We say this phrase all the time in higher education, usually with a lot of confidence — and very little agreement on what it actually means.

If you ask ten people what it means, you’ll hear things like assessment, accreditation, dashboards, reporting, or maybe an office somewhere on campus. And all of this is at least part of the story.

Here’s how I think about Institutional Effectiveness— and the one this podcast is built around:

Institutional effectiveness is the operating system that connects planning, budgeting, data, and decision-making — so leaders can anticipate challenges, allocate resources intentionally, and avoid governing by emergency.

Let me unpack that.