Culture Partners Instills Transformational Cultural Beliefs on Campus to Prioritize Collaboration.
Culture Partners, a leading culture management consulting firm, empowered Highland Community College (HCC) to transform its culture with accountability and trust. As a result of HCC’s transformational cultural shift, the college was awarded a $10,000 grant from CampusWorks, a consulting company for institutions of higher education, to continue enhancing its culture.
HCC, based in Freeport, Illinois, has been prioritizing culture since 2020. With the tuition costs of four-year universities ever increasing, more and more students are gravitating to community colleges to begin their higher education. For this reason, among others, HCC shifted their focus to the student experience by prioritizing the employee experience through culture.
“My premise was if we want the best student experience, we have to have the best employee experience,” Chris Kuberski, President of HCC, says. “We all have to work and collaborate together for the student experience to be strong.”
HCC saw their new approach working when they faced a challenge. Around the time the college began its culture work, the institution’s academic accreditation was at risk. This initially created an internal panic, but the newly-formed trust and accountability shifts within the organization united faculty and staff to rise to the occasion.
“By focusing on ‘Be Bold,’ [one of HCC’s Cultural Beliefs] I see less hesitation to take risks and try new things,” says Kuberski. “I don’t see people throwing caution to the wind, but they are reframing the question to ‘How do we do that?’”
Their success with shifting their culture netted HCC a $10,000 grant, which they promptly re-invested in continuing their culture journey, ensuring a culture of trust and accountability will continue to thrive.
“Accountability and trust are critical elements of a healthy work culture but are often ignored by many organizations,” says Culture Partners CEO Joe Terry. “Highland Community College is not one of them and they have committed to making these elements cornerstones of their culture.”
To learn more about how Culture Partners helped Highland Community College, read the full case study.
About Culture Partners
For over 30 years, Culture Partners, a leading culture consulting firm based in Temecula, Calif., has empowered clients across the world to harness the power of culture. Using human industrial-organizational psychological methods, they help organizations inspire action by connecting experiences, beliefs, and actions. Culture Partners’ culture management frameworks help thousands of top organizations realize their potential by owning their growth.
About Highland Community College
Celebrating 60 years in 2022, Highland Community College serves a 64-mile swath of Northern Illinois — encompassing Stephenson, Carroll, Jo Daviess and Ogle counties. HCC believes the nearly 100,000 residents of these largely rural communities deserve access to a quality education right here where they live, tailored to their unique dreams for the future. From high school dual credit to lifelong learning, and continuing career education to traditional college pathways, Highland’s 70-plus programs have something for everyone. At Highland Community College — It’s All Here.