Ideas for Action, LLC Services to Colleges and Universities

Ideas for Action provides a broad range of consulting services to colleges and universities:

Leadership

• Senior Leader Executive Coaching – Coaching for both academic and administrative leaders in higher education institutions, including Provosts, Vice-Presidents, Deans, Associate Deans, and Directors. Discussions may focus on issues of strategy, organization and leadership. Building individual self-awareness, improved leadership competency, targeted goal setting and accountability through the use of assessments and feedback mechanisms, including 360 degree evaluation processes.
• Presidential/Chancellor Consultation – Confidential “thought partner” consultations. Discussions may focus on issues of strategy, organization, leadership, as well as guidance and counsel on emerging institutional issues and challenges.
• Optimizing the Presidential Leadership Team/Cabinet – Improve cross-university collaboration, reduce silo mentality, optimize relationships and communications with the President. Development of group norms, discussion protocols that promote broad participation, improved decision-making, and greater ownership and accountability for the outcomes of university-wide initiatives.
• Executive Performance Evaluation Systems – Development of Cabinet-level performance evaluation systems, with formative as well as summative components, motivating senior university leaders to work more effectively across unit boundaries. Design and facilitation of process, including pre and post-evaluation coaching conversations with both the President and Vice-Presidents.

Strategy

• Strategic Planning and Thinking –  Facilitate generative conversations among boards, schools and senior university leaders that lead to effective problem-solving in areas such as research agendas, faculty engagement, market positioning, enrollment, retention and graduation rates, fiscal and budget strategies, development, faculty, staff and community engagement, technology to foster teaching and learning, and the provision of safe and vibrant campus environments.

• Stakeholder Engagement and Critical Conversations – Facilitate stakeholder engagement by convening broad-based conversations with faculty, students, alumni, and community constituents on topics critical to institutional success, such as diversity and inclusion, sexual assault, fraternity culture, the role of athletics on campus, and other student life and institutional priorities.

Organization

• Organizational Culture Assessments  – Through quantitative and qualitative interviewing and data gathering methods and analysis, assess cultural obstacles to institutional goals, such as advancing research and scholarship, readiness for change, and moving from “good to great.

Governance

• Faculty Governance  – Engage faculty senates, Executive Committees and other leadership groups in dialogues leading to best practices in shared governance and faculty engagement.
  
• Board Development – Orient College and University Boards to concepts, models, and best practices in governance that address the unique dynamics of higher education. Clear definition of role and responsibilities. Establish effective governance cultures that focus on the strategic rather than tactical, and on policy rather than on operations.
• Governance Structural Design – Design, facilitate and collaborate on redesigning governance entities for maximum efficiency, engagement and optimal shared governance.