Start the Process
Start the Process focuses on turning commitment into coordination. Institutions introduce a clear roadmap, form cross-functional teams, and establish shared goals and measures. The institution begins organizing around broad practice areas that influence the student experience and identifying where integration across them will be required.
Success in this stage prepares an institution to Sharpen the Focus.
Your Institution Could Benefit from Resources in this Stage if…
- Leadership is aligned on the need for change, but execution structures are unclear.
- Teams exist, but roles and decision rights are not defined.
- The institution needs a clearer roadmap, timeline, or engagement strategy.
- The institution needs a clearer roadmap, timeline, or engagement strategy.
Example Milestones of Institutions that are Starting the Process
- A high-level roadmap or planning framework is introduced with explicit sequencing and ownership.
- Core transformation teams are formed with representation across advising, academics, student support, finance, and IT.
- Early conversations identify where practice redesign may require system integration or policy review.
- Foundational concepts such as equity, student momentum, and cross-functional alignment shape campus dialogue.
- Transformation is framed as a coordinated operating shift, not a project.
Most Relevant Institutional Capacities when Starting the Process
Catalytic Leadership
Why it Matters
Leadership moves from making the case for change to mobilizing people and systems around it. Clarity of direction and consistency of expectations are critical.
What it involves:
- Setting clear expectations for transformation across units and roles
- Embedding transformation priorities into strategic plans and budgets
- Empowering mid-level leaders and forming cross-functional teams
- Aligning communication and planning processes with equity goals
- Defining what success looks like and how it will be measured
You may need to strengthen this capacity if priorities are named but not operationalized.
Strategic Data Use
Why it Matters
Shared measures keep planning grounded and focused.
What it involves:
- Establishing shared metrics for student success
- Using disaggregated data to identify priority populations
- Aligning data practices with planning and improvement cycles
- Building collaborative interpretation routines across units
- Increasing staff capacity to use data effectively
You may need to strengthen this capacity if conversations are aspirational but not grounded in evidence.
Communications & Engagement
Why it Matters
Planning requires broad understanding and buy-in. Clear communication prevents confusion and reduces resistance.
What it involves:
- Explaining how transformation priorities connect to daily work
- Engaging faculty and staff in early planning conversations
- Building shared language
- Clarifying roles, decision pathways, and expectations
- Maintaining feedback loops
You may need to strengthen this capacity if teams are forming but campus understanding remains uneven.
People & Talent Development
Why it Matters
Early coordination fails when roles are unclear, expectations are inconsistent, or teams lack the skills and support needed to carry transformation forward.
What it involves:
- Clarifying roles, decision rights, and accountability across units.
- Aligning staffing structures with transformation priorities.
- Forming and supporting cross-functional teams with clear charge and authority.
- Building capacity among mid-level leaders who translate strategy into action.
- Ensuring frontline staff understand how their daily work connects to student success goals.
- Identifying skill gaps that may limit effective implementation in later stages.
You may need to strengthen this capacity if teams are forming but struggling to collaborate, if roles feel ambiguous, or if transformation expectations exceed current staffing or skill levels.
Catalytic Leadership
Why it Matters
Leadership moves from making the case for change to mobilizing people and systems around it. Clarity of direction and consistency of expectations are critical.
What it involves:
- Setting clear expectations for transformation across units and roles
- Embedding transformation priorities into strategic plans and budgets
- Empowering mid-level leaders and forming cross-functional teams
- Aligning communication and planning processes with equity goals
- Defining what success looks like and how it will be measured
You may need to strengthen this capacity if priorities are named but not operationalized.
Strategic Data Use
Why it Matters
Shared measures keep planning grounded and focused.
What it involves:
- Establishing shared metrics for student success
- Using disaggregated data to identify priority populations
- Aligning data practices with planning and improvement cycles
- Building collaborative interpretation routines across units
- Increasing staff capacity to use data effectively
You may need to strengthen this capacity if conversations are aspirational but not grounded in evidence.
Communications & Engagement
Why it Matters
Planning requires broad understanding and buy-in. Clear communication prevents confusion and reduces resistance.
What it involves:
- Explaining how transformation priorities connect to daily work
- Engaging faculty and staff in early planning conversations
- Building shared language
- Clarifying roles, decision pathways, and expectations
- Maintaining feedback loops
You may need to strengthen this capacity if teams are forming but campus understanding remains uneven.
People & Talent Development
Why it Matters
Early coordination fails when roles are unclear, expectations are inconsistent, or teams lack the skills and support needed to carry transformation forward.
What it involves:
- Clarifying roles, decision rights, and accountability across units.
- Aligning staffing structures with transformation priorities.
- Forming and supporting cross-functional teams with clear charge and authority.
- Building capacity among mid-level leaders who translate strategy into action.
- Ensuring frontline staff understand how their daily work connects to student success goals.
- Identifying skill gaps that may limit effective implementation in later stages.
You may need to strengthen this capacity if teams are forming but struggling to collaborate, if roles feel ambiguous, or if transformation expectations exceed current staffing or skill levels.
Starting the Process with Evidence-Based Practices
Institutions introduce broad evidence-based practice areas as potential levers for impact, such as advising reform, developmental education redesign, digital learning improvement, student support integration, financial aid redesign, and career alignment.
At this stage:
- Exploration remains structured and disciplined.
- Teams examine how practices intersect, for example how advising interacts with financial aid timelines or how course design affects gateway completion.
- Infrastructure implications are surfaced early, especially data reporting, system integration, and workflow redesign.
- Avoid solutionitis. Build understanding and integration awareness before selecting final reforms.
Advising Reform
Developmental Education Reform
Digital Learning Reform
Continuous Improvement considerations when Starting the Process
Prepare
- Develop and share a high-level plan or framework for organizing transformation.
- Define shared goals and clarify how learning and feedback loops will function
- Build teams responsible for advancing priority areas
- Assign ownership of structured reflection
Reflect
- Review current practices and equity gaps using shared data.
- Assess where coordination, technology, staffing, or policy constraints may shape implementation feasibility.
These early PRPAM routines create coherence before full design decisions are made.
The Continuous Improvement Model (PRPAM)
These phases are connected—and continuous. Each cycle builds on the last, deepening impact and embedding equity-driven change over time.
Establish a shared vision. Define the challenge, build the team, and ground your work in equity and student success from the start.
Examine disaggregated data and student experiences to understand root causes. Identify what needs to change—and why it matters.
Focus your resources on what matters most. Target high-impact strategies that advance equity, improve student experience, and align with your mission.
Implement reforms through cross-functional coordination. Test strategies, support your teams, and adapt based on feedback and student outcomes.
Track results, gather insights, and assess progress. Use data and voice to refine strategy and ensure equity stays at the center.
Cross-Functional Roles in This Stage
Senior Leaders communicate the vision, align structures and resources, and establish clear expectations across units and roles.
Institutional Research and Data Teams, gather and share relevant data to inform planning and support collaborative interpretation.
Mid-Level Leaders coordinate across departments, translate strategy into operational plans, and build cross-functional collaboration.
Faculty engage in defining priorities within curriculum and instruction and contribute to early design conversations.
Frontline Staff provide insight into student-facing processes and identify operational barriers that planning must address.
