Advancing Higher Education
Montana State University: a university-wide plan that 150 stakeholders helped write
SECTOR
Higher education
SERVICE
Strategic Planning, Employee and Stakeholder Engagement
FORMAT
In person
The situation
A university-wide strategic plan has to do two things at once: set direction for years ahead, and be believed by the people who will carry it out. Montana State University wanted a plan built in public, with a depth and breadth of stakeholder groups involved from the start, and one that would hold up to regional accreditation standards.
What we did
We began by listening. Our team ran interviews, listening sessions, and public forums with more than 150 MSU stakeholders across 12 groups: community leaders, staff and faculty, students and alumni, and governance leaders.
We analyzed those early findings, worked with the strategic planning committee to shape the plan, facilitated six on-campus planning sessions over eight months, and brought campus and community together in a series of town hall meetings so the plan was adopted, not announced. Throughout, MSU posted frequent updates so the public could follow and review the work.
What changed
MSU has a plan that sets direction for several years, aligns with regional accreditation standards, and was built in the open with on-campus and off-campus voices. Because every step and every participant was documented, the university can show its accreditors that planning was ongoing and inclusive.
The work outlasted the engagement. The MSU College of Arts and Architecture later asked us to facilitate its first formal strategic planning process, bringing its four schools, department directors, faculty, students, donors, the alumni foundation, local firms that hire its graduates, and the MSU administration into one set of goals that reinforce each other across the college and the university.
Having a set of external eyes and ears is helpful for hearing our input more objectively and helping us to approach the process from a fresh perspective.
Vice President of Planning and Analysis, Montana State University
THE SERVICE BEHIND THIS WORK
Strategic Planning
Part of Building Sustainable Organizations.
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