Strategic Planning Process

A bold strategic plan is needed that sets shared priorities as informed by our current grand challenges, establishes core values, and builds community and culture throughout the Illinois Extension system to coincide. ​We have utilized a bottom-up approach to our strategic planning process with a steering committee tasked with ensuring that we engage all of you throughout our process. ​

Dual Transformation Framework

We want to introduce one methodology that will be the cornerstone of our efforts – the Dual Transformation framework. This methodology intends to orient organizations towards simultaneous present-forward thinking (Transformation A) and future-back thinking (Transformation B).  ​The Dual Transformation framework combines an orientation toward both present-forward thinking (“Transformation A”) and future-back thinking (“Transformation B”).

Often, institutions believe they must either commit to their current market position and offerings or choose to become an entirely different kind of institution – and that creates a fundamental dilemma, a tension between the present and the future. ​

The Dual Transformation approach allows institutions to flip that dilemma by drawing upon their deep competencies to reposition their current core activities (Transformation A) while also strengthening those capabilities to establish a sustainable and market-responsive future for the institution (Transformation B). In the end, the institution can end up positioned between these two opportunities.​

While we cannot predict the outcomes of our strategic planning effort, we seek to ensure our community is not only thinking about how we can reposition our current services and offerings but also where we can be innovative and develop new solutions for our stakeholders around the state. ​