Book Review: A Guide to Planning for Change

Here is an advance release of a book review scheduled for the January-February-Marh 2009 issue of Planning for Higher Education. Enjoy!

A Guide to Planning for Change - more official info about the book here
by Donald M. Norris and Nick L. Poulton
Society for College and University Planning 2008
140 pages
ISBN: 0-9820229-0-5

Reviewed by Sandra L. Kortesoja

Once again, Donald M. Norris and Nick L. Poulton have created a compact and timely guide that brings together a comprehensive array of 21st century planning resources, including—but not limited to—the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP) portfolio of resources on integrated planning in higher education. Underwritten by five product providers (Microsoft, Inc., The Sextant Group, Nuventive, Inc., iStrategy, and eThority), A Guide to Planning for Change adroitly incorporates sections on powerful new techniques and tools without losing sight of fundamental concepts for planning, executing strategy, and developing organizational capacity. The Guide’s format and style represent the best of both the business world and the academic style: its clear, concise, easy-to-read text presentation makes liberal use of subheadings and spacing, is punctuated with diagrams and tables, and also references an extensive body of literature on planning. Norris and Poulton address new and emerging challenges from a balanced and practical perspective that reflects the lessons of history as well as the latest thinking. I’m not sure what I was expecting of such a slender volume on such a complex topic, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover that, in ten short chapters, the authors could cover so much so effectively.

Importance of Institutional Context and External Challenges

In A Guide to Planning for Change, Norris and Poulton emphasize the importance of institutional context—and organizational support—in shaping any planning effort. Colleges and universities are complex organizations. No single planning style or approach can suit every situation. Organizations vary widely with respect to the nature and complexity of their institutional missions, and with respect to their size, control or governance, and the presence or absence of collective bargaining agreements. Planners and strategists must first understand these and other contextual factors in order to develop an appropriate approach to planning and executing strategy. In another time-honored work, Bolman and Deal (2003, 3rd edition) discuss “reframing” organizational change in terms of four interpretations or “frames” of organizational processes: Structural, Human Resource, Political, and Symbolic; in the introduction of their new guide to planning, Norris and Poulton describe the importance of not only institutional context but also whole organization involvement:

Planning is a core competency of successful organizations, leaders, and managers. It pervades all organizational units and processes. Higher education planning in all its forms engages a broad cross section of administrative leaders, staff, faculty, students, alumni, and other stakeholders. Planning is ongoing, on different time frames and schedules (Norris and Poulton, p. 1).

The planning effort at a community college, for example, will differ from that undertaken at a research university, yet planners in both institutional contexts must also consider the external environment. In this extension of their earlier work, A Guide for New Planners, Norris and Poulton recognize and respond to new challenges in the external environment by including resources to help planners and strategists navigate changing conditions. For example, new patterns of multiculturalism and diversity, advances in information technology, new definitions of academic quality with a focus on student learning and program effectiveness, new emphasis on the contribution of higher education to economic productivity, and the globalization of scholarship (Peterson, Dill, and Mets, eds., 1997) are all forces in the external environment driving institutional change. A Guide to Planning for Change “is about making sense of changing conditions and achieving strategic intent in the face of competition, uncertainty, and politics” (Norris and Poulton, 2008, p. 1).

Nature of Planning Today

Like their popular earlier guide, A Guide to Planning for Change will be a valuable resource for experienced planners and strategists as well as for those new to planning. In introducing the concepts of planning, strategy execution, and change, Chapter 1 also provides “snapshots” or scenarios that illustrate how today’s planners and strategists may have many different titles in their institutions, often fulfilling the role of planner through a special assignment that augments the other responsibilities of their position. Chapter 2 discusses characteristics of successful planning in terms employed by the materials and professionals of the SCUP Planning Institutes as a community of practice. The chapter’s descriptions of ongoing planning processes and support structures that are integrated, strategic, and aligned include diagrams that help explain planning activities with enough organizational detail to provide a starting point for new planners or a quick reference for experienced ones. Increasingly, as planning processes become strategic (i.e., external, enterprise-wide orientation) as well organizational (i.e., internal, focused), planning requires analytic support at all organizational levels. Such analytics consist of both qualitative and quantitative components, including new performance metrics. Chapter 3 presents “A Model for Strategic Planning and Executing Strategy” (chapter title).

Helpful though a model can be, as experienced planners themselves, the authors also recognize historical pitfalls and potential limitations to planning success. In this regard, Chapters 4 and 5, titled respectively “Assessing Planning Opportunities” and “The Politics of Planning for Change,” may be the Guide’s most useful chapters. In Chapter 4 the authors suggest beginning the planning process with a review of the “charge or mandate” in order to develop a “strategy for planning” (Norris and Poulton, 2008, p. 41). Anticipating resistance to planning and change, Norris and Poulton outline steps toward understanding the history of decision making, planning, and governance; and include consideration of external forces:
The planner must also understand the nature of the challenges facing the organization, whether addressing any or all of them can be legitimately included in the charge, and how to confront those challenges through planning (Norris and Poulton, 2008, p. 42).

Another planning and strategy setting axiom presented is “less is more.” By focusing on a few key issues or themes, planners are advised to avoid plans that are too complicated or overreaching in favor of more clearly articulated strategies and plans with fewer elements.
Based upon a thorough sampling of classic works from the higher education literature, Chapter 5 addresses planning for change in light of the influence of “politics, power, and leadership” on decision making. [Planners] “must always be prepared to deploy the particular combinations of processes and practices that best fit their planning and decision-making environments” (Norris and Poulton, 2008, p. 51). As part of a “handy toolkit” to help planners tailor approaches appropriate for specific settings, Phyllis Grummon and Bruce Flye of the SCUP Planning Institutes summarize planning for change in three categories:

* Planning Down: The Art of Anticipating and Leading Change
* Planning Sideways: The Art of Supporting and Creating Change
* Planning Up: The Art of Understanding and Navigating Change
(Norris and Poulton, 2008, p. 51)

Figure 5.1 summarizes the toolkit in table form with additional descriptions, by category, of the related Who? What? When? Why? Where?, and conceptual framework in the literature. Planners who understand Bolman and Deal’s (2003) four organizational “frames” (mentioned above and in Figure 5.6 as: People/Human Resources, Structural, Political, and Symbolic), by better anticipating the respective “Products of Change” and “Responses to Change,” can design an effort to lead, support, and navigate change that addresses all four dimensions of the organization.

Past and Future Perspectives

Understanding the history of planning and decision making in general can also assist institutional planners and strategists to plan for the future. Chapter 6, “Changing Perspectives and Tools in Planning,” describes decade-long “eras” in planning and decision making since the 1950s. (The Guide characterizes the current 21st century decade as The Age of Globalization, Sustainability, and Performance Improvement). Chapter 6 ends with a summary of “The World View and Toolkit of Today’s Planners and Strategists” and a table (Figure 6.3) outlining the progression of academic, physical, resources, technology, and “other’ institutional planning activities since the 1950s. Chapter 7 provides sketches of twenty planning topics that make up the 2008-2009 edition of New Directions in Planning Topics. Edited by the authors of A Guide to Planning for Change, topics in New Directions are addressed by expert practitioners in the respective area. Each sketch in the Guide includes author name and affiliation together with a brief summary of the topic. Norris and Poulton also note that SCUP has created a regularly updated online repository of new planning topics.

For some planners and strategists, the extensive array of other resources referenced may be the most useful aspect of A Guide to Planning for Change. Especially in today’s Age of Globalization, planners in higher education can benefit from perspectives on planning from other fields of study. In Chapter 8, Norris and Poulton highlight the influence of other fields on higher education planning with summaries of resources from twelve other specialized planning-related fields including, for example, “Business and Corporate Planning,” “Organizational Behavior,” “Technology Planning,” and “Decision Making in a Profoundly Networked, Globalized World.” In the second part of Chapter 8, the authors provide “A Critical Reading List for Planning in Higher Education” which includes annotated references for more than 60 print resources. Chapter 9 provides short biographical sketches of the career paths of several practicing planners who have been active in the Society for College and University Planning. Finally, Chapter 10, supplements the annotated list of resources provided in Chapter 8 with additional references mentioned in the text but not included as “Critical Readings,” and websites providing links to organizations and additional resources on topics such as environmental scanning methodologies.

Conclusion

In summary, A Guide to Planning for Change brings higher education planning into the 21st century. For planners and strategists at all types of institutions, the guide organizes tools and planning concepts—including planning activity detail and practical pitfalls—into one concise volume. For such a comprehensive work, it is difficult to find fault with the guide’s content and general design. If any improvements to the Guide could be suggested, such discussion might include how best to organize the wide range of additional resources presented. Readings identified in the Figure 8.1 “Critical Readings” table, for example, are provided with author name listed first but entries do not appear in alphabetical order. Explanation of the sequence for Figure 8.1 is eventually given at the top of page 96 before the annotated listing; however, as a reference, the annotated list might be more helpful to readers if arranged in overall alphabetical order by author, or in topical sections with topic headings, rather than arranged to reflect a chronology of planning history. With the exception of outside resources, the Guide appears well-organized to provide 21st century planners quick access to “the greater ecology of planning and strategy” (Norris and Poulton, 2008, p. 3).
Certainly, the world has changed since the 1950s era of planning: “The very face of higher education is being transformed by new challenges and opportunities (Norris and Poulton, 2008, p. 3). The authors cite Friedman’s (2006) The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century to highlight “digitization, globalization, and democratization of the learning and knowledge industry” as forces that influence “every institution, enterprise, and individual in the global economy” (Norris and Poulton, 2008, p. 2). They also wisely note that “successful planning is both art and science” (Norris and Poulton, 2008, p. 3). Describing globalization’s tendency toward worldwide “cultural homogenization” in The Lexus and the Olive Tree, Friedman (2000) also wrote about the tensions between today’s globalizing forces and longstanding, often diverse, cultural traditions rooted in local regions and/or nation-states.
In higher education, planners must be aware of similar tensions inherent in organizations: “Colleges and universities have traditionally worked to expand the boundaries of knowledge and discover new ways of ‘knowing.’ Concurrently, they have served a critical role in conserving traditional values and proven practices” (Norris and Poulton, 2008, p. 2). Successful planning requires recognizing both organizational roles. By addressing politics and resistance to change as well as presenting new analytics and planning tools, A Guide to Planning for Change helps put successful planning within reach for all who find themselves charged with planning and strategizing for their institution.

References

Bolman, L. G., and T. E. Deal. (2003). Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership. 3rd ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Friedman. Thomas L. (2006). The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. Updated and Expanded edition. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Originally published in 2005 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Friedman. Thomas L. (2000). The Lexus and the Olive Tree. [Newly Updated and Expanded edition]. New York: Anchor Books. Originally published in 1999 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Peterson, M. W., D. D. Dill, and L. A. Mets, eds. (1997). Planning and Management for a Changing Environment: A Handbook on Redesigning Postsecondary Institutions. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Sandra L. Kortesoja has studied institutional planning and the execution of strategic plans, within the broader context of organizational behavior and management, both in higher education and in the business world. She has an MBA and completed her doctoral degree in higher education administration, with a special interest in how today’s global scholarly communities influence policy and planning. Her dissertation study, summarized in a journal article now in review at the Review of Higher Education, is an innovative statistical analysis of the postsecondary choices (credential program, non-credit courses, or no postsecondary enrollment) made by a national sample of career-oriented young adults. This is her third appearance in the book review section of Planning for Higher Education.

A Guide to Planning for Change - more official info about the book here