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The higher education sector is a highly competitive marketplace, where institutions rely on their ability to deliver change to maintain a high market position. Achieving world-class change capability requires a clear strategy and direction that is understood by the entire organisation, leadership that inspires accountability, engaged teams and customers, and a way of working that delivers value effectively.
This particular higher education institution was caught in a cycle of “firefighting” and tactical working, consuming senior management resources and hindering long-term strategic planning.
Our client is a respected higher education institution striving to maintain its competitive edge in a rapidly evolving and demanding sector. Known for its commitment to student success and operational excellence, the institution recognised that its ability to deliver strategic change was falling short.
With a need to redefine how change was delivered across the institution, the leadership engaged Org to assess their project and program management capability.
Org was invited to review the project and programme management capability of the organisation and to advise on ways to improve their delivery of change. Engaging Org provided the expertise and additional capacity needed to ensure that strategic change and improvements were defined in line with stakeholder expectations.
The approach focused on six key areas:
The process began with interviewing a wide cross-section of stakeholders to gauge morale and baseline performance. This comprehensive assessment aimed to understand the current state of the organisation’s change capability from multiple perspectives.
Based on the interviews and data collected, key themes were formulated to develop actionable recommendations. The picture of what it was like to work at the organisation was presented and a baseline was defined across 16 elements supporting the six focus areas.
The engagement with Org resulted in the following outcomes:
Delivered strategic recommendations and a workable action plan over a 3-6 month period. This plan provided a clear roadmap for the organisation to enhance its change capability.
Through specific and targeted coaching and mentoring, their agile delivery capability was significantly increased. This allowed for more efficient and effective project management and execution.
Enabled senior management to expedite the delivery of change by providing continued support and partnering for the provision of subject matter expertise and capacity as required. This support was crucial in shifting the focus from tactical firefighting to strategic planning and execution.
The involvement by Org not only provided immediate relief from the tactical pressures that senior management was facing, but also laid the foundation for a sustainable, strategic approach to change management. By focusing on key areas, the organisation was able to enhance its overall change capability, positioning itself better in the highly competitive higher education marketplace. This case study exemplifies the importance of integrating strategic planning with day-to-day operations to achieve long-term success in student lifecycle management.
