In September, Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C®) embarked on a new academic year with a new cultural emphasis: a Culture of Commitment. Built on the foundation of clear communication and a sense of community that we emphasized in the prior two years, the Culture of Commitment is a call to action for all of our 3,300 employees to commit to our mission, our learners and each other like never before.
What I’ve learned about focusing on your company’s brand and identity is that it’s easy to put words on a page and call them your core values. It’s easy to hang a sign on a wall and call it your mission statement. But that’s not the sum of a brand. That’s not your company’s identity. A set of characteristics only becomes an identity when it’s assigned to something living and breathing. In other words, only when your people embody your core values, mission, vision and brand do these characteristics become an identity.
The journey from words on a page and statements on a wall to something living and breathing starts with one word: belief. Your people have to believe in your goals, your values and your direction. And a large part of creating that belief is giving your people a voice in creating, refining and reinforcing the components that make up your identity.
Last year, Tri-C rolled out its Vision 2030 Strategic Transformation Plan, which will serve as a road map as we meet the challenges of a changing higher education landscape during the remainder of this decade and beyond. Vision 2030 wasn’t created by a small group of people. It began with a series of listening sessions involving all our stakeholders: learners, faculty, administrators, staff and community members. We listened to their concerns. We gathered their input. We made them active contributors as we crafted the plan that would help shape our institution’s identity moving forward.
We wanted employees who were invested in the success of the plan. We committed to our people, and they committed to us in turn by embracing the themes and pillars of the plan and aligning their work with it, so we are all moving toward a single goal: providing the best educational outcomes for our learners.
Even if you don’t operate in the higher education space, many of the same principles apply to your company:
Your identity is foundational. You can’t change it quickly, if at all. The creation and reinforcement of what you and your company stand for should be treated as foundational to your company’s very existence.
Your people carry your identity. As such, it isn’t something that can just be spoken into existence. The formation of your brand and identity must be a team effort that starts with your willingness to collaborate.
The task is ongoing. Committing to your brand and identity requires ongoing work, like any relationship you value. You must continually evaluate the work you do and communicate with your team to ensure the messaging is clear and the team is motivated to continue embracing and reinforcing your company’s identity.
The work of committing to your identity is never complete, but it is a task essential to the survival of your company. How will you commit? ●
Michael A. Baston is President of Cuyahoga Community College
