Many higher education institutions and leaders are currently undergoing or are considering strategic initiatives that will result in large-scale operational changes. These initiatives may include updating IT systems, restructuring academic programs, or changes to financial and administrative technology, processes, and procedures. Often these initiatives are necessary for the financial health of the institution or for the institution to enhance its academic activities.
However, without support from administrators, staff, faculty, and students, many large-scale projects will not produce the intended results. Change leaders must assess the change and develop a clear strategy and disciplined change management approach to mitigate the risk of failure and reduce the likelihood of unforeseen obstacles that could delay or derail the project.
Let’s explore four tips to help leaders navigate institutional change.
1. Assess the Current Landscape
Before beginning any major project, higher education leaders should analyze the current situation. This includes:
- Analyzing processes to identify what currently works well and where there are inefficiencies.
- Document what processes, systems, and roles will change because of the change.
- Identify which stakeholders will be impacted, and how. Are individual roles changing? Or is it a process, structure, or skill change?
- Assess the organizations overall readiness to navigate a change, from the leadership level to front-line teams.
- Consider the experience of other organization that have undergone a similar change.
For example, if undergoing a major revamp of your IT systems, it is critical to understand the pain points of the current IT system. Does the system necessitate workarounds or offline processes? Are there security risks? Take the time to identify any downstream impacts of an IT change. For example, consider interoperability; will the new IT systems work with the older systems you are planning to retain?
2. Establish a Comprehensive Change Management Strategy
A comprehensive change strategy is guided by first setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound (SMART) goals. This means articulating how the project aligns with the institution’s broader mission. Align the leadership team around the “why” and “why now”. Explain why the organization is pursuing the initiative and how the project will address, and better serve, the evolving needs of faculty and students. Establish well defined guiding principles to steer a cohesive project team and to provide a path for decision-making.
Consider refining goals and principles by speaking to faculty committees, student associations, and alumni organizations who can provide valuable input. This will foster buy-in and stakeholder satisfaction. Beyond buy-in, inviting key stakeholders to provide input on these goals may unearth new solutions. For example, leaders may believe that they need to cut a program (which means cutting jobs) to avoid a budget deficit. However, by discussing the goal with faculty and other stakeholders, leaders may be able to devise an alternative solution – like combining programs to save some faculty positions.
The strategy must also include a well-defined and agreed upon governance structure. There will be many decision points throughout the project’s lifecycle, and it will be impossible to satisfy everyone. An effective governance structure outlines various levels for decision making based on the complexity or impact of the consideration, a clear path for escalation, and adherence to the guiding principles. There will be times when the core decision-making team must stand firm in decisions to move the project forward. Too much time spent deliberating and gathering feedback can slow the project.
Once the change strategy including goals, principles, and governance are established, all leaders should be made aware of the framework and coached on how to display support and commitment to the ultimate outcomes of the project.
3. Communicate With Impact
Communicating the value proposition of new initiatives to relevant stakeholders is critical to effective change management. Without proper communication, stakeholders may be blind-sided, may create and perpetuate their own narrative, and may resist the change, resulting in failure to meet project outcomes. For example, telling the chemistry department to itemize laboratory equipment without further context could cause concern that resources and budgets may be reduced. Instead, the university should explain that they are searching for a more competitively priced vendor and open a dialogue with faculty to better understand the resources needed, perhaps sourcing vendors from those key stakeholders as part of the process.
Developing a well-defined communication plan and establishing a trusted source of relevant information early in the process is critical to success and avoids unnecessary misunderstandings. A communication plan should define what to communicate, when and how to communicate it, and to whom. Leverage available communication channels and establish new channels as needed such as newsletters, standing meetings, town halls, dedicated intranet sites, and scheduled project update. Communication should be:
- Tailored to each stakeholder group.
- Timely
- Clear and concise
- Consistent, and
- Organic to the organization’s culture.
While disseminating information is key, it is equally important to solicit feedback from key stakeholder groups. This requires speaking not only to IT leaders but also to students, faculty, and staff. Impacted stakeholders should be consulted when a change is to be made and their perspective and opinions gathered. This may garner conflicting perspectives that require consensus solutions to arrive at the best decision for the institution. Proper stakeholder segmentation and requirements analysis could be facilitated objectively by engaging an experienced 3rd party.
Without proper communication and buy-in from stakeholders, the project may move forward with limited understanding of the changes and lack of support from the organization which can severely impact or stall the adoption of the change.
4. Embrace Outside Help
Higher education leaders should consider that ambitious plans may be difficult to execute without external help. Third-party professionals can lend their expertise and provide perspective on potential risks and work with institutions to develop and instill the right change management and stakeholder risk-mitigation strategies. Consulting with change professionals to discuss thoughtfully the potential impacts of planned changes can help to avoid costly and/or failed initiatives.
In some cases, institutions may seek guidance from external advisors for insights on a specific project, for example, upgrading their enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. However, an objective and experienced third party assessment may uncover that the root of the organization’s problem may be resolved by streamlining their accounting and finance departments. This may prove to be a more effective course of action towards the same desired outcome.
Finally, third-party professionals can help institutions stay accountable to the change management process and make sure they are tracking successfully against their goals.
In today’s dynamic higher education environment, an institution is never truly a finished product. Change is an inevitable, ongoing process. Leaders should embrace a culture of continuous improvement, regularly reviewing and refining their strategies and internal controls to adapt to new challenges and opportunities.
University leaders must proactively manage change to ensure the long-term success and sustainability of their institutions and maximize their return on investment. By carefully assessing the current landscape, establishing a comprehensive strategy, and communicating with impact, colleges and universities can set themselves up to thrive in a changing landscape.
Interested in learning more about how BDO can assist your organization as it navigates through strategic initiatives and change? Contact us here.