^{WSU System Strategic Plan} _2020-2025

Appendix 5: Strategic Planning Key Steps and Timeline

Planning Process and Timeline

The planning process incorporated nine steps that took place between August 2018 and March 2020.

August 2018—March 2019

Step 1: Setting the Stage

Analyze the 2018 WSU accreditation report completed by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities
Develop planning model for creating a new strategic plan
Launch the planning process with communication from President Schulz
Conduct system-wide listening sessions on current strategic plan

January—April 2019

Step 2: Expanding the Effort

Analyze data from initial listening sessions
Create Strategic Planning and Institutional Effectiveness Council (SPIEC), with system-wide representation
Engage senior leadership teams—president’s cabinet, deans, campuses, colleges—in strategic dialogue about the WSU system

May 2019

Step 3: Convening the Community: Land-grant Symposium

Host full day, system-wide dialogue focused on the future of land-grant institutions
Explore in-depth the three primary elements of WSU’s land-grant mission: teaching, research, and service

June—September 2019

Step 4: Building a Knowledge Base

Design environmental scanning process
Design knowledge repository
Evaluate knowledge gaps
Engage in quantitative/qualitative research with internal and external stakeholders
Survey community online about purpose, values, vision, goals, and assumptions
Create “What We Know” document

October 2019

Step 5: Convening the Community: Visioning Conference

Gather community input regarding:

Assumptions about the future

SWOT analysis

Core purpose and core values

Envisioned future (big goal/vivid descriptions)

Short-term, outcome-oriented goals and objectives

October—November 2019

Step 6: Crafting the Plan: Concept Teams

Form concept teams
Teams draft goals, objectives, and strategies to be included in the strategic plan based on input from the visioning conference, “What We Know” document, and associated research

December 2019

Step 7: Strategic Plan Document Drafting

Draft the first iteration of the strategic plan

Relying on the input gathered, a small team writes the first draft of the plan

The draft addresses purpose, values, and vision and goals, as well as underlying assumptions about the future