How can you engage stakeholders in driving change and innovation in higher education?

Gene makes a good point - students are often referred to as customers. I dislike this. Customers or consumers assume there is a purchase of tangible outcome, whereas in education, this is not the case. The purchase is of an opportunity but without hard work and application there is no guaranteed outcome. This is not to say students should be treated with modern-day customer-centric technology or strategies, they do. As administrators we need to be congruent with society best practice.

I lead a strategic planning exercise within my institution a few years ago and we spent a good amount of time identifying our stakeholders. We often hear that students are our "customers" but they can also be thought of as the "product" we present to employers and grad schools. So are they the real customers? Well, based on the simple definition of the customer being who pays you, are parents the real customers? Or financial aid entities (e.g., the Federal government and others)? Turns out these can all be potentially useful ways to think about higher ed; they each shed some light. But however we characterize them, students, parents, employers, employees, grad schools, accrediting agencies, alumni, and communities are all stakeholders.

Higher education institutions often have structures that delegate decision making and accountability to a range of divisions/faculties/schools. Driving change in this context requires an understanding of where resistance sits, addressing it and bring the right mix of people into the fold. I acknowledge the points by others around referring to students as customers, but this has some benefits too. We've seen a huge shift in the last 20 years that recognizes student decision making as key to higher education. Students now have more choice, take on more debt, have access to more rankings/benchmarks/external quantitative data, so they are less likely to tolerate systems, processes or staff that don't meet expectations.

It is also important to understand the role they are playing in the learning cycle. A common misunderstanding is to think "students" are the customers. For me, a student is neither a customer nor a consumer. They are simply a part of the conversion process of an individual to a graduate. Understanding the role of each stakeholder type enables organisations to contextualize their voices and give it the right value.

Remain conscious of the information overload that exists. Your stakeholders are probably receiving comms through multiple channels for a whole bunch of important and less important matters. Respect their time. Plan comms in advance and make it meaningful.

Understanding the role of leadership will help with sustaining the change. Identifying a breadth of leaders (not always senior!) and using their influence will help embed the change and shift the culture.