Planning Process
Step 2: Identify objectives and create strategy maps
During the month of October, the planning committee split into five sub-committees to develop strategy maps based on the University’s five strategic themes, Academic Distinction, Service Community, University Community Relations, Diversity and Social Justice, and Technology.
What is a strategy map?
A strategy map is a process of articulating how SCSU will fulfill its mission and achieve its strategic priorities. The map consists of a series of objectives that describe what needs to be done to accomplish the university’s strategy.
What are strategic objectives?
Strategic objectives describe what needs to be done to fulfill our mission and achieve our strategic priorities. They are future-oriented and offer the potential for continual improvement. Strategic objectives are the hub of activity where the plan is actually implemented. As the following graphic illustrates, strategic objectives links the strategic priorities, responsibility, performance measurement, initiatives and budgeting together.
For the SCSU planning process, objectives were derived by looking at the intersection of the University’s Strategic Themes and the perspectives identified by the committee.
| Academic Distinction | Service Community | University Community Relations | Diversity & Social Justice | Technology | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Students & Stakeholders | Prepare students for careers | ||||
| Resource Stewardship | Maintain affordable tuition and fees | Build external support for the university | |||
| Organizational Processes | Promote diversity and anti-racism in hiring practices | ||||
| Organizational Readiness | Enhance employee satisfaction and success | Increase employee information and technology literacy |
Once objectives for each theme were identified, the sub-committees looked for the cause and effect relationship between the objectives. These relationships were then mapped, and the result was a “strategy map” for each theme.
- Academic Distinction (PDF)
- Service Community (PDF)
- University Community Relations (PDF)
- Diversity & Social Justice (PDF)
- Technology (PDF)
Once the theme maps were completed, the SPC spent November 2006 merging the theme maps into a single map for the University. In many instances, similar objectives appeared on multiple maps. These common objectives provided a clear indication of where the University needed to concentrate its effort and to expend resources. The following document shows the overlap of the separate theme objectives.
- Merged Theme Maps (PDF)
Using the document as a guide, the planning committee developed the following St. Cloud State University Strategy Map. The strategy map contains the strategic objectives the committee feels must be addressed in order to fulfill our mission and achieve our strategic priorities. The final University strategy map illustrates the interrelatedness of the themes and the common objectives that must be achieved to fulfill our mission and achieve our strategic priorities.
- SCSU Strategy Map (PDF)
Reading the Strategy Map
The strategy map is a series of cause-and-effect relationships between the objectives that must be addressed in order to fulfill our mission and achieve our strategic objectives. The map can be read in two different but interrelated ways – from the top down and from the bottom up.
To read the map from the top down, you begin at Student and Stakeholder perspective and at each arrow, ask the question “how will we accomplish this?”
The committee identified the two objectives that appear in red at the top of the map as the most critical to fulfilling our mission and would be the result of achieving all of the objectives that appear in the rest of the map.
- Provide students with the best possible education
- Be accountable to all stakeholders
Beginning with either of the two top objectives, follow the arrows backward and ask “how?” The following cause-and-effect chain describes one of the ways we “provide students with the best possible education.”
How will we provide students with the best possible education? We will accomplish this by:
- Expanding external input for our activities and programs
- Enhancing student learning, development, and academic performance
- Improving satisfaction of all students
- Increasing access to SCSU
How will we accomplish these objectives? By:
- Increasing and appropriately managing support from external communities
- Ensuring human, physical, and financial resources are allocated to support strategic objectives
- Balancing quality and quantity of programs and services
- Achieving appropriate and realistic enrollment goals
- Maintaining affordable tuition and fees
Taking one of the objectives from the above list, how will we increase and appropriately manage support from external communities -- by increasing communication with internal and external stakeholders. How will we increase communication with internal and external stakeholders – by establishing and maintaining relationships with the external stakeholders.
The same type of chain can be followed for each of the blue objectives in the student and stakeholder perspective.
The second way to read the strategy map is by starting at the bottom and reading up, asking the question “why” at each arrow. The following diagram is a portion of the complete strategy map. It is separated out to make reading the cause-and-effect chain easier.
Three separate chains make up the Organizational Readiness and Organizational Processes sections of the strategy map.
- Yellow = Communications chain
- Pink = Human resource chain
- Orange = Program/service chain
The orange or program/service chain should be read as follows. The chain begins with two objectives:
- Ensure availability of appropriate tools for learning
- Ensure use of and access to timely and accurate internal and external data and information
Why are these objectives important? Because it will allow the university to:
- Build institutional capacity for change to meet future opportunities and challenges
Why is this objective important? Because it will allow the university to:
- Increase use of multiple delivery options for programs and services
- Optimize academic, administrative, and student life and development support services
These two objectives combined with the previous will allow the university to:
- Continuously improve through evaluation, assessment, and innovation
Why is this objective important? Because it, along with the other two cause-and-effect chains, will allow the university to:
- Ensure human, physical, and financial resources are allocated to support strategic objectives
- Balance quality and quantity of programs
The chain continues upward, eventually reaching the two objectives of:
- Providing students with the best possible education
- Being accountable to all stakeholders
The other chains are read in the same manner.
The planning committee believes that these objectives are the areas where the university must concentrate its effort and resources to fulfill our mission and achieve our five strategic themes. Initiatives will be identified at the department, college, unit, and institutional level. Initiatives that will have the greatest impact on achieving one or more of the identified objectives will be selected for implementation. After the initiatives have been implemented, performance measures will be used to determine if:
- The initiative was successful
- The initiative had an impact on the outcome of the objective
- The supposed cause-and-effect relationship between the objectives actually exists
