About Objective Characteristics:

At the heart of the Strategic Planner lies the list of objectives towards which a unit is working in the short term to improve functions and processes. It is the objectives that guide day-to-day work patterns, determine the immediate flow of resources, serve as the basis of performance evaluation, and collectively construct the immediate climate of the organization.

Accordingly, great care should be exercised in defining carefully the precise intent of each planning objective. To facilitate this process, there lies behind the “objective characteristics” button a wealth of institutional knowledge—knowledge that is available with just a few clicks on the computer mouse to be used in refining and defining, rationalizing and justifying the objective.

Select here from institutional planning goals, higher education meta-issues, widely known professional standards, and findings from empirical institutional research to find arguments that justify and rationalize investing public funds in the particular planning objective the unit is intending to pursue.

The intent is to overtly link each objective carefully to as many of those attributes of the organization and higher education field as can be reasonably and logically connected with the objective. In the realm of strategic planning, no objective should ever stand alone; it should be undertaken only when it serves a legitimate larger purpose or practice in the university. Ultimately, an objective should be undertaken or approved if it focuses university resources to effect ends that are in keeping with the university’s goals and the public’s need.

Satisfy this intent by searching through a wide variety of characteristics and attributes, plans and expectations, listed and tabulated behind the “objective characteristics” button, seeking arguments and criteria to justify undertaking a planning objective in your unit. At minimum, the objective should serve some longer-range planning goal either of your unit or some other unit and a long range theme(s) of the university and the university system. These links can be established under the “unit planning goals,” the “SSU mission components,” the “SSU Themes,” and “USG Planning Goals” screens found on the objective characteristics screen..

While establishing these linkages may seem like engaging in needless overhead, it soon will become clear that it is in the interest of the planning objective and its sponsoring unit to work through this task with care and energy. Establishing these linkages is precisely the way that planning objectives can become valued by and take on importance in the larger university community, marshal support, and become priority activities institutionalized for future attention. In the long run, attending to this task will assist in garnering a positive outcome for the objective.