As we begin Year 2 of our current Strategic Plan, I thought It would be helpful to give a summary of what we have accomplished to date and an idea of what we have planned for this year.
The strategic planning process began in the 2017-2018 academic year, bringing together over 150 faculty, and staff, along with some students where possible, to define the IHP’s future for the next four years. The Strategic Plan was approved by the IHP Executive Council, shared with the IHP community, and approved by the Board of Trustees in the spring of 2018. That summer, we worked to develop a detailed tactical map for each of the strategic priorities which provided the roadmap for how to accomplish the broad goals we had defined in the plan.
Given that each goal we defined included many tactics, we decided we had to focus on a subset of tactics so that we could be successful. In the fall of 2018, we identified four areas that, despite their significant costs, were considered such high priorities that we decided to work on them right away.
They were:
- Establish the Institute as a leader in research and scholarship,
- Build and nurture a diverse and inclusive community,
- Expand IPE competencies, and
- Launch new programs that will drive improvements in health care.
These four areas involved filling three new positions and engaging consultation to help us plan for the growth of Continuing Professional Development (CPD). Each of these high-priority areas had numerous smaller tactics needed to address the larger goal. For example, under the diverse and inclusive community initiative, we worked to assess the needs of our community related to diversity and inclusion, constructed a vision, and launched a new Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and hired its inaugural Executive Director.
In the other three areas, we have reorganized our interprofessional education work under a new Interim Associate Provost for Interprofessional Education and Practice and hired a new Executive Director for Research. We also continue to explore growth opportunities in our academic and CPD programs.
When we identified the four major priorities, we realized there were many tactics we could accomplish over the course of the plan’s first year that would be low cost but have a significant impact on the IHP. The 10 areas identified were:
- Enhance student leadership activities and alumni development.
- Incorporate diverse perspectives in the curriculum.
- Increase the number and frequency of clinical placements that provide opportunity to work with diverse patients.
- Enhance pre-enrollment communication strategy.
- Develop a model of preferred vendors.
- Enhance professional development opportunities for staff.
- Deepen relationships with our local communities.
- Increase the number of faculty from underrepresented communities.
- Grow beneficial relationships with Harvard and other academic partners.
- Work toward a unified brand message.
Each of these 10 initiatives had a leader and a small task force charged to address the issue and make progress toward achieving the goal.
During the fall 2018 semester, we developed a model that would allow us to see our progress toward our goals and we reviewed our progress regularly at the Executive Council meetings. We have made significant progress on some initiatives, while we have just begun to see progress on others. For example, we have developed the model for IHP’s preferred vendors and are ready to launch that this year. We have launched new communication models for both current students and new students. We have made significant progress on the professional development activities for staff. We have begun the process of developing a model to increase the number of underrepresented faculty at the IHP. We completed an overview video for the IHP and shared an elevator speech card with the IHP community.
We anticipated that some of these would take longer than a year, and they have. We continue to advance our work in student and alumni affairs. We are working diligently on increasing diverse perspectives in the curriculum and increasing the number and frequency of clinical placements in locations in which there is a larger percentage of diverse patients. We are also working toward deepening our relationship with local communities and our academic partners. This work will continue over the course of the upcoming years until completed.
While we have made significant progress, there is still much work to be done. The Executive Council made the decision to focus the work of Year 2 on growth, both in the academic program and in continuing professional development (Strategic Priorities 1 and 2). Growth in our programs will allow us to have the revenue streams needed to maintain their excellence and complete some of the other work included in our strategic plan. A small Steering Committee for Growth with Provost Alex Johnson at the helm will help us to define our future, create efficiencies in developing new programs, and explore new approaches to pedagogy. We are excited that this group has already begun its work on this important strategy and as we did this year, we will be hearing about its progress periodically at the Executive Council.
This doesn’t mean we will not be addressing some additional low-cost, high-impact tactics and strategies again during 2019-2020. Working with the Executive Council, we will identify those tactics and strategies in the Strategic Plan that we can accomplish over the course of this year with small teams of IHP faculty and staff.
I am excited for our future and our Strategic Plan helps us to focus our work and resources in the most effective ways. Stay tuned for more information on our work as the year progresses. If you have questions, comments or suggestion on our work to date or our plans for next year, please don’t hesitate to contact me.