in to the value of planning, and the process must be team based that communicates well and attempts to reach consensus.
Strategic
planning has long been used in private industry. In the last 20 years,
many companies have moved to models that have principles applicable to
our work in housing. Get everyone involved in the process of strategic
planning. Define ideas and goals at every level of the organization. Be
clear who is accountable and responsible for implementing the plan. Ensure
that the planning process is cyclical and is in sync with the organization’s
annual cycle. All parts of the operation are covered through the process.
Managers are allowed to maintain control over the direction of the strategic
plan.
When my department determined that we needed to invest time in strategic planning, we looked for a model that would provide us a defined road map to reach our goal. We looked into not-for-profit models since that best defined what our approach to our work in higher education is. We choose the Wilder Foundation Model because we felt that the planning process outlined fit best with our desired outcomes. Here is the basic outline of this strategic planning process.
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Wilder
Foundation Model 1.
Get Organized
2.
Situation Analysis
3.
Develop a Strategy
4.
Draft and Refine the Plan
5.
Implement the plan
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In the early
stages of the strategic planning process, creation of the planning team
and the development of your department’s story are key components.
The planning team is the group that will provide direction, ensure continuity,
and act as decision makers throughout the process. In most cases, this
planning group will consist of staff from your central office that oversee
various aspects of the department. Some campuses may consider involving
key individuals from other campus units that have a direct connection
to your department. This group would be involved in developing the story
of the department, including its history within the institution and an
analysis of the varied programs and services that are provided to residence
hall students and other campus entities at the current time.
The next
step is the most exciting in my mind. Pulling together various groups
of students, departmental service, support, paraprofessional, and professional
staff, and other members of the university community, both faculty and
staff to engage them in a SWOT analysis of your department. Using
training facilitators, these individuals are asked to openly and honestly
share their assessment of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,
and threats to your housing program. The facilitators work with these
groups to then developed lists of critical issues that are created based
on reviewing and summarizing the data obtained through the analysis. The
keys here are encouraging your participants to be open and honest, outlining
how your department intends to use the information, and how you will continue
to keep them apprised of the progress made in developing the strategic
plan. This process reinforces that your department is open to feedback
and has a plan of how to incorporate that feedback into the planning process.
It is advisable to incorporate other feedback data that has been collected
such as student satisfaction surveys, employee assessments, facility audits,
and any other benchmarking instruments that you are using. Interpretation
of this data can help you develop additional critical issues.
The planning
team then has a large task in front of it. It entails taking all those
issues and putting them into some sensible format. There are many different
paths the planning team can take, but all will eventually lead to the
same result. Some method of grouping critical issues that address the
same general concepts and combining issues that articulate the same thought.
In summarizing these issues, consensus seeking and frank dialogue are
equally important, as the planning team draws upon all the work and information
that has been collected. After grouping the issues into areas of emphasis,
the planning team can move toward developing clearly worded goal statements
to define what your department dreams to achieve. In this process, it
is essential to have the ability to trace your progress back to the foundation
of series of critical issues and other information gathered in the SWOT
analysis since the next phase is dependent upon it.
Once the planning committee has developed the goal statements, it is time to re-engage your employees and students in developing strategies to reach the goals. A goal team is formed to develop specific strategies and objectives for the planning committee to consider. This team should have a cross-functional representation of your department’s staff and include students from your residential units. The planning team should develop a consistent committee charge and desired outcomes to each goal team established, as well as, provide a planning team member to serve as a guider to help keep focus on the desired outcomes. Each goal team should be provided a timeline to complete their work and make a presentation to the planning team.
The final
stage begins with meetings with the various goal teams after they have
completed their work. Refinements to their proposals occur through the
discussion of the suggested strategies and objectives. When the planning
team is confident that proposed solutions will lead to the desired outcomes,
the strategic plan can be adopted and implemented. Each staff member and
manager can incorporate the strategic plan into annual goals and objectives.
The planning team takes responsibility for monitoring the performance
of the organization and updating the plan where needed.
The advantages
of developing a strategic plan are numerous. It clearly defines the path
to reach your organizational goals. It provides for all employees an expectation
and understanding of what role they play and how they can assist in reaching
those goals. It communicates to students, other members of the university
community and the public what your department is striving to achieve.
I have found the actual process to be equally enriching. It has been extremely
helpful to engage many members of the university community who have opinions
about the housing programs role or impact on campus. Having students take
an active role in the planning process has helped our department in many
ways from aiding students in understanding what we are trying to accomplish
to hearing more clearly what our students desire out of their residence
hall experience.
From my
standpoint, strategic planning is definitely worth the investment in time,
money, and conversation. When completed, you will have a plan that serves
as the barometer for decision-making in your organization.
Featured
Resource
Strategic
Planning Workbook for Nonprofit Organizations, Revised and Updated Amherst
H. Wilder Foundation.
About the Author
Patrick Connor, is the Executive Director of Residential Programs and Services at Indiana University. He has been in the housing field for 20 years and has been active in ACUHO-I, including chairing the Professional Standards Committee and working with the Standards Institute that have been held in conjunction with the Annual Conference. Pat currently is the Editor for TRENDS, the GLACUHO news magazine and has also served the GLACUHO organization as Treasurer.