Stamats' QuickTakes
Insights into Research, Strategic Planning, and Integrated Marketing for Colleges and Universities by Dr. Robert A. Sevier, Senior Vice President at Stamats (quicktakes@stamats.com)
Vol. 5, no. 12: Impediments to Change
In this issue.
STILL SPACE AVAILABLE
We are hosting our annual Generating Successful Integrated Marketing and Branding Strategies for Colleges & Universities seminar next week in Washington DC. We have a great group of presenters and sessions planned. Register today at www.stamats.com/seminars. Hope to see you there!
ON STRATEGY: IMPEDIMENTS TO CHANGE
There are a number of impediments to true, transformational change. Over the next several issues of QuickTakes I would like to explore a few of them. First, let's take a look at organizational culture.
Organizational culture
One of the most critical considerations of strategic planning is the effect
that organizational culture will have on the planning processes, the plan itself,
and its implementation. Terrence Deal and Allan Kennedy, writing in Corporate
Cultures: The Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life, define organizational
culture as "the way we do things around here." In other words, according to
Deal, an organization's culture guides the organization's members in decision-making,
in determining how time and energy are invested, in choosing which facts are
examined with care and which are summarily rejected, in deciding which options
are looked on favorably from the start, which types of people are selected to
work for the organization, and in practically everything else that is done in
the organization.
Effects of organizational culture
on planning
One of the laments I heard most often from planners is how much they underestimated
the impact traditions and organizational culture would have on the process and
the plan itself. This lament from practitioners is also borne out by planning
theorists. According to Deal, Kennedy, and others, the impact of organizational
culture on both the process of planning and the resultant strategic plan needs
to be anticipated in a number of ways. First, and perhaps most importantly,
there is the question of whether or not the organization will even seriously
consider engaging in strategic planning. Some colleges and universities simply
cannot fathom the need to plan. They prefer to be reactive rather than proactive.
Second, some college and university organizational cultures will find the need for objective soul-searching—that is so central to strategic planning—both difficult and painful. With a keen need to avoiding conflict, these organizations may be in a perpetual state of denial. These authors say that such organizations blithely assume that things are better than they are, that obstacles can always be overcome, and that reality can be conveniently reconstructed.
Third, some organizational cultures stress secrecy and avoid disclosure of even the most basic information. Budget and performance information is not shared. Meeting minutes are not distributed. Information is hoarded.
Fourth, accountability is avoided in some campus cultures. While there is some degree of comfort working within a committee or task force, these same individuals balk at the idea of being personally responsible.
Fifth, some campus cultures are so highly centralized that the idea of decentralized assessment, planning, and execution of action plans is foreign. Any involvement of mid-level managers, staff, or faculty save the most senior leadership in planning is both token and sporadic.
Next, there are campus cultures that are punitive. Before progress can be made, it is important to blame the individuals and events that have caused the institution to fall short. And finally, some colleges and universities cultures are so process-oriented that they seem to have little need to make a decision. Their focus is on the debate itself, not the outcome and they have no sense of either timetables or lost opportunities.
Of course, these cultures are described in the extreme and while the parodies I have drawn are amusing, there is the very real likelihood that one or more of these cultures can be found on most campuses. The challenge is to first anticipate and then overcome these potential barriers to strategic planning.
ON STRATEGY II: THE TYRANNY OF OUR TRADITIONS
Mark Emmert, writing in the July-August 1998 Trusteeship, suggests that our ability to manage colleges and universities is constrained not so much by external forces but by traditions and organizational cultures that value convention and continuity. He writes, "Many members of the academic community typically meet proposals for transforming how we teach, conduct research, and organize ourselves with great concern and resistance. Their usual refrain: Any such changes will diminish quality and offend academic values. We even have difficulty discussing novel modes of instruction, new organizational arrangements, innovative research agendas, or new funding models, let alone adopting these initiatives. Our limited ability to change is predominantly self-imposed. We constrain ourselves. We often find ourselves stifled by the tyranny of our traditions."
HALLMARKS
OF A GREAT CAMPUS VISIT PROGRAM
By Mark Ash, Client Consultant
Do you ever get a song or a phrase in your head and it just won't go away? It's happening to me right now. I can hear my colleague Becky Morehouse saying "Let's make the most important recruiting tool the most effective recruiting tool."
Here are some tough questions that—if answered honestly—will guide you toward the ideal visit program.
What are the most effective/least effective days of the week to schedule campus visits?
What are the top three ways that faculty prefer to be rewarded after assisting in campus visit days?
When was the last time you closely examined your pre-visit marketing strategies? Which ones are most effective?
Are large-group visit days more effective than individual visits?
Are students likely to use your Web site to help them plan their campus visit experience?
Do you know if parents are generally satisfied with your campus visit program?
As you view your direct competitors, what are some of their better developed visit strategies?
Are students more likely to apply for admission after they visit campus?
How meaningful and relevant is the token gift offered to campus visitors?
In the eyes of the student, how seamless and user-friendly is the process to sign up for a visit?
One cannot underestimate the importance of the campus visit. Colleges and universities must do everything possible to make the visit experience enjoyable and informative (for both students and parents).
If you would like to discuss your institution's campus visit program, please contact Mark Ash at mark.ash@stamats.com.
SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT INNOVATION
By the end of August I will have conducted nearly 25 board and campus leadership retreats this year. During those retreats, we often talk about innovation the need for colleges and universities to think and act differently. Obviously, the need for innovation is on the minds of many and it is something I plan to explore with the readers of QuickTakes. To begin the conversation, I would like to ask two questions.
First, what are the major impediments to innovation (making things happen) on your campus?
And second, what are the engines (requirements) for true innovation?
I would enjoy trading e-mail with people with an eye toward writing some summary conclusions in early fall. If you are interested in a dialogue on innovation, please drop me an e-mail at bob.sevier@stamats.com. Thanks in advance. Bob
WOMEN RUNNING COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
Mary Sue Coleman, formerly president at the University of Iowa, recently accepted a position as the president of the University of Michigan. She joins a group of women running major universities including Princeton, Brown, University of Pennsylvania, University of Wisconsin, University of Illinois, University of North Carolina, and Duke. In spite of an increase in women presidents, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports only three women on the list of the 50 highest paid presidents, primarily due to the fact that they tend to run smaller institutions. However, that may change in the future as a record number of women hold provost positions, often the job held prior to becoming a president (Ivy Jungle and Newsweek June 10, 2002).
Most of us are familiar with the Harvard Business Review. What may be a surprise, however, are the anthologies they print in which they organize their best articles around a particular topic. The anthologies are an excellent way to get exposed to some outstanding thinking on a single topic.
Recently, I completed On Change. It contains a series of articles on how to achieve transformational change in an organization. All in all, a great read. In particular, I suggest Kotter's "Why Transformation Efforts Fail" and Schaffer and Thomson's "Successful Change Programs Begin with Results."
The anthologies are available from HBR Press at (617) 783-7555 or you can order them from Amazon.
NEW CLIENTS
Stamats would like to welcome the following new clients:
STAMATS SEMINARS SERIES
Generating Successful
Integrated Marketing and Branding Strategies for Colleges & Universities
When: August 11-13
Where: Washington, DC
REGISTER NOW!
TeensTALK Conference
(Pre-NACAC)
When: September 25
Where: Salt Lake City, UT
REGISTER NOW!
JOB OPENINGS
Stamats Consulting, the higher education research, planning, and consulting side of Stamats, is expanding our staff and is looking for a principal consultant. If you are interested, please e-mail jenny.olson@stamats.com for a copy of the job description.
California Lutheran University
Director of Marketing for Graduate and Adult Programs
($55,000-$60,000) Under the direction of the Director for Graduate and Adult
Programs, plan, organize and direct the efforts to market the graduate and adult
degree programs to prospective adult students, corporate employers, educational
institutions, professional agencies and organizations, and the community. This
individual develops marketing and communications plans, manages the budget,
identifies and develops strategic corporate and educational alliances and supervises
and evaluates the performance of assigned staff. To apply, send resume with
cover letter to: Jan Thede, California Lutheran University, Human Resources
Department #1100, 60 W. Olsen Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360 FAX: (805) 493-3886.
E-mail: thede@clunet.edu For more information,
visit: www.clunet.edu/Administrative_Offices/HumanResources/Positions/DirMarketingGradAdultPgms.htm
If you have a short position description (100 words or less) you would like posted, please forward it on to info@stamats.com. There is no charge for this service. Job listings available online at Higher Educations Careers.
COPYRIGHT, DISTRIBUTION, AND PERMISSION
Stamats QuickTakes is published by Stamats and is distributed to our clients and colleagues in higher education at no charge. Contents (c) 2002 by Stamats. Please feel free to forward copies of Stamats QuickTakes in its entirety to colleagues. Visit QuickTakes for past issues.
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