Strategic Planning Toolkit For Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity
- 33 -
This tool is designed to help divisions and departments draw on their self-assessment
reflections and their stakeholders’ input to develop a set of key priorities and goals
related to diversity, inclusion, and equity.
The suggested activities and worksheet here provide opportunities to build a strong case for what you can achieve, to identify
specific actions you will take to meet your goals, and to align methods for measuring progress and oversight of the future work.
Throughout the vision and goal setting processes, you can refer to current strategic plans from divisions and departments
across the campus for examples of goals, strategies, and metrics. Contact the Equity & Inclusion planning staff for samples.
Brainstorm Your Vision
Begin by looking ahead 3 to 5 years and envision your division/department’s long term hopes and ideals in relation to equity,
inclusion, and diversity. Questions to spark this kind of visioning include:
•
If we are successful in advancing equity, inclusion, and diversity in our mission, programs, and services, workplace(s),
and workforce, what would that look like 5 years from now - in research, teaching, and public service, in expanding
pathways to access and success, in fostering an engaging and healthy campus climate?
•
What are the changes we hope to achieve? For our clients, staff, the division or department, the campus?
The visioning process is one for your planning and leadership teams, your entire organization, and your stakeholders. See the
Stakeholder Engagement Models for more ideas about how to outreach as broadly as you wish to during this time.
Identify Priorities
Most organizations are able to prioritize 3 to 5 areas of focus for a strategic plan of this length and nature. However, this
should not be viewed as a requirement or limit. Drawing from your self-assessment and other information gathered over
the last few months, in addition to your visioning exercises, identify the priorities to be included in your strategic plan. These
priorities may relate to any aspects of the division or department – mission and vision, leadership, programs and services,
climate, workforce, and workplace environment, students, faculty, curriculum, advising, teaching, etc.
Set Goals, Strategies, Metrics
Use the “Goal Development Worksheet” in the following pages for this portion of the work, completing a separate sheet for
each priority. The worksheet will help gather a great deal of the information needed to make decisions about short and long
term goals, what strategies are needed in order to achieve your goals, and how you will measure progress toward goals so
that changes in course direction can occur readily when required.
Goals
What do you want to achieve or change in regard to each of the priorities you have identified? In the “goals” section of the
worksheet, identify the division/department’s desired outcomes for each area you have chosen to work on. Long term goals
should speak to where you are hoping to be in the next 3 to 5 years, and should be pitched at a fairly general level. Short
term goals can be more specific as they are targeted for achieving in the first 2 to 3 years of your plan’s implementation
- see
below for more information.
When setting goals it is often useful to test them with a set of standards that are commonly referred to as “SMART”. If you
are setting “SMART” goals, they should be:
•
Specific – Goals that state precisely what you are going to do, for whom, and to what end.
•
Measurable – Goals that are measurable so that the organization can track progress and have tangible evidence that
you accomplished what you set out to do.
•
Attainable – Goals that are achievable, providing for a level of challenge or growth that is aspirational, yet one that
the organization believes is reachable.
•
Relevant – Goals that connect with the overall mission and vision of the organization and the university.
•
Time-bound – Goals that place the effort on a timeline, connected with other activities and benchmarks, and move
the work toward completion.
Vision and Goal Setting Guide