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Learning Resources

Scenario Planning

Planning for Higher Education Journal

‘Smart Change’ for Turbulent Times

 Higher education faces a very real threat today. In confronting the fallout from COVID-19, colleges and universities are pushed toward making a transformative change. What will that require? A commitment to adaptation, innovation, change management, meeting the most critical student needs, and leaders who stand up to the challenges.
Conference Recordings

2020 Foresight

 In this presentation, we'll demonstrate a step by step how-to for you to apply on your own campus with a vivid description of deliverables, tools, and 'gotchas.'
Tool

An Integrated Approach to Scenario Planning

 No one can predict the future. That doesn’t mean it needs to be a total surprise. This toolkit will walk you step-by-step through scenario planning with instructions, examples, and worksheets that you can use to start scenario planning at your institution immediately.
Webinar Recordings

Coffee Chat: Scenario Planning

 Jim Downey, VP for planning and institutional effectiveness at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and Chris McCord, acting executive VP and provost, Northern Illinois University, moderated this Coffee Chat on Scenario Planning.
Webinar Recordings

Coffee Chat: Tracking the External Environment

 Join Nick Santilli and Jim Downey for a conversation that will highlight the SCUP Spring Trends and SCUP Trends for Canada reports. Scanning the external environment is a key factor in keeping your institution nimble and change-ready—two facets necessary for effective institutional planning. These documents are essential tools for strategic planning, scenario planning, and contingency planning.
Webinar Recordings

Developing a Nimble and Change-Ready Planning Culture

 Panelists Nick Santilli from SCUP and Larry Squarini and Tony Adam from SPOL discuss how integrated planning can help develop a robust culture and take a deep dive into strategic, operational, continuity, and scenario planning.

This is part three of the series, “Planning in Times of Crisis and Beyond: Reviving Your Strategic Planning Process.”

Planning for Higher Education Journal

Developing Scenarios: Linking Environmental Scanning and Strategic Planning

 In this article, we discuss a method for developing and writing scenarios for a college or university. We begin by reviewing the general literature on scenarios; we then detail a scenario development project at Arizona State University. This project, conducted in 1988–89, was Arizona State University's first institution-wide, futures-based planning and scenario development effort.
Example Plans

Futures Work

 From April 2020, the institution’s president led faculty and staff in a rigorous planning and exploration process to ensure that the college remained accessible and thriving through the pandemic and beyond. This bridge plan document details the action steps resulting from that process.
Webinar Recordings

Higher Education Business Models Under Stress, Part 1

 Join a panel discussion on business model transformation moderated by Verne Sedlacek, vice board chair of Valparaiso University with guest panelists Melody Rose, coauthor of AGB’s new book, Higher Education Business Models Under Stress, and AGB consultants Carlton Brown and Larry Ladd, experts in higher education budgeting, finance, and strategic planning.
Conference Recordings

Keynote: Amidst Converging Storms | Part Two

 In the second of two keynotes focusing on higher education’s “perfect storm”—the confluence of a global pandemic, financial crisis, shifting demographics, and a changing culture—a cross-disciplinary panel will discuss their integrated planning strategies for moving from a state of triage to transformation.
Webinar Recordings

Pivot Complete. Now What?

 Higher education has become accustomed to a volatile environment. Volatile environments create significant degrees of ambiguity, complexity, and uncertainty. How do institutions navigate through this volatile environment? Scenario planning.
Conference Recordings

Planning for Equity-Centered Transformation

 We must abandon the traditional three- to five-year planning cycle in favor of combining a macro-planning approach with shorter-term sprints (quick-turnaround scenario planning flexibility) to meet the changing needs of our students and communities.
Planning for Higher Education Journal

Planning in Higher Education: A Multiple Scenario Forecasting Approach
Blog Post

Preparing for the Post-Pandemic World

 Well, that didn’t go as planned. Let’s face it, 2020 was one of the most volatile years in world history. We now find ourselves digging out from the impact of the global pandemic and thinking, “What next?” To be honest, volatility is not new to higher education. In fact, a measure of volatility is commonplace in the higher education environment. Just over a year ago, the sector was obsessively focused on the enrollment cliff, the higher education business model, and free speech. We’ve added to this list a worldwide pandemic, calls for social and racial justice, cancel culture, and waves of natural disasters.
Webinar Recordings

That Didn’t Go As Planned

 Panelists Nick Santilli from SCUP and Larry Squarini and Tony Adam from SPOL discuss how institutions are living through the pivot and how scenario planning can fuel recovery.

This is the first installment of the series, “Planning in Times of Crisis and Beyond: Reviving Your Strategic Planning Process.”

Planning for Higher Education Journal

The Integrated Triad

 An integrated model of three horizons, three areas of planning, and three types of governance is presented as a framework for institutional leadership.
Planning for Higher Education Journal

University Strategic Planning and the Foresight/Futures Approach

 Dublin City University has taken the lead in Ireland in terms of its emphasis on strategic planning. Its 2005–2008 strategic plan, Leadership Through Foresight, was part of an ambitious foresight exercise that was aimed at informing subsequent strategic cycles. This article reports on this process in the context of the wider literature examining the value of foresight/futures thinking as applied to universities.
Planning for Higher Education Journal

Using Scenarios and Simulations to Plan Colleges

 Higher education institutions can benefit from constructing and using multiple future scenarios and simulations during strategic planning. One method of scenario planning to create visions of potential futures is presented, with a case study from the College of the Desert.
Planning for Higher Education Journal

What Is Your Crisis ‘What If’?

 The Medical College of Wisconsin planned strategically, engaged executive leadership, and operationalized an Administrative Response Team to navigate critical incidents impacting the university.