Ivy Tech Community College
The shift: Build execution capability by treating retention like a discipline, not an initiative
Execution challenge
Ivy Tech was large and complex:
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19 campuses statewide
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~6,000 employees
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Enrollment pressure common to community colleges nationwide
Early attempts at execution failed — not from resistance, but from partial adoption.
Leadership eventually recognized: execution requires full commitment.
Organizational lag measure (WIG / outcome)
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Increase fall-to-spring and fall-to-fall retention
Retention was reframed as half of enrollment — not a secondary metric.
System-level decomposition (lag → lead)
Campus-level lag measures
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Term-to-term retention by campus
Lead measures
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Faculty and staff engagement behaviors
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Regular data review during the term (not end-of-term)
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Coaching support to sustain focus and discipline
A key inflection point came when leaders embraced coaching — not as oversight, but as capability-building.
What happened along the way
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Campuses moved from below 70% retention to second-highest in the state
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Goals were exceeded repeatedly, visible on shared dashboards
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Teams began experimenting safely — learning through execution
Ancillary benefits
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Employee engagement ranked in the 96th percentile
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Stronger communication across departments
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Leaders described “building muscles” rather than running programs
Key takeaway:
Execution became sustainable when leaders treated it as a capability to be built — not an event to be launched.