Insights

What’s the difference between visionary and hallucinatory leadership during a strategic planning process? How can a leader best incorporate their own goals and ambitions for their institution with the vision other community members have—and with reality? In a webinar on April 12, RHB Vice President for Marketing Leadership Dr. Rob Zinkan and I discussed eight…Read more

On April 12, Aimee Hosemann, Sam Waterson and Rob Zinkan hosted RHB’s latest webinar about its strategic planning research, analyzing 108 plans across higher ed. They discuss eight leadership themes that emerged from interviews with presidents of institutions that had the “most strategic” plans. For additional resources, you can watch a recording of the webinar, download the executive…Read more

The Silo Metaphor Oversimplifies to a Fault   The use of the silo metaphor typically serves as a call for more collaboration. We often talk about silos as barriers to activating student centeredness or being more collectively mission directed. Those are noble and correct motivations. But talking about a lack of institutional alignment by faulting…Read more

One objective of RHB’s study of 108 current strategic plans was to bring a constituent-oriented lens to this research. Faculty, staff and administrators play a central role in strategic planning. What about other core constituencies—students, alumni, donors and other stakeholders—and the functional areas responsible for them? For instance, we have previously discussed research implications for…Read more

This article previously appeared in Inside Higher Ed and it is posted here with permission of the author. While I was in Houston for the 2022 National Association for College Admission Counseling conference, I saw in person what we have been reading about and—for many on college campuses—living with for the past 12 to 15…Read more

On October 12, RHB’s Aimee Hosemann and Rob Zinkan hosted a webinar, Strategic Planning That’s Truly Strategic, to share findings and critical lessons from RHB’s yearlong study of 108 current strategic plans across higher education. For additional resources, you can watch a recording of the webinar, download the executive summary of the research, purchase the full-report book…Read more