A Dartmouth University professor puts the tasks that all organizations must perform into three boxes: (1) a box containing those things an institution does to make its core business as excellent as possible; (2) a box of "selective forgetting" for eliminating activities no longer productive or useful; and (3) a box of innovation for selective experimentation with projects that anticipate the future. Most organizations know how to succeed at the first task, says Vijay Govindarajan, who teaches at the university's Tuck School of Business and writes on business strategy, but they do not spend sufficient time and intellectual focus on the second and the third. Although Govindarajan makes this argument about businesses, it readily applies to colleges and universities--and the boards that govern them. Indeed, one could argue that the institutional conservatism of colleges and universities and the different ways in which market incentives work in higher education motivate institutions to devote most of their resources and energy to the first box--doing even better what they already do. Certainly that is the goal of the strategic plan at Smith College, like the plans of many colleges and universities. Furthermore, the alumni support so vital to reputation and fundraising often depends on a certain cultivated nostalgia, the opposite of "selective forgetting." Projects that represent a radical change in an institution's business model, even when undertaken as pilot endeavors, are relatively rare at colleges and universities. Govindarajan's image of the boxes has provided a useful way to conceptualize a new initiative that Smith has embarked on--the Futures Initiative. Through that initiative, Smith has been able to focus its thought and discussion on the second and third boxes. This article shares the lessons Smith College learned about strategic thinking which can be helpful to board members at other independent institutions, as well as those at public colleges and universities. (Contains 1 resource and 1 online resource.)