As detailed in 5C2, The Culture of Quality provides Northwest an ongoing venue for setting and deploying our foundational statements -- Mission, Vision, Cultural Core Values, Decision Drivers, and KQIs. The five methods listed in 5C2--orientations, external feedback, the Seven-Step Planning Process, Annual Department Visits, and individual Performance Evaluations--describe how the foundational statements are linked to performance, individual development and initiative, and organizational learning.  Specifically, the SSPP is the tool used to create an environment that fosters high expectations, performance improvement, and innovation at the departmental level. All departments have been through at least three full cycles of process improvement using the SSPP. Step 6 of the SSPP focuses on performance improvement mechanisms (i.e. root-cause analysis, brainstorming, etc.)

Consistent with our Culture of Quality, Northwest systematically listens to family members. Our Listening and Learning System is comprehensive, multi-faceted, and longitudinal. Key findings from voicing systems are fed to departments in the ways listed above, for use in varying steps of the SSPP. SPC members also gather key information from the various voices throughout the year and feed this into the annual environmental scan. The SPC serves as a common listening tool for our students and stakeholders. Aspects and descriptions of Northwest’s Listening and Learning System include:

Student Listening and Learning Posts

• Northwest Student Application (gathered at point of application); provides interest in extracurricular activities; used by Admissions Office in communication with student.
• ACT EIS database (compiled after matriculation); provides student demographics and competitor analysis; information used by Enrollment Management and academic departments to assess market trends, market share, student demographics and competitors.
• ACT AIM database (compiled yearly after matriculation – accessed as needed); provides student-level academic, career, and extracurricular data; information used by Enrollment Management to identify student needs and preferences.
• College Board survey (sent to accepted applicants four months before matriculation – administered every other year); yields perceptions of Northwest relative to competitors; information used by Enrollment Management, Student Affairs and University Relations  to identify areas of improvement relative to competitors.
• SOAR and SOAR Survey (orientation); yields competitor information and student expectations; information used by Enrollment Management to produce improvements for recruitment, marketing, and future program offerings.
• Student Senate meetings (weekly); yields information on key issues and concerns; information used by VP/Associate VP for Student Affairs to gauge student perception of campus issues. Student Senate QUIP Days.
• Student media (ongoing); the campus newspaper, yearbook, radio, and television stations provide outlets for commentary on quality of services provided; information used to keep pulse of students.
• Satisfaction determination methods; yields satisfaction levels with programs, services and offerings; information used to understand requirements and expectations and to make competitive comparisons.
• Student committee involvement: Students serve on the Board of Regents, SPC, and University and Faculty Senate committees where they are encouraged to express their opinions.
• Comment Card system (ongoing); yields positive referrals and complaint data; data aggregated by President’s office and used to uncover trends and special cause variance; also used by departments to celebrate accolades and drive improvements.

Alumni Listening and Learning Posts

• Alumni Outcomes Assessment (three years after graduation); provides perceptions about mission effectiveness, student learning and effective teaching, acquisition/discovery/application of knowledge, engagement and service, quality of preparation, quality of instruction, and student referrals; used by academic departments and Alumni Affairs to modify offerings and services.
• Alumni chapter meetings and Alumni magazine (meetings as necessary; magazine quarterly); provides preferences for alumni functions and understanding of preferred relationship outcomes; information used by Alumni Affairs and Northwest Foundation to improve services and drive win-win opportunities.

Faculty/Staff Listening and Learning Posts

• Faculty Senate/Support Staff Council;  yields information on key issues and concerns for faculty/staff; information used by Cabinet members to gauge faculty/staff perception of campus issues, curricular issues and support issues.
• Faculty/Staff Satisfaction Surveys; annual assessments of faculty/staff perceptions regarding the work environment at Northwest.
• Comment Cards; yields positive referrals and complaint data; data aggregated by President’s office and used to uncover trends and special cause variance; also used by departments to celebrate accolades and drive improvements.

Collapse Answer

The Culture of Quality and Northwest’s key cultural elements are the central means by which the President’s Cabinet ensures a sustainable environment. By intentional and adaptive design, the culture provides an atmosphere that encourages people within the Northwest family to continually improve and innovate in order to add value. Northwest employs a multi-faceted approach to ensure that the University system remains sustainable.

The NQSM serves as the primary tool for creating a sustainable organization, as the four phases address performance improvement, accomplishment of strategy, innovation, leadership, and agility. Phases 1 and 2 center the University on the core of our existence; provide an environmental context; allow for an understanding of current and projected student needs as well as the capabilities of faculty, staff, suppliers, and partners; allow us to analyze our historical performance; and thus provide Cabinet and other leaders critical input on determining long-term directions.

NQSM’s Phase 3 (the SSPP) is the tool used to create an environment that fosters high expectations, performance improvement, and innovation at the departmental level. All departments have been through at least three full cycles of process improvement using the SSPP. Specifically, it is Step 6 of the SSPP that focuses on performance improvement mechanisms (i.e., root-cause analysis, brainstorming, etc.)

NQSM’s Phase 4 provides for ongoing University and workforce learning, as Cabinet members and other leaders use a self-assessment strategy rooted in the Baldrige criteria as a means of organizational learning. Annual Baldrige-based feedback along with accreditation feedback reports and other evaluative mechanisms are discussed formally by the Cabinet, the SPC, and the Leadership Forum so all leadership levels know how the institution is performing and where improvements should be made.

To spread organizational and personal learning to all employees, Baldrige-based feedback reports, nationally-normed surveys (e.g., Noel-Levitz and NSSE), internal analyses, benchmarking reports, and performance management review documents (e.g., annual reports and SSPPs) are accessible to all faculty, staff, and students through the Dashboard system and the AQIP accreditation website. The President and Provost also review and interpret performance data with faculty and staff during trimester opening convocations. Cross-functional teams are asked to analyze reports and develop action agendas for consideration by the SPC. The President and assigned Cabinet members review key feedback and performance results with suppliers and partners throughout the year.

The Cabinet proactively provides for individual learning by earmarking resources for faculty and staff professional development activities. Faculty and staff satisfaction with professional development indicates success in this endeavor. Faculty and staff also take advantage of the tuition-deferral program that allows them the opportunity to take college-level courses and earn degrees in any discipline, free of charge. The Cabinet has also dedicated significant time and resources to providing on-campus training opportunities to faculty, staff, and student employees. Training topics are developed based on national trends uncovered in environmental scans, trends in employee input devices (i.e., satisfaction surveys and Comment Cards), and departmental requests. Periodically, employees who develop better practices or innovations are asked to share their knowledge at beginning-of-the-trimester meetings and other internal and external venues.

Northwest’s process for succession planning requires Cabinet members to develop plans for filling anticipated and unanticipated vacancies that might occur in their areas of responsibility. The President reviews each member’s succession plan during annual evaluation sessions. These plans address cross-training, information sharing, professional development, and in-process project review with subordinates, when necessary. The President and Board of Regents annually review anticipated Cabinet vacancies and associated succession plans.

Formal leadership development originates from Cabinet discussions where input is gathered from a variety of sources including industry reports, environmental factors, department requests, and information gathered from Comment Cards. Leadership development occurs during monthly Leadership Forum meetings. Every leader on campus is invited to these meetings where Cabinet members and others offer training on subjects such as ethics, customer service, disaster preparedness, etc.

Collapse Answer

As noted elsewhere in the Systems Portfolio, the university is directed by the Board of Regents and day-to-day operations are delegated to the President. In that structure, information and recommendations flow from the President and his Cabinet to the Board of Regents to augment the decision-making process. Within the University the leadership groups, as defined in 5C1, provide a cross-functional approach to everyday decision-making. Ad hoc teams, task forces, groups, and committees are created as necessary to complete tasks or to advance initiatives. The composition of those groups is always cross-functional in nature, consistent with Northwest’s Culture of Quality and the concepts of shared governance.

The SSPP and University Dashboards are also used to drive decision-making. The SSPP asks departments to link to the foundational documents when planning at the department level. Information housed on the Dashboards informs those discussions as well as tracks performance on relevant measures.

Collapse Answer

Northwest uses several methods of input to inform decision-making processes.

• Seven-Step Planning Process – Described in detail in Category 8. Departments would use the SSPP to plan at the department level and link those plans to University goals. Step 6 specifically outlines methods for departments to “Search for Better Practices” in order to benchmark internal processes against external better practices. SSPPs are updated annually and validated through annual department visits.
• University Dashboard – Described in detail in Category 7. Departmental dashboards display historical and comparative data for student success, satisfaction, financial viability and enrollment. Department dashboards are “rolled-up” to the Deans Council level, the Cabinet-level, and finally to the President’s Dashboard.  The frequency of Dashboard evaluation is:
  

  Leadership Team	Frequency	Dashboard Area Reviewed
  President’s Cabinet	As needed	Dashboards and Profiles
  Deans Council	As needed	Provost’s Dashboard
  University Chairs’ Council	Each trimester	Chairs’ Dashboards/Profiles Provost’s Dashboard/Profiles
  Finance Improvement Team	Monthly	Financial Dashboard/ Profiles
  Information Systems Team	Monthly	Information Systems Dashboard/Profiles
  Student Affairs Team	Monthly	Student Affairs Dashboard/Profiles
  Board of Regents	Annually	Pres. Dashboard/Profiles
  Academic Departments	Monthly	Departmental Dashboard

• Annual Department Visits – Described in detail in 5C1, Senior Leaders organize the annual department visits which allow information to flow horizontally and vertically.  The SSPP and Dashboard measures are the primary focus of these visits.
• Comment Card Systems - Allows all stakeholders timely and easy, two-way communication directly with the President. Comment Cards are continually tracked by the President’s Office, and a quarterly trend report is produced for Cabinet.
• External Feedback – Information gathered through accreditation reports and annual Baldrige-based feedback reports are analyzed and made available to the campus community via the Northwest Dashboard.

Collapse Answer

The cross-representation of the leadership teams as described in 5C1, and Northwest’s concept of shared governance as described in the Organizational Overview, provide for direct and indirect two-way communication between teams. Communication between teams/groups occurs via written or oral reports. These reports could be standard agenda items or could be done by the request of the group.  Communication among members of teams occurs via agenda and minutes. This is accomplished primarily by electronic communication mechanisms such as email; eCompanion as a work-related, cross-group data dissemination tool; and the myNorthwest portal (a retired AQIP Action Project), which allows for the sharing of appropriate information to groups or individuals across the entire campus.

Downward Communication Methods:

• Opening Faculty Meeting – Allows the President to address the faculty to discuss university initiatives and environmental factors.
• Leadership Hierarchy – Information flows from the President, to the Vice Presidents, to Chairs/Directors

Upward Communication Methods:

• Comment Card System - allows all stakeholders timely and easy, communication directly with the President. The President reads and responds to each card and, when necessary, forwards the card to the appropriate department for action. The system is a communication, assessment, and reward/recognition vehicle (President expresses gratitude to those being complimented). Letters, emails, and phone calls may also be documented through the Comment Card process. Comment Cards are sent directly to the President’s office where they are recorded, answered within 48 hours, and then forwarded to the appropriate Cabinet member for investigation and further response. Telephone calls, email, and/or letters are the means used to respond to complaints. On-campus service partners receive feedback through the Comment Card system as well, and in certain cases partners seek out additional information from targeted market segments. After a complaint has been addressed at the Cabinet and/or departmental level, the Cabinet member provides the response and a description of action taken to the President’s staff. The President’s staff analyzes Comment Card data in the aggregate and reports important trends to the Cabinet, which in turn determines if additional corrective actions are required.

Two-way Communication Methods:

• Annual Department Visits – Provide departments and senior leaders an opportunity to discuss planning and performance at the department level as well as how University initiative and environmental factors impact the department.

Collapse Answer

See 5C3.

Collapse Answer

Leadership abilities at Northwest are formally encouraged through Leadership Forum Meetings, the Promotion and Tenure process, release time for faculty in leadership positions (e.g., Faculty Senate President), and professional development opportunities. Specific trainings can be offered to address timely topics. Those trainings are organized at the Cabinet-level and provided though Leadership Forum meeting or as individual training meetings.

Northwest uses four primary mechanisms to evaluate the effectiveness of its workforce development systems: annual faculty, staff and student employee surveys; targeted surveys; formal research projects focused on workforce development activities conducted by students with faculty supervision; and post-training follow-up evaluations. Depending upon the goal of the training and the complexity of the information presented, these evaluations include participation levels, participant satisfaction, knowledge gained, actual application in the work environment, and impact on customers.

Collapse Answer

We choose to not respond to this question at this time.

Collapse Answer

Collapse Answer