History - Timeline

Positioning the University for the Future!

Strategic Work Groups

History of Strategic Work Group Initiative:

2008

• Late March - President McPhee contacted the MTSU Center for Organizational and Human Resource Effectiveness to help facilitate two brainstorming meetings in April 2008; one with Department Chairs and one with Deans and Vice Presidents.
  

• April 7 and April 8 1/2-day brainstorming meetings were held; Chairs on April 7, Deans and VPs on April 8. Each group independently developed
  • a list of actionable university-level items that would allow MTSU to achieve important goals of the AMP while dealing with a challenging economy and
  • suggestions for the next steps in the process.

A final report documenting the results of each meeting was developed.

• June 13 1/2 day brainstorming meeting was held with the combined group of Department Chairs, Deans, and Vice Presidents. Using collaborative problem-solving and the results from the previous meetings, the combined group
  • integrated the ideas generated from the previous sessions,
  • identified nine (9) actionable university-level items that would help MTSU achieve important goals of the AMP while dealing with a challenging economy and
  • developed suggestions for the next steps to manage the process to implement the actionable university-level items.

A final report documenting the results of this meeting was developed.

• October - President McPhee finalized the issues to be investigated and began the process to move forward using strategic work groups to implement the plans developed in the summer session.
  • McPhee convened individuals to serve on an organizational development steering committee, whose charge is to help manage the overall process, assist the strategic work groups in their work, and develop and maintain the communication mechanisms to keep the MTSU community informed about the initiative and to solicit input/feedback from the MTSU community.

• November - President McPhee and the members of the organizational development steering committee work together to shape the content and processes that will be used to
  • establish the mission statement and charge for each strategic work group,
  • develop the process for nominating and selecting the members for the strategic work groups and
  • communicate the initiative to the MTSU community using multiple communication channels.

• December - The members of the steering committee developed Web-based communication mechanisms and began soliciting input from the MTSU community and continued informing the campus community about the Initiative. President McPhee established the chairs of the strategic work groups and selected the remaining members of the groups. He also met with the chairs of the strategic work groups and members of the steering committee to give the charge for each strategic work group and clarify the roles of the various groups
  
  The strategic work groups began their work. A member of the steering committee met with members of each strategic work group to provide clarification about goals, roles and communication processes. The members of the strategic work groups held additional meetings and began developing preliminary suggestions about how to position the University for the future.