In 2016, I was entrusted by the dean of the Duke University Graduate School to develop the school's next strategic plan, which would map out the school's priorities and strategies for the next decade.
The school's previous strategic plan was more than 100 pages (not uncommon in higher education), and I knew I wanted to take a different approach and create a document that would 1) be easy to read, and 2) actually be used to guide the school's operations. I avoided highfalutin language and verbose narratives, adopting instead a bullet-point structure that clearly laid out specific goals, tangible objectives, and practical strategies.
During the development process, I had multiple meetings with the various units within The Graduate School to understand their goals, strengths, challenges, wishlists, and areas of opportunity. I then synthesized the takeaways from those discussions into a draft document, and then worked with stakeholders in and outside the school, including students, faculty, and administrators, to refine the plan. Once we produced a close-to-final version, I shepherded the document through the lengthy process of receiving approval from various levels of institutional administration and oversight.
The end product was a 22-page document that clearly defined the school's role in graduate education at Duke and its six major strategic goals for the next decade. In the years since its development, this document has been frequently referenced in various Graduate School efforts, which was precisely my goal when I set out to write it.