Stop Treating the Plan Like Strategy

What if your institution’s strategic plan is standing in for strategy?

If you’re the one leading strategy work (whether it’s in your title or just your inbox) you’ve probably felt the tension. You’re asked to hit enrollment targets, drive innovation, and lead institutional change. But no one hands you a clear definition of the strategy. Just a plan. With initiatives. And dashboards. And meetings.

Across higher ed, it’s common to treat strategic planning as strategy. But they’re not the same. When institutions confuse them, they move forward without real clarity, and that only becomes visible when conditions change.

Strategy is not about setting goals. It’s about making decisions that define your position, focus your resources, and guide your actions when the environment shifts.

That’s where the breakdown happens. When things get shaky, too many institutions double down on the strategic plan, as if the plan itself is the anchor. But it isn’t. You know this. Strategy should be the anchor. The plan should flex.

Use These 3 Questions to Test Whether Strategy Actually Exists

Here’s how to test whether you’re leading with strategy.

Ask your leadership team these three questions:

1. What position are we trying to hold or strengthen right now?

   Don’t let this turn into a brainstorming session. Push for one clear answer. Strategy begins with focus, not a laundry list of everyone's priorities.

2. What tradeoffs have we made to focus on it?

   If nothing has been deprioritized, nothing is really being prioritized. Strategy always involves saying no, even to good ideas.

3. If the environment changes again, what in our strategy shifts and what stays the same?

   This is the test. If your team can name what would adjust and what would remain, you likely have a strategy. If not, you may just have a plan.

You can use these questions in a retreat, in a 1:1 with senior leadership, or in a hallway conversation when someone says, “These are all important priorities.” Use these questions as tools to help leaders separate direction from action and establish a clear strategy before moving into planning.

Why Strategic Goals Can’t Replace Strategy

Let’s take a familiar example: international enrollment.

You’ve seen the line in the plan:

“Increase international enrollment by 5 percent annually by expanding into new markets.”

Looks like strategy. But it’s really just a forecast. If a visa policy changes or recruitment falls short, the plan breaks and the institution scrambles.

A real strategy would ask:

• What role does international enrollment play in our position?
• What happens if this growth doesn’t come?
• Are we building other paths alongside it?
• How would we adapt if the numbers drop?

You’ve probably sat in rooms where those questions were never asked. Where the assumption was, “Let’s just stick to the plan.”

But without a defined position (an explicit understanding of where your institution is trying to create advantage) plans tend to reflect consensus priorities. You get goals that are broadly appealing, widely adopted across the sector, or just...expected.

They’re not inherently strategic unless they’re anchored to a clear position. Your position. Your strategy.

If you’re the one expected to lead this work, that distinction matters.

How to Structure the Work So Strategy Holds

Planning helps you stay organized. But strategy helps you stay oriented. It tells you what to protect, what to let go of, and what to double down on when things shift.

At The Education Strategist, we don’t define strategy as a mission, a set of goals, or a planning document. We define it as:

What game are you playing, and how will you win?

You’ve probably asked yourself that exact question (quietly, in the middle of a meeting, wondering why the conversation keeps circling back to tactics). That’s because most institutions don’t have a full framework to structure the strategy work itself.

That’s why we organize strategy around six core domains:

• Growth Strategy: Spot opportunities and lead expansion
• Market Intelligence: Track trends and benchmark competitors
• Future-Ready Models: Replace legacy frameworks with more adaptive ones
• Product Strategy: Shape and scale programs that stay relevant
• Revenue Operations: Align functions to improve financial performance
• Experience Strategy: Design across the learningspan™ and strengthen engagement

These six domains give strategy its structure. They help ensure that planning is grounded in direction, that execution is aligned with intent, and that leaders are equipped to adapt.

If You’re the One Leading Strategy, Start Here

If you're the one holding the vision, managing the pushback, and trying to build something that actually works, don’t start with the plan.

Start with the questions.

Define your position.

Make the tradeoffs.

Build the strategy.

Because a well-organized plan may check the boxes, but if it’s not anchored in strategy, it won’t hold.

You don’t just need a plan. You need a strategy that meets the moment - any moment.