Higher education is currently under pressure to add. Another program. Another initiative. Another goal in the strategic plan.
It makes sense. Our professional culture rewards it. Comprehensive looking (long) plans feel rigorous. A division with seven core values and nine strategic foci with seven initiatives each feels serious, rigorous, even impressive.
But here is the honest question underneath all of that: when it comes to making a genuinely tough decision about staff, resources, or priorities, what actually guides you? What do you reach for when everything feels equally important?
When everything is a priority, nothing is a priority.
I sat in on a vice president for student affairs search process where the president asked each finalist the same closing question: “How do you get student affairs folks to stop doing things?”
These were brilliant, accomplished leaders. People who had just spoken so articulately about navigating mental health crises, complex data systems, and institutional politics. And they struggled with that question. Not because they lacked intelligence, but because stopping things isn’t something our culture teaches or rewards.
So we add more. And then we wonder why our teams feel stretched.
From More With Less to Less With Less
I’ve worked with campuses that were asked to “do more with less” after rounds of budget cuts. Offices that once had four staff members were down to one and a half, still expected to deliver at full capacity and more. That mantra, as well-intentioned as it may be, lands as inconsiderate and inhumane.
When one campus leadership team shifted their language to “less with less,” something notable happened. Staff felt seen. They felt like the real constraints were finally being acknowledged rather than papered over. That shift created space to actually set priorities rather than pretend the cuts weren’t happening.
Less with less is a step in the right direction. It is honest. But it is not the destination.
The Real Goal: Do Less, So You Can Be More
The question I keep coming back to, and the one I bring into every conversation with senior leaders, is this: Where can you do less so you can be more for students?
This isn’t a productivity hack. It is a fundamental shift in how a division or institution orients itself. When a team is genuinely clear on its priorities, not just individually but collectively, and when those priorities are aligned with resources, staff time, and actual practice, something useful happens. The work becomes easier for the people doing it and more powerful for the students experiencing it.
That clarity is not easy to reach. It requires being willing to let go of things that feel valuable. It requires saying no to good ideas so you can say yes to the right ones. It requires being countercultural in an environment that celebrates addition.
A curricular approach is one practical tool for getting there. It creates shared educational aims, connects goals to outcomes, and aligns what divisions actually do with what they say they want to accomplish. But even for leaders who are not working within a formal curricular approach, the underlying question still applies: what would it look like to do less, with more clarity and intention, so your team and your students can experience something better?
If that question resonates with where you are right now, let’s connect.
