The Strategic Horizon Program is an organizational and leader development program unlike any other in American postsecondary education. Coordinated by the Center for Community College Development, it can most easily be described by starting with the concept of a strategic horizon as the most favorable position a college can attain in a regional market through development of strategic capabilities, identification and pursuit of opportunities and delivery of maximum value to students and stakeholders. Colleges participating in the Strategic Horizon Program are seeking to move beyond conventional approaches to management and leadership by committing to new ways of doing business in five areas:

1. Analysis and creation of opportunity - encouraging strategic thinking throughout the institution as a way of enhancing individual and institutional capacity to identify and pursue new development opportunities within and beyond the service region;
   
2. Assessment and reporting of value - re-examining how the college determines the value it is currently delivering to different clients and stakeholders and the value it could potentially deliver given optimal functioning;
   
3. Enhancement of strategic management capability -developing and enhancing new capabilities in strategic management including but not limited to: awareness of the difference between strategy and tactics, insight into college culture, knowledge of system and process design and redesign, the strengths and limitations of the organizational structure and modes of decision-making and communication;
   
4. Change design and management - increasing individual and institutional capacity to design and successfully execute a plan for change working with constituencies throughout the college; and
   
5. Leader development throughout the institution - building strategic capability in faculty and staff so that leadership is a continuous process in every part of the institution

The Strategic Horizon Program provides a framework for improving capacity in these and other areas by enabling colleges to work together to develop needed skills in strategic management. It is coordinated by the Center for Community College Development and carried out with a network of 14 community colleges.

How does it work?

Key elements of the Program include continuous assessment to determine institutional capability in strategic management; campus-based activity to improve the strategic capability of faculty, administrators and support staff; visits with high performing organizations inside and outside of education to learn new capabilities, and network colloquia to develop skill training programs for institution-wide application. Over the course of each operating year, colleges come together to cross-train one another in newly developed strategic capabilities and to work collaboratively to build learning programs for the purpose of developing strategic leadership capabilities in staff throughout the institution.

The Program involves five interlocking activities:

1. Assessment of Capability. Each participating college has been visited to map the extent to which capabilities in specific areas of strategic management are developed. Prior to an initial visit, college leadership teams were asked to complete a self-assessment of strategic capability. During the visit, facilitators from the Center for Community College Development met with different campus work groups (faculty, senior and middle administrators, support staff, etc.) to gauge their assessment of the institution's strategic capability. Following the visit, a customized report describing current capability in strategic management was developed and delivered to each college.
   
2. Campus-Based Activity to Improve Management Capability. The results of the capability assessment were used to determine areas in which each college needs to build strategic capability. Working directly with campus teams, SHP facilitators Pat Carter and Dick Alfred are providing tools and techniques to help colleges design and build new capabilities or to redesign current capabilities. Visits are arranged with organizations employing best practices to learn how to design/redesign management capabilities through direct exposure to new and effective techniques and approaches. Colleges collaborate with one another to sharing ideas about design and, when appropriate, co-creating new capabilities in specific areas of strategic management.
   
3. Organizational Learning via On-site Visits with High Performing Organizations. Visits are conducted with organizations inside and outside of education identified as employing best practices in strategic areas of management. Teams from all or selected colleges in the Network l engage in 1-2 day site visits with best practice organizations to learn new capabilities and transfer them to staff on campus. Capabilities in need of development through consultation outside of network colleges and best practice organizations are identified throughout the operating year by a college design team comprised of presidents, liaison officers and others involved in steering committee activities of the network institutions.
   
4. Network Colloquia to Share and Learn New Capabilities. Colleges come together in semi-annual network colloquia to develop and share information that is used to design and refine modules for developing strategic capabilities. Network colleges work in clusters of 3-4 institutions to build knowledge and skills in areas of strategic management in which all of the Network colleges are interested. The first seven of these are: strategic thinking, change design and management, communication, culture mapping and change, process management, constituency-based assessment, and leader development. As assessment reveals additional capabilities in need of development, Network colleges will collaborate in producing and packaging information for use in training staff.
   
5. Development and Implementation of a Learning Program for Building Strategic Management Proficiency throughout the Institution. To build institution-wide proficiency in strategic management, network colleges work collaboratively to construct learning modules that will be used to train staff in strategic competencies. Collectively, these modules will make up a learning program to enhance strategic capabilities which will be delivered to faculty, staff and administrators in each college by trained facilitators. Network colloquia are used to review and pilot the learning modules prior to implementation on campus.

Anticipated and Demonstrated Outcomes.

Colleges participating in the Strategic Horizon Program experience the following benefits through activities on campus and through exchange with Network institutions:

• A custom-crafted plan promoting the development of strategic capability in areas deemed vital to the future of the institution.
  
• Competencies developed or accentuated which enable staff to identify and pursue opportunities essential for achievement of institutional, departmental and personal goals.
  
• A system for assessment recognized and recommended by the North Central Association as a useful tool for identifying and organizing projects for AQIP consideration.
  
• Increased efficiency and economy in developing strategic capabilities of staff through collaboration with colleges working as part of a network to achieve a common goal.
  
• Access to state-of-the-art tools, organizational learning, and best practices which can be used to build capability through the assistance of skilled consultants and experts in industry-leading organizations.
  
• Institution-wide leader development of staff accomplished through synchronous and asynchronous learning modules developed by a network of institutions.

STRATEGIC HORIZON NETWORK

Center for Community College Development

Patricia Carter, Executive Director
P.O. Box 57, Milan, Michigan 48160-0057
Phone: (734) 439-2134/Fax: (734) 439-7861
Email: pncarter@umich.edu/URL: www.cfccd.org