“I’m going to paddle board to the opposite side of the lake.” “How?” “I’ve got a paddle board.” My oldest son is as pragmatic as they come. There’s a lot of black and white in our conversations, and while I also fall in the realist camp in most areas of my life, it’s important to…Read more
Tag: Executive Counsel
What Are We Talking About When We Talk About “Student Success”?
Earlier this year, a bunch of us on Team RHB were having a lively conversation in our multi-time zone Zoombox about RHB’s growing student success practice, when our president, Sam Waterson, paused the conversation and asked the question posed in the title of this article. “It reminds me of ‘peacekeeping missiles’,” said the eponymous founder…Read more
Webinar: Strategic Planning: Leading With Authenticity and Strategy
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
Transcript: Strategic Planning: Leading With Authenticity and Strategy
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
Centralization Is Not the Objective: Marketing Organizational Structure Should Follow Strategy
This article previously appeared in Inside Higher Ed and it is posted here with permission of the author. “We’re so decentralized.” In my organizational design work for higher ed marketing and communications, I often hear this lament from leaders describing their current structure. The refrain, which is not exclusive to large institutions, implies that a centralized—or significantly…Read more
Are Silos to Blame or Flawed Organizational Design? Why We Should Move Beyond Talking About Higher Ed Silos
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
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