University’s one-page strategic plan launches La Sierra forward

Priorities spotlight

Due to increased societal, political, technological and economic fluctuations affecting the higher education landscape in recent years, long-ranging plans of 10 years or more have become difficult to implement, Arthur noted.

“So the three-year strategic plan came into vogue,” he said. “You wind up with a situation where, whether it’s three or five years, you get a percentage of the things done that you want accomplished.”

The approval of the strategic plan set in motion activities designed to track implementation of the three-year key initiatives, beginning with first year goals broken down by quarter. Arthur and Blades organized weekly 30-minute check-in meetings called Priority Pulse, which are open to the campus, during which reports are given on progress made toward defined goals in five key areas––partnerships with churches and schools toward bolstering student enrollment; development and implementation of co-curricular plans to drive student engagement and track retention; definition and implementation of flexible online learning; student mentorship by alumni and campus members; identification and resolution of ‘chokepoints’ related to student onboarding and other customer service-oriented activities.

Each of the five areas involves the work of cross-disciplinary groups whose efforts are guided each quarter by a team leader.

The five priority areas and their subcategories were devised through the Scaling Up method. “All priorities are expected to help us make rapid progress toward achieving and executing on our goals,” Blades said. “They are sometimes a stretch, and we may not hit every goal every time, but we are holding ourselves accountable collectively to the outcomes.”

“If there are no aspirational goals, your plan is not robust enough. If there are no stretch goals, your plan is too easy,” Arthur noted. The enrollment target of 500 new freshmen is an example of a stretch goal, he said, one that is reachable if the institution works hard and extends itself, while a goal of becoming the No. 1-ranked university might serve as an aspirational goal.

University trustee Meredith Jobe who voted to approve the one-page plan cited the importance of key performance indicators. “When I term off the board for the second time in June, I’ll have completed a total of 28 years on the La Sierra board,” he said. “During that time, I’ve seen a number of strategic plans with bold goals.  What I appreciate about this plan is that it has measurable KPIs by which the board will be able to measure campus progress toward those goals in the same way faculty measure student progress toward learning goals. The KPIs transform a set of ambitious goals into goals with a pathway toward achieving those goals.”

"…the quarterly priorities are almost like showing up to practice and showing up to the games.” – David Blades, Strategic Planning Advisor

During the board meeting in November that saw the plan’s approval, one trustee likened the one-page strategy summary to something from a football quarterback’s playbook. 

“It was a good example that the board member came up with,” Blades said. “It only takes you so far, right? If the team doesn't show up to practice, then good luck with the playbook working. Or if the team doesn't show up for the game, they're not going to have any wins.”

At Jenson, Blades and the company’s chief executive worked with a consultant, a former Proctor & Gamble executive over several years developing and implementing the Scaling Up method, with first steps involving the nurturance of a thriving company culture. The approach ultimately brought substantive revenue growth to the company. 

Blades noted that Scaling Up draws from the principles put forth in the book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by noted educator, businessman and author Stephen Covey.

“You have key initiatives, you have annual priorities that flow from those broader, long term key initiatives, and then ultimately you have quarterly priorities that help to get the actual work done,” Blades said explaining the process. “You know that the quarterly priorities are almost like showing up to practice and showing up to the games.”

He likened the university’s Priority Pulse meetings to pages from the university’s playbook toward driving accountability, with cross-collaborations key to resolving bottlenecks. 

“The principle is, it's a one-page plan that they've developed, and you fill in your playbook, and then from that you need to build rhythm around getting the things done that are in your plan. That's the showing up for practice – and game day,” Blades said.

The language of business

It was 8 p.m. on a Thursday in November 2024. Arthur and his wife, Carmelita sat at a sushi restaurant in Corona, engaging in a late dinner and conversation with Blades. Arthur asked for the meeting to convince Blades that his skillset in marketing and strategy was needed at La Sierra University to help turn the institution around and increase enrollment. Arthur was looking for a vice president of marketing at the time.

Blades described to Arthur how he helped Jenson USA move from stagnation to consistent double-digit growth through the Scaling Up method.

Blades has served 15 years at Jenson and previously functioned as its vice president of finance. He graduated from La Sierra’s business school in 2003 with an MBA and has held prior corporate sales positions at Fortune 100 companies, Northwestern and FedEx. He connected with Arthur through the recommendation of La Sierra University Chief Financial Officer Steven Hemenway, also an MBA alumnus of the business school.

“I didn’t hold anything back, I was brutally honest with David,” Arthur said of that first meeting. After their conversation, Blades asked for a second meeting. After looking into marketing issues at the university, Blades proposed his expertise would be best used as a strategic planning advisor. 

Work began early in 2025 on a university strategic planning process. Blades and Arthur collaborated closely, often on Zoom calls on nights and weekends, building a strategy that would eventually incorporate insights and ideas from employees in campus strategy sessions. “He [David] brings the corporate business side to the university, and I think we are enriched and better because of it,” Arthur said.

“He brings the corporate business side to the university, and I think we are enriched and better because of it.” -- Dr. Christon Arthur, President  

During this time, Arthur was completing an MBA from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. His graduation from the program in June 2025 represented the latest of several graduate degrees that include an Ed.S. and a Ph.D. from Andrews University and certificated post-graduate studies at Harvard University’s Institute for Management and Leadership in Education. He put his newly acquired business training to use in his conversations with Blades.

“Probably one of the best decisions I made later in my career was to start this MBA at UNC Chapel Hill,” Arthur said. “I walked into that [first] meeting with David at that sushi place at 8 o’clock at night, and I spoke like a businessperson, taking everything I’d learned from UNC Chapel Hill. I used the vocabulary, I used the examples, and I’m sure he was surprised that a person who as an academic would have a conversation as though he was talking to a business partner. I went in there talking about ‘what we need for La Sierra is a differentiated competitive advantage.’”

Arthur handed over design and strategic planning process coordination to Blades. It was an unusual move for an administrator, but reflects Arthur’s personal philosophy that “leadership is not standing in the limelight on the stage. Leadership is building the stage, getting everybody else on the stage, and you’re in the shadows. That’s leadership. For me that’s not a hard thing to do.” 

“This strategic plan did not follow the typical academic approach,” Arthur said. “There’s only one page. There’s no narrative, there’s no preamble about who we are and the programs we offer. With this kind of approach, we assume you have those good qualities, or you shouldn’t be in operation. Academics is not the crown, it’s the foundation.  

“It’s the best [strategic plan] we’ve ever had.” – Christon Arthur

“Assume you could attract great students because you’re a good university with good programs. That’s not the end, that’s the foundation. [And] that flips it. How do you differentiate that to make it a competitive advantage and bring more persons in?” Arthur said.

When Blades first spoke with Arthur about creating a university strategic plan on one page, Arthur responded that such an approach would not work for a higher education institution, citing the traditional inclusion of a detailed, multi-page institutional narrative. A few months into the La Sierra’s strategic planning process, Arthur became convinced of the value of winnowing a plan into a one-page format that highlights the most important, directional elements. 

“Fine-tuning a strategy into a document and contextual story that can be summarized in 90 seconds disciplines the process to focus on the essential elements, he said.

“It’s the best [strategic plan] we’ve ever had.”