The Molloy 2020 Listening Tour set out to define what the College wanted to focus on in order to become more known in the region.
What actually happened?
The Tour took approximately 500 volunteers and their opinions to heart in answering the following questions:
- Who is Molloy College?
- What do we want to keep?
- What do we want to change?
Molloy College was in need of a new version of its strategic plan and needed to expand on the good things we were already doing.
What will we do next time?
The process went very smoothly but there are two things I would do differently next time:
- Now that we have a fully functioning planning office, I would delegate this task to that office. At the time of this tour, I was given the responsibility of managing the entire process. I did not have sufficient resources to ensure communication occurred in a timely fashion and that everyone remained in the loop while managing the chairs of the 23 task forces who were in need of guidance at times.
- I would put in place a follow up/imlementation plan as a proactive step vs. a reactive step we are taking now.
I welcome a similar challenge and will keep the lessons learned from this experience and AAR in my back pocket. Perhaps I should apply it to the writing of the communications plan I am currently working on.
HI Diane -- I LOVE the fact that 500 people had input into this important project. While it can be unwieldy, and likely felt that way as the PM, think about 500 people feeling their voice mattered! That's awesome. Celebrate this...What likely needs to happen is to have a smaller group of people make sense of the data together, similar to HLTP when the Safety Committee and Accident Review Committees met. Smaller, trained groups of people who could noodle out a solution.
ReplyDeletePLEASE, rethink the idea of creating a strategic planning committee or pushing this off to them. This isolates planners from doers. You want the doers in on the planning. Please consider reading: 1) Willie Peterson's Strategic Learning, 2) O'Neil and Marsick, Understanding Action Learning, and 3) Henry Mintzberg, Managers Not MBA's.
I wholeheartedly agree with your request for me to rethink pushing this planning process off to a planning department. This is not under my perview to decide but would have continued the group work. It has been an isolating experience since it went to the planning office with no updates or evidence that people are working together as doers to get it done...in my next position, perhaps I will be given the task of planning...I welcome it.
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