In attendance:
Terri Shelton, Interim Provost and Vice Chancellor for Research and Engagement
Bob Shea, Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer
Tina McEntire, Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management
Donna Heath, Vice Chancellor for Information Technology Services and Chief Information Officer
Julia Jackson-Newsom, Associate Vice Chancellor for Strategy and Policy
Topic: Formalizing Enterprise Communications Procedures.
Context: Our communications processes for major initiatives at UNCG is not yet mature. We hear complaints such as “we were never informed about this change”, “no one ever asked my opinion”, and perhaps most important, “I gave my feedback to the team, but no one ever responded”. No organization will ever communicate enough, but we can do significantly better than we do today.
There is a balance we need to strike between making decisions by all-inclusive crowd debate and authoritative mandate. Higher ed is an open, inclusive community where people’s voices are heard and respected and that quality is one of the things that makes Universities such a wonderful place to work. However, major changes in technology (and in the environment around us) are going to occur at an increasingly rapid pace and we will need to act with a speed and agility that will push many of our faculty and staff far out of their comfort zone.
If we are going to drive real transformation, we have to intentionally manage change for our faculty and staff. An important component of managing change and maintaining trust is to develop a well thought out enterprise communications plan to ensure that all levels of our University have been engaged and understand what’s coming. To this end, we have begun working with the University Communications Office to help us build a more formalized process for major initiative communications.
Decision: We will work with stakeholders across the campus to build a robust modern technology communications strategy designed to inform at all levels within our University and provide repeatable mechanisms for continuous feedback.
Topic: Moving toward a “UNCG” Governance Model.
Context: We are meeting soon to begin working together to put meat on the bones of strategy in a way that informs everyone about OUR shared expectations for what success looks like. Getting to “One UNCG” requires one unified leadership team with a common vision for success that we don’t stray from. This a completely new way of thinking and doing for UNCG.
- How do we work together to acculturate this new way of thinking and push this change down through our organizations?
- How can we get our teams up to a baseline level of product knowledge?
- How can we most effectively challenge our teams to work as “embedded” partners?
- How do we intend to hold our teams accountable?
Decision: The Executive Steering Committee will develop an annual cross divisional strategic planning process that results in a published roadmap of annual priorities.