Mapping a Milestone Higher Education Strategy
You aren’t sleeping, tossing and turning, and dreaming the big nightmare, claws are coming at you and you are running, out of breath as fast as you can, and you need a place to hide. It is dark, you feel alone. You will never, never outrun it. And, you can’t see it.
It is a pandemic. Microscopic viral drops in the air, possibly heading your way. They are everywhere. You can’t breathe, you have to discover a way out. You can’t even see your fear. It leads to chaos in your community, regionally and nationally and that leads to uncertainty, and mass hysteria. The media has everyone afraid. Everyone has an opinion. Should you stand up or stand down? Afterall, you are a leader? It is an impossible decision.
As a college president, what are your options? We tried remote working, virtual platforms, flexible work arrangements. Your faculty and staff are still resigning. Re-organization? Maybe now is the time. I mean seriously, half of your team has left or is thinking about it so now might be the least chaotic time to map your new organization. You have learned a lot through Covid-19, a lot more than you would have learned in 10 years, if life had gone on the same way. You need to develop a clean slate. What and who do you really need to run this university? Some things are a given and go right back up on the whiteboard. Enrollment for instance is paramount to success – the life blood of the university. Governance is probably also going back up on the white board instantly. Structure is necessary. But, can you reshape student life, the curriculum and the modalities of deliverables? You have an opportunity that you will never have again. It will take courage, and we don’t suggest that you go it alone. This will take ideation like never before. What would your students say they want in student life? Have you even been killing yourself to deliver what they want?
The Great Resignation following the pandemic is a signal to us all as leaders that our progress is slow when it comes to developing our professionals and our teams. It also is the chaos we needed to re-imagine our vision and remove the silos to begin anew. Change is healthy but often scary and intimidating for most leaders and their direct reports but if it is broken anyway, why not? The risk could be minimal. The reward might be increased process efficiency, ROI, and team alignment. Start fresh, re-organize and create the ideal work place. Afterall, you are attempting to hire for a lot of positions. Are they positions that you really, really need? It is time to brainstorm who you need and what must happen and how and when. Everything else is window dressing.
The sequel to this nightmare needs to manifest differently. Reliving what we have been through has and will continue to make us different going into a re-organization, and your great team that is loyal with you. The passionate members will appreciate new creative ways to ideate the student experience in whatever modality you choose. Deliver it differently. Give the students what they need and want. This is where it could get tricky. Selling your board and your governance committees on new methods can always promote questions. Real life skills, hands-on learning, theory to practice, with internships, field work, shadow programs and maybe part of this occurs right on your campus.
A test group of students who have internships on your campus; especially in the areas of technology where we know careers are growing. Honestly, majoring in anything other than entrepreneurship, video game design, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity or health care might just be a like putting cash down the garbage disposal without major curricular component changes. Parents and students are beginning to question the careers of the future.
How about this as an idea, every student has an internship every day on campus helping your teams achieve success and your students obtain real world experience. The enrollment office needs event planners, analytics, report writers, salespeople and marketers. Aren’t all of those majors you have in your curriculum? The advancement office needs investment bankers, marketers, analytics and your general council needs lawyers. The CFO needs accountants and the IT office needs computer engineers and software analytics. And HR needs mentors and coaches to help staff and students persist to obtain their goals. OJT could be the newest brainiest plan for short staff and turnover. Educate and train your students to manage unfilled work flows. It is a win-win and yes you don’t have to find them an internship off campus. And, you always have a new class coming in to fill the empty positions. Test it out in one area of campus and see the results. And, it helps your students reduce their debt or their tuition bill.
We would love to hear your results or talk you through the action steps and set up your milestone strategy. Remember you do not need to have the entire stairway mapped out to implement and design new modalities of learning. You just need to envision the first few steps and pivot. You have done it before.