Q&A
What is the Process of Strategic Focusing?
Conventional strategic planning is morphing into mission inspired “strategic positioning” as institutions seek to
gain a competitive edge in recruiting students and faculty and in winning funding from multiple sources.
Leland and Moore (2007) Public Purpose, pp 10-13.
The concept of strategic focusing goes beyond conventional strategic planning to provide a strategy for
positioning Darden competitively. While conventional strategic planning focuses on the core missions,
often the process and product becomes inclusive, diffused and does not differentiate Darden sufficiently
from other colleges of education and related disciplines. In addition, even a good strategic plan often
does not prioritize key overarching themes that unite the college in focusing its mission and
differentiating itself from its competitors. In short, while a strategic plan provides a multi-faceted set of
goals, it does not provide the focus that is the heart of a good organization.
There are two words which help define a strategic focus/vision that are important to consider. The first
is distinguished and the second is distinctive. First, what is it that is distinguishes Darden as a top notch
choice for students and faculty across our disciplines? What are the strengths, outstanding individual
programs and outstanding theme(s) and/or commitments we share across the college? Second, what is
it that makes Darden College of Education and its graduates and faculty distinctive? What are we
committed to and what defines our graduates and a large segment of our research and service? How do
we stand out in a competitive market for recruiting both faculty and students? Why would someone
come here for graduate study when they have multiple offers? Why would students come here as
undergraduates when they have other options in the Commonwealth and beyond? Why would faculty
who are in high demand choose ODU and Darden and why does our great faculty stay here?
When we have a focus and vision of what makes us distinctive and distinguished, both currently and in
the future, we will know how to shape programs, encourage and grow partnerships, aim for awards and
honors, specific grants and editorships and focus our efforts. That focused vision and effort will have
an exponential impact on our individual professional lives, our institutional success, our reputation and
most importantly on the lives of those we educate to counsel, teach, provide wellness and support,
succeed personally and professionally and most importantly lead. The sum will truly be greater than
the parts.
As I have said many times, when we have a strategic focus/vision, it will complete the sentence, “ODU’s
Darden College of Education is ranked in the Top 50 by USN&WR because of ……” When we can answer
that question, we can set our direction.
Where are we in the process?
Notes and minutes are posted at www.dardenvision.com and we are reaching the culmination of eight
months of work that began with surveys of all faculty about our strategic plan, group and individual
discussions, our December faculty meeting, Spring Teacher Education Faculty Meetings, a contextual
scan including an external constituent’s meeting, outside speakers, trips to other campuses, extensive
reading and now we are ready for the final stakeholder’s meeting. While we have tweaked the process,
it has basically followed the road map set out in December. See below:
And now we are concentrating on a “sweet spot” that has grown out of feedback and discussion, the
prior work of the faculty on the strategic plan and ODU’s commitments as a “metropolitan research
university.” That is where our focus and vision will be found.
University
Experiences
Community
Partners
Clinical &
Experiential
Learning
Why a Stakeholder’s Conference?
Because strategic focusing requires broad
participation of faculty, staff, students,
alumni, and external partners, and cannot be
effective without that broad ownership of the
outcomes. We have had a series of meetings,
a survey, an external stakeholder’s
conference, and now it is time to shape our
strategic focus/vision. The conference is the
culmination of months of feedback and we are
now ready to engage in identifying the theme(s)/commitment(s) that will guide Darden, make it
distinctive, and provide the basis for important decisions about every aspect of what we do. What’s
next?
Do most colleges (or universities) have a strategic focus?
Some do, many don’t. I want to be clear that this is not a focus for educator preparation, but for all of
Darden College. Therefore, it must be all inclusive.
Some examples of colleges and universities that do have a “de facto” strategic focus: Colleges with a
distinctive and distinguished focus:
Vanderbilt COE– empirical approaches to learning and cognition
University of Southern California Rossier SOE –social justice
University of Redlands SOE–leadership for educational justice
University of Illinois COE—urban education
San Diego State University—clinically-based education for closing the achievement gap
Georgia Tech—cooperative education and heavy emphasis on internships
Harvard Law—case study approach
Universities with a distinctive and distinguished approach:
Warren Wilson—service learning
Evergreen—personalized learning
St. John’s—great books
Bennington—self-directed learning
Phoenix—on-line learning
Certainly, ODU is a “metropolitan research institution” and that must be a part of all of our discussions
as it is a framework within which we will determine our strategic focus. I invite you to add the
institutions and colleges that have distinctive and distinguished foci.
Is there a moral component to a strategic focus/vision?
In organizations that are primarily profit-driven, the focus is not always or even often related to a moral
purpose. However, in looking at human motivation research, it is clear that high level, rewarding work is
characterized both by a high degree of autonomy and a high degree of collaboration. The most
rewarding work adds a moral dimension, that is, it unites people in work to improve the lives and
contexts (social, emotional, physical, and environmental) of people. In Darden, our disciplines are
united in promoting educational, physical, emotional and societal well-being and growth. Our work is
fundamentally moral in nature.
Where can I read more about strategic focusing?
While there is much literature on strategic positioning in the business world, the PDF linked below is a
short article from Public Purpose on the process at a university by Dorothy Leland and John Moore.
http://hermes.aascu.org/media/public_purpose/sep-oct07strategic.pdf
Some of the ideas also come from the successful history and current work of magnet schools in K-12,
from the strategic focus critical that is a critical aspect of Lencioni’s Five Obsessions of a CEO and
Collins’ Good to Great. These are popular, general audience readings that are quick introductions to
organizational leadership.
What is next?
After our stakeholder’s meeting, we will have the idea(s) that we need to wordsmith the strategic focus
and to make it real. That will require faculty committees. First, a small ad hoc committee to
“wordsmith” our strategic focusing conference outcome(s) into a clear, concise and living sentence.
Second, a Futures Committee will help define how our focus should/could be integrated into every
aspect of Darden life. Many other faculty, student and administrative groups will make that integration
happen through policies and procedures.
Finally, when we have a college-wide focus
giving direction across the college, we will
begin to explore the possibility identifying
exceptional programs that can bring
recognition in a variety of ways (research,
service, teaching) consistent with our focus.