It’s probably one of the most famous interview questions: “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
When an interviewee walks in, looking to land a job with our companies or organizations, we expect them to have a vision for their future. What are their ambitions? What goals have they set for themselves? How do they plan to reach those goals?
We want forward thinkers. We want planners. We want people who are motivated to turn those plans into action. And yet, the same isn’t always true for the organizations themselves.
As leaders, we often get so bogged down in our day-to-day challenges that we develop a “cross that bridge when we get there” reactive mentality when planning for the future. Companies that remain in a reactive mindset are never at the forefront of their industries. They’re always struggling to maintain forward momentum and, ultimately, can struggle to survive long-term while their better-prepared competitors flourish.
At Cuyahoga Community College, strategic planning is essential to our momentum and future growth. As a public institution of higher learning, we involve all our stakeholders in the process — our employees and administrators, our students and members of our community. Our current strategic plan sunsets this year, and we are in the midst of a process we call “Vision 2030,” gathering data and feedback to craft a new strategic plan that will carry Tri-C through the remainder of this decade and beyond. Several lessons about strategic planning were reinforced for us during the process:
Listen to your employees. Strategic planning shouldn’t be all about you sitting in a boardroom with your core leadership team. Your frontline employees are the ones who have direct contact with your customers — in our case, our students — and can provide valuable insight into changing trends and evolving customer needs. Engage with them and learn from them.
Listen to your customers. Markets are changing, and how customers interact with your products and services will change. In higher education, we have experienced the effects of remote learning, shifts in technology and a change in what our students seek from their college experience. You may have encountered similar changes, so it is essential to actively seek customer feedback to inform your strategic plan.
Find out the “why” behind the numbers. You might know your key performance metrics and how they have changed. You might know what your balance sheet says month to month. But knowing why your numbers shifted is an entirely different process that can impact how you plan for the future. Take a deeper dive into your numbers, using your employee and customer feedback for context.
Build in flexibility without losing your direction. Nobody has a crystal ball. You can make plans and, down the road, discover some of your assumptions were wrong. That’s OK as long as you stay true to your foundational guiding principles. Small- to medium-sized course corrections in your strategic plan are relatively common. You can be open to course adjustments while keeping the big-picture targets in view.
Strategic planning is fundamental to any company that wants to survive and thrive. It’s not always an exact science, but the more people you talk to and the more data you collect, the more you can do to make sure your company is set on the right path in the coming years. ●
Michael A. Baston is President of Cuyahoga Community College
