Home - Dr. Patrick R. Turner, EdD.

Program Outcome: Implement Institutional Strategy

Narrative and Reflection

West Wing's drama series depicts a familiar scene, President Jed Bartlett in the White House Situation Room actively implementing US institutional strategy. Opposite is President Barack Obama, shown during a subsequent news airing, presiding over similar strategy implementation during the now infamous "zero-dark-thirty" mission bringing Osama Bin-Laden to justice. Once formulated, implementation of institutional strategy requires acts of deep soul searching, consideration, conviction, courage, and risk taking; weighing the balance between risk, reward, and consequences.

Institutional strategy implementation is an intelligence gathering, analysis performing, planning and execution process series requiring understanding, knowledge and wisdom while hoping for a successful and transformational outcomes (Bailey, Jaggars, & Jenkins, 2015). Inclusive  and diverse stakeholder input is key for successful strategic planning (Rock & Grant, 2016). The Schoolcraft process shown below, included in both our Strategic Planning and Institutional Effectiveness group and my capstone papers, was subsequently requested by the professor to be used as an example for future classes.

(Turner, 2020)

Smyre & Richardson's' (2016) Preparing for a world that doesn’t exist – yet: Framing a second enlightenment to create communities of the future, states future strategic planning cannot be discrete events every few years, but must evolve, becoming continuous in hopes for competitive relevance, keeping pace with technological change, and leveraging instantaneous information access. Realtime dashboard access to Key Performance Indicators (KPIs, such as those Schoolcraft examples below) creates more reactive and timely course corrections, taking institutional strategy implementation evolution into the future.

(Turner, 2020)

When I reflect on DCCL's  strategic planning class and what I have experienced at Schoolcraft, it makes me realize how important our Leveraging Human Resources class (IDSL 865) was; building a culture of trust and properly setting goals amongst various stakeholders is vitally important for successful strategic plan creation and execution. Information transparency, establishing common goals, and understanding each stakeholder's unique value and attitudes is essential. By stacking up all strategic planning and institutional effectiveness processes and tools makes what is often seen as large nebulous activities, scarcely connected, seem highly integrated and intuitive. Institutional strategy issues are global and often nebulous in nature. For me, previous to DCCL, following a path through strategy planning seemed disjointed, making following context difficult. However, now it all fits together. I have had similar experiences in many DCCL classes; they pull things all together, helping me better act and behave strategically, rather than tactically. Most importantly, DCCL classes have helped me know the difference and move between these two modes naturally. This will most certainly make me a better community college leader.

Literature

Bailey, Jaggars, and Jenkins. (2015). Redesigning america’s community colleges: A clearer path to student success. ISBN-13: 978-0674368286.

Rock, D. & Grant, H., (2016). Why diverse teams are smarter. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2016/11/why-diverse-teams-are-smarter

Smyre, R., & Richardson, N. (2016). Preparing for a world that doesn’t exist – yet: Framing a second enlightenment to create communities of the future. ISBN-13: 978-1785354519.

Turner, P. R. (2020). Group Project: Strategic Planning Process. Ferris State University Doctorate in Community College Leadership Program. IDSL 835 Strategic Planning and Institutional Effectiveness class. Unpublished

Evidence
 
1.) My practicum project provided input for a Schoolcraft initiative regarding next generation classrooms. The evidence chosen is a survey results presentation entitled, "Faculty Attitudes Regarding Classroom Technology at Schoolcraft College" seeking insight into faculty's next generation classrooms vision. Given students are mission-centric and faculty deliver content, their attitudes, preferences, and vision fundamentally drive next generation classroom institutional strategy. Omitting this viewpoint dooms any strategy from go. However, faculty do not know what they do not know. Thus this evidence depicts challenges in driving transformational strategic change. This survey, therefore, is as much an introduction to strategic possibilities as it is a current attitude measure.  
PO3E1-200214- Turner Practicum Power Point - IDSL894 - Notes but No Fly In - final.pdf
 
2.) I selected my strategic planning and institutional effectiveness class capstone project as evidence of implementing institutional strategy. I utilized Schoolcraft's strategic planning model and methods fully representing course advocated structure. The paper covers Schoolcraft setting and background, a strategic issue of increasing student remote access to tech heavy classes, and uses Bryson's (2018) operational vs. strategic analysis, 
PO3E2-Turner- Strategic Plan Capstone Project-IDSL835 Strategic Plan-Inst Eff v4.pdf
3.) I selected my Leading Organizational Transformation and Cultural Change class Capstone project as it added powerful transformational change models on top of the strategic planning and relationship building tools from previous classes; creating a comprehensive transformational change leadership toolkit. 
PO3E3-201121-Turner-Transformational Change Capstone Project-IDSL830-v1 of Final.pdf
References

Bryson, J. M. (2018). Strategic planning for public and nonprofit organizations: A guide to
strengthening and sustaining organizational achievement (5th Ed.). Hoboken, N.J.:
Wiley & Sons.

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