Contact: John Sommer
914-737-7425 x105
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
2125 Albany Post Road
Montrose, NY 10548
www.mbsa.info

MBS Associates President Leads College Dean Transition Planning Day at Syracuse iSchool

MONTROSE, NY -- June 21, 2007 -- There are few things more unsettling for the faculty of a college than the “what if’s” associated with a change in deans – particularly in the case of a highly popular outgoing dean who is viewed as the architect of a highly successful program.

At Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies, the retiring dean and the faculty decided to address these concerns head-on before the successor had even been selected, by turning to the business community for assistance.

According to Ray VonDran, who will retire as dean of the iSchool at Syracuse in the next couple of weeks, the notion of bringing in a third party facilitator who is knowledgeable about the school, but who does not “have a dog in the fight,”  was both an unusual step and an appealing alternative.

“We knew instinctively that an insider could not successfully lead a process that would produce meaningful results in a time-limited environment.

“Further, we knew we needed someone who had strong planning and organizational management skills to guide us through a process of setting the stage for a smooth changeover.  We immediately thought of Mal Schwartz, a long-time member of our Board of Visitors, as the first choice.  Mal not only helped us develop the strategic plan for our iSchool and provided invaluable guidance in the past, he has been involved with several other schools of information science and technology facilitating their strategic planning, branding and marketing processes.

“He knows our field and he understands the dynamics of organizational change,” VonDran added.

Schwartz, who is president of MBS Associates in Montrose, New York, said that when he began meeting with VonDran and members of the faculty to structure the Faculty Planning Day, there was an atmosphere of high anxiety and “what if” concerns were numerous.

In facilitating the Day of Planning that would include VonDran and the 50 members of the school’s faculty and senior staff, Schwartz began by surfacing and charting the anxieties and questions and then breaking them into logical subject areas for prioritizing and more in depth discussion by teams of nine.

For several years, the iSchool at Syracuse has operated as a “Faculty of One” with no department heads and there was concern about how the new dean would respond to that concept, how that individual would represent the iSchool to the larger university community and how best to engage their new leader,” Schwartz said.

Among the other principal concerns articulated and then discussed were:
•    How to help the new dean acclimate
•    What we would like the school to look like in 2020
•    Moving from a “Faculty of One” to a “School of One”
•    How to develop “win-wins” with the new dean
•    Identifying those domains that will provide a fruitful partnership between the new dean and faculty
•    Maintaining quality
•    How to retain the culture of the school
•    Advocacy for the school among research centers and funders
•    Connecting to our constituencies
•    How to most effectively brief the new dean and on what topics
•    How to articulate the iSchool’s intellectual foundation

After each of the concerns and topics selected for in-depth discussion were aired in the group settings, the five teams reported back to the full group.  This information was then consolidated and will serve as a guide for briefing the new dean as well as by the faculty when they meet with the incoming dean.  At the end of the planning day, the group reported a much lower level of anxiety and one faculty member remarked that it was the most productive and worthwhile planning day he could recall.

Following the meeting, Schwartz created a discussion guide to be used by the faculty in meeting with the incoming dean to air both concerns and perspective.

MBS Associates is a strategic planning, branding and marketing practice specializing in leveraging a proprietary planning, branding, marketing and post-plan management process to drive measurable business growth. The company develops sustainable, value added promotions by leveraging its time-tested strategic planning process to create organic, results-driven connections for the corporate/institutional brand, the cause, and the target audience. We show clients how to evaluate their needs, to differentiate themselves in a crowded competitive environment and to create the processes that put the focus on their strengths.  Additional information may be found at www.mbsa.info.

- end -