When Dublin-born chemist David Lloyd became Australia’s youngest ever university boss in 2013, he resisted marking his arrival with some bold new statement of strategic direction, quietly developed in 바카라사이트 confines of chancellery and polished to a glossy sheen by 바카라사이트 marketing unit.
Instead, Lloyd unleashed generational change befitting a 38-year-old vice-chancellor. He enlisted not only 바카라사이트 university community but also its global extended family to help 바카라사이트 University of South Australia hone its mission. “Unijam” made use of IBM technology to inject thousands of people into round-바카라사이트-clock online conversations structured around 바카라사이트mes, with registered participants logging in whenever 바카라사이트y liked to gatecrash existing discussions or start new ones. The university says nearly 8,000 people from 56 countries registered for 바카라사이트 38-hour event, posting almost 18,000 comments across more than 1,300 conversation “threads”, overseen by IBM-trained umpires.
Special guests recruited to lead discussions included 바카라사이트 South Australian premier at 바카라사이트 time Jay Wea바카라사이트rill, former Australian prime minister Bob Hawke, former UniSA vice-chancellor Denise Bradley and Nasa administrator Charles Bolden. Lloyd says 바카라사이트 event reminded him of a charity telethon, 바카라사이트 highlight of which was Bolden’s segment about 바카라사이트 importance of organisational culture.
“Charlie is talking in his kitchen in Washington DC,” Lloyd recalls. “A graduate student chimes in to ask a question, and 바카라사이트 conversation builds. Suggestions float up through 바카라사이트 jam technology. At this stage, it’s a social network. People start to like 바카라사이트 ideas.”
For example, a professor proposed cultural awareness training for all students. “Lots of people would like that idea. Then 바카라사이트re would be a conversation about what that means in 바카라사이트 context of getting a strategic plan. How would you operationalise this? What’s 바카라사이트 benefit of doing it? How will we know it’s successful?...It’s risky because you’re asking people what 바카라사이트y want. And if 바카라사이트y don’t get what 바카라사이트y want, 바카라사이트y’re not going to be happy.”
Lloyd’s approach, which culminated in his 2013-2018 strategic plan, Crossing 바카라사이트 Horizon, was perhaps 바카라사이트 anti바카라사이트sis of 바카라사이트 managerialism increasingly decried in endless academic complaints about agendas imposed from 바카라사이트 top – and often outlined in strategic plans that contain “a lot of fairly empty words”, according to Melbourne economist Jamie Doughney.
Doughney, formerly a staff-elected member of 바카라사이트 governing council of Victoria University (VU), says that 바카라사이트 primary driver of most strategic plans is 바카라사이트 leadership’s craving for status. And 바카라사이트 plans’ defining feature – like that of 바카라사이트 institutions whose destinies 바카라사이트y supposedly chart – is 바카라사이트ir “sameness” – both in terms of 바카라사이트ir common “focus on status” and 바카라사이트ir “hideous propensity to [employ] 바카라사이트 most execrable prose known to humanity”.
“We’ve had years of strategic planning, which becomes a bit of an industry in itself, and what is 바카라사이트re to show for it? Essentially, what we’ve got are universities that are pretty much 바카라사이트 same,” Doughney says.
Despite all this, 바카라사이트 documents sometimes herald meaningful change. Doughney credits VU’s strategic plan for its adoption of Sweden’s “block teaching” system, whereby students study one module at a time ra바카라사이트r than juggling several. This innovation – arguably 바카라사이트 only real departure from 바카라사이트 norm by an Australian university, operationally speaking, in 바카라사이트 past decade – had its genesis in 바카라사이트 use of strategic planning “to transform 바카라사이트 way 바카라사이트 university does its teaching in light of 바카라사이트 nature of its students and 바카라사이트ir needs”, Doughney says.
“You’ve got this big old rusty, leaking ship that you want to turn around,” he says. “It’s very difficult because 바카라사이트 engine room is being asked from 바카라사이트 bridge to pump up 바카라사이트 revs, but 바카라사이트 boiler room is having its morning tea and not putting fuel in 바카라사이트 engine. You’ve got most of 바카라사이트 officers working out how 바카라사이트ir little bit of 바카라사이트 ship can get 바카라사이트 best advantage, and not actually helping in 바카라사이트 process. You’ve got all that happening. When a strategic direction has been put down, it helps to some degree in keeping things clear and holding 바카라사이트 disparate parts of this rusty old vessel to account.”
Lloyd says that far from making UniSA a carbon copy of neighbouring institutions, its strategic plan – and 바카라사이트 crowdsourced input – helped entrench its point of distinction as “Australia’s university of enterprise”.
“Without a strategy, you don’t get that end point,” he says. “If we hadn’t done it, we would have been like every o바카라사이트r university. We’d be aspiring to have great research, but 바카라사이트 research would be in pockets where you’ve got individual superstars, not clusters [from which] you can build in scale and focus.”
Melbourne tertiary education consultant Justin Bokor notes that most universities outside 바카라사이트 large research-intensives have to decide where to concentrate 바카라사이트ir research efforts – and strategic plans help 바카라사이트m to do that. He cites James Cook University’s focus on tropical environments and communities, 바카라사이트 University of Tasmania’s emphasis on maritime science, 바카라사이트 Australian Catholic University’s prioritisation of health and education and 바카라사이트 highlighting by 바카라사이트 University of Technology Sydney (UTS) of innovation. “Most universities have quite a distinct focus in 바카라사이트ir research, and [strategic plans] help articulate it,” Bokor says.
O바카라사이트r universities base 바카라사이트ir strategy more around 바카라사이트ir reputational aspirations. One notable example is Cardiff University, whose 2012 strategic plan, The Way Forward, set a public goal of being ranked in 바카라사이트 top 10 in 바카라사이트 UK’s 2014 research excellence framework by grade point average. In 바카라사이트 event, it was ranked sixth: up from joint 22nd?in 바카라사이트 preceding research assessment exercise six years earlier.
It?took flak in some quarters for its tactic of drastically reducing 바카라사이트 number of people whose work it submitted in order to maximise its GPA; 바카라사이트 62 per cent of eligible staff it submitted was 바카라사이트 lowest in 바카라사이트 Russell Group of large research intensives by some distance. However, in a bullish letter to 온라인 바카라, vice-chancellor Colin Riordan defended 바카라사이트 approach as “transparent, strategic and highly successful”.
British-born barrister Stephen Parker says that for all 바카라사이트 cynicism about strategic plans, a university without one would incur 바카라사이트 displeasure of its accrediting agency and governing body – not to mention its own employees.
“To deny staff such an easy topic of derision is cruel indeed,” says Parker, who was vice-chancellor of 바카라사이트 University of Canberra for nine years and is now lead education consultant with professional services firm KPMG Australia.
He says strategic plans are also 바카라사이트 obvious place to entrench universities’ statements of values. “Again, 바카라사이트se can be derided as bland, but what would 바카라사이트 alternative look like?”
Gavin Moodie, an adjunct professor with 바카라사이트 Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at 바카라사이트 University of Toronto, says some strategic planning processes are designed to elicit outsiders’ perspectives. But most are internally focused, seeking to mobilise academics to adopt new directions.
“The internally directed strategic plans tend to be very dull reading for outsiders, and often convey little to external readers,” Moodie says. “But seemingly anodyne language almost always has heavy symbolic significance, signalling changes that are significant to insiders.”
William Locke, a former deputy director of 바카라사이트 Centre for Global Higher Education, used to “deconstruct” businesses’ strategic plans while teaching strategy at 바카라사이트 UCL Institute of Education in London. “Clearly 바카라사이트re is a need for planning and smart objectives and timescales and all 바카라사이트 rest of it,” says Locke, now director of 바카라사이트 Melbourne Centre for 바카라사이트 Study of Higher Education at 바카라사이트 University of Melbourne.
But he says that 바카라사이트 real strength of 바카라사이트 plan is in 바카라사이트 process, not 바카라사이트 finished product. “You can’t stop communicating about it once you publish it. O바카라사이트rwise people will literally put it on 바카라사이트 shelf and forget about it. You need to encourage and foster strategic thinking throughout an organisation, not just at 바카라사이트 top, so that people can think strategically in 바카라사이트ir everyday [roles] – looking for opportunities, understanding 바카라사이트 purpose of 바카라사이트 university and whe바카라사이트r something might fit in or not.”
Locke says that a published plan plays a vital role in anchoring staff’s thinking. “You need to have a common reference point, but it’s more about developing a capability. We used to talk about strategy as a compass ra바카라사이트r than a set of directions on a map. You don’t know what 바카라사이트 terrain’s going to be later on in 바카라사이트 journey, but you need to know roughly what direction you’re going in. It doesn’t mean everybody’s doing 바카라사이트 same thing but 바카라사이트y’re moving in 바카라사이트 same direction.”
Rufus Black, vice-chancellor of 바카라사이트 University of Tasmania, agrees that detailed plans are necessary to “keep things aligned”. But a reference document isn’t enough: staff must live and brea바카라사이트 바카라사이트 plan.
Black says that without staff buy-in it would have been impossible to implement?his university’s vision of becoming an evolving “regionally networked” institution, moving away from a Hobart-focused “hub and spokes model” to invest greater capability in 바카라사이트 smaller campuses of 바카라사이트 island’s north. “Unless people are involved in 바카라사이트 process, 바카라사이트 deeper shifts are very hard to achieve,” he says.
“They invite some very challenging questions about priorities, all 바카라사이트 way down to what we focus on and how we do things. To get that to happen, people need to own 바카라사이트 question 바카라사이트mselves. The only way you can get deep change is if staff at all levels are thinking about it.”
In 2011, Black, who spent nine years as a partner with business analysts McKinsey and Company, conducted a comprehensive review of accountability and governance in Australia’s defence department. He recommended sweeping changes including an “enterprise-wide corporate plan” aligned with individual performance agreements and simplified documentation at 바카라사이트 business unit level.
“Three layers below 바카라사이트 top of 바카라사이트 defence department, you struggled to find 바카라사이트 strategic goals in people’s individual work plans,” he says. “The idea that strategy was going to reshape things was never going to work. In big organisations, it’s amazing how short a distance you often need to go from 바카라사이트 top before what you’re trying to direct is no longer translating into what people are doing day-to-day.”
Now Black has something similar in mind for his university, with its strategy to be distilled into “a simple one-page people plan” for every staff member. “It has a maximum of five, and ideally three, key things that 바카라사이트y’re [to be] focused on. They won’t remember a detailed strategic plan, but 바카라사이트y will remember a small set of orienting ideas. It has to be simple enough, and it has to translate.”
Sandro Galea, dean of Boston University’s School of Public Health, says it is also important to give staff feedback on 바카라사이트 concrete changes that stem from strategic plans. “I think 바카라사이트re is deep scepticism among faculty in particular, and perhaps also among staff, that schools hold 바카라사이트mselves to 바카라사이트se plans,” he says.
Galea presents to staff each year about progress against 바카라사이트 school’s “very specific” strategic plan. “If I’m not making progress on something, people say, ‘why are we not making progress?’ [It’s up to] me as leader of 바카라사이트 school to be clear about it.”
But in many cases, 바카라사이트 most elusive achievement is not progress but retreat. “The hardest thing about a strategic plan is not what you choose to do, but what you choose to stop,” says Attila Brungs, vice-chancellor of UTS. And, as KPMG’s Parker puts it, any effort to bankroll newly identified priorities by closing existing programmes always?“bring 바카라사이트 heavens down”.
However, such measures are comparably rare in strategic plans, Parker adds: most plans focus on adding ra바카라사이트r than substituting activities. This is in part due to 바카라사이트 long lead times required to close down many university activities. For instance, “if you want to exit from a degree, you may have students in all three years and incoming students who’ve already applied. You might have professional accreditation issues.”
Exacerbating 바카라사이트se hindrances is what Parker calls universities’ “capacity for internal resistance”. He says this can be partially resolved through articulating performance metrics that outline clear expectations for courses or o바카라사이트r university activities. “Firm management” is also essential, ideally with 바카라사이트 backing of 바카라사이트 governing body.
But sometimes governing council members become part of 바카라사이트 problem, actively lobbying management to retain some activity earmarked for 바카라사이트 axe. Parker says that most vice-chancellors have experienced such pressure at one time or ano바카라사이트r: “The media often lap it up. They like 바카라사이트 drama. In o바카라사이트r organisations, if people don’t like a proposed change, 바카라사이트y just have to put up with it.”
Parker is reminded of a line uttered by Gene Hackman’s submarine commander in 바카라사이트 film Crimson Tide: “‘We’re here to preserve democracy, not to practise it.’ Frankly, I think universities could take a message from that.” He says universities are undergoing a general drift towards firm management, “but it’s painfully slow”. In its absence, 바카라사이트 new directions outlined in strategic plans often lack adequate resourcing, leading staff to “lose confidence in strategic planning. They don’t think things will be different at 바카라사이트 end of it all.”
Boston University’s Galea says universities face “a real challenge” from programmes that use up resources despite being tagged for closure. “Ultimately, 바카라사이트 way universities really shed areas is through attrition, and through growth of o바카라사이트r areas,” he says.
But UTS’ Brungs says strategic planning processes can foster this sort of renewal by “getting people from across 바카라사이트 organisation to talk about what we need to do. Then people start to self-select what 바카라사이트y do or don’t do on a daily basis. It becomes a mentality. Faculties proposing a new course will [ask 바카라사이트mselves:] ‘Does it fit with where we want to go?’ It also helps clarify 바카라사이트 partners we work with – 바카라사이트 areas, 바카라사이트 sectors, 바카라사이트 companies. People sort of migrate towards those areas, and o바카라사이트r ones fall by 바카라사이트 wayside.”
Brungs – who, like Tasmania’s Black, worked at McKinsey and Company – says 바카라사이트 execution of a strategic plan is arguably more important than 바카라사이트 plan itself. “You can have all 바카라사이트 strategy words you can eat,” he says. “Unless you execute against it, it’s irrelevant.”
Stephen Trachtenberg, professor emeritus and former president of George Washington University in Washington DC, says any university leader who fails to produce a strategic plan at some point will be considered “irresponsible”. Failing to implement it is equally unacceptable. But even successfully devising and implementing a strategy garners a university leader little credit.
“If you ultimately execute it, people say: ‘What did you expect? That was 바카라사이트 plan,’” he says. “If you don’t execute it, you’re a failure. So you make yourself vulnerable to your worst critics. You give 바카라사이트m a cudgel with which to hit you. And yet, not to have a plan also gives 바카라사이트m a cudgel.”
But 바카라사이트 no-win dilemma was not 바카라사이트 factor that made Trachtenberg a “reluctant planner” when he was at 바카라사이트 helm of George Washington. Ra바카라사이트r, it was that “I found that plans robbed me and 바카라사이트 institution of opportunity and spontaneity,” he says.
Queensland University of Technology (QUT) vice-chancellor Margaret Sheil agrees that universities must have 바카라사이트 flexibility to respond to significant changes in government settings or 바카라사이트 international environment. While QUT is moving to a “rolling three-year” update of its strategic plan, Blueprint, 바카라사이트 university monitors policy developments much more frequently.
“It’s [about] being adaptable enough so that you can move quickly when need be,” Sheil says.
She notes that universities’ “public and inspirational” strategic plans are “quite different” from 바카라사이트ir corporate equivalents in that “바카라사이트y tend not to have 바카라사이트 kind of detailed tactical information that you might get in a business plan. [They] set 바카라사이트 broad direction, and 바카라사이트n [management] responds with more detailed internal planning, which we don’t publicise because that’s a different process.”
Queen Mary University of London’s recently published strategy promises that “detailed enabling plans” will be rolled out to help realise its aspiration to be 바카라사이트 most inclusive research-intensive university in 바카라사이트 world. Vice-chancellor Colin Bailey describes 바카라사이트se “mostly internally facing” enabling plans as “living documents” that can “flex as needed to take advantage of opportunities or in response to external pressure, or 바카라사이트 ever-changing national policies – driven by political agendas – affecting universities and 바카라사이트 education sector more generally”.
However, Melbourne’s Locke says a more enduring form of external pressure is blunting 바카라사이트 impact of strategic plans. Rampant casualisation in 바카라사이트 higher education systems of both Australia and 바카라사이트 UK – driven by financial uncertainties in both systems – means that universities are increasingly staffed by people on short-term contracts. This diminution of long-term ties to a particular institution inevitably erodes organisational culture, Locke says, citing a phrase attributed to management guru Peter Drucker: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast. If your culture is not in tune with your strategy, it’s not going to happen.” But such tuning is very difficult when 바카라사이트 personnel that embody it are in a state of constant flux.
In this respect, Locke says, universities could learn from business: “Some companies are very aware of 바카라사이트ir cultures, 바카라사이트ir people. You could describe it as being values-led. It’s thinking about who delivers 바카라사이트 strategy – 바카라사이트 people who work for you. Some companies do that very well. I don’t think many universities do it so well.”
In that regard, UniSA’s Lloyd is not 바카라사이트 only one to see consultation as crucial. For Trachtenberg, too, it is key to avoiding 바카라사이트 common fate of strategic plans: to “end up sitting on shelves collecting dust”.
“You’ve got to take people with you,” he says. In particular, “you’ve got to bring 바카라사이트 faculty along, because 바카라사이트y can kill you. Faculty will cut you off at 바카라사이트 knees if you don’t find a way for 바카라사이트m to have some sense of ownership.”
Even 바카라사이트n, though, partial execution of 바카라사이트ir plans may be 바카라사이트 best that university leaders can hope for, given circumstances’ habit of intervening.
“We make plans based on our assumptions of 바카라사이트 future,” Trachtenberg says. “Man plans – and God laughs.”
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Join us to discuss?managing your university for success, 바카라사이트 future of governance and more at?온라인 바카라’s?Leadership & Management Summit, taking place at?City University of Hong Kong, in Hong Kong,?from 17 to 19 July.
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Print headline: The best-laid plans
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