Why do diversity strategic plans matter?
Diversity strategic planning at the unit-level – be it college, division, center, school or office – catalyzes inclusive excellence.
Inclusive excellence describes an organization’s capacity to thrive as a function of its ability to value and engage the rich diversity of its community members. Advancing inclusive excellence means embedding equity and inclusion in every operational aspect of an organization.
This site provides resources to get started and move forward.
STRATEGIC PLANNING ANIMATES INCLUSIVE EXCELLENCE
Organizational transformation means changing practices and systems not created to serve minoritized community members. This work requires consistent effort and progress must involve every community member working to create change.
Developing a strategic plan drives organizational transformation. Research suggests that sustained organizational change occurs when inclusive excellence is embedded in the priorities of the university, actualized at the institutional level, and catalyzed by local, unit-level strategies and actions. Without these interconnected strategies, success is less likely.
Over the last two years, Oregon State has embedded inclusive excellence in its central strategic plan (Transformation, Excellence and Impact: SP 4.0) and adopted its first diversity strategic plan (Innovate and Integrate: A Plant for Inclusive Excellence) to guide the institution’s overall efforts.
DEVELOPING A UNIT-LEVEL DIVERSITY STRATEGIC PLAN
Adaptive Strategic Planning for Inclusive Excellence is a research-based framework developed by the Office of Institutional Diversity to allow organizations to engage in a deliberative process to envision, create and measure sustainable antiracist and liberatory organizational transformation. This framework is put into practice through the Adaptive Strategic Planning for Inclusive Excellence Guidance and Toolkit.
Download the Guidance and Toolkit
This guidance and toolkit is not a prescription. Many units have already made great progress by developing unit-level diversity strategic plans or by incorporating diversity-related goals into unit-level strategic plans. The components of this framework can be adopted and modified as appropriate and as context requires.
HOW TO USE THE ADAPTIVE STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR INCLUSIVE EXCELLENCE GUIDANCE
The guidance and toolkit provides a process to implement the Adaptive Strategic Planning for Inclusive Excellence framework at the unit level, and tools to move the process forward.
By unit, we mean any sub-unit of a larger institutional whole. This includes colleges, divisions, departments, schools and so forth. The flexibility of this strategic planning model allows for plans to nest within each other and within Oregon State’s larger strategic planning effort and priorities.
Some important points to keep in mind when using this guidance and toolkit include:
- The guidance and toolkit is organized into steps within each part of the framework. These steps may be followed in order or engaged in an order appropriate to local context. Each step also includes a set of guiding questions to support the planning process.
- We suggest initially reviewing this guidance to reflect, make notes and pose questions to inform your unit’s strategic planning process. When you are ready, we recommend contacting the Office of Institutional Diversity to discuss the process and any questions, acquire additional information and outline a work plan.
- The Office of Institutional Diversity will remain available throughout the diversity strategic planning process to provide technical assistance and facilitation where helpful.
When your unit’s diversity strategic plan is complete, please provide it to the Office of Institutional Diversity to support ongoing diversity strategic planning implementation and assessment efforts at the university level.