Monday, October 26, 2015

PLANNING IN A NON-HIERARCHICAL ORGANIZATION





In the monogram on non-profits – a companion study of Good to Great, author Jim Collins distinguishes between executive and legislative leadership. The CEO of hierarchical military and for-profit organizations exercises executive power by being able to command subordinates. Heads of other organizations, e.g colleges and hospitals, do not have such authority and must seek to persuade employees to follow her/his leadership.  Those organizations behave much like legislatures that require a majority of members to agree before an action is taken. Much more work is required to move such an organization although the end result may be better if there is agreement among employees.

Strategic planning in these two types of organizations differ substantially. In a hierarchical organization a plan devised by a small group can succeed if it has the support of top officials.  In a non-hierarchical organization, that approach would spell disaster.  Creating a plan in the latter requires considerable input, conversation and review to have a chance to be implemented.

With this as background, my college embarked last year to create a five year plan focused on our core academic mission.  Because of this orientation we named it the 2015-2020 STCC Student Success Plan to highlight that it was not a master plan or overall college strategic plan.  In particular, the Student Success Plan did not address facility or financial issues. 

The plan was based on a series of surveys of students, faculty, staff and trustees.  Out of those surveys 17 key issues were identified. An implementation plan for the first year of the plan, academic year 2015-2016 narrowed that list to five:

1. A lack of effective communication with students diminishes their ability to succeed.
2. There is a race/ethnicity inequity in our 3-year graduation rates.
3. New and prospective students often do not understand “how college works.”
4. Very few students with developmental placements graduate from STCC.
5. Not enough students meet their academic standards to complete their courses successfully.


Addressing these issues is our work for this and next year.

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