For many strategy leaders in Higher Education, aligning long-term vision with day-to-day execution is easier said than done.
Blending decades, if not centuries, of tradition with evolving curriculum, student needs, and institutional priorities requires more than a plan. It requires a framework that brings strategy off the page and into the hands of the people driving it forward.
And like any period of uncertainty, today’s challenges bring opportunity.
In an environment of constant change, Strategy and Operations leaders across higher ed are rethinking how planning gets done and how execution gets aligned.
Related: Building Strategic Resilience in Higher Ed - Live Panel Recording
Turning Strategic Intent into Institutional Alignment
At Goldey-Beacom College, Chuck Hammond, Vice President for Operations and Planning, knew that aligning strategy across departments wasn’t optional. It was essential.
As Chuck shares, Goldey-Beacom needed a way to take all of the strategic and operational work happening across different departments and connect them to the College’s five “strategic imperatives”, or what we refer to as Themes here at Elate.
Like many institutions, they had tried to manage this strategic work through slides, spreadsheets, and binders. But that approach couldn’t scale. As Chuck put it, “This is where strategy goes to die.”
One Plan, Many Contributors
Similar to Jocelyn at Camden County College, Elate gave Chuck and his team a centralized place to connect departmental initiatives directly to the College’s broader strategic plan, ensuring alignment without micromanagement.
Everyone on the Same Page
With a unified view, stakeholders and faculty could now “play from the same sheet of music” and prioritize the right work to help deliver on the institution's long-term vision.
Purpose Over Process
By removing the noise of disconnected tools and static updates, Goldey-Beacom could shift from tracking transactional tasks to enabling purposeful work across campus.
From Fragmented Effort to Shared Execution
Creating a single source of truth is hard enough. Making it meaningful and actionable for departments across an institution? That’s where most strategies stall.
But with Elate, Goldey-Beacom brought strategy out of the shadows, and into a shared view that amplified the impact of day-to-day work and empowered team members.
At Elate, we’ve partnered with hundreds of organizations and worked across thousands of strategic plans. We take a partnership approach built around people, process, and a solution to bring it all together.
And what we’ve learned is this:
The best strategy platforms don’t just track progress. They create it.
If you’re ready to align your institution around strategy that sticks, we’d love to connect. Book a time below to get started.
