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Institutions of learning have been bringing people together for more than a century on missions to embolden, ennoble, engage, educate, and empower new generations.
The landscape has continued to rapidly evolve in the MOOC and modalities age, and we have all been working hard to change with it—to be relevant, to do the mission. Now the rules of engagement are all brand new. It’s a new game, and many of the college and university leaders of residential campuses offering rites of passage, a once-in-a-lifetime experience and an unprecedented platform for self actualization will be ill-equipped to manage the new value proposition over the next 5 years.
There is no preset formula or vision that is still viable.
The process, strategic planning is more important than ever, but patience is in short supply. Leaders need results now, to raise money, to maintain their enrollment, to keep their communities engaged and to show and grow confidence among the many constituencies. Back in the day, as agency executives, and consultants, we would hold back our initial ideas to allow the “proprietary process” to play out. In the new “now” management imperative, there is no time for that. You have to put your best ideas on the table at the outset, based on experience and talent, and test them, and use those big ideas to assess and excitement, engagement and ultimately powerful programs. Today, ideas come first, proof of concept comes along the way.
In the digital age, decisions are made in the marketplace.
Sometimes the hardest step is the first one, get an idea into action and see what works. A small track shoe company in the Northwest may have been onto something.
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