Setting Strategy - University

Head of School statement

‘The team was busy, but we were not moving forward in the same direction. We had a clear vision of what we wanted; however, there was no structured mechanism to get us there. I couldn't see how we could organise our work to achieve our vision, and get the team to sign up for it.

If I were to facilitate this workshop myself, it would be viewed that there was already a predetermined outcome. We needed to come together as a team. So I asked The Orgworks to facilitate us to agree on the strategy, what needed to be done to achieve it and who was going to lead each activity stream.

After your intervention, we now review and set strategic direction annually. We monitor our progress and check our action plans, and we come together each month as a team. We never had that structure before. We now have a plan for each academic year, and it flows down to the programme level. Every programme we have now has a lower level action plan that aligns with the strategy.

We finally have the whole department working towards the same outcome. Everybody within the team and every programme are focused and aligned on delivering our strategy.

The approach has demonstrably improved our performance. For example, one of the areas we wanted to concentrate on was to inspire the next generation of student engineers. This was about focusing outside the boundaries of the department. We improved our approach to outreach and public engagement; as a result, we are now the leading provider for the region.

One of our course subjects has risen 29 places in Guardian League tables in one year and another 11 places.

This is down to your support, enabling us to focus as a team on a common set of goals. Our financial performance has also improved. Previously, coming in on budget was more luck than judgement. Now there are no surprises.

Your facilitation enabled us to move the team forward when we were stuck. There were times when we did what academics do well, by getting stuck in the detail of a point. You were able to lift people out of that and refocus on the bigger picture, discussing, agreeing and progressing.

I understand the approaches you used and I know the value of them. I have been clearly focused on building a high performing team that all contribute equally. Having The Orgworks run the workshop allowed me to be one of the team for the process.

It helps to have a facilitator who's experienced in doing this in several settings and within our sector. The Orgworks team came with that credibility which proved invaluable in getting the team's respect and participation.’