HIGHER EDUCATION · FOCUS AREA
Building
Unit-Level Alignment
The institution has a plan. Your division is still guessing what it means for you.
We work alongside vice presidents and division leadership teams to bring real planning to the divisions where strategy has to become daily work: student affairs, human resources, enrollment, and others. Working with vice presidents and their leadership teams, we build a division plan with priorities, measures, and a clear line back to the institution’s direction, so a division can show what it contributes rather than defend what it costs.
ON A CAMPUS
What does this look like on a campus?
A division asked to support institutional goals no one has translated into its terms.
A vice president who needs to show the cabinet the unit is central, not overhead.
A unit plan written three years ago that no one has opened since.
ACROSS THE INSTITUTION
What this work looks like for the whole institution.
Making sure unit plans add up to the institution’s strategy rather than compete with it.
INSIDE A DIVISION OR UNIT
What it looks like for a single division.
A single division’s plan: priorities, measures, staffing, and what it will stop doing.
HOW WE WORK
We listen, evaluate, and build.
01
Listen
We begin by understanding the division’s responsibilities, current priorities, and challenges, along with how its leaders interpret the institution’s broader direction.
02
Evaluate
Divisions do not operate in isolation. We examine how the unit’s work connects to institutional strategy and where relationships or competing priorities may be affecting its effectiveness.
03
Build
We work with division leaders and their teams to establish meaningful priorities and develop a plan that reflects both institutional expectations and the realities of their work.
04
Support
We help translate the plan into practical actions and measures of progress so it becomes a useful tool for guiding decisions and demonstrating the division’s contribution over time.
FROM THE RESOURCE HUB
Advancing Higher Education
Turning strategy into an integrated way of operating
University of Montana
Advancing Higher Education
From institutional strategy to execution
Montana State University + University of Montana
Advancing Higher Education
Building strategy through university-wide engagement and alignment
Montana State University + Northern Arizona University