Join us for Thrive 2025: Strategic Planning Summit
The College of Liberal Arts wants to hear from you! If you're a current or former student, faculty, or staff member, please attend one of our January summits, and help us Thrive 2025!
by Heather Rodriguez ’04
Where do you see yourself in five years? Who do you want to be? What is important to you? These are the questions the College of Liberal Arts is asking itself as we craft our strategic plan for the next five years. But to answer them, we need to hear from you.
We would like to welcome everyone affiliated with the college—faculty, staff, and current and former students—to attend a strategic planning summit. Attendees can choose to attend either January 16, 2020 from 12:30-4:30 p.m., or January 17, 2020, from 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Food will be provided 30 minutes prior to each summit, but start times will be strictly maintained to keep on-schedule. Held at the Texas A&M Hotel and Conference Center, these sessions will gather input from all of you on how we can “Thrive 2025.”
We spoke with Mary Lea McAnally from Mays Business School, who will be facilitating the summits that will ultimately help us craft our strategic plan. Click here to RSVP. We hope to see you there!
College of Liberal Arts: What exactly is a strategic plan?
Mary Lea McAnally: A strategic plan is basically a living document that helps an organization understand where it’s going and how it’s going to get there. We as people actually engage in strategic planning all the time even if we don’t realize it. Organizations need to do that too – they need to figure out where they’re going, what’s important to them, and how they’re going to get there. That’s a strategic plan and that’s what I’m here to help the college craft.
CLA: You’re from the Mays Business School. How did you become involved in helping create the College of Liberal Arts’ strategic plan?
MLM: Dean Matthews and I go back to when she was in the provost’s office. A few months ago, she called me because she knew that I was Director of Strategic Planning for Mays. She asked if I would help with liberal arts. Lately, I’ve been working with a variety of A&M clients including colleges, departments and even one of the A&M libraries, so I was excited to say yes to Dean Matthews.
CLA: What process do you use for creating a strategic plan?
MLM: I use a process called “appreciative inquiry,” which takes a positive approach to figure out what an organization is good at and what its strengths and opportunities are. Traditional strategic planning starts with something called a SWOT analysis: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Two of those words have negative connotation—weaknesses and threats—and with a SWOT framework, you’re going to spend at least half your time thinking about the negative side of things. Appreciative inquiry uncovers what is going right in the organization and determines how to leverage that for the future.
CLA: How do you apply appreciative inquiry to this process:
MLM: We ask questions, and we ask them in a way that appreciates what’s best. We ask questions that are generative, open-ended, and uplifting: “What was your best day in the College of Liberal Arts? What factors made that possible? What opportunities inspire you?” The way we ask questions directs the conversation and can really affect the outcome. We will ask questions of everyone who attends the SUMMIT. There will be lots of time for discussion and inspiration, and for people to share their thoughts on where the college should be in the next five years. It will be motivating, and I encourage everyone to attend!