UNC School of Social Worked launched a strategic planning process in the fall of 2022 to help guide and support its future growth and success.
Through the process, branded as a “Strategic Plan(t)ing,” the School will focus broadly on three objectives:
- Planting a healthy foundation
- Nourishing an inclusive environment and
- Cultivating organizational change.
To achieve these objectives, the School has partnered with Kairos Insights, an executive coaching and consulting firm, to help School administrators, faculty, staff and students develop priorities and a shared vision for strengthening the overall organization and creating culture change. Over the next 18 months, these efforts will be divided among four distinct phases of work:
- Phase 1: Organizational assessment
- Phase 2: Strategic planning
- Phase 3: Strategic leadership and
- Phase 4: Organizational development.
The School is currently working on phase one and recently completed focus group listening and learning sessions to better understand the perspectives of students, faculty, staff, and community partners. Feedback and input from the focus groups will be used to inform the design of three surveys focused on the School’s culture, alumni, and community.
The climate and culture survey is expected to be disseminated to all faculty and staff in mid-November, School Dean Ramona Denby-Brinson reported recently.
“I strongly encourage everyone to complete it,” Denby-Brinson noted of the surveys. “The more voices we have engaged in creating this vision, the better it will be.”
Survey results should be available in early 2023.
Denby-Brinson, who recently completed her first year as School dean, also noted that the strategic plan(t)ing process will be transparent and to that end, a resource page on the School’s website has been designed to keep the School community and others updated on each step of the plan as well as its progress. This webpage will be updated regularly as the planning process moves forward. Questions about any stage of the process can be submitted via an online form on the School’s resource page.
“We are already accomplishing a lot,” Denby-Brinson said of the strategic plan(t)ing process. “Through our collective work, we are achieving meaningful goals and doing so at a pace that positions us to be responsive to the needs of the communities we serve and to our students. If our pace seems accelerated — it is! That is because the problems that we are solving are urgent, the students we are preparing are ready, and the work that we do is of high value.”
