As the strategic planning year draws to a close we ponder what sort of document the plan might generate. The full compilation of ideas, emails, data, minutes of group meetings, and other documents created during the year would accumulate into a large volume. What we have in mind, however, is a compact statement of strategic aspirations and directions. The strategic plan document is more likely to be a small...
Strategic Planning
David Lopatto's Remarks
Friday, March 02, 2012
We move closer to the end of our strategic planning, endeavoring to meet our June deadline for producing the text of a plan. The many ideas generated will need to be implemented, and as we go forward we will need to know what succeeds. What succeeds for the College and what succeeds for the individual student/graduate are two facets of the same question, but they are not identical. The calibration of institutional...
Wednesday, February 08, 2012
The strategic planning process at the College reached an important milestone recently when a message appeared in the inbox of our idea collection site, sp@grinnell.edu. The message stated “your mailbox is full.” We arranged for the account to be enlarged. Nevertheless it is impressive that members of our community sent so many ideas as to inundate the...
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Some of the ideas submitted for strategic planning employ the word “value” to describe the positive impact of the ideas. Some suggestions have included the fashionable phrase value added. Value added has its origins in industry where it is used to describe the increased profitability added by a new attribute to a commercial product. The phrase has successfully infected the...
Friday, December 09, 2011
A summary of a recent committee discussion of strategic planning reported that “strategy is sometimes framed as preparing for an unknown future, so we want ideas that maximize our adaptability.” The words “adapt,” “adaptive,” and “adaptability” have been recurring in our strategic planning from a preliminary description of our institution (“a powerful and adaptive learning environment”) through ideas about...
Tuesday, November 08, 2011
Following the initial success of recruiting ideas for strategic planning by asking folks to send comments to the webpage http://www.grinnell.edu/future, we continued inviting ideas concerning Grinnell College’s future by creating an email account, sp@grinnell.edu as a repository for ideas. From that account Angela Voos, Special Assistant to the President, and I broadcast an...
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Starting with an all-campus picnic in August, we have asked our community to send comments on the question, “What makes Grinnell distinctive?” The responses to date are available on the strategic planning website. The responses, starting with the annual all-campus picnic and continuing since, are characterized by the way in which respondents call on their personal memories, perceptions, and...
I see stuff here about the college being in a small mid-west town, but the topics and themes don't seem to include anything about non-college town participation in the college planning. For...
In the fall 2011 number of The Grinnell Magazine, Dr. Kingston introduces the strategic planning year with an article titled, "Choosing Grinnell's Future." First among Grinnell's advantages, says...
1) I love Grinnell's open curriculum. It makes all the difference in the world to be in classes where the participants have chosen to be there. I can't emphasize...