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The Future-Oriented Organization
Engages in Planning
In proving that it is future-oriented, an organization will, at a minimum, document its engagement in effective strategic planning initiatives. Criterion Two, Preparing for the Future, speaks most directly to the need for an organization to know itself well enough that its multiple planning efforts will result in realistic and achievable plans. The Core Components speak to planning based on effective evaluation so the organization can maintain and strengthen its quality and its educational programs, thereby enhancing its capacity to fulfill its mission in the years ahead. Such efforts are essential to the future health of the organization.
Is Driven by the Mission
More than ever, organizations that are most successful in maneuvering through an uncertain future are committed to a vision and capable of identifying their core values. Otherwise, the availability of too many options might cause confusion or lack of direction. Competitors’ success might lure an organization to wander away from its mission. Unanticipated financial downturns may threaten even the best strategic plans. Criterion One, Mission and Integrity, speaks to the fundamental importance of an organization’s mission documents. A mission that is largely a statement or an advertising tagline and is not rooted in rich soil of vision and values can so readily be changed or broadly interpreted as to be of little use in times of rapid change. A future-oriented organization does not treat its mission so lightly.
Understands Social and Economic Change
A future-oriented organization works diligently to understand the social and economic trends that will shape society and culture in the future. Major demographic shifts are inevitably bringing about important changes in our society. A future-oriented organization may see opportunities in these changes and will plan new programs or sites or collaborative relationships to respond to them. At a minimum, a future-oriented organization will carefully study the potential impact of the changes. Criterion Five, Engagement and Service, also calls attention to the need for a future-oriented organization to analyze its capacity to serve the needs and expectations of its constituencies experiencing change.
Focuses on the Futures Constituents
A future-oriented organization also attends to the futures of its constituents. Criterion Four, Acquisition, Discovery, and Application of Knowledge, with its emphasis on promoting a life of learning, is fundamentally about the future of the organization’s constituents. It asks an organization to include in its educational priorities developing the future capacity of students to live and work in a global, diverse, and technological society, for example. A future-oriented organization also cares about the capacity of its faculty, staff, and administrators to be productive contributors to the future of the organization and its students.
Integrates New Technology
A future-oriented organization understands that the information revolution spawned by new technologies will continue and will move at an even faster rate. Therefore, it seeks to understand and integrate technologies into its learning environments as well as into its support systems. Criterion Three, Student Learning and Effective Teaching, draws attention to new learning environments now possible through the use of technology. The word technology appears in Core Components of other Criteria as well, for it is transforming much more than just the delivery of quality education.
Source: Handbook on Accreditation http://www.ncahlc.org/download/Handbook03.pdf - The Higher Learning Commission, a commission of the North Central Association
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