Having the following conversations may facilitate engagement in the development and execution of a shared dynamic road map to the future for units within the Institute. Each of these conversations are listed below followed by questions that could be used as discussion prompts. These conversations are provided as suggestions. Depending on the unit, some may not be necessary or useful, and other conversations not listed below may be more helpful.
Conversation #1: Context--The discipline and the interface with IANR priorities
- If we stand on the shoulders of giants in the field, what is the foundation of success (the shoulders) that they have established for us? How do we build on that success so that we reach new heights?
- What grand challenges are we are well positioned to address? (Grand challenges are often difficult and important problems that have scientific, societal, economic, health, etc. implications and that typically require multidisciplinary collaboration and innovation to address).
- If we knew we could achieve “X”, what bold steps would be taken?
- What expertise currently exists within the unit for addressing current and future grand challenges? What are the gaps in our expertise that are preventing us from increasing our impact on the field? Where does that expertise currently exist, and what might we be able to do to tap into that expertise?
- How does our expertise contribute to the IANR priorities?
- How are we providing leadership in driving outcomes within IANR priority areas?
- What opportunities and risks do we see on the horizon for the discipline that we might want to anticipate?
- What feedback have we received during our last Academic Program Review that we should address in determining our strategic direction and priorities?
Conversation #2: Context--Institutional and external
- What is the context in which we reside? (e.g., university and IANR, profession/discipline, political, economic, state/regional/national/international)
- What areas of the University’s strategic priorities are we best positioned to contribute to?
- What things related to our context do we see on the horizon that we might want to anticipate? These can be opportunities or risks.
- Who are our primary competitors? What can we learn from them?
- What opportunities exist for collaboration (with other universities; with industry)?
Conversation #3: Teaching and learning
- What are our top 2 or 3 priorities around smart enrollment growth?
- How do we intend to implement the CASNR Smart Enrollment Growth Framework?
- What are our top 2 or 3 priorities around graduate education?
- How do we intend to implement the IANR Strategic Graduate Education Framework ’s vision and goals for graduate education?
- What are our goals for promoting holistic student development (i.e., integration of curricular programming, experiential learning, co-curricular programming, and health and well-being)?
- What does the scholarship of teaching and learning look like for us, and what can we do to increase our impact through the scholarship of teaching and learning?
- How will our diversity and inclusion goal(s) advance teaching and learning excellence?
Conversation #4: Research, disciplined inquiry, and creative activity
- What are the grand challenges being addressed by faculty members through their research and scholarship?
- How do disciplinary and multidisciplinary collaborations help us increase our research and scholarship productivity and impact?
- What opportunities exist for intellectual property?
- What opportunities exist for industry partnerships, and how do (or would) these partnerships increase the scope, scale, and impact of our research?
- How are we doing at disseminating the results of our research? What does our research scholarship portfolio say about the impact of our research?
- What are the indicators of research excellence for our discipline, and how do we measure against those indicators? If we are hitting the mark, what do we need to ensure that we continue to hit or exceed the standard of excellence? If we are not hitting the mark, what do we need to do to improve?
- How will our diversity and inclusion goal(s) advance our research and research scholarship?
Conversation #5: Engagement, outreach, and extension
- What is the impact of our research, teaching, and Extension/engagement on Nebraska?
- How do we measure/assess local and state-wide impact of our expertise? What indicators of impact are we not using that might help us increase our impact and/or better assess it?
- Take an inventory of our current engagement efforts and partnerships with individuals and organizations.
- What does scholarship of Extension/engagement look like for us, and what can we do to increase our impact through the scholarship of Engagement/engagement?
- How will our attention to diversity and inclusive excellence advance our Extension, engagement, and outreach, and the impact of these efforts?
Conversation #6: Mission integration
- How do we drive outcomes related to grand challenges through an integrated mission that includes teaching, research, and Extension/engagement?
- What are the problems we could solve/the questions we can answer given our collective expertise?
Conversation #7: Culture and Environment
- How does each person’s feeling of connectedness with the unit enrich the teaching and learning, research, and Extension/engagement environment within our unit?
- How does including those who haven’t previously had opportunities to be included enrich and advance the science of the discipline?
- Is the culture of our unit such that every person and every interaction matters?
- What are we intentionally doing to create an environment where every person and every interaction matters?
- What about our practices, procedures and policies preference certain individuals and disadvantage others?
- Which groups or individuals are most likely to feel excluded?
Conversation #8: International engagement
- What is the global scope and/or global implications of our work and contributions?
- How would global engagement advance our strategic vision? How could it be a distraction from or negatively influence our ability to advance toward achieving impacts that really matter to us and our constituents?
- Who, in countries other than the US, are our partners? Are these the right partnerships? If so, what are we doing to nurture those partnerships to increase impact and advance our strategic direction?
- What opportunities exist for faculty, students, and staff to increase impact of teaching/learning, research, and engagement through international engagement either domestically or in countries other than the US?
- How do our current global engagement strategies help us to achieve our mission? Are there any current global engagement strategies that are central to
- What opportunities for domestic international engagement currently exist or may exist in the future for us?
Conversation #9: Resource distribution
- Are we strategically using financial, facilities, and personnel resources to achieve goals and maximize impact?
- What are the decision-making principles that inform resource distribution? How transparent are these decision-making principles? How transparent do they need to be?
- Are there decision making indicators; things that we will want to measure good ideas against to facilitate decision-making? (Note: these should be tied to values, core expectations of academic leaders, and aspects identified in the strategic visioning document).