Case Study

Strategic Renewal at a Private Art and Design School (US)

Intro

Designing a five-year strategic direction for a private art and design school through a systems-aware, participatory innovation process.

In partnership with a private art and design school in the US, Sierra Learning Solutions and NEXTWave Innovation led a 12-session, systems-aware strategic design process that engaged internal leadership, faculty, alumni, board members, and employers to move the institution from reactive planning to intentional transformation—grounded in shared mindsets, cultural alignment, and disciplined strategic choice.

Details

Strategic Renewal Case

Private Art and Design School (US)

Highlights

Institutional Context & Purpose

The institution sought to develop a five-year strategic plan capable of navigating complexity in higher education while strengthening its identity as a leader in art and design.

Rather than producing a static document, the goal was to cultivate a strategy that could live—one grounded in innovation principles, collective ownership, and cultural readiness. The planning effort aimed not only to clarify direction, but to prepare the institutional soil in which that direction could take root and flourish.

Approach: Systems-Aware Strategic Design

Rob’s firm, Sierra Learning Solutions, facilitated a structured design arc across 12 online workshops using a Design → Diverge → Converge → Align progression.

Key features of the approach included:

  • Highly Participatory Engagement
    The strategic planning committee was supported by input from the broader school community, alumni, board members, and employers—ensuring that the strategy reflected multiple vantage points rather than a single narrative.

  • Design Thinking & Innovation Principles
    The process emphasized exploration before decision-making, structured divergence before convergence, and disciplined alignment before articulation.

  • Serious Play
    Workshops were intentionally engaging and creative—making space for experimentation, imagination, and open thinking—while driving toward consequential and rigorous outcomes.

  • Mindsets for Transformation
    A defining innovation of the process was the development of six transformation mindsets, designed to serve as scaffolding for both the strategic plan and the cultural shift required to sustain it.

Key Participants

Rather than treating the strategy as a leadership exercise alone, the process engaged:

  • Strategic Planning Committee (internal leadership and faculty)

  • Broader school community

  • Alumni

  • Board members

  • Employers and industry partners

This multi-layered engagement created shared ownership and reduced the risk of a strategy disconnected from lived institutional realities.

Strategic Landscape & Core Themes

Through structured exploration, the team surfaced six core themes shaping the school’s future direction, including:

  • Growth

  • Entrepreneurship

  • Community

  • Academic Innovation
    (and two additional themes being integrated into the final strategic architecture)

These themes reflect both institutional aspiration and external pressures facing creative higher education.

Cultural Shift & Strategic Outcomes

While the planning process is still underway, several meaningful shifts are already visible:

1. From Reactive to Intentional

The institution is moving from responding to immediate pressures toward making proactive, strategic choices grounded in shared principles.

2. Emergence of Coherent Strategic Pillars

The transformation mindsets are shaping the architecture of the final plan, providing an organizing logic that connects initiatives, priorities, and resource allocation.

3. Reframed Institutional Narrative

The language of the strategy is shifting—from operational descriptions to a future-oriented articulation of identity, impact, and innovation.

4. Cultural Ground Preparation

By embedding shared mindsets, the work is influencing not only what the institution plans to do, but how it intends to operate—creating fertile ground for long-term execution.

Distinguishing Features

This engagement differs from traditional strategic planning in three critical ways:

  1. Strategy as Design, not Documentation

  2. Culture as Infrastructure for Strategy

  3. Participation as a Driver of Alignment

The result is not simply a five-year plan, but a strengthened institutional capacity to think systemically, innovate intentionally, and act collectively.