Journey of the Plan
In response to President Cabrera’s call for the Georgia Tech community to join him in determining the Institute’s course over the next decade, several thousand people participated in the three phases of the strategic planning process.
We started with appreciative inquiry, asking groups and individuals what they see as Georgia Tech’s strengths, and challenging them to “dream big.” That led to the development of our narrative, vision and mission, strategic themes, and values and beliefs in a plan for the next decade.
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September 2019 - January 2020
Visioning Phase
- A project team and a steering committee of more than 60 faculty, staff, and students, representing a wide cross-section of campus, were assembled to direct the overall process.
- A discovery exercise engaging all Georgia Tech stakeholders — from students, faculty, and staff to alumni, parents, and industry partners — was conducted to identify the best aspects of the Institute and create conversations around what should come next as we shape its future.
- Feedback was obtained through various platforms including meetings, focus groups, webinars, and social campaign forums.
- 110+ working sessions (with 5,700+ interactions in total) were held to shape the Institute’s mission, vision, and values.
Decoding the Data
How were more than 5,700 perspectives from across campus and online, obtained during the Visioning phase, factored into the strategic planning process?
Institutional Research and Planning’s Troy Shaw explains the method involved in analyzing such a large volume of data — to get to the core of the feedback so the strategic plan could be carefully shaped according to public input.
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February - June 2020
Goal Setting Phase
- The steering committee and leadership parsed all feedback from the Visioning phase to produce a document outlining six strategic focus areas:
- Amplify Impact
- Champion Innovation
- Connect Globally
- Expand Access
- Cultivate Well-being
- Lead by Example
- Guided by the draft plan, the project team created a working group around each focus area that determined goals, objectives, and measures of success.
- Learn more about the Working Groups.
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July 2020 - April 2024
Preliminary Implementation Phase
How we got here: Moving into action.
- Summer 2020: Executive Leadership Team (ELT) reviewed and revised drafts.
- Fall 2020: Plan finalized and launched.
- Winter 2020: Communicated plan and prioritized actions.
- Spring 2021: ELT identified and mobilized 20 implementation teams.
- Summer 2021: Teams organized and defined actions (building on goal setting).
- Fall 2021: Teams requested resource investments and continued planning/engaging.
- Winter 2021: Teams began to act where they had capacity.
- Spring 2022: Teams refined plans based on allocations and prepared focus for FY23.
- Summer 2022: Began use of investments and implementing action plans.
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April 2024 - September 2024
Strategic Plan Refresh Phase
Refined and refocused our strategic priorities:
- April - May 2024: Convened Steering Group comprised of 25 members including students, faculty, and staff.
- June 2024: Committee proposed 18 refined priorities for consideration.
- July 2024: Executive Leadership considered committee inputs and honed them down to 4 Big Bets.
- August 2024: Campus partners identified the 4 Foundational Priorities essential to accomplish the Big Bets.
- September 2024: Sunset, rescoped, elevated, or combined many existing initiatives. Identified where new initiatives were needed.
- September 2024: Continued implementation of initiatives where few changes were needed.
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October 2024 - present
Refreshed Plan Launch Phase
Mobilized implementation initiatives:
- October 2024: Clarified the scope, strategies, structure, and sequence of how we will implement the work.
- October 2024: Launched monthly Cross-Initiative collaboration events to share ideas, resources, plans, and efforts.
- November 2024: Assigned roles, responsibilities, and milestones.
- December 2024: Defined resource needs (people, space, funding, technology, etc).
- January 2025 - present: Mobilized all rescoped and new initiatives.
