SCUP
Learning Resources

Organizational Change

Planning for Higher Education Journal

‘Catching’ Substantive Changes with Integrated Planning

 Implementing changes at institutions that operate under a distributive leadership model can be challenging because academic and support units function separately. This article recommends successful ways to manage the change-making process.
Planning for Higher Education Journal

A Developmental Perspective on Planning

 Traditional planning fails to consider the complex, unpredictable ways that institutions change and develop.
Conference Presentations

A Unique, Integrated Approach to Strategy Execution

 The pandemic has underscored the importance of building systems, cultures, and tactical infrastructure that allow organizations to adapt, challenging us to rethink our priorities.
Planning for Higher Education Journal

Adopting a Human-Centered Approach to Change

 The people impacted by change must be involved throughout the change lifecycle and empowered to navigate change every step of the way.
Planning for Higher Education Journal

Book Review: “Whatever It Is, I’m Against It”
Planning for Higher Education Journal

Book Review: Entrepreneuring the Future of Higher Education
Planning for Higher Education Journal

Book Review: How to Implement Your Campus Strategic Plan
Planning for Higher Education Journal

Book Review: Implementing Sustainable Change in Higher Education
Planning for Higher Education Journal

Breaking Barriers

 The University of West Georgia, toward dismantling silo thinking and promoting a sense of ownership within the workplace, formed a cross-divisional group: The Barriers Team. It was part of an initiative to recognize and encourage employee engagement, develop operational efficiencies and effectiveness, and eliminate obstructions to staff success.
Conference Recordings

Closing Keynote: Lessons from the Conference and the Connected College

 In our closing keynote, student success author, speaker, and consultant Elliot Felix will help you reflect on what you’ve learned and put it into practice.

This recording is available only to SCUP members and conference registrants through December 3, 2026.

Planning for Higher Education Journal

Democratizing Data to Close Equity Gaps

 Kean University strategically reframed and visualized student data, merged planning processes, and harnessed analytics to dismantle impediments to bridging equity gaps in higher education.
Webinar Recordings

Destination 2030
Planning for Higher Education Journal

Disrupting Poor Curricular Processes

 A large-scale change process, such as a curricular process revision, can be made easier by following a proven approach and understanding the potential hazards and challenges involved.
Conference Recordings

Don’t Get Me Started

 This session will address the university's setbacks, challenges, opportunities, and solutions in launching a shoestring integrated planning process amidst multiple crises.
ebook

Essential Practices for Organizational Change in Higher Education

 Filled with guidance, recommendations, examples, and tools, this book is a practical manual for anyone seeking to lead change in a college or university.
Planning for Higher Education Journal

Evaluating the Success of Strategic Change Against Kotter’s Eight Steps

 In evaluating a change process, based on Kotter’s “eight steps” for transforming organizations, undertaken at an institution based, the authors find that “key insights about the future of the organization” came from all levels and all units within the institution.
Planning for Higher Education Journal

From Fragmentation to Coherence

 Through integrated planning, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University moved from three separate academic catalogs and curriculum processes to a single, standardized system. The approach emphasized relationship-building, respected campus differences, and ensured consistency, creating a stronger foundation for future change.
Webinar Recordings

From Surviving to Thriving

 Join us to learn how you can create a culture of strategy execution to prioritize tactical daily work with your institution's overall strategy, leading to greater stakeholder investment in your shared vision.
Webinar Recordings

How Do You Grow and Sustain Indispensable Planners?

 Institutional transformation requires more than a planner or a strategist—it requires a transformation architect. How can leaders grow and support transformation architects? The authors of Transforming for Turbulent Times: An Action Agenda for Higher Education Leaders, share three sets of actions needed to enable and empower transformation architects.
Planning for Higher Education Journal

How Incremental Success Slows Transformative Change and Integrated Planning Achieves It

 Our critics simply may not be satisfied that we are doing our part to control costs and extend access until they have seen transformative change.
Conference Presentations

How to Create a Welcoming Campus
Conference Recordings

Keynote | Michael Sorrell

 Dr. Michael J. Sorrell is the longest-serving president in the 148-year history of Paul Quinn College. During his near 14 years of leadership, Paul Quinn has become a nationally regarded institution for its efforts to remake higher education in order to serve the needs of under-resourced students and their communities.
Planning for Higher Education Journal

Managing Change from the Murky Middle

 Middle managers are often blamed for change failure and portrayed as change resisters or saboteurs. However, what looks like obstructionist behavior could actually be the observable effects of role ambiguity.
Blog Post

Navigating Student Success

 To gain insight into how integrated planning to support student success can be a game changer, we turned to Paula Stossel, strategic advisor to the president for student success, and Amber Racchini, vice provost for student academic success, at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. They graciously accepted our invitation to address questions about their cross-functional effort to ensure a student-centered approach to delivery of support services at IUP.
Planning for Higher Education Journal

Optimizing for Growth

 Thomas Jefferson University focused on culture, communications, and collaboration during a transformational period of combining institutions.
Blog Post

Slight Differences and Lots of Similarities
Conference Presentations

Strategic Restructuring: Creating an Office of Strategy, Planning, and Analysis

 Institutions require accurate data to support decision making and planning, so they can and should carefully consider how this data is organized.
Planning for Higher Education Journal

Systemness

 This article traces the launch of a substantial reorganization of public higher education in Connecticut through the lens of “systemness”. The case study details the dynamics and challenges of implementing “Transform CSCU 2020” in a period of turbulence and change with a concluding focus on lessons learned.
Webinar Recordings

The Indispensable Planner

 Learn more about how planners can play a new, indispensable role—transformation architect—in helping their institutions transform to meet current challenges. The authors of the new book, Transforming for Turbulent Times: An Action Agenda for Higher Education Leaders, describe this transformative role, why planners are obvious candidates for the role, and the new mindset, behaviors, knowledge, and skills they will need to fulfill it.
Webinar Recordings

The Strategic Planning Checklist

 Learn from a research-based analysis of over 250 colleges and universities.
Webinar Recordings

Transform Existing Planning and Implementation Processes

 Join us as a panel of experienced leaders provide an overview of a systematic approach for getting started on transformation.
Webinar Recordings

Transformation Best Practices in the Decade Ahead

 Inexorable challenges demand that higher education transform . . . and that transformation needs to start now. Learn more about these challenges and the knowledge, skills, and capabilities an institution needs to transform in the coming decade from the authors of the new book Transforming for Turbulent Times: An Action Agenda for Higher Education Leaders.
ebook

Transforming for Turbulent Times

 Transforming for Turbulent Times: An Action Agenda for Higher Education Leaders can prepare your institution for the new learning ecosystem that will revolutionize work and learning by 2030. This book outlines a proven, eight-step process for planning, leading, navigating, and orchestrating the transformation necessary to thrive in the new world of knowledge, work, and learning. Whatever your role in your college, university, or learning enterprise, you’ll learn the principles, techniques, and actions that will make you indispensable to its transformation in these turbulent times.
Planning for Higher Education Journal

Using Positive Turbulence for Planning and Change

 As higher education leaders, we must take charge of our destinies and shape our industry by harnessing the forces of positive change using innovative, intentional approaches.
Blog Post

What Is a Bridge Plan?

 A bridge plan allows a college or university to continue to pursue defined strategic pathways during times of uncertainty or rapid, unpredictable change. It’s also a good solution for when faculty and staff are overwhelmed due to a highly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) environment.
Planning for Higher Education Journal

Why Strategic Plans Aren’t Working in Uncertain Times

 The author’s approach to his research-based Strategic Planning in Uncertain Times Fieldbook began with a sampling review of 50 strategic plans. What emerged was the development of an organizational learning cycle used as a template to assess the effectiveness of strategic plans on more than 250 college and university websites.