5 yr. Plan
Once your 5 year plan is developed an in place shouldn't it be updated regularly? Would it be better to maintain a rolling 60 Month plan?
This might better reflect adjustments made to market and economic trends!?
Excellent Mark. Yes, any plan needs to be reviewed on a regular basis. The first thing to look at is to see how close you are to following the plan? Is the plan sound? Is there new information that will change some of the goals and objectives? Are there better ways of doing things? Should the plan be modified in any way? Suggest you have an advisory board to review the plan periodically. And most certainly be sure that your updated plan reflects any changes in the market, the economy, and the local workplace needs. Great, Susan
Agreed! We do a Strategic Plan every year that looks out five years in advance. We add a year and drop a year, annually. The problem is, I do it myself and present it to our Advisory Council every December to get their "rubber stamp" on it. In truth I do it to meet our accredidation requirements. I enrolled in this course to try and learn how to prepare a meaningful Strategic Plan, that actually helps us plan for the future.
HI Richard
Sounds like you are doing all the right things. What seems to be missing is involvement of other people. A five year plan takes the input of a lot of stakeholders - students, staff, grads, faculty, employers, advisory boards, and more.No need to go it alone. Good luck, Susna
It is posible to make a more than 5 year plan (maybe 10 year) and adjusted every year?
Hi Jorge, Interesting question. Once you start working on a five year plan you will see it is very challenging. But it is essential to begin with the end in mind and work backwards. We feel that 10 years out is a bit long. It is hard to get most people to think about 10 years into the future. The idea to revisit any plan each year or over 2 - 4 times a year is very important. Thanks, Susan
I think all the school departments should be involved in the preparation of the 5 yr plan in addition to the advisory committee in order for the school to have an expanded vision and I also agreed the plan should be reviewed and updated every year according to how the market and economy is doing.
HI Gustavo, Our thinking exactly. Ideally everyone on staff should be involved in 5 year planning. Your faculty and administrators have great ideas. They just have to be asked. Once everyone agrees to the plans they are more likely to put them in place and make them part of their day-to-day goals. And most definitely plans have to be looked at at least 2 times a year. And results have to be formally assessed so you have information about how to make effective changes. Best wishes, Susan
