Title of Effective Practice: - California Postsecondary Education ...

Direct Connection to Policy Area 6 of The Illinois Commitment
Inclusive Process for Strategic and Long-Range Planning That Works!
Robert Morris College
What issue or need is addressed by the effective practice? Robert Morris College aspired to have a comprehensive,
inclusive planning process that takes into account the College’s distinctive culture, needs and operational features as well
as one whose outcome is a plan that can be flexed according to various environmental factors such as changing students and
limited resources.
Description of the effective practice: Although Robert Morris College has historically engaged in long-range planning, it
executed major revisions in its process during the creation and implementation of the College’s 2002-2007 five-year plan.
The changes resulted in the process becoming much more inclusive in nature, integrating feedback from various
stakeholders of the institution, and creating a broad sense of ownership at multiple levels in the organization. The
foundation for each long-range plan is the institution’s mission statement, which in its simplest form states, “Robert Morris
College offers professional, career-focused education in a collegiate setting to diverse communities.” Of comparable
importance for planning is RMC’s vision of becoming a “first choice” institution as measured in comparison to our peer
group of local career/professional-focused colleges/universities. The comprehensive, inclusive planning process involves
eight formal steps that are interdependent and equal in importance to the plan being embraced, promoted and achieved:
Collecting Input, Creating Consensus, Building the Plan. Input is continually sought from all RMC community members.
Feedback is gathered from faculty, staff, advisory committees, trustees, senior managers, the Academic Council, student
groups and alumni. Models, developed to provide a systematic overview of the input, are presented in a series of open
meetings at each of RMC’s seven campuses. Framework goals which provide strategic direction for the College are
established by the Board of Trustees. A “Catalog of Potential Opportunities” to support the framework goals is compiled
from the gathered input; each potential initiative is defined on an “Opportunity Sheet” with a brief analysis of cost,
competing opportunities, impact, and time frames for implementation. The various constituent groups rank the
opportunities utilizing a weighted scale that ultimately determines which opportunities become the measurable objectives of
the long-range plan.
Communicating the Plan Internally and to the Community at Large. Once completed, the long-range plan is outlined in a
formal brochure which is utilized with groups inside and outside the College as a basis for discussion of the plan. A
planning flowchart and the progress made toward the measurable objectives are updated quarterly; they are discussed at
each Board of Trustees and Senior Management Team meeting, and periodic open meetings are held during the academic
year to provide a status report to faculty and staff.
Implementing the Plan. The long-range plan serves as the centerpiece for both daily decision-making and budget
considerations. Throughout the year, each senior manager receives a collection of materials designed to evaluate, refine,
and flex the long-range plan. Instead of assigning the responsibility for each of the plan’s objectives to an individual
member of the Senior Management Team, all members focus on the specific planning that must occur in his/her area(s) of
control in order for the long-range objective and timeline to be achieved. A portion of each senior manager’s annual
performance evaluation assesses his/her planning effectiveness.
Evaluating the Results and the Planning Process. The results are evaluated annually to coincide with the yearly assessment
cycle, thus formalizing the linkage between planning, budgeting, and assessment. During the 2005-06 academic year,
various types (formal, informal, internal, external) of reviews of the process were conducted that resulted in further
refinement of some process elements for implementation of the 2006-2010 plan.
How does this practice achieve sustainability? Support exists for this kind of approach because it is fluid and responsive;
it overcomes concerns about long-range planning almost never working (Fish 2004) because the object of analysis [the
college] does not stand still and wait for the more traditional planning process used by higher education institutions to
complete itself.
What are the results/measurable outcomes? The design around a tangible Board-defined framework of goals,
prioritization of opportunities and translation of them into measurable objectives, linkage of planning to the formal
assessment cycle, and the consensus among faculty and staff who feel more engaged in the planning process all contribute
to a heightened focus on and commitment to institutional mission. RMC’s 2002-2007 long-range plan, Turning Issues into
Action—under which the comprehensive, inclusive process was applied fully for the first time—was fulfilled to such a
significant extent that it was ended a year before schedule with only a few objectives being carried over to the 2006-2010
plan.
Contact Information
Name: Mablene Krueger
Email: mkrueger@robertmorris.edu
Phone: (312) 935-6645
206