Creating impactful collaboration

From Fragmented to Unified: The art of collaboration in universities.

I spend a great deal of time talking to people who work at universities, and I feel very lucky to do that. Pretty much everyone I engage with shares a total commitment to Higher Education and its ability to transform lives and create amazing opportunities. And, through the range of work we do at SMRS and the different projects we deliver, we get to connect with a very diverse group of stakeholders within a partner university. Through those interactions, it's clear that although there are common objectives across different teams, sometimes internally that shared purpose can get lost, and competition and confusion occurs. 

I understand why that happens, but the current situation within Higher Education demands that the historic silos within our universities are quickly broken down. We’re at a moment when those working at universities, whatever their mission or tariff group, need to collaborate more than ever before to meet the challenges they face.  

In the last 12 months we’ve been asked by several universities to help them think differently about how they collaborate. For institutions to develop the right products, to deliver successful marketing and communications and to engage effectively with future and current students, they need to improve the ways they work together. When we are asked to help optimise performance at a university, we focus on creating a joined-up, institutionally aligned plan. A plan that brings teams together behind a coherent strategy. We help stakeholders structure the process, and support them through sharing insights, helping them build collective ownership. And we deliver targeted areas of work that will strengthen performance, related to specific challenges like portfolio, market opportunities or conversion.  

In the work we deliver for universities, whether that’s relating to culture, brand or communications, the collaboration that we help create is diverse. It happens between academics and professional services, between schools, faculties and central marketing, between SLTs, strategic planners and marcomms teams. It’s fascinating to be involved and to help these groups develop a greater shared understanding and to work with them to create effective strategies. As despite all these people sharing that commitment to HE that I mentioned at the start, they may have also been a bit sceptical over time of the role that their colleagues play in bringing success.  

There’s now an acknowledgement in HE that it’s no longer acceptable to make important decisions in isolation, whether that’s portfolio strategy or identifying the right target markets and opportunities. Gut feel and anecdote won’t deliver the best customer experience. Despite the difficult circumstances, there is still a huge interest in studying at our great universities and there’s also an urgent need for a collective focus on doing things better and making improvements where needed.