Set Initiatives Up for Success

(A. Solano)

Before You Launch: Use This Readiness Tool to Set Your Initiative Up for Success

In higher education, new initiatives are often launched with the best intentions—enthusiasm, urgency, and a lofty vision. But without proper groundwork, even the most promising projects can stall, fizzle, or fail to scale.

That’s why I’m unpacking the Initiative Readiness Assessment Tool* (free direct download)—a practical, no-fluff resource to help colleges ask the right questions before committing time, people, and funding to a new effort.

What’s in the Readiness Assessment?

The tool is broken into six critical areas, each with essential questions to explore with your department, committee, division, etc. Below, I walk through the categories with examples from two example initiatives. 

1. Purpose Statement

• Key Question: Is the purpose data-informed and widely understood?
• Why it matters: If you can’t clearly explain why this initiative matters—and back it up with evidence—you’re not ready.

STEM Center:
The purpose is to increase STEM degree completion among first-gen students by 25% over 3 years, based on disaggregated success data.

Professional Learning Center:
The center will centralize PD efforts to reduce duplication and increase engagement, supported by survey data showing low participation and satisfaction.

2. Strategic Alignment

• Key Question: Does the initiative support key institutional priorities (e.g., strategic plan, equity goals)?
• Why it matters: Alignment ensures buy-in, funding, and sustainability.

STEM Center: Directly supports the college’s STEM equity and workforce development objectives.
Professional Learning Center: Aligns with employee engagement goals and accreditation standards.

3. Stakeholder Analysis

• Key Questions:
• Have key stakeholders been identified?
• Are communication needs documented?
• Why it matters: Stakeholders will make or break your initiative. Don’t assume support—build it.

STEM Center: Involve STEM faculty, tutoring staff, student services, and students themselves.
Professional Learning Center: Engage classified staff, faculty senate, HR, and the appropriate deans and directors.

4. Initiative Scope Statement

• Key Question: Is there a clear, shared 1–2 page initiative summary?
• Why it matters: Helps avoid scope creep and misunderstanding.

STEM Center: A one-pager defines tutoring services, research exposure, and embedded peer mentorship.
Professional Learning Center: Scope includes onboarding redesign, pedagogy workshops, and workshop follow-though to understand if people are implemented what they learned.

5. Leadership Capacity

• Key Questions:
• Is there a leader with time, budget, and authority?
• Is there a steering committee to drive momentum—not block it?
• Why it matters: Projects without accountable leadership go nowhere.

STEM Center: Appoint a director or faculty coordinator with dedicated reassigned time.
Professional Learning Center: Cross-role steering committee ensures all voices and needs are represented.

6. Processes

• Key Questions:
• Are decision-making and approval processes clearly defined?
• Are hiring, procurement, reassigned time, and stipends mapped out?
• Has documentation management been addressed?
• Why it matters: Great ideas die in unclear processes. Operational details—especially ones involving time, money, or approval—must be nailed down early.

STEM Center Example:
The college needs to outline the process for hiring peer mentors, securing space, and ensuring budget approvals for STEM equipment and tutoring software. Reassigned time for the faculty lead and hiring procedures for student staff must be clear to avoid delays.

Professional Learning Center Example:
Processes should clarify how professional development offerings are proposed, approved, and scheduled. Stipend policies, time tracking for participation, and document sharing systems (e.g., shared drives or LMS shell) should be standardized and communicated.

7. College Impact & Change Management

• Key Questions:
• What are the impacts on people, process, and technology?
• Are there change communication and adoption strategies?
• Why it matters: New initiatives change routines. Prepare people and systems.

STEM Center: Requires new hiring processes, campus-wide referral systems, and physical space reallocation.
Professional Learning Center: Will shift PD responsibilities and require systematized communications.

8. Initiative Enablement & Project Management

• Key Questions:
• Are templates, timelines, and tools in place?
• Are roles and responsibilities clear?
• Why it matters: Execution matters as much as planning.

STEM Center: Use basic project management tools to track hiring, outreach, and launch timelines.
Professional Learning Center: Develop templates for feedback, workshop proposals, and reporting impact.

Final Thought: Readiness Is a Discipline

Initiatives fail not because they lack value—but because they lack structure. This readiness tool keeps the entire team honest, aligned, and proactive.

Don’t launch without it. Start with clarity, not chaos.

*Thanks to UC Berkeley Extension project management instructor, Tom Kendrick. Resource modified from his template. 

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Also visit: Five Questions to Answer Before Launching Initiatives