Higher education is obsessed with strategic planning. And it's not hard to figure out why. A strategic plan has been developed. that much It symbolizes the stability and legitimacy of academia. The board expects that. Certification bodies cite this. And presidents feel the need to (over)sell them.
Given their pride, you'd think their strategic plans function as a success machine. But the results suggest otherwise. Most strategic plans fall into the realm of FOF.
- The Fizzle strategy launches with great fanfare. However, rather than strengthening over time, it weakens and eventually disappears due to lack of continuous development. They move quietly from desk to shelf to cabinet.
- Orphan strategies are created entirely by top management. Because only a few top leaders create these strategies, they are not adopted by the rest of the organization. High lip service and low elbow grease, orphan strategies attract a lot of attention but have little effect.
- Weak strategies may look sound on paper but collapse in practice. It's too stiff to bend, too slow to rotate, and too certain to correct itself. They cannot survive the inevitable setbacks of an ever-changing environment.
Make sure the FOF area is a feature and not a bug. This is a believable result of falling into a strategy trap. What is a strategic trap?
Strategy traps are easy to explain but difficult to escape. It works by prioritizing strategies and deprioritizing strategists. Translation: Strategy is an idolized rock star. The strategist is a roadie who is ignored.
suspicious? When was the last time you read a book about strategists that wasn't about strategy? When was the last time your higher education institution invested in a strategist rather than a strategist? How many academic programs are centered around strategists rather than strategy?
Year after year, strategists are ignored. And that's a short journey from neglected to low priority. This is why strategic traps are so insidious. Not only does this prioritize strategy over strategists, but it also makes strategists seem irrelevant.
You decide: strategy or strategist?
But here's a groundbreaking insight. The thing is, things don't have to be this way.
Your organization can escape the strategy trap with one thoughtful decision. In other words, focus on the strategist first and foremost.
how? Activate it. Train them. Support them. Get your resources. Multiply them. And believe me, you will never hear your president, provost, or dean say, “I wish I had fewer strategists at my disposal.” why? Because the best way to create more and better strategies is to train more and better strategists. full stop.
Unfortunately, too many organizations claim they can't find enough strategists to promote from within or hire externally. This drought claim is a mirage of their own making.
Every organization has leaders and followers. And every leader and follower is a potential strategist. All you have to do is activate and apply.
Five habits of a strategist
Where do I start?
Five habits distinguish strategists from non-strategists.
- Strategists lead time. Other people manage it.
- Strategists emphasize clarity. Others hope so.
- Strategists think through questions. Others idolize the answers.
- Strategists push upstream. Others camp downstream.
- Strategists look everywhere. Others simply react to whatever happens next.
Of course, every institution should want its president to embody these five habits as a sound, savvy strategist. But here's a bigger, bolder opportunity. Every president should be obsessed with developing more and better strategists at every level of the organization.
This is the only way to get strategic work done from a precious few to an empowered majority.
A pivot point for strategists
When you switch from strategy to strategist, some problems start to solve themselves.
Chief among them is strategic disruption.
Change the president? Most higher education institutions wait until new leaders are in place before beginning to build strategy. Are you hiring a head of strategy? Most organizations put existing strategies on hold until new experts take the helm. Do you want to end your current strategy? Most organizations take a long break before starting anew the strategy process. Depending on the circumstances, this strategic disruption could last from a few weeks to a few months or even longer.
But when you have a group of strategists dispersed throughout the organization, strategy disruption is no longer a threat. why?
Strategists provide discipline and direction to an institution, especially during times of transition when it is difficult to see the horizon. Becoming a strategist doesn't require a formal plan, explicit permission, or ideal conditions. You also don't need to be told to continue strategizing on behalf of your organization.
Strategists are self-motivated and self-sufficient. Strategy is not what they do. Strategy is who they are. There is no switch to turn off the ID, so the impact is uninterrupted. The strategist is always on.
Call to Action: Strategists First
i wrote Be a Strategist First: How to Avoid Strategy Traps Because I believe it is time to look at the strategy for what it is, not what it claims to be.
In reality, strategies fail far more often than they succeed. Strategy is tired. Strategy is drifting. Above all, the strategy is overwhelmed by the complexity ahead.
Thomas Paine, an 18th-century political strategist, wrote, “The long habit of thinking nothing wrong makes one appear superficially right.” For the past 50 years, the world has not thought the strategy trap was wrong. This default setting made the strategy trap seem correct on the surface.
But the evil habit of strategy that hinders strategists has been broken. And it is long past time to save the strategy itself.
The strategy must stop breathing itself out and adopt a new raison d'être. And that is always and in every way serving the strategist.
Make no mistake. Putting strategists first is the only way to unlock your strategy’s full potential.