The process to develop Moraine Valley’s 2019-2024 Strategic Plan began in early 2018 when 108 faculty and staff members were asked to serve on the 2019-2024 Strategic Planning team. The first major strategic planning event was a workshop held on September 12, 2018. At this workshop, the team members were introduced to external environmental scanning and forecasting and its purpose in developing a strategic plan.
The department of Institutional Research and Planning prepared an external environmental scan organized around eight trends that are expected to affect the college district and the Cook County region over the next three to five years. They are competition, demographics, economy, education, labor force, politics, social values, and technology. Eight scanning teams were formed from the strategic planning team around each of these taxonomies and were charged with vetting each trend with external experts. Three support groups, data usage, resource, and the writing team provided support to the vetting teams. The Executive Leadership Team, composed of the college president, vice presidents and chief information officer also actively participated in the process.
The work of the eight scanning teams was combined into one revised 2019 Environmental Scan. This document was sent to the strategic planning teams and to community representatives/leaders who had agreed to attend a half-day workshop at the college to identify a set of core external trends that they believed were the most important for the college to address in its next strategic plan. The community breakfast on February 8, 2019, was attended by 54 community members, and participants were enthusiastic about the materials and the process. Between the morning and afternoon sessions, the feedback from the community was quickly transcribed. On the afternoon of February 8, strategic planning team members reviewed the eight core trends most frequently cited by community leaders.
Internal trends were identified through a preliminary “SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) Analysis” conducted in February and March 2019. Faculty, administrative and professional, and support staff voted for the most critical strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and responses were combined into one preliminary analysis. Additionally, student focus groups were held in March 2019 with approximately 61 students providing their feedback about the college’s greatest strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities.
In preparation for the March strategic planning workshop, the Institutional Research and Planning office conducted an internal survey of the strategic planning team to identify its list of core trends derived from the 2019 Environmental Scan. The match with the core trends cited by the community members solidified that the community and college were in sync. On March 21, 2019, a full-day strategic directions and goals workshop was held for the strategic planning team; this workshop continued on the morning of the following day. At this workshop, a final set of core trends was selected. The SWOT analysis was finalized, and a core set was selected. The strategic planning team, working in separate groups, used the materials to identify a set of strategic priorities and goals. In addition, the word “Innovation” was added to the college’s Mission Statement, and “Inclusion” and “Equity” were added as new Core Values. On the afternoons of March 22 and 31, a small editorial team combined the work of the strategic planning team to develop the preliminary draft of the new strategic priorities and goals.
