From Listening to Action: Higher Ed Strategic Planning People Actually Own

Higher ed strategic planning is one of the most important responsibilities of institutional leadership. But creating a strategic plan that people actually understand, believe in, and take ownership of? That’s a whole different challenge.

We’ve all seen strategic plans that look impressive on paper.

They have ambitious goals, carefully crafted mission statements, and beautifully designed documents. The leadership team presents them to the campus community, everyone applauds, and then something unfortunate happens.

The plan goes on a shelf.

Meanwhile, faculty, staff, and administrators return to their daily responsibilities without a clear understanding of how their work connects to the institution’s bigger vision.

Sound familiar?

The problem isn’t necessarily the strategic plan itself. Sometimes, it’s the process used to create it.

When leaders develop institutional priorities without genuinely listening to the people responsible for carrying them out, even the best strategies can struggle to gain traction.

That’s why I was especially interested in this conversation on The Higher Ed Marketer podcast with Dr. Aly Williams, President of Midland University in Fremont, Nebraska.

Aly took an interesting approach when she became Midland’s president in April 2025.

Rather than immediately introducing sweeping changes or launching a new strategic vision, she spent much of her first year listening.

She met with faculty, staff, alumni, local community leaders, and church partners to understand the institution’s strengths, challenges, culture, and identity.

Those conversations became the foundation for Midland’s emerging strategic priorities.

What I appreciate about Aly’s approach is that her experience isn’t just relevant to university presidents.

Whether you’re stepping into a new position as a chief marketing officer, leading an enrollment management team, or preparing your department’s next strategic initiative, there’s a lot to learn from her first year.

Let’s explore how listening, relationship-building, and intentional leadership can transform higher ed strategic planning into something your entire institution can own.

Listen Before You Build Your Strategic Plan

When a new leader arrives on campus, there’s often an expectation that they’ll start making changes immediately.

There’s pressure to demonstrate progress, address longstanding challenges, and communicate a compelling vision for the future.

But Aly understood that moving too quickly could create problems.

She was transitioning from Indiana Wesleyan University, where she’d spent nearly 25 years working in athletics, teaching, and academic administration.

At Midland, she was entering an entirely new institutional culture.

And she arrived just as the university’s existing strategic plan was wrapping up.

It would have been easy to immediately start outlining a new plan based on her previous experience.

Before determining where Midland needed to go, she needed to understand who Midland already was.

She explained why that mattered:

“If I was gonna do anything strategically to help us move forward, we had to continue to still be Midland at its core. I didn’t want Midland to look completely different for alums who still love this place. 

It was Midland Lutheran College for a long time, and I wanted our alums and our graduates to come back to a place even in twenty, thirty years at its core is still what they believed and loved about the institution.”

I think that’s an incredibly important distinction.

Higher education institutions aren’t businesses that can simply reinvent themselves every time a new executive arrives.

They have histories, traditions, relationships, and communities that extend across generations.

For Midland, that history stretches back to 1883.

There are alumni who remember the institution as Midland Lutheran College. There are faculty and staff who have dedicated years to serving students. And there are community relationships that have shaped the university’s identity.

Aly knew that meaningful change needed to build upon those foundations rather than disregard them.

For higher ed marketing leaders, the same principle applies.

Before launching a new branding initiative, restructuring a department, or changing your enrollment marketing strategy, you need to understand what’s already working.

• What’s important to your students?
• What makes your institution distinctive?
• What do faculty and staff believe your institution does particularly well?
• Where are the roadblocks?
• And perhaps most importantly, what do your people believe needs to change?

These aren’t questions you can answer entirely from behind your desk.

You have to get out and listen.

Turn Institutional Feedback Into Strategic Priorities

Of course, listening is only the beginning of effective higher ed strategic planning.

Eventually, somebody has to make decisions.

And Aly was refreshingly candid about how difficult that transition can be.

After spending months gathering insights from the Midland community, she and her senior leadership team faced the challenge of turning an enormous amount of information into a manageable set of strategic priorities.

Everybody had ideas.

Everybody had concerns.

But not every suggestion could become an institutional goal.

Aly described the difficulty of narrowing down the information while ensuring that the resulting plan would remain meaningful across campus.

Her goal wasn’t simply to produce a document that reflected leadership’s priorities.

She wanted people throughout the institution to understand how their daily responsibilities contributed to Midland’s overarching goals.

That’s what separates a strategic plan people read from one they actually use.

People need to see themselves in the strategy.

Think about what this means for a university marketing department.

Your institution might establish a strategic priority to strengthen enrollment.

That’s a worthwhile goal, but what does it mean for the individual people responsible for achieving it?

For your digital marketing specialist, it might mean improving the performance of paid advertising campaigns.

For your content team, it might mean producing stronger student stories that communicate your institution’s distinctives.

For admissions counselors, it could mean improving follow-up communication with prospective students.

And for academic departments, it might involve better communicating program outcomes and career opportunities.

Different responsibilities. One shared objective.

Aly discovered that helping people make those connections was essential to building support for Midland’s strategic priorities.

She recalled a faculty member thanking her after recognizing how the information gathered through campus conversations had influenced the university’s direction.

This demonstrates something we can easily overlook when implementing change.

People are much more likely to invest in a strategic plan when they can recognize their own contributions within it.

Here are four practical ways to strengthen that connection:

1. Identify recurring themes. Look for patterns across conversations rather than treating every individual suggestion as a separate priority.
2. Connect departmental goals to institutional objectives. Help teams understand how their work supports the larger mission.
3. Show people where their feedback went. Explain how their perspectives influenced strategic decisions, even when the final wording differs.
4. Communicate progress consistently. Keep strategic priorities visible through meetings, updates, and conversations throughout the year.

A strategic plan shouldn’t be something your campus hears about once every few years.

It should help guide the everyday decisions your teams make.

Build Trust Through Intentional Relationships

One of my favorite parts of this conversation had less to do with strategic planning documents and more to do with relationships.

Because here’s the reality: You can’t build meaningful institutional alignment without trust.

And trust doesn’t appear automatically when somebody receives a new title.

It has to be earned.

During her first year at Midland, Aly made personal conversations a significant part of her leadership approach.

She even began offering 30-minute meetings with employees who wanted an opportunity to connect.

The response was surprising. Her calendar quickly became much fuller than she’d anticipated.

While Aly asked people about Midland’s strengths and challenges, she also asked about their lives.

Why did they come to Midland?

Why had they stayed?

What did they care about outside of work?

And what experiences had shaped their connection to the university?

Those conversations helped her see faculty and staff as people rather than simply positions within an organizational chart.

When I asked what advice she’d give other leaders beginning a listening tour, Aly shared this:

Actually listen [to your people]. It sounds simple, but if you are dominating the conversation, you’re not actually listening.

It can be very easy to get sucked into wanting to interject things that you want to contribute even though you’re the one that’s supposed to be listening. It’s human nature, right?

That’s such a good reminder.

Sometimes we enter listening sessions already preparing our response.

We’re thinking about how to solve the problem, defend a decision, or explain our perspective.

But that’s not really listening.

Effective listening requires curiosity.

And sometimes, it requires being comfortable with uncomfortable feedback.

One advantage Aly identified about coming to Midland as an outsider was the freedom to ask questions without carrying years of institutional assumptions.

She could challenge longstanding practices simply by asking why something was done a particular way.

Some practices turned out to have excellent reasons behind them.

Others deserved reconsideration.

But approaching those conversations without a hidden agenda created space for more productive discussions.

This is especially relevant to higher education change management.

When leaders introduce new initiatives without understanding the people involved, they can unintentionally create resistance.

Employees might wonder what the leadership team is trying to accomplish or whether their experience is being dismissed.

But when leaders have already invested in relationships, those conversations become much easier.

People understand that questions aren’t necessarily criticism.

And they’re more willing to participate in the process of finding better solutions.

For marketing and enrollment leaders, this means building relationships across departments before asking everyone to embrace a new campaign, messaging platform, or enrollment strategy.

Your admissions team needs to trust your marketing team.

Your academic departments need to understand your enrollment priorities.

And everyone needs to believe that their perspective matters.

That’s how collaborative strategic planning becomes part of your institutional culture.

Preserve Institutional Identity While Leading Change

Another important takeaway from Aly’s experience is that higher education strategic planning needs to reflect what makes an institution distinctive.

As marketers, we talk about differentiation all the time.

But it’s surprisingly easy for colleges and universities to sound exactly alike.

Small class sizes.

Personalized attention.

Caring faculty.

A welcoming community.

Those are wonderful qualities, but they’re also qualities that hundreds of institutions claim.

As Aly pointed out during our conversation, those generic descriptions don’t necessarily help prospective students understand why they should choose one institution over another.

At Midland, she sees the university’s Lutheran heritage and commitment to helping students discover their vocation as central to its identity.

That concept of vocation goes beyond preparing students for their first job.

It’s about helping them recognize their gifts, discover their calling, and understand how they can serve others.

And Aly’s own career provides a fascinating example.

She began her professional life caring for student-athletes as a certified athletic trainer.

Over time, that calling expanded from treating athletic injuries to supporting students through teaching, academic administration, and eventually university leadership.

The responsibilities changed, but the underlying purpose remained.

And it’s exactly the kind of authentic institutional narrative that can strengthen higher ed marketing.

Aly also recognized that Midland’s identity extends beyond campus.

Relationships with Fremont businesses, community organizations, alumni, and Lutheran churches are important parts of the university’s mission.

She met with local leaders, asked employers about student skills and opportunities, and visited churches to reconnect with the communities that have historically supported Midland.

Those conversations weren’t simply enrollment recruitment opportunities.

They were an expression of the university’s longstanding commitment to serving its neighbors.

For marketers, there’s an important lesson here.

Your institutional mission shouldn’t just appear in your messaging. It should be evident in the experiences and relationships you’re promoting.

When strategic priorities align with authentic institutional distinctives, your marketing becomes more credible.

You’re not inventing a new identity.

You’re helping people understand the one you’ve already established.

And you’re demonstrating how that identity continues to shape your institution’s future.

Make Time for the Relationships That Make Strategy Work

Toward the end of our conversation, I asked Aly what one practical action a leader could take to begin strengthening relationships and building trust.

Her answer was simple.

Make time.

How many meetings, deadlines, reports, and urgent requests are competing for your attention?

If you’re like most higher ed leaders, your schedule fills up before the week even begins.

And relationship-building is often the first thing that gets pushed aside.

Aly reminded us that intentional leadership requires making difficult choices about where we spend our time.

It’s well worth the investment [to make time for relationships]. If you’re like me, you look up and your calendar next week has way more things in it than you’re going to ever get done. And if you haven’t already blocked out that time for those relationship building pieces, they’re not going to happen.

That’s advice every leader can put into practice.

Block time for conversations.

Meet with people outside your department.

Ask questions without assuming you already know the answers.

And look for opportunities to help colleagues understand how their work connects to the institution’s mission.

The strongest university strategic planning process doesn’t begin with a perfectly formatted document.

It begins with people.

Listen to the Full Conversation With Dr. Aly Williams

There’s much more to discover in this episode of The Higher Ed Marketer Podcast.

Listen to our conversation with Dr. Aly Williams for additional insights into:

• How her experience as an athletic trainer shaped her leadership approach (2:14)
• Why she spent her first year at Midland listening before developing strategic priorities (12:57)
• How to translate campus feedback into goals that people understand and support (17:18)
• Why personal relationships are essential to effective leadership (20:14)
• How institutional distinctiveness and community partnerships support Midland’s mission (25:17)
• Why leaders must intentionally make time to build trust (35:39)

Turn Your Institutional Vision Into a Stronger Marketing Strategy

At Caylor Solutions, we understand that an effective higher education marketing strategy starts with a clear understanding of your institution’s mission, distinctives, and enrollment priorities.

But identifying those priorities is only part of the work.

You also need to translate them into compelling messaging, coordinated campaigns, and meaningful experiences that connect with prospective students.

Our team helps colleges and universities align their institutional strengths with marketing strategies that attract mission-fit students and support long-term enrollment goals.

If you’re working to connect your institution’s strategic vision with a more effective enrollment marketing approach, let’s talk.

We’d love to help you turn that vision into action.

---

Want to Improve Your Digital Marketing Results?

Then you’ve got to know how to write for the web. That’s why we want to send you our popular ebook: Writing for the Web: 7 Secrets to Content Marketing Success for Education Marketers!

With this helpful resource, you’ll learn how to:

• Grab your reader’s attention immediately
• Pull your reader’s attention deeper into your content
• Write so that Google (and other search engines) find you easily
• Increase your website’s conversion rates

In short, you’ll be able to write the copy that makes your digital marketing strategy work for you. Download your copy today!

Featured image via midland.edu
Other images via chatgpt