A large, 10+ person Education Abroad Office at a medium-sized, private institution was tasked with shifting their focus and enrollment to exchange programming. The institution outlined overarching campus goals. However, the team did not know how to connect their daily operations with institutional expectations. With no team specific goals or quarterly priorities, they were uncertain about whether they were really moving in the right direction.

Bringing in a consultant gave the team the outside expertise they needed to get started. Before deciding on how they could contribute to the institutional strategic plan, this team needed to understand who they were. They worked together to craft their own office mission, vision and core values. They ensured that these also connected to the institution’s mission and vision.

Once they better understood who they were as an office, they could begin to focus on aligning their services to support both office and university strategies. With the guidance of their consultant, they were able to:

• Analyze their data identify their student core customer
• Recognize the programs that sell
• Identify steps needed to shift their programming to prioritize exchanges
• Review current positions within their office, highlighting redundancies or gaps to be filled
• Establish meaningful weekly and quarterly goals
• And so much more!

Within the first 12 months, everyone on the team had clear priorities as to how their position directly related to the overarching goal. New positions that were needed, were created and filled. Other positions were adjusted according to the new strategic plan.

As a result, the team felt more aligned as an office. They also felt more confident about how they connected to the institution’s strategic plan. With a solid plan in place they were able to increase participation on their exchange programs by 20%.