I was among the members of the University's HLC Steering Committee who attended the HLC's annual conference in March-April 2011. Sessions ranged from large meetings that discussed HLC criteria under revision to individual sessions on assessment, planning, communications as well as software and technology presentations.
Sessions I attended encompassed community engagement,
communications and strategic planning - my areas of responsibility in my work at the University.
Engaging faculty and
staff in strategic planning
One engaging session came from Yavapai College (YC) in Prescott, AZ. Lisa Griest’s lighthearted tone belied
a very serious issue YC dealt with following their 2003 site visit. They were asked to submit a follow up
report to clarify how they were making their strategic planning process more
comprehensive and more understood by faculty and staff.
They creatively used videotape as one way to explain the
strategic planning process to staff. I had chatted with Karen Solomon at the
HLC reception the previous evening and she said they had shown it at an HLC
staff meeting.
Her presentation was the most comprehensive in terms of
communications tactics they employed to engage employees and faculty in the
institution’s strategic planning process:
·
Yearly perception surveys
·
Video messages from the President delivered to
employee and faculty email addresses
·
Open forums that are streamed live and also
videotaped for later review
·
Open brainstorming sessions
·
“Roadshows” involving the president and
strategic planning committee presented to Yavapai’s seven outlying campuses and
offices.
·
Fireside chats
Her presentation stressed the importance of transparency,
constant and consistent messaging and campus community engagement in the
process. Their website is public
and can be accessed: http://www.yc.edu/v4content/strategic-planning/
The Inquisitive Gecko
Gateway Community College, one of ten community colleges in
Maricopa County (Phoenix, AZ area).
They showed how they used a newsletter to engage faculty and
staff in sharing teaching tips and best practices with each other. It evolved from a paper newsletter to
the online “Gecko Gazette.”
They also used videotape to not only promote the e-newsletter, but also as one facet of their
assessment process. They
videotaped faculty and students during a nursing student assessment in a
sim-lab and shorter videos of faculty assessing individual students in the
automotive program.
Their goal was to make more flip cams available to faculty
and students for this purpose and to share news. Their guidelines?
They have final right of edit on the video before it goes up on their
internal YouTube channel, “so that nothing too tacky” is posted!
Involving all staff:
the continuous improvement log
This session provided an overview of how Southwest Wisconsin
Technical College brought on a Lean/Six Sigma Instructor to create a team and
oversee the creation of a online log where staff could post ideas and requests
for process and business forms improvements.
They utilized this system to:
·
Generate ideas from all staff
·
Improve inter-departmental communication
·
Educated staff on college process improvements
·
Helped college community understand that change
is complex and understanding the larger context of their requests and who it
would impact
The Six Sigma instructor and the Dean presenting noted that leadership buy-in was critical as was having a team who would respond to requests, route them to the appropriate departments and facilitate communications.
The Six Sigma instructor and the Dean presenting noted that leadership buy-in was critical as was having a team who would respond to requests, route them to the appropriate departments and facilitate communications.
