Tri-C President: Aligning People, Plans and Purpose To Achieve Growth

Michael A. Baston discusses how organizations can build people-first cultures focused on growth

Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C^®) President Michael A. Baston, J.D., Ed.D., believes that organizations can drive powerful transformation by leveraging their resources and processes to create momentum for the people they impact.

In his February 2026 column published in Smart Business Magazine, Baston explains how the second of the College's three pillars in its Vision 2030 strategic transformation plan, "Aligning Path and Purpose," can serve as a guideline for any business or large organization.

"At its core, aligning path and purpose means opening doors and removing barriers to progress," Baston said. "At Tri-C, this means we are redesigning the student journey by integrating our pathways to degrees, certificates and post-graduation employment."

Baston outlined how Tri-C recently reorganized its academic departments into five schools to support student pathways, streamlined enrollment processes and introduced its first bachelor's degree program. These changes were implemented to remove barriers for students from all walks of life and ensure they graduate career-ready.

"We want them to go into the world as educated, empowered and employed individuals ready to add momentum to our region and economy," Baston said.

Baston shared three things organizational leaders should remember when aligning path and purpose:

1. Define your purpose and objectives. Before creating strong pathways for growth, organizations must ask themselves and their leadership teams key questions about goals, desired outcomes, employee development and the impact they hope to make beyond financial success.
2. Discover what is standing in the way of your goals. Beyond high-level factors like market or economic conditions, organizations must identify and remove ground-level barriers that affect customers and employees, ensuring smoother operations and clearer paths to individual success. By helping people overcome these obstacles, leaders enable them to contribute more fully to the organization's larger purpose.
3. Continuously evaluate. Maintaining alignment between purpose and action requires continual assessment — gathering employee and customer feedback, reviewing benchmarks and centralizing data to stay on track. When organizations stay committed to this ongoing work, they remove barriers, achieve better results and empower everyone to contribute as agents of positive change.

Read the entire column at sbonline.com.

Baston is a regular contributing author for Smart Business Magazine. Read his most recent columns:

• • How to build a people-first culture focused on growth, and why it is essential for your organization (November 2025)
  • Developing employees who are ready to face the future (July 2025)
  • Plan ahead or be left behind (May 2025)
  • Empowering your people is about more than just opening doors (February 2025)
  • Nobody has a crystal ball, but you can still anticipate what's coming and prepare for it (November 2024)

February 04, 2026

MEDIA CONTACT: Anthony Moujaes, 216-987-3068 or anthony.moujaes@tri-c.edu