Experiencing an Organizational Code Blue? Strategic Planning as a Revitalization Tool

Stress is a function of the body that protects it from harm. The human brain and body work together to survive extraordinary situations through the fight, flight, or freeze response. When the body responds to stress it receives a surge of adrenaline. Once the stress is resolved, the body returns to baseline. Organizations are just like the human body. In emergency situations all hands come together and respond as necessary. When the emergency situation is resolved, the organization returns to baseline.

When stress becomes chronic, there is no recovery. Signs of chronic stress include anxiety, fatigue, neglecting self-care and relationships, and brain fog. They are much the same for an organization. Higher Education Facilities Management organizations are frequently faced with stress. Common stressors include utility breaks, roof leaks, equipment failures, and budget issues. Lately, on top of those common stressors, there has been a pandemic, increased frequency of natural disasters, incidents of civil unrest, and school shootings. Ultimately, chronic stress cannot be sustained by the human body or by an organization. Are you experiencing an organizational code blue? Consider using this phased approach to strategic planning as a revitalization tool.

Remember that the APPA Standards and Codes Council provides updates and information about changing codes and standards. Don’t let those changes add to your stress. Stay informed and incorporate the adoption of code changes into your strategic plan.

Phase 1: Grounding

As a leader initiating a strategic planning process it is important to document your situational understanding and your philosophical approach. You will return to this document throughout the process as a check to ensure your product and approach are in alignment with your initial intentions.

Sample Situational Understanding

Over the past two years, the department has worked to support the University through the pandemic. During this time, the frontline staff was essential and reported to campus and the professional staff worked from home. The University has allowed for the continuation of work from home for staff that are able to do so. This has created a divide in the organization. Morale is low. Department leadership would like to initiate the development of a strategic plan, defining strategic initiatives for three years. Facilitation of the plan development will allow the department to cultivate renewed engagement in a culture of continuous improvement, realign with the University mission, and reassess internal and external views of the effectiveness of the department.

Sample Philosophical Approach

Engagement is the key to establishing buy in. Facilitators will work to get staff at all levels of the organization involved in the plan development process. Leadership will provide updates to all staff at the completion of each phase. Doing so will allow department leadership to initiate the plan having full support from the staff.

Phase 2: Internal and External Assessments

Conducting an internal and external assessment is a great opportunity to initiate engagement in the planning process. Invite all staff members to participate in small group sessions. Mixing staff from different units within the department is a great way to encourage collaborative behaviors. Guide the small groups through an honest and objective assessment of internal issues and the assessment of external challenges. Analyzing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities for, and threats (also known as the SWOT Analysis) to the organization is a critical step in the strategic planning process.

Strengths are important as they represent areas of the organization to be built upon, and weaknesses are areas to be identified as potential sources for improvement. Opportunities are vital to the future of the organization and should be viewed as positive prospects for growth and enhancement; threats must be identified and addressed in advance, where possible. Conduct the same exercise with small groups of clients. It is ideal to invite clients that have the most interaction with your staff to participate. After completing the assessments, organize the data in a way that allows you to see the differences in the internal and external responses. Understanding and analyzing any differences in internal and external perceptions is key to developing an impactful plan.

Phase 3: Vision, Mission, and Values

Often organizations have a vision, mission, and values but they are outdated and underutilized. Armed with the SWOT analysis data, this phase in the planning process provides the organization the opportunity to determine if the existing vision, mission, and values align with the University’s mission and the current needs of the department. There are a variety of ways this phase can be facilitated. Leadership can set the vision, mission, and values, all staff can be invited to participate in facilitated focus groups, or electronic surveying can be used.

In this phase, the product is more important than the process. The vision must provide a simple transcendent goal that unites the organization. The mission must clearly state the purpose of the organization. The values must be definable through the expression of behaviors. At the completion of this phase, update the staff and announce the vision, mission, and values. This is a great opportunity to provide staff with some swag that would allow them to keep these statements visible.

Phase 4: Themes and Objectives

A strategic plan should be organized by theme. Using the SWOT analysis data, conduct a thematic analysis. This is accomplished by bucketing the data points. An easy way to do this with a group is using sticky notes. Write each SWOT analysis data point on an individual sticky note and distribute them among the participants in the room. Using a big blank white board, have participants take turns reading data points and sticking them on the white board in similar groupings or buckets. As more and more data points are added and distinct buckets appear, pause and brainstorm titles for each bucket.

Continue the exercise using the individual data points until themes become clear. As a check, discuss the emergent themes and how they align with the vision, mission, and values defined in the previous phase. The next step is developing objectives under each theme. An objective defines the desired outcomes. This can be accomplished by facilitating an open discussion with the group using the SWOT analysis data points in each bucket as a starting point.

Sample Themes and Objectives

Theme 1 – Invest in Employee Success
Objective 1.1 – Promote Employee Engagement
Objective 1.2 – Provide Technology, Tools, and Equipment
Objective 1.3 – Increase Training Opportunities

Theme 2 – Embody Sustainability
Objective 2.1 – Reduce Carbon Footprint
Objective 2.2 – Increase Awareness and Participation

Phase 5: Plan Development

The next steps are determining what (initiative) you are going to do to meet each objective, and how (action) you are going to do it. If we revisit the sample philosophical approach from Phase 1, we are reminded that our goal is engaging as many staff members in the planning process as possible. One way to accomplish that is to establish cross unit teams to work on each theme. Creating multiple teams with representation from all units at all levels of the organization will allow for increased engagement in the planning process.

After teams have been established, the leadership group can provide a clear charge and allow the teams to develop the plan. Each team will work to establish initiatives and actions. This process can be simply facilitated by working with each objective and asking, “What are we going to do?” and “How are we going to do it?” It is important to ensure that at the completion of every action can be clearly defined or quantified.

Sample Initiatives and Actions

Theme 2 – Embody Sustainability
Objective 2.1 – Reduce Carbon Footprint

Initiative 2.1.1 Improve waste reduction, diversion, and recycling

Action 2.1.1.1 Implement enhanced recycling in all residence halls
Action 2.1.1.2 Add compost collection bins in dining halls

Objective 2.2 – Increase Awareness and Participation

Initiative 2.2.1 Create a culture of sustainability

Action 2.2.1.1 Work with athletics to make all football games zero-waste events

Initiative 2.2.2 Communicate baselines and successes

Action 2.2.2.1 Submit application for 2024 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year
Action 2.2.2.2 Create an interactive campus sustainability map and post to the
sustainability webpage
Action 2.2.2.3 Create an energy usage webpage with public dashboards

Phase 6: Plan Management and Implementation

It is time to determine who is accountable for each action and how long it will take to complete. Notice that I used the word accountable and not responsible. The person assigned accountability for the action is not required to complete the work alone. They should be provided the resources, both human and capital, necessary to successfully complete the action and will be held accountable for the completion by a date that they help establish. This is a three-year plan, so prioritize the completion of actions based on SWOT analysis data and resource availability.

Remember that the intention of the plan is to revitalize the organization and increase engagement so, be mindful about overburdening staff members. Ensure that you are celebrating the completion of actions along the way and keeping the entire staff updated on the progress of the plan.

Lastly, don’t forget that you can’t manage if you don’t measure. Go through the plan and identify data sources that could be used as a metric of success. If you aren’t currently collecting data that would provide you a source of measurement, then start.

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Lindsay Wagner is the owner of The Knowledge Collaborative in Lake Havasu City, AZ. She can be reached at [email protected].