Strategic Impact Groups

Each cohort of Carleton Leader “Developing Our Leadership Practice” and “Strategic Leadership across the University” are given the opportunity to focus on a ‘wicked’ or complex issue facing the University through Strategic Impact Groups (SIGs). These groups encourage cross-university dialogue and ultimately aim to improve a key aspect of the institution.

These projects will focus on the strategic goals of the university in an effort to assist the formal channels of our organization. Each group will be able to select a topic of their choice. The SIGs primarily are an opportunity to explore lessons around leadership, whilst also providing a tangible contribution to an aspect of Carleton’s challenges through ideas, recommendations and/or specific actions.

These will be presented at the end of each cohort experience through a ‘Landing’ event which is open to the entire Carleton Leader community.

For more information on their projects please view the abstracts:

Tuesday, May 9, 2023

Wellness at Carleton University (May 2023)

Dr. Gabor Maté, in his book, The Myth of Normal, hypothesizes that we are all living with trauma responses. In this case, trauma is defined as an expansive response to maladaptive experiences. If this is true, then we are all, fundamentally, unwell. Our University's Strategic Integrated Plan has a stated imperative to “Strive for... More

Tuesday, May 9, 2023

Carleton’s Psyche and DNA: Mechanisms for Altering Our Current Culture (May 2023)

The 1990s loom large in Carleton University’s psyche and DNA. How the fiscal crisis was overcome, both in process and through a small number of individuals, remains a cautionary tale to all: “Expect the worse, but hope for the best.” Our SIG understands the importance of this careful approach, especially in light of current... More

Wednesday, August 19, 2020

Carleton Grads: More than their Degree (June 2020)

Despite learning valuable skills during their postsecondary education, university graduates are not always able to clearly articulate and market those skills for job opportunities. This can be a particular problem for students in the social sciences and humanities, and there is an increasing awareness about the need to address these gaps in the... More

Wednesday, August 19, 2020

Getting the First Year Right (June 2020)

The transition from high school to university can be difficult for many students. Our strategic impact group explored the wicked problem of graduation rates by looking at newly admitted students to determine how they could “Get the First Year Right”. With support from OIRP and various stakeholders across campus, we looked to determine those... More

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Silos: Not Such A Bad Thing (October 2019)

The challenges facing higher education are too complicated, the speed of change too fast, and the path forward too uncertain for a single leader or leadership team to have all the answers. The way forward in higher education demands that we harness the collective capacity, intelligence, and resources of our full organization. Unfortunately,... More

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

“One conversation at a time”: Championing Sustainability Through Peer-to-Peer Communications (October 2019)

Our Strategic Impact Group (SIG) came together to address a pressing “wicked problem” that extends well beyond Carleton: climate change and sustainability. This topic feels particularly urgent at Carleton, not only in the global context of UN reports on the climate crisis and the collapse of biodiversity, but also given the local disruptions... More

Monday, May 6, 2019

Research Productivity: Supports & Incentives (May 2019)

Our Carleton Leader Strategic Impact Group focused on the wicked problem of how to create an environment at Carleton that maximizes the research engagement and productivity of faculty members. Given the importance of research in determining university funding under the next Strategic Mandate Agreement with the province, it is important to consider... More

Monday, May 6, 2019

Inspiring Excellence Across Campus (May 2019)

The diverse workforce of our University faces unique systemic and bureaucratic barriers to their daily productivity. Our SIG focuses on ‘Inspiring Excellence across Campus’ by enhancing productivity and achieving performance excellence. We study productivity through the lens of Engagement, Incentives, training and development. With a working... More

Monday, May 6, 2019

Carleton as a First Choice University (May 2019)

Is Carleton University the best kept secret? Our Strategic Impact Group investigated our university’s reputation, stories, relevance, and the common themes that make us unique. The focus of our SIG is opportune given that the university recently launched a study of how Carleton University is perceived by its internal and external communities.... More

Monday, May 6, 2019

Reputation…We Started From the Bottom, Now We’re Here (May 2019)

We come to this project as Carleton community members who believe that the unique characteristics of Carleton University are not being communicated in a way that leads potential students, faculty and staff to understand what makes this a great place to study and work. Our primary research question was: How can we define and... More

Monday, May 6, 2019

Lost in Good Standing (May 2019)

Our Strategic Impact Group chose to focus on one piece of the graduation rates puzzle. After reviewing the Pathways to Graduation report (January 2018) and seeking out information from OIRP and the Academic Advising Centre, we narrowed the scope of our study to students whose marks for completed courses would normally put them in... More

Friday, October 5, 2018

Bueller… Bueller… Bueller? Student Attendance & Engagement (Oct 2018)

  Our Strategic Impact Group tackled the wicked problem of student attendance as a measure of engagement and likelihood to graduate. Initially, our group quickly identified class attendance and how to measure class attendance as the focus of our project. Our goal was to devise a way to easily identify students with poor attendance... More

Friday, October 5, 2018

Mapping Connectivity: Building resilience by increasing points of engagement (Oct 2018)

We observe that engagement between senior management and faculty/staff can be strengthened at Carleton. Over the past few years, Carleton has experienced a number of critical challenges, both internal and external such as the recent strike mandates, which heighten the need for better collaboration and stronger trust relationships between members... More

Friday, September 28, 2018

Wicked Emails (Oct 2018)

Our Strategic Impact Group explored the “wicked problem” of “wicked emails.”  While email is a valuable communication tool within our Carleton community, and between Carleton and our many partners, it raises questions and challenges related to overload, miscommunication, inefficiency, hierarchy and relationships between faculty, staff and... More

Friday, September 28, 2018

Promoting and Enriching the Student Experience – Going one or two or three extra steps (Oct 2018)

Ensuring students have as rich and engaged an experience as possible while here at Carleton is essential as this has a tremendous impact on retention and graduation rates, academic success, personal student success, and career readiness, among many other areas. We started by exploring the literature that exists around the student experience, and... More

Friday, September 28, 2018

Destination Carleton: Applying as an International Graduate Student (Oct 2018)

This SIG is interested in the processes and supports Carleton provides for international graduate students and the experiences of these students before they begin their studies. We identified promising practices and opportunities to improve the international graduate student admission experience by considering the admission process from the... More

Thursday, September 27, 2018

The Research Development Centre (Oct 2018)

The Research Development Centre (RDC): Advancing Carleton’s Reputation as a Research-Intensive University Research is a critical component of the mission of Canadian comprehensive universities. Despite Carleton’s excellent reputation as a teaching university, it has never achieved a similar reputation in research.  As the new Strategic... More

Thursday, September 27, 2018

Space at Carleton… Are we roomier than we think? (Oct 2018)

Our Strategic Impact Group focused on space and the widely held view that space is at a premium in the existing buildings on campus. We investigated the use of space in study areas and offices (leaving aside classrooms) and determined that space is not always used optimally. Graduate study and work areas may go... More

Thursday, October 5, 2017

“If we build it, will they come? Building an environment to foster staff and faculty connections (Oct 2017)

If we build it, will they come? Our SIG dives into the wicked problem of faculty and staff collaboration and communication, a topic explored by at least five other SIGs before us, highlighting its importance. After trying to address the problem as a whole, it became apparent that this wicked problem cannot be solved... More

Thursday, October 5, 2017

Graduation of Suspended Students (Oct 2017)

The Enriched Support Program (ESP) is a proven “pathway” to university for many students who do not meet Carleton’s regular admission requirements. We propose that any Suspended BA student with fewer than 9.0 university credits completed towards his or her degree be given the opportunity to apply to ESP during his or her year... More

Thursday, October 5, 2017

Enhancing the Onboarding Experience for New Carleton Employees (Oct 2017)

Building and strengthening community at Carleton begins the very first day new employees arrive on campus. Whether a new faculty member, regular staff member, or a casual employee, how new employees are brought on board – how they are (or are not) welcomed into the Carleton family in the first hours, days, and weeks... More

Monday, May 8, 2017

Enhancing the International Undergraduate Student Experience (May 2017)

As increasing numbers of highly qualified international students are choosing Carleton as their home for undergraduate degree studies, it’s becoming ever more important to understand their expectations, wants, and needs. This diverse student population faces unique challenges in transitioning to and through their studies. The ‘Hello Goodbye’... More

Monday, May 8, 2017

CU@Graduation (May 2017)

Efficient progress through degree programs is beneficial for both students and the University.  Ignoring the potential positive spin-off effects on reputation and recruitment, from a purely financial perspective, higher graduation rates are economically advantageous for the University. The government is moving away from increasing university... More

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Student Engagement (May 2017)

Our SIG group consists of six members. We chose to focus on the ‘wicked problem’ of student engagement, and defined our strategy following consultation with a variety of stakeholders at the university. We posit that maximizing student engagement will promote better retention and will provide students with more meaningful learning experiences.... More

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Food4Thought (May 2017)

Our inspiration began with food.  As our Strategic Impact Group (SIG) explored further, we recognized that we were seeking a unifying experience to break down silos and bring about conversations, connections and community. To this end, our SIG aims to create a meaningful way to bring faculty and professional services staff together in an... More

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

There’s an app for that! Directing students to Carleton’s support services (May 2017)

One of the key issues in student retention and helping to build Carleton University’s reputation as a leader in post-secondary education is to ensure a comprehensive array of student support services exists. We already have these services in abundance – Health Services, Academic Advising, Writing and Learning Support Services, the Library,... More

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Alternative Course Delivery for Non-Traditional Students (October 2016)

One of the biggest challenges currently facing Carleton University is how to maintain sustainability in the face of a decline in the number of domestic students who attend university full-time immediately following high school graduation. While the University is already responding to this challenge by committing considerable resources to... More

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Collaborative Space (October 2016)

Collaboration as a cornerstone for Carleton's prosperity is well defined. The value we all place on collaboration and an interdisciplinary approach are unique characteristics that we should celebrate. The physical realization of this on campus has been the development of a number of innovative educational environments to improve community student... More

Friday, May 6, 2016

Mentoring & Coaching – Learning from Professional Staff & Faculty (PSF) who have recently taken on a significant leadership role (May 2016)

Post-secondary education institutions are situated in extremely complex and dynamic contexts and are routinely faced with responding to and shaping change.  For example, sustained departures and renewal of PSF over the past few decades are likely to continue for sometime. The streaming of PSF into leadership roles at relatively earlier stages of... More

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Community Engagement (May 2016)

Carleton was founded in 1942 with a mandate for community service. Today, “community” remains at the heart of our academic programming, student experience, research endeavours and overall institutional identity. Or does it? Our Strategic Impact Group takes as its starting point the Strategic Integrated Plan’s mission statement that Carleton... More

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Empowering Early Conflict Resolution (May 2016)

This Strategic Impact Group initially focused on the wicked problem “In our diverse community, what can we do to stimulate and enrich engagement in our workplace”. Recognizing that this was a very broad topic to research, the 2015 Employee Engagement Survey Results were leveraged to narrow the scope to “Empower Early Conflict... More

Friday, April 22, 2016

How ‘Knowing’ leads to Collaboration (May 2016)

Collaboration at Carleton University is an institutional priority and an ongoing endeavour. We recognized that a catalyst for efficient and effective collaboration is knowing: knowing which departments and services are on campus; knowing who people are and their expertise; and knowing what is going on, when and where. By mapping our own... More

Friday, April 22, 2016

Institutional Reputation (May 2016)

Institutional reputation affects the ability of universities to attract and retain new students, the best faculty and staff members. It fosters the best domestic and international collaborators and industry partners as well as new research funds and donors. In short it underlies all aspects of a university's mission.  Indeed, our work is guided... More

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

#MySpaceMyCampus (Oct 2015)

Our team is interested in promoting and building an inviting workspace: #MySpaceMyCampus will serve as an umbrella concept for promoting art and visual interest on the Carleton campus. We are taking a broad approach to art by focusing on both designated pieces of art on the Carleton campus (e.g., mural in Tory building, art... More

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Helping Students Get Career Ready (Oct 2015)

When it comes to employability, the BA has come under a lot of undeserved criticism. Our BA students gain extraordinary knowledge and skills. The challenge may be that students don’t know how to best market their degrees. Why a BA? And how do we help our talented BA students translate their degrees into careers?... More

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