You Already Know This

Every campus wants to look innovative.

Your board wants proof you’re staying relevant. Your president wants visible wins that look like progress.

And you?

You want it to stick. You want the next idea to strengthen your position, not scatter it.

Most Campus “Innovation” Is Just Copying

Most “innovation” in higher ed is just copying someone else’s good idea.

But real strategy makes you un-copyable.

Without strategy, you’re just borrowing what worked for someone else and hoping it sticks in your context too.

Strategy defines what makes your position different. So when you do innovate, it’s not just a recycled initiative. It’s yours.

You See Why Copying Keeps Happening

Higher ed fears risk, but it loves the appearance of progress.

When there’s no clear strategy, the easy move is to find something that worked somewhere else and plug it in.

It feels safe, it looks good on a slide, and it quiets the demand for real clarity - for a while.

Peer networks circulate success stories. Funders reward what looks shiny.

But none of that makes the idea right for your institution’s position.

The Real Cost

When there’s no strategy, everything feels equally urgent.

You feel it:

• Teams run pilots because someone else did.
• You spend time defending ideas that don’t actually fit.
• Students see programs appear - then disappear.

You think it’s initiative fatigue.

But it’s the exhaustion that comes from never having a clear strategy to begin with.

Strategy Decides If an Idea Is Actually Innovative

Strategy is the gatekeeper and the launch pad.

It decides whether an idea is truly innovative for you.

An idea isn’t innovative just because it’s new somewhere else.

It’s innovative when it extends your unique position, particularly in a way no one else can easily copy.

Your Real Role

Your job isn’t to chase every new idea.

Your real value is helping your institution decide what fits and what doesn’t.

You shape the big questions:

• What game are we playing?
• How do we win it?
• What moves only make sense for us, not just anyone?

Strategy first. Innovation second.

A Quick Test Before You Say Yes

When you name your strategy first, you create the right innovations - ones no other campus can easily replicate.

So next time someone says, “We should try this,” check it against what makes you unique:

1. Name the position: What unique position does this strengthen?
2. Trace the tradeoff: What won’t we do because we’re doing this?
3. Prove the fit: How does this extend what only we can deliver?

If you can’t answer all three, it’s just borrowed noise.

Connect Every Innovation Back to Strategy

If you read last week’s test, you know:

Strategy starts with three questions:

• What game are we playing?
• How do we win?
• What changes when our environment shifts?

This week’s tool connects the next layer:

Use this short self-check to see if every new idea extends your strategy or distracts from it.

👉 Download the Strategy to Innovation Audit

If your answers don’t line up, that’s not an innovation problem.

That’s a strategy problem. Fix that first.

Next week: If innovation alone isn’t strategy, what is?