Let’s do university strategy better

“The future is not something we enter. The future is something we create.” 

– Leonard I. Sweet 

There are too many near identical University strategies out there. Whose strategy isn’t committing to ‘investing in research excellence’, ‘strengthening your connection with the global community’ and ‘supporting our students’ and doing it all in ‘a rapidly changing world?

The striking consistency and similarity might be because of the similarity of one institution to another though if that were true then it begs the question why Universities aren’t working together to design a sector strategy that reduces competition and mobilises collaboration for combined effect? Perhaps it’s a sign that each institution asked the same question of ChatGPT such as ‘what should my university strategy look like’?

I do think the challenge is within the strategic design process. Too often the same people, or at least people from similar backgrounds with similar perspectives, conduct similar formats of contextual analysis and PESTLE’s before coming up with the same visions and priorities. These are then put out to ‘consultation’ which in practice tends to mean asking people to validate the author’s conclusions. It tends not to involve generally sharing the analysis of the context, considering together a range of responses to the emerging opportunities and challenges. 

This is particularly true when we think of students.

Frequently students’ unions are approached when the strategy is all but written and the new strategy colour scheme confirmed and asked ‘how can we engage students in this?’ In reality what they mean is ‘how can we tell students the clever plan we have designed’? The real magic would happen if they were involved earlier and more meaningfully in the design process. Not just telling them the future they will enter but exploring with them the future they might create. It may be that heads of university administration are well placed to perhaps steer strategy away from excessive or exclusive ownership by academics and broaden out the stakeholders involved in its design.

Share the exploration of context and not just your conclusions from it

“The better we understand how identities and power work together from one context to another, the less likely our movements for change are to fracture”

– Kimberle Williams Crenshaw

If we reduce the amount of energy we invest into promoting the new logo, the key themes and the one page plan summary with the VC’s face on and instead share understanding of the context we exist within, then students and other stakeholders will play a deeper part in exploring and using that to inform strategy. It could be argued that sharing that context will make more transparent the rationale for change or the opportunities and challenges that are prioritised and will democratise some of the thinking, offering others, beyond the university council who might share a strategic challenge with us, the chance to collaborate. 

So as a simple example, it’s not only universities who are trying to solve the climate challenge – by talking about the future of climate change we might inspire local manufacturers, local authorities, student campaign groups etc to work with us on the same challenge. The Shell Energy Security Scenarios is a great example of an organisation sharing their future thinking and contextual analysis more widely. It shares a prognosis (and the basis for it) about the key trends and anticipated scenarios for the future provoking questions not just about how Shell’s business may need to adapt but provoking others to question what their role is within the future.

Another interesting example of open source future thinking and contextual analysis is  the Ministry of Defence Global Strategic Trends Report produced every 5 years and with a new one due to drop this year.

It’s a good example of sharing some analysis on the future environment and resource issues, the trajectory for human development, evolutions in economy, industry and information, the changing governance and legal context and the future of conflict and security.

The previous report in 2018 did forecast the dramatic rise in AI, the significant probability of a global pandemic, the likely countries of war and civil unrest and much more besides. I believe the real magic will happen when students start to engage with the contextual analysis and show the desire to think with the institution about their perspectives on the future. 

Too often students are accused of not being capable of thinking about a university for future generations, an unfair criticism in my opinion that’s maybe best exposed by asking them what they think the technologies of the future are, what they think teenagers are worrying about right now, how they think jobs will look in 10 years time or who they think the most oppressed are in society.

Think big

“Big results require big ambitions” 

– Heraclitus

It was Carl Lewis who said ‘It’s all about the journey, not the outcome’. I have a suspicion that he had never flown via Gatwick to Mauritius because I can confirm that if you get the right outcome, something really high impact, really salient, then you will be willing to accept that getting there may be hard, uncomfortable and long.

In my experience charities are much more aspirational in this regard. The charity Crisis aims to ‘end homelessness’ for example while The Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s 2016 strategy was subtitled ‘We can solve poverty’ inspiring hope and a call to action. Young people too can be fiercely ambitious, hence the child aspiring to be an astronaut and only as they get older becoming bogged down in the logistics of joining an elite profession. Capturing some of that belief and using it to inspire even greater impact than an extra 5 places in a league table or 5% growth in international students may require less emphasis on the journey, more emphasis on hope and the nurturing of ambition. The counter argument is that it’s less practical, tangible or realistic. While enhancing the mental health of students and wider community or growing the confidence of communities is a lot harder to measure than pounds and pence or student numbers, it’s far from impossible and frankly warrants some time and attention, can inspire the next generation of students and probably reduce your spend on student support if you pull it off.

Keep some capacity to respond

“We are socialised to see what is wrong, missing off, to tear down the ideas of others and uplift our own. To a certain degree, our entire future may depend on learning to listen, listen without assumptions or defenses”.

Adrienne Maree Brown

Much has been said about the disruptive nature of covid and how, while immensely challenging for UK HE as it was for other industry, it also helped universities discover a new agility. Contingency planning groups transformed teaching and assessment almost overnight. Zoom and Teams became the new classroom. Outdoor venues popped up, covid testing clinics were installed.

Emerging from covid we retained some of that agility as we entered a period of dramatic political change (a single academic year saw more turn over in Prime Ministers and Education Secretaries than there was in students) and the cost of living crisis. Change from huge economic and geopolitical uncertainty is likely not complete yet. As such strategic development needs to be willing to preserve some of that capacity to respond as this period of dramatic uncertainty and change continues to develop. As a result many organisations have moved away from traditional growth strategies and used a more emergent strategy that recognises, retains and celebrates an organisations ability to evolve with the world around it.

As a result many organisations have moved away from traditional growth strategies and used a more emergent strategy that recognises, retains and celebrates an organisation’s ability to evolve with the world around it.

Building a sense of continual listening and learning is not just prudent due to an era of perma crisis but also strengthens the stake of current and future stakeholders. Building the ability to react into our strategy explicitly challenges us to continually listen, and research will make partners responsible for continuing a strategic dialogue. Besides, some of the best performing universities in recent years were those quickest to react to the pandemic, the cost of living survey or able to proactively influence legislative change rather than simply respond to it.

The challenge though is to balance a responsiveness against a time bound set of challenges and opportunities. The chance to influence UK politics and legislation is significant over the next year as we approach a general election and a likely change in government. The time to break a cycle of perpetual strikes and secure a more sustainable funding model is surely upon us. The environmental crisis requires tangible action and commitment now. The decline in mental health must be redressed both with action to prevent its causes and to support those suffering its problems right now.

Paint a picture of tomorrow’s world

I recall watching Tomorrow’s world as a child and a constant sense of awe at the talk of electronic messages sent from your computer, portable telephones and how energy might be produced by windmills that could power a lightbulb at the same time as milling corn. The TV series that ran from the mid 60’s through till shortly after the turn of the century proudly explored how we might create a better future. It didn’t merely state what the future holds and suggested we should try to find a safe path through it and instead asked us to build it.

I think we need a new era of university strategy that shares an exploration of context, thinks big and holds a little capacity to respond. If university strategy can be a bit more ‘tomorrow’s world’ it might well break free of some of the shackles that have held a broken tuition model tight, tried (and failed) to preserve and enhance its own image and had a fairly limited perpetual response of growth, sometimes for growth’s sake. My challenge to heads of university administration is to consider their role in democratising the design, implementation and delivery of strategy, bringing together non academic stakeholders to support the process and perhaps, in doing so, deliver something a little bit different.

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