Academic Strategic Planning

One of my favorite times of year is when I take time to do strategic planning…That sounds like a big fancy thing, but really, it is not. It’s just a time that I take away from distractions to check on my progress toward my goals and make sure my upcoming months’ projects and activities align with my goals. 

To listen to the audio version of this vlog, click here. 

In short, here’s what I do during my strategic planning sessions:

1. Recenter my focus to make my highest contribution at work and in life by:

1. Reviewing my Life’s Purpose and Direction statement to remind myself of my life’s work, why I’m here on this planet; 

2. Reviewing my academic mission statement to ensure it still feels right for my current phase of work

2. Brainstorm and plan my most important projects for the coming few months;

3. List the next actions that I need to take on each project;

4. Get started on the most important projects OR Rejuvenate with the relaxed pace of a few days.

I host my own mini-strategic planning retreats 3-4 times per year.  Sometimes, I just take a day to work in my favorite local coffee shop (Purdy’s Coffee; I get the chai latte) or my local library - away from the distractions of my office.  

One to two times per year, I take 3-5 days away from home - sometimes camping from my van, other times renting an AirBnB.

The big sessions are the most rejuvenating; however, even the full or half day sessions allow me to recenter myself and allow me to calm the chaos that inevitably ensues if I don’t take time for strategic planning. 

My strategic planning sessions have evolved and continue to evolve. There is not one way to do a strategic planning session. I’ve taken ideas from multiple places to create the format I currently use.  I follow along with Robert Talbert’s quarterly review steps during part of my session to help keep me focused.

Here’s how the steps I mentioned above actually play out during a session. 

Recenter my focus to make my highest contribution at work and in life by: (a) Reviewing my Life’s Purpose and Direction (and 3 related visions) to remind myself of my life’s work, why I’m here on this planet, and (b) Reviewing my academic mission statement to ensure it still feels right for my current phase of work….

This first step helps me move away from the daily slog that can sometimes overtake me to think about why I’m doing the work I’m doing.  Usually after this step of reviewing my personal Live Vision, and my academic mission statement, I am excited about my work again.

My life purpose and direction is to leave the world a better place by (1) Creating a safe space for all people, (2) Nurturing my family and friends emotionally and financially, (3) Sharing my skills and knowledge with others.

That’s the big picture of why I’m even on this planet - what my ultimate purpose is in life. Since my work is a major part of my life purpose, I take a look at my academic mission statement and related goals. If you don’t have an academic mission statement, you can create one like I did with the help of Cathy Mazak’s lessons and template. 

After I’m feeling more hopeful about life in general, I start to think about projects that will move me toward my goals. So, next, I brainstorm and plan my most important projects for the coming few months.  During this time, I dig into my Google file structure and my RoamResearch (short demo) account to remind myself of the projects I have on deck. Every item in my RoamResearch database proceeded with P- is a project.  When I click on a project, I can see updates on the project. I add any notes here that come to mind when thinking about the project, and add key “check-in” dates to the project. 

                     

 I make sure each project has at least one specific action identified and a date to follow-up.  When I use the date picker feature to add a date on this project page, the item will show up on my screen when I open Roam on that date.  Although I’m not great at predicting how much time various projects will take to reach completion, I do try to map out on my calendar when I’ll spend time on that project.  I generally do this planning at the month level, then I put specific plans during each weekly planning session. 

Finally, I use the remainder of my time in one of two ways (1) to start working on the project I’ve identified as next on deck or most important to get started on, or (2) I use the time to rest and rejuvenate. I sometimes read books, take walks, or take a nap, depending on which seems like it will be the most helpful. 

Do you do any sort of strategic planning?  What does it look like? Let me know below.

If you’d like to grab a free Strategic Planning Guide, head to my free Faculty Resource Center.