Strategic Planning Using the TEDx Approach

TED, TEDx and TEDTalks have been gaining attention rapidly in recent years. Understandably so given the inspiring nature of the presentations. Several schools have been adding life to their campus thru TEDx and I recently adopted the TED approach in strategic planning to leverage its ability to share ideas and stories.

Given that my role as a Director is smack in the middle of the management structure I see my purpose as providing clarity for my staff. Using well know models when managing is one way to provide clarity, especially when examples are readily available, popular and relevant to a wide variety of people. TED satisfies all of this criteria and the model seemed to be ideally suited as a way for my staff to share ideas, generate dialogue and help us with our strategic planning efforts.

My responsibilities involve overseeing four areas - Student Housing Services, Tri-Mentoring Program, International Services for Students and the Office of Student Community Life. In my first two years overseeing these four areas, which includes over 20 full-time staff and 150 student staff, we did not gather as a large group often. My strategic planning focus in year one and two was on each unit, but the time had come for a wider discussion. In general, staff understand a lot about their own unit, but little about other units so the logical place to start was exchanging ideas and raising awareness of the issues affecting each unit. I wanted staff to be engaged in this process which made the TED approach ideal. 


My staff were given more than three months to plan and told that we would be using the TED model. To reinforce some of the TED principles I stressed that each unit had 15 minutes to present, the material had to be relevant to their work and the sessions must encourage dialogue and the exchange of ideas. 

Our TEDx Student Community Life or TEDx SCL, which was the name we adopted, was held this past Friday. The sessions were impressive. Historical video was used in one case and hours of video captured of current students in another case  Staff spent hours in deep discussion about their purpose in third area while another group orchestrated a well choreographed presentation that allowed everyone to contribute to the unit's story. TED is known for its "extended breaks" to allow for dialogue and discussion to take place and TEDx SCL was no exception. In fact, one of the highlights of the day for me was seeing staff interact and exchange ideas in the first break. Everyone was engaged and people that did not know each other prior to our event were exchanging ideas. There was a buzz in the room.

Pre and post event surveys are being used to assess the event and help us learn how well the TED approach worked. My instinct is that the event was well received given the effort that staff put into preparing and the interest everyone exhibited throughout the day. If you are looking for a model to help your staff exchange ideas for strategic planning then I would certainly encourage you to consider using the TED approach.