Implementation 219
- Narrative: The strategy uses the story and the narrative voice to embody the
institution’s identity, capture its spirit, resolve conflicts, and create a sense of
connection between the past and the future. - Validation: Invitations to experts on and off campus to speak and write about
the plan can both clarify and verify its claims. - Motivation: Leadership is always about motivation and inspiration, and com-
munication is one of the primary vehicles through which it is achieved. - Repetition: The periodic and consistent communication of the key messages of
the strategy in a variety of contexts is a necessity.
Not surprisingly, various guidebooks and studies of strategic planning consis-
tently emphasize the centrality of effective communication (Alfred et al. 2006;
Keller 1997; Sevier 2000). Echoing that theme, one of higher education’s most
influential voices in matters strategic, George Keller, frequently affirms the need
for effective and repeated communication in developing strategy: “The commu-
nication must be effective and continued, from the inception of planning through
the several years of its implementation” (1997, 165). He advises us to communi-
cate and then to do so again, and again. This communication has several goals,
including the creation of a sense of urgency to respond to tough external pressures,
and to seize the attention of busy academics who are preoccupied with the many
other claims on them. As March puts it, decisions “depend on the ecology of
attention: who attends to what and when” (quoted in Keller 1997, 165). If stra-
tegic issues are to engage an academic community, they must be communicated
skillfully and persistently and, at times, movingly.
Forms of Communication
Both before and during an intensive cycle of strategic planning, there should
be a variety of forms of communication. Institutions should use the vehicles that
best fit their cultures to build awareness about strategic planning, from Web sites
to newsletters, from large public meetings to smaller gatherings, from informal
conversations to major speeches, and from the agendas of regular meetings to
special presentations. There should be good opportunities in these contexts, and
many others, to present and elicit ideas and reactions to the strategy project, both
as to its methods and content. The efforts to inform and to establish a sense of
importance for the process should themselves be considered strategic objectives.
As the strategy process gets underway, the SPC will have gathered a set of
articles and documents for its own use. Information about the collection can be
made widely available, and some articles and reports should be provided on a Web
site. At various moments in the process, people across campus will be invited to
offer opinions on surveys and questionnaires, or to attend meetings, roundtables,
or workshops to offer ideas or to respond to a task force or council draft. As
the process moves forward, a draft document of the SPC’s final report should be
circulated for comment or should be made the subject of formal or less formal