220 Strategic Leadership
discussions or open meetings. To increase participation at these events, personal
invitations should be sent from the chairperson of the SPC, the president, or the
relevant dean or director. As a result of these interactions, a good cross-section
of the campus will feel informed and involved in the main issues under consider-
ation. The reciprocity of a process of leadership will have been achieved.
Larger campuses will have a harder time than smaller ones in building an effec-
tive communication system, but modern information technologies make the goal
a realistic one. In large institutions, each academic unit or subdivision becomes
an important spoke in the wheel of communication. Success will depend on the
ways that deans of schools and colleges are drawn into the strategy process and
then communicate on its progress and results. The chairperson and the staff of the
SPC should monitor and encourage that process, calling on the authority of the
president or chief academic officer as needed.
The Strategy Report
The leaders of every strategy process have an important decision to make about
the nature of the reports or documents that will issue from the project. Often
one hears that it is the process itself, far more than the resulting document, that
matters. People claim that reports have a short shelf life, and no one has time to
read them. For these reasons, and others, some writers suggest that a final strategy
document should be no more than twenty to twenty-five pages (Rowley, Lujan,
and Dolence 1997).
There is no easy rule of thumb for the appropriate length or nature of a final
strategy document. The character and length of the document is a consequence
of the goals that each institution sets for the process and the uses that it intends
for the report. It ordinarily should appear in several different forms and lengths to
accomplish its purposes. Although the report is not an end in itself, it can be an
influential means to achieve a variety of critical goals.
Consistent with our emphasis on the tasks of leadership, it is important for
the report to be a primary source for teaching and learning about the strategic
future of the institution. As such, a strong case can be made for making the final
report a longer and more elegant document of fifty to seventy-five pages of text,
plus charts and data. Carefully crafted language can serve a variety of purposes,
many relating to the themes of leadership. The most important issues should
be treated in clear and exacting prose, although some sections can use bullet
points and summaries. In presenting strategic initiatives relating to the use of
resources, or involving conflict and change, there should be a premium on well-
reasoned and documented argumentation rather than extreme brevity. Much
of the document’s persuasiveness is achieved by drawing on the institution’s
story in building its case, and using the narrative form to reach the audience as
participants or stakeholders in the process.
The capacity of a report to inform and inspire those who have not been close
to the planning process is often at stake, so the document carries an important