Engaging Faculty in
Strategic Planning
Dr. John Robert Dew
The University of Alabama
Engaging the faculty at the
College and Department level.
UA has a strategic plan for the
university as a whole.
 Challenge is to engage faculty in
developing strategies that excite them
and are aligned with the institution’s
strategic goals.
 Blitz build the plan.

Seven step strategic planning
process.
Preparation
 Reflection
 Visioning
 Prioritizing
 Action Planning
 Implement
 Re-Assess

Preparation phase:
Work with Dean or Chair to identify
meaningful data.
 Collect and distribute data to faculty for
their review.
 Encourage faculty to read the UA
strategic plan.

Reflection:
Working together as a whole group, the
faculty develop a time line to capture
the history of the College or department.
 Working together, the faculty identify
what they consider to be the program’s
strengths, weaknesses, threats, and
opportunities.

Visioning:
Imagine it is 7 years in the future.
 The College/Department is being
recognized as the best of its type in the
nation.
 Describe this future state.
 Staying in the future, describe what we
did over the past 7 years to get there.

Prioritizing:
Work with the list of actions that would
have been taken over the past seven
years.
 Nominal Group Technique.
 Discuss the implications of the NGT
exercise.
 Let it soak in.

Develop Action Plans:
Organize the high priority actions into
categories. (Research, teaching,
outreach, professional growth)
 Identify what steps will be taken, who
will be responsible, and completion
dates.
 Use as a drum beat.

Implement:
Most actions have turned out to be
within the sphere of influence of the
faculty.
 Many actions led to the development of
creative alliances with other groups.
 Keep reviewing progress in faculty
meetings.
 Inform your friends.

Re-Assess:
Most strategic plans have run their
course within three years.
 New circumstances require us to
constantly re-assess to either adjust,
hold the course, or set new goals.
 Everything changes, so don’t think that
one plan is the ultimate cure-all.
