Pilot Outputs - The Importance of Strategy
One institution's approach to using this resource
Allocate enough time to use the sections of the kit
"On a number of occasions we allocated insufficient time to work through the exercises suggested in the kit - allow more time than you think you need feels like a good recommendation. This may be in some cases down to the uncertain future faced at this time within our sector. Allowing sufficient time for sharing progress within the core team is also important."
"The original plan (as proposed to JISC InfoNet) was for the LT to use the InfoKit on a number of occasions throughout the first half of 2010; this was to have taken place mainly during scheduled LT meetings. We changed this original plan of embedding the use of the kit into the existing leadership team meetings and decided to use two dedicated Leadership Team away days as it was difficult to fit this process into operational meetings.
The first of these days was undertaken on the 8th March 2010. All members of the Leadership team were circulated the kit in its entirety (the pdf version) and provided with links to the web version to enable the web links to be used. The entire process was facilitated by the Head of Technology, the Principal and Vice Principal. Prior to day one the entire team was asked to read the 'environmental scanning' section of the InfoKit - this was chosen as a first step as we felt that the changing environment we operate within (in terms of government policy, stakeholders changing and changes to funding systems) is currently so dynamic that the only way to address this is to improve our ability to 'scan the environment' for emergent risks in order to manage them. It was hoped that having read through the ES section that each LT member would be able to identify external factors that will impact on their area of the strategy renewal - this was a success on day one and has since stimulated much discussion in the LT.
On day one the LT worked through the 'Importance of Strategy' section of the kit together and reviewed the college's mission, vision and values. The 'Mission, Vision, Values' section was used to re-evaluate the colleges existing mission, vision and values to ensure that they were valid and still apply in the current context of the college. This was done by working through the built in exercises in this section of the kit. The principal led this section of the InfoKit exercise.
The LT also undertook an environmental scanning activity to identify areas of responsibility and risk. The LT then looked again at the headings in the existing strategic plan and worked on these in pairs to identify any required changes. The principal then allocated each member of the LT an area of the plan to work on. At the end of day one all Leadership Team members were given the task of using the 'Managing strategic activity' section of the InfoKit to review specific areas of the strategic plan with their teams. We aimed to ensure as many people as possible in the departments could contribute. This has included some of the tools discussed on the 'Consultation' page - this will be explored in more detail in the feedback from individual managers at the end of this section.
We also considered how our individual Quality Improvement Plans (QuIP's) are tied to the strategic plan and how our diversification plans require us to re-evaluate the strategy. KPI's were required to be stated against each item on the individual LT members QuIP's. Each LT member was asked to complete a draft of their QuIP in time for the second away day.
The presentation slide deck used to guide day 1 is available as Appendix A to illustrate how this was approached (it is clear to see where sections have been lifted from the kit). The KPI section in 'Managing strategic activity' was highlighted and linked to the QuIP formation.
The second away day took place on 3rd May 2010. The presentation slide deck for this day is available as Appendix B. The LT reviewed each proposed section of the plan that had been developed since the first away day. We reviewed our entire plan together as a team, incorporating the feedback from staff within the teams. The 'Managing Strategic Activity' section of the InfoKit was used to support the consultation process. We pulled a new draft of the strategy document together - a version of this is available as appendix 3. The proposed QuIP's were presented by each LT member to the rest of the team - all LT members were asked to identify areas of synergy for cross referencing the QuIP's. It should be noted that some QuIP's were more developed that others at this point. This was identified as a weakness in the process and will be discussed later. This section took much longer than anticipated as it generated significant debate. The involvement of the College governors was also discussed. It was not possible to cross reference the QuIP's or use the monitoring section of the kit (to the extent planned) to map the strategic plan / QuIP formulation and review to the College Quality Cycle. The 'Monitoring' section of the InfoKit will have to tie into elements of the College's existing quality cycle such as the process of writing the College SAR (Self Assessment Report).
"Having the kit as a reference point for everyone kept the task focussed, indeed the excellent structure of the kit was mentioned several times as being very useful. It was also noted by new LT members that the kit really helped them as they 'found their strategic feet' and provided a good way to benchmark their activity."
Rohan Slaughter, Head of Technology, Beaumont College
Following the second away day the Head of Technology and the Principal presented the work done on the strategy document and the QuIP's along with the methodology used to the College Governors. The use of the InfoKit was discussed and links to the InfoKit were circulated to the Governors via email. The Governors asked a lot of questions on the strategy development process and were keen to be involved in the process. It was agreed that each member of the LT would take their section of the strategy and their QuIP to a named governor with responsibility for their area of operation for comment and amendments.
Since the second away day the Head of Technology has interviewed the entire Leadership Team to get their impressions of the InfoKit. Notes from these discussions have been shared with the principal. This process has finished with a discussion between the principal and the Head of Technology to evaluate the success of using the kit versus the last, less structured review of the strategic plan in 2005"
