Strategic planning

It can be a great team-building exercise and it's required.


Dr. Terry Smith, executive vice president and dean for academic affairs and Janet Caruthers, director of the Stafford Library, presented a workshop on how to develop a departmental strategic plan in October.

The presentation took less than an hour and focused on how to create a succinct plan. Caruthers spoke because she's already completed a succinct plan; Smith, who is in charge of departmental planning, sees it as a good way to help get the college ready for reaccreditation in 2012. He added that a plan is required of all departments.

How do you write a departmental strategic plan? Smith strongly recommended each department tie their goals to the college's mission statement and the 15 key goals of the transformational plan . Each priority should be tied to a key component of the transformational plan, not necessarily a transformational goal.

Smith added that a SWOT analysis – your department's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats – was likewise essential. He urged directors to keep it as short as Caruthers' 10-page plan.

After you've done a SWOT analysis, Caruthers said, get your staff involved. Don’t make this a top-down process. Listen to them, weight and then rate their priorities. This process can be anonymous. Employees need to feel they can comment candidly.

However, Smith said, "This not a departmental wish list! There can be wishes in there, of course, but this is not pie in the sky stuff. Make it real and contextual."

Caruthers then described how she completed her plan. "I started by asking myself, what does a model library for a liberal arts college look like?" She then asked her staff to rank their priorities.

Her plan, adopted in September 2009, begins with a succinct library mission statement, followed by a SWOT analysis and strategic plan based on Association of Colleges and Research Libraries criteria. Each department likely already has professional guidelines to follow. Her strategic plan follows, a bulleted list that begins with planning and assessment (rewriting the library's mission statement, developing a policy manual, developing a marketing plan) and services provided, goes on to resources, staffing and budget.

The document ends with a numbered list of the library's priorities. No. 1? Not more staff but an expanded electronic collection.

Smith asked Caruthers, "When you were finished, what did you feel you had accomplished?"

She responded, "I felt like I knew where I wanted to go with the library … this exercise helped me refocus on some basic, day-to-day things" and helped her get a better handle on staff happiness and turnover, she said.

There is a phased-in approach to the creation of departmental strategic planning. Here are each department's deadlines:

Dec. 1, 2009
Business office
Athletics
Campus Life
Enrollment Management, encompassing:
Registration and Financial Services
Financial Aid
Student Records and Transcripts
Evaluations
Admissions

Feb. 1, 2010
Administrative Services
Mail & Print Services
Human Resources
Development, Alumni* & Public Relations
Technology Services
Marketing

April 1, 2010
AHE, encompassing:
Evening
Nationwide
Online
Academic Affairs, encompassing:
Graduate Studies
The writing and math centers
Stafford Library*
Institutional Research
Systems Analysts

Future workshops will be held in February and April, 2010.

*Alumni Relation's plan is in process; the library's plan is complete and approved.