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Strategic Planning

Stakeholders’ Strategic Planning Summary

Community members speaking with employees discussing the strategic vision for the district, with green overlay


CONVERSATIONS FOR THE FUTURE

In fall 2018 and spring 2019, the Alamo Colleges District Board of Trustees and Dr. Mike Flores, engaged 1,300 employees, students and community members in Conversations for the Future.

Conversations for the Future involved facilitated workshops at each of the colleges and the district support operation office to allow for a shared voice at the table by engaging in helpful dialogue with one another about the future strategic planning of the district. Subsequently, identified conversation topics results were reviewed and prioritized during working sessions at the 2019 ACD stakeholders’ strategic planning retreat. In the first working session, participants further discerned the action focus themes.

The second working session generated prioritized action focus themes. The third working session focused on the determination of big ideas for breakthrough innovation. Data collected from the retreat was reviewed and prioritized by both the District and Tactical Leadership Teams.

The prioritized action themes were used to update the Strategic Objectives and Goals of the Alamo Colleges District Strategic Plan.


STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE I: STUDENT SUCCESS

Provide academic and student support and align labor market-based pathways with a focus on student access, completion and social mobility.

A. Identify, improve, and fund processes, instructional programs and services designed to promote student success.

B. Strengthen the approaches to outreach and onboarding to eliminate barriers to enrollment and accelerate students’
progress toward their academic and career goals.

C. Increase performance (retention, engagement, graduation, transfer and job placement) of all students through
development and improvement of our student resources and advocacy supports.

D. Increase overall student performance by closing performance gaps between ethnic/racial, gender and socioeconomic groups.

E. Define, align, assess and improve student learning outcomes/competencies for all academic and workforce programs.

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE II: PRINCIPLE-CENTERED LEADERSHIP

Provide opportunities for Alamo Colleges District students and employees to develop as leaders and collaborators.

A. Incorporate personal and social responsibility, global citizenship, critical thinking and lifelong learning as the 
framework of principle-centered leadership into the culture of the Alamo Colleges District.

B. Build talent and empower all employees to improve collaboration and teamwork in support of the student success 
agenda.

C. Build and foster a robust internal and external communication system with students, employees and the community to 
improve collaboration, teamwork, partnership and trust.

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE III: PERFORMANCE EXCELLENCE

Continuously improve our student, employee, financial, technological, physical and other capabilities with a focus on effectiveness, efficiency, agility and quality.

A. Utilize the MyMAP framework to improve the overall student experience to accelerate students’ progress toward their
academic and career goals through the integration of advising, academic support and engagement processes and systems.

B. Improve the overall employee experience to accelerate employees’ level of engagement, satisfaction and performance.

C. Ensure sound financial management with emphasis on cost containment.

D. Maximize the purchase and use of technology to support student and employee success.

E. Develop an agile system of workforce innovation and intelligent risk-taking through a shared contribution to data, action, value and organizational success.

 

DISCERNED THEMES

 Discerned Themes

In preparation for the 2019 ACD stakeholders’ strategic planning retreat, data collected from Conversations for the Future was reviewed to identify action focus themes for ACD.

They are listed in priority order based on frequency of mention and categorized as follows:

WHAT IS WORKING WELL THAT WE MUST PROTECT AND PRESERVE?
  • Student support
  • Special programs - curricular and support-based
  • Unique college culture and autonomy
  • Community engagement and integration
  • Collaboration
  • Scholarships and overall affordability
  • Employee empowerment
  • Diverse offerings
  • Quality of teaching/staff
  • Facilities improvements
WHAT NEEDS TO BE STRENGTHENED, IMPROVED OR FIXED?
  1. Human Touch
    • Improve communication across the board
    • Collaborate and coordinate
    • Civility (empathy, institution: institution, 1:1)
  2. Student Support
    • More on-path support from application to graduation
    • Consistent levels of student advocacy – social mobility support
    • Increase financial support for students
    • Increase student leadership development
  3. Employee Support
    • Employee pay
    • Hiring process
    • Employee career mobility
  4. Infrastructure
    • Improve technology for everyone
    • Clarify and simplify processes for everyone
    • Parking
    • Security – safe environment
 
WHAT IS NOT WORKING WELL THAT WE MUST STOP DOING?
  • Enrollment too complicated, not enough advisors, fees/costs
  • Facilities/systems
  • Faculty - morale and class size
  • Metrics - 4DX, WIGs, SLOs
  • Pace of change with initiative ID and implementation
  • Autonomy - lack clarity regarding district and colleges
  • Meetings - redundancy, too many, overuse of same participants, etc.
  • Budget – resource allocation for district, employees and students
  • DCHS/ECHS - model for funding class size
  • Technology - implementation and training
WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO STAKEHOLDERS?
  • Optimize and clarify district and college relationship
  • Students First!
  • Communication: internal/external, bottom-up/top down, linear/across all sectors and silos
  • Community and workforce partnerships are key
  • Collaboration is critical
  • Employee experience impacts success
  • Safety is important
  • Data – meaningful collection


CONSOLIDATED THEMES

Consolidated Themes

During the 2019 ACD Stakeholders’ Strategic Planning Retreat, participants identified areas of focus from the Conversations for the Future workshops and consolidated them into 17 action focus themes.

They are listed by the three Alamo Way strategic objectives in the following table:

 

STUDENT SUCCESS
  • Processes

  • Enrollment

  • Dual Credit

  • Student Engagement

  • Advocacy

  • Pathways
PRINCIPLE-CENTERED LEADERSHIP
  • Holistic Student Experience

  • Empowering All People to Lead

  • Strength through Collaboration, Communication in Community

  • System Innovation

  • Meeting Individuals Where They Are

  • Engagement
PERFORMANCE EXCELLENCE
  • Facilities and Risk Management

  • Student Experience

  • Employee Experience

  • Data-Informed Performance

  • Internal and External Communication

 

BIG IDEAS FOR BREAKTHROUGH INNOVATION

Big Ideas for Breakthrough Innovation

During the 2019 ACD stakeholders’ strategic planning retreat, participants discussed innovative ideas for possible implementation by ACD senior leaders. Participants identified the most significant big ideas, provided details about their contribution to solutions, importance and potential impact.

The prioritized big ideas were categorized by the 3 Alamo Way strategic objective as follows:

STUDENT SUCCESS
  • One-Day Enrollment

  • Free College Plus

  • Free Instructional Materials
PRINCIPLE-CENTERED LEADERSHIP
  • Creating Higher Education Leaders

  • Leadership Development Innovation

  • Program-Based Learning
PERFORMANCE EXCELLENCE
  • Merit Pay, Recognition & Employee Appreciation - Establishing equity across all employee classifications

  • Robust Path to Career: Credential to career

  • Alamo Anytime (A different kind of AA: A degree in 12 steps or less) 

Additional Information

Stakeholders' Strategic Planning Report (PDF) Strategic Planning Executive Summary 2019 One-Pager (PDF) Sept. 17, 2019 Board Meeting Presentation (PDF)