Strategic planning in universities is frequently positioned as vital for clarifying future directions,
providing a coherent basis for decision-making, establishing priorities, and improving
organizational performance. Models for successful strategic planning abound and often present the
process as linear and straightforward. In this essay, we examine our own experiences of strategic
planning for a new educational development centre situated in a Faculty of a research intensive
university. Drawing from the literature, we provide a brief history of strategic planning in university
contexts and consider criticisms and benefits. We investigate complicated issues related to our own
process and, throughout, we argue that in spite of established formulas for creating a strategic plan,
the process is non-linear and messy. We end this paper with recommendations for educational
developer colleagues.