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National Association of College & University Business Officers (NACUBO) |
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National Association of College & University Business Officers (NACUBO) 2501 M Street, NW, Suite 400
Plexus Consulting Group, LLC |
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Vital Stats: Founded in 1962, NACUBO members include two-thirds of all institutions of higher learning in the United States and chief administrative and financial officers of over 2,100 colleges and universities. NACUBO's stakeholders include four primary regional affiliates, the
"ACUBOS", managed by volunteers: WACUBO (Western), CACUBO
(Central), SACUBO (Southern) and EACUBO (Eastern). Many of these regional
"parent" affiliates have served members for over 100 years. The Challenge | The Solution | The Process | Unintended Consequences | Unforseen Benefits | Measurements & Results | Lessons Learned
How to develop a rapid and flexible organizational response in the face of technology driven competition and unprecedented customer demands? The rapid pace of technological change is transforming the creation and delivery of higher education. A few years ago and for the first time in the industry's history, consumers began to dictate to higher education service providers. NACUBO executives were keenly aware of the need to develop a future-focused organization. Also, there was significant potential for overlap and confusion of
roles between the national association, a 501(c)(3) lobbying entity
and full-blown service provider in its own right, and its respective
"parents", regional affiliates quickly being outgrown by
NACUBO. The volunteer organizations began to realize that they "can't
do it all anymore." The national trend of shrinking volunteer
resources had already begun to make an impact on the regional affiliates.
James E. Morely, Jr., former EACUBO president and NACUBO's president/CEO
for the past five years, recognized the makings of an industry on
the brink of potential turmoil. How could NACUBO "do things differently"
to work with its affiliates and continue to deliver leading-edge services
to members? To address the challenge, NACUBO planned and implemented an effective strategy of collaboration with its volunteer-led regional organizations to streamline service delivery to their mutual constituency. Ultimately, the solution was to bring the 5 organizations, NACUBO and the regional ACUBOs, to the table to create a partnership, the "ACUBO 20/20 Initiative". The goal was to help these organizations, the "ACUBOs", to collaborate to effectively and competitively address the needs and demands of the higher education industry. Specifically, NACUBO sought to enhance development and delivery of mutual service offerings while leveraging existing resources, volunteers and staff. The ACUBO 20/20 Initiative represented a collaborative planning and change effort undertaken jointly by the ACUBO associations. Its key objectives were to:
The overriding goal of the initiative is best demonstrated through the Initiative Summary Statement: The ACUBO's seek a redefinition and alignment of their respective missions, values, and desired outcomes aimed at increasing the overall value of ACUBO membership. Essentially, the 20/20 Initiative was a strategic change management
project comprised of small components. An unprecedented collaborative
effort, it is a model for planning and innovation for the five ACUBOs
as well as an ongoing process to identify how these entities will
continue to plan separate and joint activities together. The three-phase process involved extensive analysis by the five organizations of the existing environment, trends and issues that were affecting the higher education industry.
The discussion included desires for wholesale change but quickly and wisely focused on the importance of creating change incrementally. Identifying "chewable chunks" would help build trust and successful working relationships among the ACUBOs. Together with Doug Eadie, a change management expert, NACUBO's executive team undertook a brainstorming session and created the "ACUBO 20/20" organizational innovation initiative. "ACUBO 20/20" means clear vision for the future. It also represented an effort to define what the ACUBOs' future might look like in the year 2020. There were complicated emotional issues to resolve. The five independent and highly autonomous affiliates shared a great deal of common ground: goals, interests and membership. They had to be convinced that there was more value to be gained in their working together than working separately. The process also involved analyzing the services of the five associations and how they were organized to meet member needs. The goal was to help the ACUBOs to define a desired vision for the future, design new ways of operating, and chart a path to provide the best quality services and value to members and other customers.
This change management model was purely anticipatory. There were no imminent financial or management crises on the horizon, but a sense among the leadership of the five organizations was that "the time is right". Not taking action would diminish NACUBO's effectiveness at best and perhaps eliminate it at worst. This was a "survival-driven issue before survival was an issue."
During the culmination of Phase I at the 2000 Advance, the leadership agreed with the conclusions of the "skunkworks" task force and identified the development teams. The overall goal of this 2000 advance process was to "capture the impetus to change" by generating proposals for the practical innovation projects that the ACUBOs could undertake together. The strategy underpinning this was to identify the most strategic and discrete projects ("near-term opportunity targets) first followed by longer-term "large-scale opportunity targets", and then pushing toward systemic reform step-by-step.
During this phase, the ACUBOs analyzed the programs, services and products of the five associations and how they were organized to meet member needs. Phase II included meetings of the 20/20 development teams to address the following key issues:
The work of the 20/20 Membership Diversification and Growth Development Team had three primary purposes.The first was to analyze both the near-term and large-scale "opportunity targets" (i.e. projects). The second purpose was to identify additional projects that may have been overlooked and finally to recommend to the 20/20 Task Force priority items for action with regard to membership. The Membership Diversification and Growth team recommended the following near and large-term projects:
The work of the 20/20 Programs, Services and Products Development Team had three primary purposes. The first was to analyze both the near-term and large-scale "opportunity targets" (i.e. projects). The second purpose was to identify additional projects that may have been overlooked and finally to recommend to the 20/20 Task Force priority items for action with regard to programs, services and product development. Work focused on identifying initiatives to address the following priority issues:
The Membership Diversification and Growth team recommended the following near and large-term projects:
Phase III - Financial Resources; Volunteer & Staff Resources/Non-ACUBO Structures; Image, Public Relations and Alliances Phase Three was designed to identify specific projects in the areas of:
The process will follow similar steps and activities to those outlined in Phase II. The Phase II Program/Serivce/Product Development and Delivery issue area, along with Membership Diversification and Growth, were addressed in the spring of 2000. The remaining Phase III development teams, Financial Resources, Volunteer & Staff Resources and Image/PR/Alliances were scheduled to conclude their efforts towards the end of 2000. Indeed, ACUBO programs represented not just the "heart" of the ACUBOs, but the "heart, brain, arms and legs." With 100-year histories, a strong track record and pride in delivery, this issue formed the primary area of overlap among the ACUBOs, and would have to be addressed carefully to ensure wise leverage of resources. One such project, the GASB (Government Accounting Standards Board) Distance Learning Initiative - - currently in the process of being developed - - involved the collaboration of all five ACUBO organizations in running and sharing both human and financial resources. Staff Resources: With the exception of consulting expenses and the creation of a new full-time position to coordinate the 20/20 Initiative, work is being implemented using NACUBO's existing resource and volunteer base. However, where NACUBO staff dedicated to the process had previously been accountable to only one "boss", this has expanded to "five bosses" as a result of the Initiative, which involves considerable additional challenges in relationship management. Unintended Consequences
Unforeseen benefits of the 20/20 Initiative included:
Through this process, NACUBO discovered that in looking for "quick
fixes", traditional strategic planning models have become obsolete.
For the first time, NACUBO tied strategic planning and innovation
together in the 20/20 process and the organization will never be the
same. The first 18 months of the initiative was spent carefully and intentionally preparing and implementing each step of the visioning process, and integrating the participants to ensure that everyone concerned was adequately included. The investment paid off. The level of consensus and willingness to cooperate was no less than astounding, according to Carla Balagkie, NACUBO's Senior Vice President. "There was no headwind - it was like slicing butter." While NACUBO staff formed the "backbone" of the 20/20 Initiative, the principals, all volunteer board members and full-time chief operating officers (the most "tapped" volunteers known to the ACUBO family), were able to achieve significant progress in this complicated change management initiative. But it is an exercise in continuous improvement. NACUBO's 20/20 "Swat team" members continually ask themselves if the model is agile and innovative enough. The process is still underway, and while the results are not yet complete, measurement criteria will include:
The most valuable lesson involved learning how to innovate by doing. There was an "unrelenting need" to be constantly creating and anticipating and nothing routine about the process. The 20/20 initiative has developed into a "living organism" and very dynamic process that is constantly unveiling new opportunities. Ultimately, NACUBO determined that the Initiative was required to "survive and thrive." According to Carla Balagkie, "this is not about a single innovation effort, this is about an organization trying to learn innovation and live it."
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