Now Offering: Plan Forward Workshops - Building Adaptive Capacity Into Your Strategic Plan

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Now Offering: Plan Forward Workshops - Building Adaptive Capacity Into Your Strategic Plan 📌

Strategic Planning & Facilitation for Higher Education

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Higher education leaders face complex challenges that require sophisticated solutions. While most consultants offer generic approaches, the unique context of higher education, including shared governance, a mission-driven culture, and student-centered values, demands specialized expertise.

At Liggins Abrams Consulting, we bring Fortune 500 strategic sophistication to mission-driven organizations. We understand that most strategic plans assume one future, but successful institutions build adaptive capacity for multiple possible futures. Our approach combines proven business strategy methods with deep higher education expertise, creating solutions that honor both institutional complexity and practical implementation needs.

The result? Strategic plans that actually adapt, teams that execute with clarity, and leaders who navigate change with confidence, all while protecting what matters most: student success and institutional mission.

“Monica took the lead in synthesizing nearly a year’s worth of higher education seminars and workshops across a cohort of institutions to develop a ‘playbook’... It exceeded our expectations and is in use across the state [Kentucky] as we speak. She is professional, thorough, and exceptionally competent.”
— Associate Vice President, The Gardner Institute

Common Challenges We Help Address

    • College strategic plans lack adaptive capacity for multiple possible futures

    • Campus planning doesn't include scenario analysis or pre-built decision frameworks

    • Limited stakeholder input in strategic planning processes

    • Campus teams lack a shared language around student success, equity, and institutional values

    • College strategic priorities aren’t clearly reflected in day-to-day behaviors or decisions

    • Campus departments are siloed, with unclear norms for collaboration or communication

    • College staff have access to data but lack confidence or training in how to interpret or apply it

    • Institutional data use feels disconnected from real decisions or continuous improvement

    • Campus conversations about student success lack grounding in evidence and outcomes

    • College leaders and directors have limited support in navigating communication, supervision, or conflict

    • Cross-functional collaboration on campus is inconsistent or depends on personality over process

    • College staff development is informal or ad hoc, making it hard to build shared expectations

building blocks stacked as an upward graph with a person adding the last piece to the top

The Difference: Strategic Methods that Fit Higher Education

The key is turning strategic insights into sustainable action. We help higher education leaders move beyond planning to implementation that sticks, with systems designed for your institutional culture and focused on student success for all students.

What We Offer

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    Strategic Planning

    We enhance your existing campus strategic planning with adaptive capacity building, helping you navigate multiple possible futures while protecting student success and institutional mission.

    Plan Forward Workshop Series

    Our signature 3-part workshop series (Ground • Anticipate • Align & Act) that builds adaptive capacity through scenario analysis, stress-testing your strategy across multiple plausible futures, while protecting your mission and student success.

    Explore Workshop Details and 2025 pricing.

  • Team members of various races and gender building a tour with their fist

    Meeting & Retreat Facilitation

    Interactive, engaging facilitation for campus leadership teams, cross-functional groups, and strategic sessions - not your typical retreat. We create focused environments where teams gain clarity, build alignment, and develop actionable next steps for complex institutional challenges.

  • People circling around a facilitator in a meeting

    Professional Development Workshops

    Interactive, higher education-specific sessions that help teams build shared culture, improve cross-departmental communication, and connect daily work to institutional priorities. Focus areas include student success culture, data literacy, and collaborative decision-making.

    Coming Soon: Core3 Workshop Series for comprehensive capacity building

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    Leadership Coaching

    Ongoing thought partnership for vice presidents, directors, department chairs, and senior leaders navigating strategic decisions, organizational change, and leadership challenges. We provide clarity, accountability, and strategic perspective for complex leadership situations.

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    Assessment & Implementation Support

    Comprehensive evaluation of current systems, processes, and college capacity to understand where your teams are, plus ongoing support that provides extra capacity to help leaders move strategic ideas forward. We help you identify gaps, eliminate duplication, and create momentum.

“The combination of experience in change management, technology, advising, and student success in higher education brings the knowledge needed to manage important aspects of a key grant for the college.”

— Vice Chancellor of Student Services, Oakland Community College

Let’s Talk

We’ve supported multi-campus institutions, cross-functional leadership teams, and student success initiatives that span the academic and student affairs divide.

Let us help you turn your organizational complexity into clarity.