Strategic planning presentation

1. It’s Not the Plan,
It’s the Planning
EDUCAUSE 2010

2. Agenda
Planning
Strategically
Thinking
Strategically
Working
Strategically

3. Planning
Strategically

4. Boundaries?
• Planning creates change
• Change doesn’t come from new
technology
• systēma, meaning a set of
interacting or interdependent
objects forming an integrated
whole
• Plan holistically for entire system
• Systems thinking = mutual
dependencies

5. History is over, so get over it.
• 1970’s
– Monolithic formal top-down
– Prescient but unreadable
• 1980’s
– Organic and touchy-feely and
outside the box
– Ideas yes, execution no
• 1990’s
– Y2k myopia
– Emerging planning & project
management link

6. A new journey.
• Previous plan had gathered moss
• External consultants have issues
• Simple process

7. Are we there yet?
• If you don’t know where you are going then any road will get
you there
• Planning is a process, not a project
• Repeatable and continuously improvable
“Plans are
nothing;
planning is
everything.”
Dwight D.
Eisenhower

8. Change is constant.
• New students every term
• New technology every minute
• New pedagogical ideas
• New demands for resource optimization
• Planning strategically to expect complexity, change, and chaos

9. Vision
Strategy
Operations
Tactics
Integrated process
Fix Plan
STRATEGIC
PLANNING
ANNUAL SERVICE
PLAN
PERFORMANCE
PLAN
GOVERNANCE
Check
Annually evaluate
strategic success
Measure goal
progress quarterly
Assess personal
achievements
Do
DECISION
RECOMMENDATIONS
PROGRAM
INITIATIVES
INTEGRATED
PROJECTS
ASSIGNED
TASKS

10. Add another layer of abstraction.
• Time horizon
• Personal impact
• Degree of collaboration
• Ease of understanding
• Stepping stones
Vision
Strategy
Operations
Tactics

11. Plan
Governance
• Who makes
decisions
about
planning?
• Governance
creates forum
for strategic
conversations
Strategy
• Strategy =
dreams and
aspirations of
your
stakeholders
• Dreams
become goals
• Goals require
incremental
objectives
Annualplans
• Specific
measurable
actions in the
next year
• Every task
explicitly
linked to an
objective
Performanceplans
• Leaders
assigned to
accomplish
each task
• Tasks
become
individual
performance
targets
Plan
STRATEGIC
PLANNING
ANNUAL SERVICE
PLAN
PERFORMANCE
PLAN
GOVERNANCE

12. Do
• Planning requires
decisions
• Decisions introduce
change
Decisiveness:
create “cult of do”
• Projects execute change
• Plans are portfolio of
projects
• Create economic utility
Strategic program
of initiatives
• Sequencing based on
return, dependencies,
and resourcing
Operationalize the
plan by integrating
• Systemic project process
linked to specific human
resource expectations
Tactics = “get ‘er
done”
Do
DECISION
RECOMMENDATIONS
PROGRAM
INITIATIVES
INTEGRATED
PROJECTS
ASSIGNED
TASKS

13. Check
Plans are perfect until
execution starts
Measure results:
personal, operational,
and strategic
Frequently enough to
affect timely
improvements
Progress towards
goals & objectives
always matters
On time & on budget,
are not enough
Plan progress guides
future decisions
Check
Annually evaluate
strategic success
Measure goal
progress quarterly
Assess personal
achievements

14. Fix
Plans need
continual
review
Continual
strategy
discussions
Zero-based
annual
planning
Shifting
priorities
create new
personal
performance
plans
Fix

15. Vision
Strategy
Operations
Tactics
Integrated process
Fix Plan
STRATEGIC
PLANNING
ANNUAL SERVICE
PLAN
PERFORMANCE
PLAN
GOVERNANCE
Check
Annually evaluate
strategic success
Measure goal
progress quarterly
Assess personal
achievements
Do
DECISION
RECOMMENDATIONS
PROGRAM
INITIATIVES
INTEGRATED
PROJECTS
ASSIGNED
TASKS

16. Thinking
Strategically

17. Layering technologies
Web
Client/server
Networking
Database
Online
Batch
Evolutionary
Dependency

18. Layering technologies
Web
Client/server
Networking
Database
Online
Batch
Client
Value

19. Early to beta, late to production.
• “Son of Newton”
• Test, learn, assess risk
• Balanced portfolio of risks

20. Consequences
Open source
learning
management
system
Open source server
operating system
Open source ERP
administration
system
Open source
desktop productivity
tools
High Low
LowHigh
Return
Risk

21. Sources of information
• Who do you trust?
• Blending accountability with perspective
• Using research
“The nicest
thing about
the future is it
always starts
tomorrow.”

22. Working
Strategically

23. Question everything.
• How do we leverage our existing assets?
• What prototypes should we experimenting with?
• How do we socialize everything we do?
• What did we miss?
• How do we get better?
• Are we enjoying the journey?
• Are we following our customers’ priorities?
• What can we stop doing?

24. Goals
• Primary point of connection with institutional strategy
• Strategic goals are choices
• 3 to 5 years
“We are
continually
faced by
great
opportunities
brilliantly
disguised as
insoluble
problems.”
Lee Iacocca
Client
Service
Administration
Systems
Web
Services
Research
Systems
Learning and
Teaching
Infrastructure
Organization

25. Objectives.
• Goals are not prioritized
• Objective used to achieve a goal
• Objectives are:
– Concrete
– Specific
– Mutually independent
– Tangible deliverables
• Goal =  (Objectives)
Goal
Objective 1 Objective 3
Objective 2
Objective 4
Objective 5

26. Why plan?
• If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you
there.
• Simply reacting is a high risk survival strategy
• Systems are a large tangible asset and unplanned risk is
unacceptable
• Strategic plan explains your investment strategy

27. Some experiences.
• Takes longer than expected
• Short = useable
• Value is in the conversations, not the document
• Forces departmental scope & mandate discussion
• Pull vs. push
• Internally & externally competitive

28. Are we there yet?
• Nope.
• Metrics give a partial picture
• Planning an ongoing dialogue
• Obsolescence is instant
• Infinite improvement cycle

29. It’s not the Plan,
It’s the Planning
www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/960910
EDUCAUSE 2010