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
Tag: Executive Counsel
Institutional Strategic Planning and the Under-Leveraged Capability of Advancement
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
A Proposal for Coherent Student-Centric Financial Aid Offers
Before the holiday break, I read with great interest—and little surprise—articles that appeared in the Chronicle and Inside Higher Ed around the lack of clarity (and, in some cases, honesty) in financial aid offers. The title of Eric Hoover’s December 5 Chronicle article summarizes the issue well: “Most Colleges Omit or Understate Net Costs in…Read more
Reckoning With the Great Resignation
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
Transcript: Strategic Planning That’s Truly Strategic
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
Webinar: Strategic Planning That’s Truly Strategic
Do you know whether your institution’s strategic plan priorities are visionary or hallucinatory? How can you tell the difference, especially given the disruption of normal operations during the last two years? During our October 12 webinar, RHB Vice President for Marketing Leadership Dr. Rob Zinkan and I shared insights about how strategic planning can be…Read more
10 Fears Stifling Innovation in Higher Education
As Lee Gardner noted in “The Barriers to Innovation” in The Chronicle of Higher Education ( 2019 ), “universities often flounder at innovation because they are not really meant to change.” The notion that institutions are inflexible is disconcerting at best. If innovation is considered impossible, no incentive exists to even imagine change. Nonetheless, outdated approaches and…Read more
The Marketing Maturity Model: Advantages and Limitations
Recently I have seen more examples emerge of institutions adopting a marketing maturity model. Jaime Hunt, Old Dominion University Vice President for University Communications and Chief Marketing Officer, discussed the topic over the summer with Jamie Ceman, Chapman University Vice President for Strategic Marketing and Communications, during an episode of the Confessions of the Higher…Read more
Design Thinking for Higher Ed
You may be too tired these days to think about innovation or new ideas. You may be exhausted from the upheaval of life in the past three years. You may be overworked because your colleagues have taken flight in the Great Resignation. You may be tired from trying to find and recruit their replacements. You…Read more
How a Horseshoe Can Remind Leaders About Our Institutional Why
Lately, as I continue hearing and reading stories about the Great Resignation, I find myself thinking a lot about a seven-foot-tall blue horse. Let me back up. Earlier this year, after boarding my homebound flight from Indianapolis and walking to my assigned seat, I found myself squeezing past a regulation NFL helmet, adorned with the…Read more