The Compact Plan Process
“Voices from the Field”
Bruce Ingram Mallette
Managing Director
Statistics & Epidemiology
RTI International
Adjunct Associate Professor
North Carolina State University
September 8, 2005
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Find the UAlbany Voice
“In some small towns there is a rule that
consultants can’t serve as volunteer firemen.
The fear is that they’d drive around setting the
fire on town.”
The Dilbert Principle, p. 200 (1996)
Therefore you must make Compact Planning fit
your needs, for your culture, for your public
politics, for your finances, for your mission, for
your future.
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Our Journey Today
Part - 1

Why Compact Planning

Required Reading

It’s All About Alignment

Yogi Berra and ESPN

Compact Planning 101
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Why Compact Planning?
“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll
probably end up somewhere else.”
David Campbell, 1974
“If a man knows not what harbor he seeks, any
wind is the right wind.”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca, 5BC-65AD
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Why Compact Planning?
“You may not know where you came from
May not know who you are
May not have even wondered
How you got this far
And if you don't know where you're going
Any road will take you there.”
George Harrison, “Any Road” (2002)
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Required Reading
Spring Faculty Address and Slides
President Kermit L. Hall
April 27, 2005
http://www.albany.edu/president/speeches/2005
_spring/2005_spring_speech.html
http://www.albany.edu/president/speeches/2005
_spring/2005_spring_speech_pp_files/frame.htm
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The Way Forward
What We Need to Do



Settle on goals associated with a great public
university.
Develop and hone our story.
Know who we are, what we want, and what
matters most.

Develop a compelling case.

Develop a rational budget process.
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The Way Forward
UAlbany Planning Documents
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Compact Planning
Purpose
Provides a
framework for
campus decisions
and actions
Compact Planning guides:
 Who we are now
 Who we want to be in the future
 How we get there
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Compact Planning
Outcome
 Alignment across individuals, groups, structures
 Maximizes contributions to the UAlbany mission
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But you are asking,
“Is Yogi Berra right?”
It’s deja vu all over again.

Don’t have time to do this.

Won’t be treated the same as other colleges,
schools, and offices.

My faculty/staff won’t like this.

These plans will have no results, collect dust.

No room left on my bookshelf for another one.

And, if this is Compact Planning 101,
when is the drop date to get out of this!
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This is NOT the
ESPN World Series of Poker

Cards are dealt from your deck.

You are the dealer.

You can talk to others first as to what cards
you want in your deck.

You will place your cards (i.e., initiatives and
finances) face up… all of them.

All players will do the same.

The cards are your best ideas, your vision,
your priorities, your choices.
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It is NOT a Game of Chance
It is a collegial process

Communication

Collaboration

Communication

Candor

Communication

and CHOICES.
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Core Principles
Transparency & The Total Economy
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Transparency
& The Total Economy
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Compact Planning 101
Welcome to Class

Big classroom with 180 students

A syllabus and handbook

Regular assignments

Timelines & deadlines

Fast-paced & very demanding

High expectations
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Compact Planning 101
NOT Your Typical Class

You are not on your own in this class,

AND, you have everyone in your department,
division, unit, college, school, and office to
assist you,

AND, it is open book,

AND, you will get regular feedback throughout
the class,

AND, you can talk to anyone outside class to
help you on any aspect of your assignments.
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Compact Planning 101
One Goal
This is a class where its full design is aimed
at one outcome … success
… success for UAlbany is being the best it
can be.
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Our Journey Today
Part - 2
“Voices from the Field”
Deans, former Deans, Vice Provosts, and
former Vice Provosts… all of whom lived
to talk about it and are doing very well!
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Compact Planning
vs. Past Planning Efforts
Part - 1

Old Planning = then nothing
vs. Compact Plan = pathways and priorities.

This is real, it is not like past efforts. This will
not collect dust.

“Oh boy, another exercise that will go
nowhere” but… this is a living document, not
a make work job, it is a guide to our collective
future.
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Compact Planning
vs. Past Planning Efforts
Part - 2

Felt my area was considered fringe before but
learned I got as much respect as others,
including the College Deans.

This is more than your own compact plan – it
is a culture changing experience.

Core principles: Transparency and the total
economy.
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The Basics
Part - 1

President and the Provost = investment
bankers; develop business plans for your
products = initiatives and intended outcomes.

Don’t be afraid to think big… then layer the
realities and challenges.

Must work your Compact Plan toward the
overarching campus goals and needs.
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The Basics
Part - 2

The “sweat equity” of 20 years ago doesn’t
make it true now; it’s time to sweat again,
together.

It will take time. This is not a Cliff’s Notes
exercise nor an all nighter write-up nor a
simple weekend drafting activity.
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Communication
Part - 1

Would have had more meetings with all staff,
not just unit heads.

You cannot do this by yourself, use your staff
at all levels.

Engage faculty one on one, plus department
heads, plus senior players at all times.

Keep staff fully informed of what you are
passing forward and what feedback and
revisions you have been asked to provide.
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Communication
Part - 2

I didn’t do enough with my faculty, I relied too
much on Associate Deans.

You want to include staff and faculty now, else
you will have no internal advocates when the
process is done.

Incorporate staff involvement in the Compact
Plan design and discussions since they must
carry it out; make it part of their job
descriptions and evaluation where applicable.
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Getting Started
Part - 1

Dump a list, then refine it.

Fling the mud and let it stick, then question it.

Balance what you need to achieve in the short
term with what you must achieve in the long
term, and never lose sight of the larger
realities that face your area.
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Getting Started
Part - 2

Be realistic but stretch to reach your vision.

Deputize your #2 as a significant player in the
collection of information and ideas, you will
need a sounding board (more than one and
often).
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Getting Started
Part - 3

Write a clear and simple statement of who and
what you are.

Why are you there?

Who do you serve?

What is your “Statement of Significance”?

What can you do to shape your college without
money or help from anyone else.

Develop a “strategy to be a center of influence.”
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Various Approaches
Part - 1

Consider what is high leverage vs. just new to
be new. We chose to “boldly drive straight up
the mountain” to where we need to be.

“Skate to where the puck is going to be, not
where it has been.” Wayne Gretzky

Used it to make our College a “Center of
Influence” in our discipline and challenged
the faculty to identify what those should be.
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Various Approaches
Part - 2

Used it to get:
– the organizational structure correct,
– the attitude correct, and
– the vision well understood

Faculty drove it, I tweaked it, they made the
right decisions. We moved from an overly
steep hierarchical pyramid to a matrix that
generated more avenues for ideas, creativity,
and synergies.
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Tips
Part - 1

Provoke the big questions, the real big
questions:
– state funds = seed money, other sources of
funds really make initiatives go
– understand that disciplines are changing
– identify who (e.g., people, institutions,
businesses) is responding best to new
issues in field.
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Tips
Part - 2

Focus on science and the disciplines, not just
management issues.

It will feel compressed, but you must keep
moving forward, the iterative process permits
revisions and on-going development of your
core ideas.

Every college and office is a network of social
networks; be highly interactive, intersect with
all of them.
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Developing Your Initiatives

Find the “exemplars” in your college/office
and put them in front of others; find
champions for the cause.

Leadership is about taking the 60 initiatives
that surfaced and narrowing to 5 core
requests… with your faculty in support.

If you can’t talk about your department within
the context of the college… you will fail.
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The Iterative Process
3 Rounds: Dialogue, Prioritization, & Choices

Provides a chance to assess feedback and
reconsider.

Makes it a living and breathing document.

Transparency! Vice Provosts and Deans had
the opportunity to read all draft Compact
Plans and comment thus finding areas of
intersection; might see codicils where the
authors did not and have insights to
streamline or make the initiative more
effective.
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Compact Plans & Resources
People, $$, Space

Colleges/units must consider internal
reallocations of existing resources to
leverage new ideas and new resources to
equal the “Big Bang” impact.

Budget spreadsheets
– master them
– be realistic
– be complete
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Codicils
Cross Discipline & Cross Office Initiatives

Fostering internal and external partnerships.
– think honestly about outside resources
– think creativity who can help you that you
have not used in past
– think outside of the box of comfort

Understand the mutual financing options.
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Collaboration Matters
The sum of the parts is greater than the whole
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Assessment
Part - 1

Assessment = accountability both internally
to campus and externally to your public
constituents.

Provides trend data comparisons over time
and further priority setting.

Any assessment variables must be
understood as to:
– why they matter
– how they will be collected
– what will be done with the data.
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Assessment
Part - 2: Peer Comparison Variables (Sept 2005)
Know Thyself
– Total Enrollment: Campus, Fall
– Student FTE: Campus, Fall
– % of Matriculated Out-of-State
Undergraduates
– % of Matriculated Multicultural
Undergraduates
– % Full-Time Matriculated
Undergraduates
– Receiving Financial Aid
– Graduation Rate of Student-Athletes
– NCAA Academic Progress Rate
– First-Year Retention Rate %
– First-Year Retention Rate %
– Graduate Students: % of Total
Enrollment, Fall
– % of Multicultural Graduate Students
– New Freshman Applications, Fall
– New Freshman Enrollment, Fall
– New Traditional Freshman Mean SAT
– New Freshman Median SAT
– % of Traditional Freshman in Group 1
– New Transfer Enrollment, Fall
–
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–
–
–
–
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–
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–
–
–
–
–
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Faculty Headcount, Full-time, Fall
Faculty Headcount, Part-time, Fall
% of Full-time Women Faculty
% of Full-time Multicultural Faculty
Student/Faculty Ratio
Total Externally Funded Research (in
thousands)
Science & Engr. R&D Expenditures (in
thousands)
Patent Applications
License Income (in thousands)
All Funds Revenue (in thousands)
State Appropriation as % of All Funds
Revenue
Annual Full-time In-State
Undergraduate Tuition
Annual Full-time In-State Graduate
Tuition
% of Alumni Giving
Endowment (in thousands)
US News and World Report Ranking
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Assessment
Part - 3: Your Peers

Know the dashboard of your peers.
- Albany
- FSU
- Binghamton
- Riverside
- Santa Cruz
- UConn
- Delaware
- UMass Amherst
- Buffalo
- Stony Brook
- Santa Barbara
- Kansas
- Nebraska
- Oregon
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And Remember…
“Sailing a ship across the Pacific is no different
from organizing a college or university for
performance improvement. In both instances, it
is immensely helpful if we can come to some
agreement on which way to aim the pointy end.”
Dan Seymour, “Once Upon A Campus,”
p. xix (1995)
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Enjoy Your Journey
May the Force Be With You
You have a choice…
Darth Vader
or
Yoda
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And Spring Will Be Here Soon!
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Thank you!
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