CEO and entrepreneur Scott Thiss has a passion for helping people get the skills they need to get ahead. For Thiss, helping a few individuals is not enough. As a trustee of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, he has focused on systemic-level changes that break down barriers and expand opportunities for thousands of people to get an education and prepare for promising careers.
Thiss' approach merits the attention of business leaders who are considering how service on a board of trustees could make a real difference. "As trustees, our focus is on the long term. Our job is to promote accountability, transparency and performance," he says. He identifies two key levers of change that board members are uniquely positioned to pull to improve opportunities for students: disciplined strategic planning and strengthened presidential leadership at the colleges.
Starting with Workforce Skills
Thiss' involvement with higher education first began when he was CEO of S&W Plastics in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Employing a diverse population that comprised more than 130 people from a dozen countries presented his business with many language and communication challenges. "Messages sometimes get lost in translation," says Thiss. A strong advocate for employee training, Thiss turned to Hennepin Technical College for customized training to bridge the communication gaps. The results far exceeded his expectations. "We had a big graduation ceremony," he recalls. "A lot of our people had never experienced that, and the impact was phenomenal. Chatter in the plant increased; and communication between shifts was elevated dramatically."
Employee interaction, general enthusiasm for working at the plant, and productivity led Thiss to ask Hennepin Technical College to translate the company's mission and objectives into the various languages spoken among the workers. Various communications, marked with the flags of the nations represented among employees, were posted. The response was spectacular, with the gratified workers becoming even more engaged in their work.
When a business leader of Thiss' caliber is eager to work with higher education, it doesn't take long for word to spread. He was recruited to serve as a member of the Normandale Community College Foundation in Bloomington, where he quickly became involved in various fundraising efforts. "We raised a significant amount of money," he says, adding that having the opportunity to interact with students was just as important. "I met them, heard their stories, learned about their journeys, and within a year or so, they'd grabbed my heart."
"I met them, heard their stories, learned about their journeys, and within a year or so, they'd grabbed my heart."
Serving as a Trustee for the Minnesota System of Colleges and Universities
Thiss decided he wanted to make a greater impact, and applied to Governor Pawlenty's office to be considered to serve as a Trustee of the Minnesota System of Colleges and Universities (MNSCU). With its 32 institutions, including 25 two-year colleges and seven state universities, the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system is the largest single provider of higher education in the state of Minnesota. MNSCU serves about 250,000 students in credit-based courses every year. Additionally,150,000 employees from 6,000 Minnesota businesses are served each year through customized training programs. The Board of Trustees selects the system chancellor and has broad policy responsibility for system planning, academic programs, fiscal management, personnel, admissions requirements, tuition and fees, and rules and regulations.
Thiss' local experience and strong commitment to accountability, transparency and performance fit with the Governor's goals for the system. After a rigorous selection process, he was named to the Board in 2007.
Minnesota's Four-point Strategic Plan and a Dashboard to Monitor Progress
During Thiss' tenure on the Board of Trustees, a strategic plan has been developed that makes accountability and transparency paramount. "Higher ed, in general, presents a different management model than the private sector," Thiss explains. "The decision-making process is much more collaborative. This can delay decisions and make the process time-consuming, and, for business professionals, incredibly exasperating and frustrating." Thiss put aside his own frustrations and set about working with other board members and Chancellor McCormick to change the model for getting things done. He believes that the Board is now more results-oriented and that has already made a difference in supporting Chancellor McCormick to take bold action to improve postsecondary education in Minnesota.
The MNSCU strategic plan outlines four key goals: Increase access and opportunity; promote and measure high-quality learning programs and services; provide programs and services that enhance economic competitiveness; and innovate to meet current and future educational needs. To strengthen accountability and measure progress, the plan now has a dashboard that monitors effectiveness and a dashboard that provides data to measure progress. Thiss noted the importance of moving forward with measures, while not getting mired in seeking the perfect performance measurements. "Let's make choices and adjust later," he told them. "We don't have to get it right from the beginning. Let's make a commitment to our goals and make our best effort to select the right measures. That's part of the process. We learn more from our mistakes than from our successes."
The difference this plan makes is becoming clear as MNSCU faces budget cuts in a difficult economy. Thiss says the Minnesota Board has debated ways to cut money. The Board has determined that budget cuts will be made by prioritizing the four key elements of the strategic plan, and the values placed on each of the plan's goals. "That's big," he says. "We're not just cutting across the board, which is the easiest thing to do. We're cutting in a prioritized fashion."
Support Bold Presidential Leadership
Thiss notes that strategic planning goes hand-in-hand with the board's role of selecting and supporting effective and bold leadership. "One of the most powerful ways to move a system is to be very deliberate in choosing and evaluating presidents and giving the economic development role its rightful place as a top priority for college leadership."
Board leaders who come with clear expectations that colleges enhance economic competitiveness, build strong business/college partnerships, and prepare graduates for good jobs can exert significant influence by making sure presidents share these expectations and put them into action in their day-to-day leadership of colleges. Thiss notes two key strategies trustees can employ to drive change:
- Play an active role in the recruitment and selection of college leaders who prioritize college capacity to help students earn degrees and certificates that connect with real jobs and economic development in the region.
- Make strong relationships with employers and connections with the labor market a priority at the board level. When the board pays attention to creating ties with area business leaders at the strategic - not organizational - level, they are able to set clear, short-term expectations in the context of effecting longer-term, cultural change. Some approaches that are working in Minnesota include:
- Ask the right questions and develop a baseline. To get a sense of how well college leaders were connecting with local employers, Chancellor McCormick and the Board gathered information from businesses across the state. Thiss and Board Chair David Olson participated in a series of discussions convened by the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. "During these 'listening sessions,' we spent time with other business leaders, devoting half an hour to higher education," Thiss explains. "Half of the people had strong relationships with their local college or university, while the other half had no relationship at all. There was no middle ground."
This feedback concerned the Board and Chancellor McCormick. The Chancellor then gathered more information by following up with a survey of business engagement that established some baseline data on employer satisfaction with the system.
- Place a high value on engagement. To stress the importance of relationships with the business community, in 2008 the MNSCU Board and Chancellor McCormick made this one of its two board directives for colleges. Together, they charged college presidents to conduct ten in-depth visits to area employers at their businesses or plants. The charge was clear: Learn about the business--its products, market, human resource challenges, needs and technology. The MNSCU Board is careful about setting policy direction, and stays out of day-to-day operations.
Man With a Mission
Propelled on his own journey from what he terms "cerebral to emotional involvement," Thiss and his wife began giving two scholarships annually, something they have continued to do for the past several years. His experiences have taught him that the boards at the college and system level need to be comprised of people with diverse viewpoints and that healthy, vigorous debate is crucial to solving problems. "It's important to find leaders with passion," he says. "The trustees I work with give a damn and it's very exciting."