Profile of a Master Planner: Genghis Khan
Once upon a time, in the 12th century, the steppes of Asia were like the Wild West, but worse. Survival was hard and the fight for resources meant the nomadic tribes of the area could not get along. Constant theft and violence produced non-stop feuding between the tribes. Hard times meant hard measures and everyone was always reacting to the last injustice they suffered. Maybe you would win a battle, but the next week someone would retaliate in revenge.
In a terrible time, in this war-torn place, a boy was born. His father was poisoned by an enemy tribe, and, for a time, the boy was enslaved. He never learned to read or write. He did not have access to education or resources. But he proved to be a great military strategist. This boy grew up to conquer more territory in 25 years than the Romans did in 400 years. He built an empire that spanned over 12 million contiguous miles. He accomplished all of this with an army that never grew larger than 100,000 men. This boy grew into a man that stepped outside of a vicious cycle. He did not merely react to the latest affront; he thought about what he wanted, and he made plans. One illiterate man impacted the lives of the people who lived on the steppes of Asia and forever changed history.
To effectively impact students’ lives, higher education institutions too, need to make plans.
You might have already guessed, but the boy in our story grew up to be Genghis Khan, one of history’s most famous conquerors. One of the first steps he took in implementing his plans was to create a new culture. To effectively unite the various tribes, he had to eradicate the kinship structure that kept the nomadic tribes caught in a cycle of feuding. He established a meritocracy where skills and loyalty were rewarded, and bloodlines and politics were ignored. He abolished wife-napping and harshly punished lawbreakers to prevent the spiral of vendettas that had plagued the area. He also discarded the names of the various tribes. They would now all be united as People of the Felt Walls. By 1206, the Mongol nomads of the steppe were one. You might not need to unite warring tribes, but firmly establishing a meritocracy where skills and loyalty are valued isn’t a bad way to start. Institutions should work to build a culture where creativity, innovation, hard work, and competency are valued. If faculty and staff feel appreciated, united, and that their talents are being used wisely, navigating challenges and overcoming obstacles becomes easier.
Genghis Khan focused on making a difference for his people and believed that he could be the one to accomplish this through a focused mission. Similarly, many institutions start out because they have a philosophy that meets the needs of an unserved or underserved student population. This is their mission, and it drives the development of an institution’s academic programs. To achieve his mission, Genghis Khan needed to use his people’s existing strengths to his advantage, which is what he did. The Mongols were expert horsemen and he leveraged these talents into battle-winning campaigns. For institutions, this is reflected in the academic programs offered. What are your institution’s strengths and how can you use them to enhance and improve your efforts in achieving your mission? This is what should be thoughtfully outlined through an effective outcomes assessment plan.
An institution’s outcomes assessment plan focuses on monitoring and measuring the effectiveness of the “product” offered. For institutions, the “product” are its educational offerings. The outcomes assessment plan guides a granular review of the extent to which the institution is achieving their mission through the achievements of the students served. Outcomes assessment planning allows institutions to define and measure the benefits of their academic programs using existing strengths while setting them apart from other institutions that offer similar programs.
The next step in Genghis Khan’s plan was to maximize limited resources. The Mongols fought much in the way modern armies do. They descended upon their enemies like a “swarm of bees” with separate groups all attacking independently from multiple angles. When you look at how the Mongol army waged war, you would think that Genghis Khan had the advantage of seeing into the future, yet modern generals learned it from him. One of his most used plans in battle became faking a retreat, allowing him to masterfully deploy his smaller army, getting more “bang for his buck”. When the enemy was sure they had won, they would give chase, breaking their formation and charging right into a waiting ambush, where Mongol archers would rain arrows down upon their cornered prey.
Obviously, we do not condone shooting arrows at your students, but there is still something important to be gleaned from this example. Most institutions would likely agree that comprehensively resources are limited. The only way to understand whether we are efficiently achieving the stated mission with the resources we have is to evaluate past and current practices through institutional effectiveness planning, which requires the identification of meaningful quantitative and qualitative measures. Institutional effectiveness intentionally builds links between planning for the future and monitoring implemented practices in achievement of institutional goals. Loosely defined, institutional effectiveness planning allows us to know whether implemented processes and procedures are getting the job done at the anticipated level of expectations.
Genghis Khan was a fatherless, illiterate nobody, but became one of the most powerful men to ever live. He did not blindly react to problems. He thought about what he wanted. He made plans. That’s what we need: plans. It is easy to get caught up in the day-to-day operations of delivering quality academic programs to students and push aside documentation and planning. We tend to be reactive, like the tribes of the steppes. To be successful, though, it is not enough to just wait for regulations to impose new restrictions or for revised accreditation standards to dictate when changes are needed. To be successful, we need effective planning.
