Navigating Change: The Podcast from Teibel Education: Recent Episodes
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Navigating Change is a platform for understanding the complex and uncertain waters of change in higher education. Each week, Howard Teibel, Pete Wright, and guests dissect issues facing institutions and teams in transition and offer solutions for the most troubling process challenges
Unbeknownst to us in February 2020, we were about to go into a certain kind of hibernation, one forced on us by the circumstances of our time. Two years into this, we may be seeing the beginning of the light at the end of the tunnel – learning how to live with this global pandemic and bring back the kind of social connection we value and need.
Jeff Shields, President and CEO of the National Business Officers Association, and Howard Teibel turn their attention to looking forward in anticipation of the upcoming NBOA Annual Meeting to be held in Chicago this February. The theme this year – Elevate! A call to step up our game and bring into our work what we’ve learned these past two years.
You can also join Howard at the conference in his talk with Taylor Hastrich from FAEF in an experiential session to elevate Strategic Thinking as a Business Officer.
To learn more about this conference or register for the event, visit NBOA.
Whether your challenges are financial, structural or simply the need to build strong teams, Teibel Education can help your people move to the next level of excellence. Check out how we can help you be a stronger leader and build stronger teams at teibelinc.com!
Howard Teibel
Links & Notes * Learn More and Register for the 2022 NBOA Annual Meeting * Schedule * Registration * Follow Jeff on Social Media * Twitter * LinkedIn
Joining Howard Teibel today in conversation is Dr. Nathan Grawe, distinguished teaching professor of the social sciences at Carleton College, where he has served on the faculty since 1999. You might have seen Nathan's work as it relates to the framing of the enrollment cliff, something that's been exacerbated and accelerated in this last year.
As we find ourselves beginning to emerge out of lockdowns in our lives — and for many of us on our campuses — the big question is how will we navigate back to what Georgia Tech is framing as a return to better?
This conversation with Nathan covers many important topics, including his most recent analysis of enrollment trends, issues of shared governance, and how we need to think about work as we come out of this pandemic.
Reach out to us at Teibel education if we can help you build an intentional mindset and process to navigate your challenges over this next year.
About Dr. Nathan Grawe
Dr. Nathan Grawe the Ada M. Harrison Distinguished Teaching Professor of the Social Sciences and Professor of Economics at Carleton College. He is a labor economist whose work examines intergenerational connections with education and labor market outcomes. Nathan's book, Demographics and The Demand for Higher Education (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018) examines how recent demographic shifts are likely to affect demand for higher education. In a follow-up project, The Agile College (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021), Nathan draws on interviews with higher education leaders to provide examples of how proactive institutions are grappling with demographic change.
Links & Notes
As we turn our energy to 2021, we can begin to catch a glimpse of getting on the other side of this crisis. Independent school leaders have implemented innovations over the last nine months that they could only dream about prior to the pandemic. The question now is can they sustain these changes with intentionality.
Jeff Shields, CEO of the National Business Officers Association and Howard Teibel explore these questions in anticipation of the upcoming February all-virtual NBOA Annual Meeting. The opportunity in this year is to prepare ourselves with the right state of mind – _resiliency, ambition for change and living our vision._
Join Howard at the NBOA Annual conference for a Goldmine session on Being a Leader Without Being an Expert, February 22 and for a Deep Dive session around Building a Culture that can Innovate from the Bottom Up, February 23.
To learn more about this conference or register for the event, visit NBOA.
Whether your challenges are financial, structural, or simply the need to build strong teams, Teibel Education can help your people move to the next level of excellence. Check out our work with Independent Schools today!
At Teibel Education we are committed to having your people be connected with a higher purpose. As we look to 2021 and the hope for greater ease and less uncertainty, we bring you a podcast on learning.
How do you produce active listening in a colleague, student, or peer? Active listening is a central tenant to the capacity to learn and acquire new skills.
In this podcast, we explore learning with UCLA professor Dr. Christopher Surro. Chris is committed to his student’s success and he teaches us how to engage others to learn by applying a few simple principles – showing care, guiding versus doing and creatively using technology.
As administrators, Deans, CFO’s, or faculty, this is an invaluable conversation to listen to and share with others. We look forward to hearing how this resonates with you.
Links & Notes * About Chris Surro — UCLA Department of Economics
About Dr. Christopher Surro
Chris Surro is an Assistant Adjunct Professor in the Department of Economics at UCLA. He primarily teaches macro courses but has teaching interests across a variety of economic fields. His main teaching goal is to provide students with both economic knowledge and the ability to apply that knowledge in practical ways to their future careers. He also tries to incorporate new technologies into his classes to improve student learning and engagement. His research focuses on using recent computational methods to improve economic analysis.
Mission in ActionToday on the show we bring a demonstration of living a mission. Our guest is Doug Brown, President of UMass Memorial Community Hospitals and Chief Administrative Officer for the UMass Memorial Health Care system. He had a vision for their community - looking in their own backyard and anchoring their institutional mission through local investing, local procurement, and local hiring.
As a $2.4 billion integrated health care delivery system in Central Massachusetts, Umass Memorial’s “Anchor Mission Project” is addressing the social determinants of health beyond the traditional approach of providing excellent clinical care. UMass Memorial is putting their money where their mouth is by investing part of their institutional portfolio in local resources, purchasing directly from local businesses, and hiring a greater percentage from the surrounding community.
Links & Notes
- “Anchoring Health beyond Clinical Care: UMass Memorial Health Care’s Anchor Mission Project” — Harvard.edu
- Harvard School of Public Health Highlights UMass Memorial’s Anchor Journey — DemocracyCollaborative.org
- UMass community hospitals chief appointed to AHA trustees — Telegram.com
- UChicago Joins the Higher Education Anchor Mission Initiative — The University of Chicago Civic Engagement
This is an important conversation to listen to the whole way through. First, ask yourself: what’s the highest purpose of your organization?
Likely you have an answer, something you’ve been told, or something you’ve absorbed through your experience over the years. But maybe the greater truth is that we need to discover our organization’s purpose with our people.
When we move to higher purpose, we form a contract with each other that transcends normal management theory – the need for greater control.
Dr. Robert Quinn and Howard Teibel pick up where they left off in episode 222 of the podcast and now focus on what it looks like to give up control to create something most of us only imagine – an engaged, connected and purpose-focused organization, where leaders put their egos aside and allow their people to step up.
Links & Notes
- About Dr. Robert Quinn
- RobertQuinn.com
- Robert’s Blog
- Connect with Robert on LinkedIn
- Follow Robert on Twitter • @BobQuinnUofM
- Find Robert on Facebook
- Watch "Find Your Purpose" on Facebook
Heather Jarhling is a rising senior at Colby College in Waterville Maine. She — like her peers — is facing an unsettled future. This cohort spent the last three and a half months running to keep up with a shift to online education that many of them did not sign up for.
Of course, no one signed up for the changes sweeping education as a result of the pandemic. And the rising voices around racial injustice will be additional concerns you will need to face. We need to listen to one other — now more than ever — as our expectations, needs, and requirements shift toward the fall.
Heather and Howard explore what the transition to learning from home meant for her and what students like her are looking for in their educational experience as we face the fall term. If you’re an administrator or a faculty member and you’re looking to understand your students’ expectations leading into next year, this is a must-listen. Next year’s class is looking for a signal for change ahead and as you’ll hear in this conversation, finding the middle-ground that demonstrates they’ve been heard today will go a long way when you need to ask for their flexibility tomorrow.
We invite you to use this podcast to open or continue the conversation with others.
As we begin to pivot in our organizations from the necessary critical decisions to get through these first few months and on to living with a new way of working, how do we not fall back into business as usual? Our people are looking not only for direction and stability but a sense of connection to a larger purpose. At the heart of people feeling disconnected is the absence of a certain kind of leadership that puts one’s ego aside and empower others to genuinely connect with a deeper purpose.
Today on the show, Howard has a conversation with Dr. Robert Quinn, professor emeritus at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business and co-founder for the Center for Positive Organizations. Howard and Robert explore what it looks like to step up into an authentic way of leading – both from the heart and with conviction.
Links & Notes
- About Dr. Robert Quinn
- RobertQuinn.com
- Robert’s Blog
- Connect with Robert on LinkedIn
- Follow Robert on Twitter • @BobQuinnUofM
- Find Robert on Facebook
- Watch "Find Your Purpose" on Facebook
About Dr. Robert Quinn
Robert E. Quinn is the Margaret Elliot Tracy Collegiate Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan, Ross School of Business. His research and writing focuses on purpose, leadership, culture and change. He is one of the co-founders of the field of Positive Organizational Scholarship and a co-founder of the Ross Center for Positive Organizations. In terms of research, he is in the top 1% of professors cited in organizational behavior textbooks. He has published 18 books. As a teacher, Quinn is the recipient of multiple awards. In a global survey he was recently named one of the top speakers in the world on the topic of organizational culture and related issues. His talk on personal purpose went viral and has been viewed by over 16 million people.
In our lifetime, Higher Education has not seen the kind of global shock to its system that emerged over a two-month period. We anticipated a systematic and orderly shift in the next few years to address the rising cost of education, changing demographics, and a growing adult population choosing to come back to further their education. Those institutions that had already invested in a new kind of education now find themselves in a position to accelerate. Georgia Institute of Technology is one of those institutions.
Today on Navigating Change we have Dr. Nelson Baker, who serves as Dean of Professional Education for Georgia Tech. His group oversees the delivery of Georgia Tech's extensive catalog of world-class credit and non-credit education programs for over 40,000 learners and 2,600 organizations worldwide each year. Our conversation with Dr. Baker revolves around his experience overseeing this expansive arm of Professional Education and what that experience can teach us as we turn toward rebuilding in the COVID era.
Links & Notes
- “Deliberate Innovation, Lifetime Education” Report from the Commission on Creating The Next in Education at Georgia Tech (PDF)
- About Dr. Nelson Baker
- Connect with Dr. Nelson Baker on LinkedIn
- The Center for 21st Century Universities
Many of us listen to podcasts in moments of leisure or capacity to separate from work. Sometimes a topic comes along that is central to what we’re facing right now.
This week, we are very fortunate to have educator and futurist Bryan Alexander joining us for a conversation around scenario planning in the era of COVID-19. Bryan recently has been a leader in a crowdsourced operation to document the impact of the pandemic on higher education and discusses approaches to scenario planning along with the pitfalls institutions may experience along the way.
Please share this episode with colleagues who would benefit from strategies in scenario planning.
As always, feel free to reach out to the Teibel Education team to discuss further.
Links & Notes
- Google Sheet: Higher Ed Closures and Migrations
- Academia Next: The Futures of Higher Education by Bryan Alexander
- About Bryan Alexander
Our guest is working to develop the 60-year curriculum, one with an eye toward a lifetime of education.
Rovy Branon serves as Vice Provost for Continuum College at University of Washington. When you are a learner at Continuum College, you are taking part in one of the most aggressively innovative programs dedicated to bringing education to non-traditional students. Branon and his team are part of a dynamic shift in how we think about education well beyond the traditional student.
This week, Rovy joins Howard Teibel to share the story of Continuum College, and how their work is shaped by re-evaluating how we learn...throughout our life.
Links & Notes
- Continuum College
- Professional and Continuing Education at UW
- Learning for a Lifetime: A 100-year life requires a 60-year curriculum
There is an unnamed disruptor around the corner. So says our guest today, Rutgers University’s Mike Gower. As Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration and University Treasurer, the breadth and depth of his involvement in university operations is extensive. With decades of experience in the field, one might expect him to carry more answers than questions these days. That, according to Gower, is far from the case, and the unnamed disruptor - the change you haven’t seen coming - is always right around the next corner.
Being a part of the leadership team for an institution as large as Rutgers brings with it a unique set of demands. “We can’t solve the future. We can’t solve the next set of trends that may be coming our way — or may not. Instead, we have to explore them and say, ‘what might that mean?’… Then we can go positive and say, ‘what would we like to do? What should we do?’ Instead of being reactive, what would we like to do to continue growing as an institution?”
This week on Navigating Change, Mike Gower joins Howard Teibel to talk about the questions before us and the disruptor around the corner. He shares the background to his work in leading change across his leadership team and how that work can help set the stage for the next generation of finance and administrative leaders.
Our congratulations to Mike for winning the KPMG Distinguished Service Award at EACUBO for his service in advancing the role of the business officer as a strategic leader.
Cutting a path through the political and emotional landscape to deliver a strong strategic plan is an act of courage. Even with a clear consensus that a strategic plan is required, connecting intention to action is a massive undertaking.
That’s precisely what Rhode Island School of Design’s leadership achieved with their 2020-2027 NEXT Strategic Plan. Under the management of Taylor Scott, RISD Chief of Staff & Communications, and the rest of the diverse RISD team, they developed a campus-wide effort to prioritize resources, gain commitment, and drive toward a productive new vision of the institution for the next decade.
This week on the show, Taylor Scott joins Howard Teibel and Rebeka Mazzone as the three share their perspectives on marshalling the enthusiasm of resources while building a future based on realistic financial goals.
Links & Notes
- Learn more about the RISD NEXT plan
In February 2015, Roger L. Martin joined us to talk about innovation, incentive, and inspiration. This is the stuff that drives teams to face the most complex, stubborn challenges with surprising and creative solutions.
That episode quickly cemented itself as one of our most listened-to episodes in the nine years that we have been producing this show. Roger effortlessly demonstrates the kind of approach to change that has become foundational to our work at Teibel Ed. We're not solving problems, we’re navigating uncertainty.
In his time as Dean of the Rotman School at the University of Toronto, he managed to enroll his best educators to help him solve a seemingly intractable recruiting challenge. The story he tells of this experience is at once bold and charming, and it carries our central message this week: what does it mean to be part of the solution, not part of the problem?
Professor Martin's work in Harvard Business Review, "The Rise — and Likely Fall — of the Talent Economy," lays out the case for the disconnect of high salaries to performance in knowledge work. But can the same case be made for the impact of significant financial goals on cultivating our best creative solutions from our most engaged and willing teams?
From Howard Teibel's work with institutions in administrative and academic reviews and Professor Martin's work as an academic and business leader comes a conversation that addresses the competencies of our teams, inspiring our best players to do their best work in the face of the significant challenges before them.
Links & Notes
- Roger L. Martin — rogerlmartin.com
- @RogerLMartin — Twitter
- "The Rise (and Likely Fall) of the Talent Economy" — hbr.org
- "What Threatens the Talent Economy" — Innovation Hub
About Roger L. Martin
Professor Roger Martin is a writer, strategy advisor and currently #1 ranked management thinker in the world. He is the former Dean and Institute Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto in Canada.
Requests are not directives they live in conversation
How often do we find ourselves hearing a request, waiting until we walk away from that person, and then say to ourselves, I have no idea what my boss or colleague is asking me to do? This universal experience is both comical and frustrating at the same time.
Making and receiving requests are foundational speech acts in the workplace. Done with care, a request reveals both conditions of satisfaction for the speaker and the critical role of the listener as a partner in the exchange. Through conversation, we can discover a hidden efficiency and reduce the cycle of repetition of the request as we seek a common understanding.
This week on the show, were going to explore the nature of requests, how to engage as a listener in those conversations, and a powerful alternative to merely accepting or declining what is asked of you: the counteroffer.
Links & Notes
- 5 Minutes with Howard Teibel: Reading the Room by Howard Teibel — netassets.org
- The Profession of IT: The Other Side of Languageby Peter Denning, a summary of Fernando Flores’ book,Conversations for Action (Amazon)
How do you build a culture of creativity and innovation? It starts with uncovering the unseen forces that keep a team from excelling, including fear of failure, lack of candor, and unwillingness to put aside individual needs.
This week on the show, Howard shares an overview of his session at Cornell and an article you can read below titled Loosening the Grip on Silo Thinking. In the article, you will learn how to utilize principles from the animation studio PIXAR on how great teams go about building the capacity and structures required to invent the future together.
This year’s conference takes place August 5-8. For more information, visit AMI.
Links & Notes
- Administrative Management Institute at Cornell University
- NACUBO HR Horizons: “Loosen the Grip on Silo Thinking”
- Navigating Change 168: Finding Inspiration on the Outside — Bringing Innovation to Higher Ed
Peter Denning returns to the show this week to talk about innovation. But this most likely isn’t the innovation discussion you’re expecting.
Instead, Peter challenges the conventional wisdom in the area of innovation and idea, inviting us to rethink our perceptions on contribution. His work and writing have lead to a series of observations in human and team behavior.
The upshot: our ability to make offers and deliver on the offers we make to others are skills that can be honed and indisputably lead to new innovations in our work. These are skills that most of us aren’t very good at.
If you haven’t read The Beginner’s Creed, we encourage you to read it now. It provides excellent background to this week’s discussion. You can find it, along with our earlier conversation with Peter, right here.
About Peter Denning
Peter is a Distinguished Professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He chairs the Computer Science Department and directs the Cebrowski Institute, an interdisciplinary research center for information innovation. Peter has held previous faculty positions at Princeton, Purdue, and George Mason, and he was founding director for the computer science research institute at NASA Ames.
Links & Notes
- Read The Beginner’s Creed by Peter Denning
- About Peter Denning — Naval Postgraduate School, Computer Science Department
Dr. Menah Pratt-Clarke has dedicated her career as an educator to helping others better understand some of the most charged encounters we face. She is a thought leader in diversity and inclusion and even as her area of study engages in conversations that range from discomfort to rage, her approach to helping her institution find its voice on these issues is one worth understanding.
Dr. Pratt-Clarke joins Howard Teibel on the show today and what starts as a discussion about the role of diversity and inclusion in the education environment turns quickly to our waning collective skill in truly engaging in difficult conversations — from our micro-conversations on social media to dialog among senior leadership.
Dr. Pratt-Clarke and Howard Teibel will each be presenting at this year’s AuditCon — the annual conference of the Association of College and University Auditors — coming up September 15-19, 2019 in Baltimore. Learn more at ACUA.org.
About Dr. Pratt-Clarke
Menah Pratt-Clarke is the Vice President for Strategic Affairs and Diversity, and Professor of Education (with tenure) at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. With twenty-five years of administrative, academic, and legal experience, Dr. Pratt-Clarke has led and managed large-scale institution-wide transformational strategic initiatives at public and private higher education institutions. As a member of the President’s Executive Staff at Virginia Tech, she oversees the Office for Strategic Affairs and the Office for Inclusion and Diversity.
Links & Notes
- ACUA — Learn more about AuditCon 2019! Baltimore, MD • September 15-19, 2019
- InclusiveVT — Hub for more information on Virginia Tech’s mission, Ut Proism
- Newest Book: A Black Woman's Journey from Cotton Picking to College Professor: Lessons about Race, Class, and Gender in America by Dr. Menah Pratt-Clarke (Kindle Edition)
- MenahPrattClarke.com
- Menah’s full list of publications
Who is on your first team?
If I said to you, "tell me about your team", you likely would report about those who are your direct reports. This is not only natural, it's the way we orient ourselves to get our work done. The principle of “Team Number 1”, introduced by Patrick Lencioni, asks you to consider your first team as the person you report to and your peers.
This week on the show, Howard Teibel introduces the first team model through the lens of higher education. Although work is performed within our organizational units, the missing piece is being on the same page with our peers that run other areas within our group. Navigating the "First Team" requires integrating a conversation about what our division wants to accomplish, not just what I want to do with my own team — moving from an I focus to a We focus.
How do your deans collaborate across academic functions? How can your senior leadership team adapt to this first-team principle? This week, we offer a conversation intended to provoke your exploration of these questions. Listen to this with your direct reports and open a discussion about this important topic!
Links & Notes
- Lencioni’s “Team Number One”
- Learn more about the Teibel Group Coaching Program
When our guest today started her career as an educator, 80% of the teachers at her school were new, the result of tectonic turnover resulting from burnout on staff. That experience drove her to leave teaching after just a few years and pursue a career studying educator burnout and the big lesson along the way?
"The more I researched [burnout], the more I realized it wasn't just a pattern in education, but that it was a pattern in health care, social work ... I began to see that it was a nation wide thing. ... Sixty-six percent, two out of three people that you see on a daily basis are burned out."
Dr. Newburgh joins Howard today to share her experience studying burnout and her effort to help high-burnout organizations to create human-centered cultures that are more resilient to overwhelm and stress, higher-functioning, and healthier.
About Dr. Kate Newburgh
Dr. Kate Newburgh is the founder of Deep Practices Consulting, L3C, a social enterprise that creates human-centered systems within your business or organization to foster strong, inspired, and productive workplace cultures. Dr. Newburgh has over a decade of experience in research and systems change. Learn more about Dr. Newburgh at Deep Practices Consulting.
Links & Notes
- Deep Practices Consulting
- The Truth about Burnout by Christina Maslach and Michael P. Leiter
- Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux
All around us, worlds are opening. Whether the result of cultural change or technological disruption, new opportunities present themselves every day that challenge our current state of understanding, comfort, and well-being. As leaders and experts in our respect fields, we know that this robust economy of change presents terrific opportunities, but how do we have conversations about a future we can’t predict? Make no mistake, this is not something we do naturally — or well — without practice.
This week on the show, we’re presenting a few of the significant shifts that have come as the result of new worlds opening. In the process, we highlight clear areas of opportunity for developing our skills in the conversation; avoiding the trap of the immediate solution; and, visualizing yourself as a leader or influencer with the tools to cultivate a mood of positive anticipation and fearlessness in the face of change.
This week on the show, we invite our colleague Lampros Fatsis to explore our Group Coaching program and share lessons learned in personal transformation.
To learn more about Group Coaching Program, click here.
About Lampros Fatsis
Lampros has over 20 years’ experience in organizational change consulting and executive & team coaching. He holds three degrees from MIT and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.
Links & Notes
- [Learn more about the Teibel Group Coaching Program] 1
This week on the show, Howard Teibel sits down with two esteemed leaders in the higher education space. Carol Mullaney serves as Senior Director for the Offices of Sustainability and Continuous Improvement, and president elect for the Network for Change and Continuous Innovation (NCCI). Brent Ruben is director of the Rutgers Leadership Academy and faculty member at the Robert Wood Johnson School of Medicine and the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University. His years of contribution change leadership have yielded more than 50 books and 200 journal articles and book chapters to his name.
Carol and Brent join Howard for a conversation on change, provocation, and the evolving macro conversation that comes as we continue to learn to lead change in higher education. This comes as we prepare for the NCCI 20th Annual Conference in Denver Colorado, Moving Mountains: Cultivating Change in Higher Education, July 10–12. Registration is open now.
Links & Notes
- Register now for NCCI
Today brings us a new conversation with one of our favorite return guests. Ruth Johnston serves as Vice Chancellor for Planning & Administration for University of Washington Bothell and is a leader in organizational excellence in higher education. What's more, she's third vice president on the WACUBO board of directors, helping the organization bring a vibrant curriculum to business officers in the excellence space.
She joins Howard this week for a conversation in building collaboration between Business and Academic Officers along with useful tips to deal with overwhelm in the workplace, something we all struggle with. Ruth also gives us a preview of things to come at the WACUBO Annual Conference in Vancouver on May 5-8, 2019. Check out the links in the show notes for more information or visit www.wacubo.org to learn more.
About Ruth Johnston
Ruth Johnston serves as Vice Chancellor for University of Washington Bothell Planning & Administration and provides leadership for administrative, financial, facilities and human resource operations. Dr. Johnston is a longtime University leader, with 37 years of experience in areas including housing and food services, continuing education, human resources, financial management, finance and facilities, and student fiscal services. She most recently served as Associate Vice President and Chief of Staff for the UW Planning & Management, with responsibility for units including organizational excellence, UW Sustainability and the business diversity program.
Dr. Johnston holds a doctorate in organizational development and higher education, a master’s degree in human relations and a bachelor’s in counseling psychology. Ruth serves as second Vice President on the Western Association of College & University Business Officers board of directors. She also teaches a variety of classes and workshops, and consults with higher education institutions and associations and some federal agencies.
Links & Notes
- Learn more about Ruth Johnston
- Register for the WACUBO Annual Conference 2019 in Vancouver, BC — May 5-8, 2019
NAEP executive director Krista Ferrell hasn’t been on the job long. But she’s already helping to guide the institution in bold new directions in educational procurement leadership. In just a few months, the association will ring in their 98th annual meeting in Kansas City under the theme, Engage! They’re latching onto the values of the vaunted 50-year-old science fiction franchise Star Trek as a means to reinforce the values they share so deeply with the 24th century: creativity, mission, and inclusion.
Howard had the opportunity to talk with Ferrell this week to discuss her vision as a leader of the institution, and about the closing keynote that he’ll be delivering at this year’s annual meeting. It anchors an important shared effort for NAEP, as well: how do we work together toward authentic transformation when we’re so deeply accustomed to incremental change?
Links & Notes
- Register Now for NAEP Annual Meeting 2019
- Connect with Krista Ferrell on LinkedIn
On the eve of NBOA's 2019 Annual Meeting, President and CEO Jeff Shields joins Howard Teibel for a wide-ranging conversation on the state of change and leadership. Their conversation centers on the change in the narrative in independent school education as many in the field have adjusted to a new normal, incorporating new models in tuition and financial management across their operations. What’s more, he introduces Business Intelligence for Independent Schools — or BIIS — a tool for NBOA member institutions and business officers to analyze an exhaustive range of financial data and turn it into meaningful information.
Links & Notes
- National Business Officers Association
- 2019 NBOA Annual Meeting
- NBOA Business Intelligence for Independent Schools (BIIS)
When most of us think of disruption in our institutions, we think of turnover, upheaval, cuts, a future state in which change to the status quo has the potential to negatively impact the team.
Because of that image, we tend to hide from disruption.
Our guest today has no issue confronting the frustrations of higher education, and possesses a unique skill in disrupting stasis with authenticity.
Anouar Majid is a professor of English at the University of New England. However, his titles and accomplishments reach far beyond the campus classroom. Dr. Majid also serves UNE as the Vice President for Global Affairs and Managing Director of UNE Morocco. Additionally, within his role as the VP for Global Affairs, he also conceived and established the university’s campus in Tangier. He is a seemingly inexhaustible contributor to publications ranging from relations between Islam and the the West, culture, and higher education.
Today, he joins us for a conversation that forms the theme of the first part of our year on this show: disruption.
Links & Notes
- Let Your Workers Rebel by Francesca Gino
- A Damning Audit of Education by Anouar Majid
- Bill Moyers talks with Professor Anouar Majid
- Anouar Majid at University of New England
As a leader in higher education, you’ve undoubtedly been involved in sustainability projects across your institution. From recycling services to new architecture and design, we’re doing our best to adapt to a new sustainability orientation. But these practical applications, while noble, may not be sufficient to lead to universal, long-term, established change.
It’s not easy to learn how to have these provocative conversations, let alone learn how to lead them. Our guest this week occupies a unique leadership position in the field of sustainability and brings a perspective that can help us change the way we take part in sustainable leadership.
Gil Friend is a systems ecologist and business strategist with more than 40 years experience in business, communications, and environmental innovation. He’s one of the very founders of the sustainability movement, in fact, and was one of five inaugural members of the sustainability hall of fame of the International Society of Sustainability Professionals. According to the Guardian, “he’s one of the 10 most influential sustainability voices in America.”
Gil helps us to lead from a new perspective, to open a community to take part in a larger conversation, to think with your heart, and feel with your brain.
Links & Notes
- Natural Logic Inc.
- Follow Gil Friend on Twitter
- Connect with Gil Friend on LinkedIn
- Declaration of Leadership
Larry Levine leads the information technology organization for University of Colorado at Boulder. Scott Munson leads the information technology group for the University of Colorado system. Between the two, University of Colorado IT has ushered in a new era of collaboration that embraces not just their teams, but departments and functions that span the University.
And yet, collaboration is a tricky word. What Munson and Levine discovered was that while they had been cooperating between departments — completing tasks, checking boxes, et cetera — it was rare that the departments came together to innovate toward solutions to their biggest challenges, if it happened at all.
Working with Teibel Education, using Pixar’s approach to cultivating an exceptional brand, Levine and Munson embarked on a journey of creativity that spanned the campus leading to just the sort of innovative solutions to challenges and sparking a transformative energy of inclusion and progress.
This week, Levine and Munson join Howard Teibel in a conversation about their efforts to increase collaboration and trust, and to discuss the successes they’ve experienced together so far. And make no mistake, while this project started in the University’s IT operations, it most certainly did not end there. This is a conversation about big ideas and truly transformational relationships. We invite you to take some time to listen to the conversation today and ask yourself: where will you start the change on your campus?
Leadership is about orchestrating our people to coordinate actions toward a shared vision. How we speak our intentions to those around us can have either positive or negative impact to achieve our goals.
This week on the show, we’re talking about emotional resiliency, a rarely discussed construct for education leaders. Learning how to show up as emotionally resilient is the backbone to navigating uncertainty and leading others to a future that addresses the concerns of those we serve. Resiliency includes orchestrating mood and developing a discipline to speak and listen with clarity and conviction.
Our conversation this week is just a peek through the door. For a deeper dive, make sure to see Howard’s presentation, Leadership without losing your mind! — Emotional Resiliency and High Performance Teams, at the EACUBO 2018 Annual Meeting in Buffalo this weekend. For more information on the conference, visit EACUBO.org.
Walking into a darkened theater, settling in for a great movie, you expect to be moved. You expect to join the rest of the audience for an emotional roller coaster ride. You might even expect to learn a little something about yourself and your relationship to the world around you along the way.
All of this happens thanks to the craft and skill of creators like our guest today. With their deep understanding of how we process symbols and archetypes, they’re able to take us on this journey make us feel rewarded for their gentle — albeit intentional — manipulation.
Former Pixar story artist Matthew Luhn believes the same craft and skill that he honed over 25 years telling stories for Pixar and The Simpsons can be put to work for the rest of us. For Matthew, anyone seeking to inspire movement and change can do just that with a little study and practice in the power of the narrative. He makes his case in his new book The Best Story Wins: How to Leverage Hollywood Storytelling in Business and Beyond, and he joins us today to talk about story, disruption, and challenging norms.
Links & Notes
- Matthew Luhn
- Buy the Book
- Watch Creating a Feeling | Matthew Luhn | TEDxUCSB
Watch "The Power of Influence — 1/6 - 2/3 - 1/6" It’s natural to want everyone around you to be happy with your newest idea. In an ideal world, you’d communicate what you want, everyone on your teams would align and we’d all go home at 5 and relax with our feet up.
That’s not going to happen.
Today on the podcast, we dive into a mindset shift we first released back in 2015, a framework that has become known as our “⅙ - ⅔ - ⅙” model. Each time we engage leaders around this idea, we learn something new. But there’s one aspect of this model that has stood the test of time.
The secret to influencing your staunchest critics and most intractable team members to keep your project and relationships moving forward is: You need to stop trying to convince people that your ideas are right. You’re never going to get everyone on the bus. And there are some folks you need to ignore.
Take 20 minutes to listen to this podcast and watch the video above. Even better, watch it with your team and start a conversation.
Howard Teibel moderated a panel of three financial officers at First American Education Finance’s Peer Discussion event after the 2018 NACUBO Annual Meeting. Hear the stories of industry experts from private and public institutions who are empowering members of their campus communities to play a key role in driving innovative change. Bill Davies (Mount St. Mary's University), J.J. Wagner Davis (George Mason University), and Don Matthewson (University of Southern California), offered their experience and insight in how to build a resilient culture for the future of higher education.
Our great thanks to First American Education Finance for hosting this event and allowing us to offer it to you on the podcast!
Last month, I had the opportunity to have my perspective tested. As someone that works in higher education, you might think that’s not much of a novelty. On the contrary — none of us is immune to cemented positions and calcified opinions. The NACUBO 2018 Annual Meeting was a chance for me to face some of my own, and I walked away with three experiences I wanted to share this week.
W. Kamau Bell opened his keynote explaining that he’d been asked not to swear. As a comedian, he’s accustomed to speaking out in the face of controversy and speaking truth to cultural power. His pledge to us was clear: If I do my job right, he told us, I will provoke you, and hopefully not offend. That line, he said, is different for each of you.
And push that line he certainly did. Over the course of his talk, he tackled race and class. With the majority of the audience being white, he asked us to question our role as those with privilege and even if we’re doing the right thing, is doing the right thing quietly enough? Does a silent majority truly provoke positive action and outcomes?
Lesson One: We need to be provoking more. Even if our provocation leads to discomfort, the outcome of facing that discomfort leads to substantial change.
I am a big Pixar fan. Not just the films, mind you, but the company, leadership, and culture all conjure up best-in-class contributions to me. In my conversation with former story lead Matthew Luhn, I learned something new about the act and art of storytelling I didn’t anticipate.
According to Luhn, we can create stronger stories by focusing on character.
To demonstrate, he walked us through the emotional rollercoaster of one of the films he worked on at Pixar, Up. In so doing, he showed the power of using character as a vehicle for personal transformation, and deftly paralleled this tale of fiction to the stories we’re trying to tell of our institutions.
Lesson Two: Great stories promise to change the lives of the protagonists we imagine ourselves to be. We can generate a stronger emotional connection to our institutions and our initiatives with an increased focus on that character.
Finally, Jane Fonda. She’s just turned 80, and the message she brought to the NACUBO stage was one about a more personal transformation over time: the third act.
According to Fonda, we are now living an average of 34 years longer than our grandparents. With all this time, how are we doing at embracing this “third act” of our lives?
The change message here is terrific; we can change our brains. With practice, we can embrace new ideas and contribute enthusiastically far outside the commonly accepted rules of retirement. We can shift the negative stories of our past and forge new connections to how we want to show up in the world. Fonda calls on us to do a life review, to use this third act to finish the job of becoming who we’re supposed to be.
Lesson Three: In my experience, we drastically underestimate our ability to change over the long arc of our careers, and to use our knowledge to drive future change and contribute fully to every initiative in our institutions and beyond — no matter our chronological age.
The stories we write define our careers as business officers. They are the stories of leadership and political will. They are the stories of growth and building, and the stories of contraction. They are the stories of how others will perceive us as leaders of change and how our communities will perceive our institutions as educators of the next great generation.
Howard is heading to Long Beach to take part in the NACUBO 2018 Annual Meeting. His work there will focus on business officers as leaders — those new to the role and seasoned alike — and the power of the stories we write to define the course of our institutions and our careers.
This week on the podcast, we offer a preview of the sessions Howard will be leading in Long Beach by way of a conversation about the power of stories to create change. To learn more about Howard’s work at NACUBO 2018 Annual Meeting, visit NACUBOAnnualMeeting.com.
Today on the show, we’re talking about what it means to be a beginner.
Peter Denning is a Distinguished Professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He chairs the Computer Science Department and directs the Cebrowski Institute, an interdisciplinary research center for information innovation. Peter has held previous faculty positions at Princeton, Purdue, and George Mason, and he was founding director for the computer science research institute at NASA Ames.
Peter joins us today in a conversation about what it is to be a beginner and the power of facing our moods of discomfort and confusion that mark being a beginner. He shares with us his own journey along with his learning about mood and how to move in the world from his learning with Dr. Fernando Flores and Gloria Flores.
Peter crafted The Beginner’s Creed, a poetical statement intended to help us recognize the power of embracing the moods we find ourselves in as we navigate learning anything new - from becoming a parent to taking on a new role or challenge at work. The creed’s brilliance is its simplicity to connect us with what it is to be human and live an engaged life in the areas we care about.
Donald Heller is Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs and a professor of education at the University of San Francisco. Before USF however, Dr. Heller served in positions as professor of education at Penn State University, and then Dean of the College of Education at Michigan State University. And it is with the perspective of his experience at those two institutions that he penned “After Michigan State: Could We Be Next?”, an article published as part of the Chronicle of Higher Education’s series, “The Larry Nassar Scandal and the the Fall of Michigan State’s President.
Dr. Heller joins us today to talk about his unique perspective on both the Penn State and Michigan tragedies as we try to come to terms with how we as leaders in education can better prepare our institutions for the worst case scenario — a scenario for which we have such limited experience in facing head-on.
Links & Notes
- After Michigan State: ‘Could We Be Next?’ — The Chronicle of Higher Education
The information technology office is changing. No longer a simple service center to keep your laptop humming, today’s IT office offers a striking portfolio of tools to help solve problems across the organization, provided leaders learn how to effectively engage.
This week on the show, we have two guests from the University of Colorado IT office. Marin Stanek serves as deputy CIO and director of academic technology, and Orrie Gartner serves as director of operations and cloud infrastructure for the office of information technology. Together, they’ve authored a white paper titled, “Transformative IT: Critical to our Academic Future,” which outlines a number of areas in which the campus IT office has evolved, and will continue to evolve to support the most critical challenges we face.
Marin and Orrie, and the whole IT team, are focused on the student experience first. Ensuring that students don’t walk headlong into bureaucracy in IT, but are offered all the tools they need to succeed and focus fully on their studies. Above and beyond that, the IT department is playing a central role in solving campus-wide challenges. Join us this week to learn more about the evolving nature of campus IT and how you can open the doors to all the office has to offer from two seasoned campus technology leaders.
Links & Notes
- Read the whitepaper
Plymouth State University is making a dramatic shift, moving from a traditional university structure to a cluster-based model, which will give students a new combination of education and engaged scholarship necessary to compete successfully in an increasingly complex and demanding world.
The leadership and vision behind this come courtesy of President Donald Birx. “There’s a reason why people are questioning the value of higher education, at a time when it’s more valuable than ever. What if we can turn them into transformative elements for the regions in which they serve and the students which come out of that?”
Don shares his perspective on innovation, commerce, and economic growth that is driving demands on institutions to engage and educate graduates in new ways. President Birx believes the cluster model will excite and drive graduates to adapt to the world beyond the walls of PSU, and we’re eager to find out why this week.
Links & Notes
- Plymouth State University Office of the President
- The Clusters Approach at Plymouth State
Bentley President Gloria Larson is back this week to continue our conversation on hybrid learning, the work she and her team are leading at Bentley, and lessons from her book, Prepared U: How Innovative Colleges Drive Student Success. If you missed last week’s episode, you can start here.
Our premise today is this: Knowledge is no longer what our students are counting on us to deliver. Knowledge is everywhere, around every corner, and on every phone, tablet, and laptop. Today, says Larson, employers are asking how adept graduates are at making connections across disciplines, how savvy they are at solving problems. But the existing model for delivery of education may not yet be completely broken. So how do institutions motivate themselves to change in the face of deeply ingrained habits and centuries of belief in how Education is to be delivered?
Bentley is working to challenge those assumptions and become a true leader in the push to deliver a hybrid education, along with a keen eye on graduate employment. President Larson’s insights today are invaluable as inspiration as we seek to make change in our own institutions.
Links & Notes
- About Prepared U — Bentley University
- The Prepared U Project: Millennials in the Workplace
- Buy Prepared U: How Innovative Colleges Drive Student Success by Gloria Larson on Amazon.com
- The Time for the Hybrid Job is Now — Bentley’s 2016 Hybrid Job Study
Bentley University President Gloria Larson returns to Navigating Change this week to share the story of her new book, Prepared U: How Innovative Colleges Drive Student Success. The book tells the story of our changing marketplace and asks some hard questions for institutions. At its core, how well are we pivoting to provide an education that meets the needs of a new kind of student, one who is prepared to enter the world with skills and sensibilities to engage in the global marketplace? And what does this mean for a new kind of teaching we need to embrace to meet this emerging student?
“How you go to college is more important than where you go to school,” says President Larson. “Employers want both hit-the-ground-running skill sets and very strong lifelong-learning capabilities.” In the book, and her work at Bentley University, Larson demonstrates the changes required for institutions to deliver both the hard skills and soft, and help cultivate graduates ready for the challenges ahead.
Links & Notes
- About Prepared U — Bentley University
- The Prepared U Project: Millennials in the Workplace
- Buy Prepared U: How Innovative Colleges Drive Student Success by Gloria Larson on Amazon.com
- The Time for the Hybrid Job is Now — Bentley’s 2016 Hybrid Job Study
People can see change as an affront to the way things have always been done. They’re right to feel this way.
When we shift to engaging each other in culture change, something happens. People begin to see the change as a sign of progress, and not an attack on tradition. How do you produce this transformation?
This week on the show, Howard Teibel leads us through a campus-wide process that can build this kind of emotional resiliency. Reducing costs, creating efficiencies, and generating revenue is not just about our financial picture. It’s about engaging our community to declare priorities for a future we envision.
This week’s show presents how to systematically unleash your community to creatively generate ideas around operations, pedagogy, and ultimately, impacting the student experience. It’s a combination of giving up control from the top and skepticism from the middle.
This week, we bring you part two of our conversation with Grant Lichtman, author of Moving the Rock: Seven Levers WE Can Press to Transform Education. In today’s show, Howard and Grant explore a few important questions for our K-12 and higher education leaders:
- What kinds of skills are needed by students beyond knowledge acquisition?
- What does it mean to develop the skills of a life-long learner in this age of accelerating change?
- How do we prepare students to have a resiliency in their capacity to remain open to learning and what happens to the institutions that don't make this shift?
In the context of higher education, the struggle for change is happening on two fronts; how do institutions position themselves to attract students and families that celebrates their uniqueness in the market, and how do educators transition the classroom experience to one of deep learning, preparing graduates for complexity beyond the classroom? Together, Grant and Howard offer insights from their work that provides parallels between the effort to adapt that impacts K-12 and higher ed alike.
About Grant Lichtman
Grant Lichtman is an internationally-recognized thought leader on the transformation of K-12 education. His work with leadership and teams focuses on developing a comfort and capacity for innovation in a rapidly changing world. For almost 15 years, Grant was a trustee and senior administrator at one of the largest independent schools in the United States. Since 2012, Grant has visited more than 125 schools and districts, published three books, written numerous articles, and worked with thousands of school and community stakeholders to develop unique and powerful visions and strategies for transforming education away from the Industrial Age and towards future-focused models of deeper learning.
Links & Notes
- Moving the Rock: Seven Levers WE Can Press to Transform Education by Grant Lichtman
- GrantLichtman.com
- Follow @GrantLichtman on Twitter
- “What We Can Learn from 60 Schools” — Grant Lichtman at TEDx Denver Teachers, 2013
- Navigating Change 66: The Future of Education with Grant Lichtman
As emerging leaders, we are challenged by the question of where to focus our time and energy that makes a difference. What does it mean to be an orchestrator of change and lead others through these historical times in education? Orchestrating change demands a mindset and cultivation of mood that opens possibilities for us and those around us. Now more than ever, we need to build bridges between our administrative functions, the academy and countless constituents we serve. On Thursday, January 18th, Howard Teibel will be delivering the opening keynote address at WACUBO’s Leadership Symposium, exploring the type of personal skills and sensibilities that build a resilient and adaptable culture and keep us focused on the larger mission of our institutions.
Today on the show, we’re thrilled to welcome Lisa Frace, Associate Vice President, Budget and Planning and Chief Budgeting Officer for Arizona State University. Lisa serves on the WACUBO board as chair for the Annual Leadership Program and she’s joining us to share WACUBO’s efforts to further change in our field through research into how the field is evolving, and how we can better prepare tomorrow’s finance leaders today.
Links & Notes
- Register Now for the WACUBO Leadership Symposium
Once again this year, EACUBO and its members outdid themselves in building and hosting the 2017 Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh. As a part of the event, Howard Teibel was asked to facilitate a panel of three esteemed panelists for a conversation on reimagining budget and planning. But that title hardly captures where the discussion ultimately went.
The challenges facing finance leaders are many, but above and beyond the day-to-day shuffle of administration, how do leaders across the institution stay present in the vision and the mission of the institution? How do you find inspiration in a vision of future success, and how do you muster the courage to get there? This panel — and engaged audience — focuses on positive change for moving institutions forward.
Panelists J.J. Davis, SVP for Administration and Finance for George Mason University; Mike Gower, EVP Finance, Administration, and Treasurer for Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey; and Robert Goldberg, Chief Operating Officer for Barnard College share their insights and deeply personal experiences in leading their institutions in operations and planning.
Special thanks to EACUBO and its members for planning and holding the Annual meeting, including this session, and for making this recording available to our audience to share.
Links & Notes
- View the full presentation accompanying this podcast on YouTube
- EACUBO Annual Meeting
Our guest today returns to share the story of his research toward his latest book and his work understanding the nature of change in education today. In Grant Lichtman’s latest book, Moving the Rock: Seven Levers WE Can Press to Transform Education, he outlines the three fundamental questions facing education today: Why should we change, what is the change going to look like, and how do we get there?
In the context of higher education, the struggle for change is happening on two fronts; how do institutions position themselves to attract students and families which celebrates uniqueness in the market, and how do educators transition the classroom experience to one of deep learning, preparing graduates for complexity beyond the classroom? Together, Grant and Howard offer insights from their work that provides parallels between the effort to adapt that impacts K-12 and higher ed alike.
About Grant Lichtman
Grant Lichtman is an internationally-recognized thought leader on the transformation of K-12 education. His work with leadership and teams focuses on developing a comfort and capacity for innovation in a rapidly changing world. For almost 15 years, Grant was a trustee and senior administrator at one of the largest independent schools in the United States. Since 2012, Grant has visited more than 125 schools and districts, published three books, written numerous articles, and worked with thousands of school and community stakeholders to develop unique and powerful visions and strategies for transforming education away from the Industrial Age and towards future-focused models of deeper learning.
- Moving the Rock: Seven Levers WE Can Press to Transform Education by Grant Lichtman
- GrantLichtman.com
- Follow @GrantLichtman on Twitter
- “What We Can Learn from 60 Schools” — Grant Lichtman at TEDx Denver Teachers, 2013
- Navigating Change 66: The Future of Education with Grant Lichtman
In our last episode, we shared the first half of our conversation on finding your calling, recorded on a shady porch at The Chautauqua Institution in New York. This week, we’re picking up where we left off with a few quick but important observations. What is the role of unconditional commitment to a cause in determining your calling? How well are we living that commitment as a responsibility to change the world of our students for the better? What skills are we teaching and demonstrating that equip our students to expertly navigate uncertainty?
What does it mean to have a calling? How do you know you’re living a life of contribution? As a leader in higher education, are you living up to the mission of your institution? Howard and Pete get to share some rare face-to-face time in this conversation coming to you from a shady porch at The Chautauqua Institution in New York. As a recap of some of our recent interviews, we’re discussing the role of facing our failures, finding a calling, and how our calling motivates us, drives us, and propels us to do good work inside — and outside — our institutions.
This week on the show Howard Teibel sits down again with University of La Verne President Devorah Lieberman.
President Lieberman begins by sharing the story of a windfall donation that caused the school to think more broadly about giving, celebrating the role the institution serves in the community to help engender enthusiasm and direct financial support beyond alumni.
Then, she introduces a course that she leads herself, co-teaching with a president at another university, in another country, a shared stage blended with international students, designed to give practical experience in breaking down borders in education.
Both of these stories serve as milestones in the journey of change leadership and examples of the pivot in leadership that comes with a shift in perspective.
Links & Notes
- Education Across Borders — Herstory.com
This week, we welcome Gloria Flores to the show, co-founder and President of Pluralistic Networks. In her work, Gloria is committed to developing innovative ways for people to learn to collaborate, to listen, to build trust, and to build value for each other. Gloria has collaborated with Dr. Fernando Flores for many years, and her work is inspired by their many collaborations. Of particular interest to her is the creation of learning environments that will enable people to develop what many describe as “soft skills,” but that really should be referred as “crucial skills” for today’s world. She has designed and led many courses, including a four-month virtual, but fully immersive program – Working Effectively in Small Teams (WEST) – designed to support people as they develop skills and sensibilities that will enable them to work more effectively with other people.
Her book, Learning to Learn and the Navigation of Moods: The Meta-Skill for the Acquisition of Skills, helps readers to become more aware of the emotional aspect of learning new skills, and provides a framework that empowers people to take the actions that they need to take to continue learning, and not give up along the way.
Links & Notes
- Learning to Learn and the Navigation of Moods: The Meta-Skill for the Acquisition of Skills by Gloria Flores
- Pluralistic Networks
- Working Effectively in Small Teams: 4 Month Immersive Virtual Reality Learning Program
This week on Navigating Change, Berkeley Professor Ricardo San Martin joins us in a conversation about teaching. What does transformational teaching look like and what does it mean to present that teacher as learner. How can we empower students to explore with each and build a sense of their own ownership in the learning process?
Professor San Martin’s own transformation comes at the forefront of the science he teaches. As a visiting lecturer at the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology at UC Berkeley, he leads a class on the development of plant-based meat. The cutting edge chemistry, biology, business, and manufacturing that goes on in the course serves to put student and teacher alike in the role of explorer, and it’s changed the way San Martin approaches the classroom.
Professor San Martin shares his personal journey with us today, and as such offers lessons in the future of the faculty-student relationship.
Links & Notes
- Connect with Professor San Martin on LinkedIn
- Meat substitutes are on the curriculum at UC Berkeley — San Francisco Chronicle
- The Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship at UC Berkeley
Dr. Daniel Greenstein serves as director of Education, Postsecondary Success in the United States Program, for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Before joining the foundation, Greenstein was Vice Provost for Academic Planning and Programs at the University of California Office of the President. In his current capacity, he oversees work to substantially increase the number of students who acquire a post-secondary degree or certificate. Dr. Greenstein frames the conversation for us around the following key points:
- How do we address the significant gaps in our workforce development needs as we head toward 2025?
- What is the role in seeking business efficiency in building a sustainable institutional future?
- Are we doing enough to be genuinely disruptive?
- How may our emerging divide in civil dialogue impact student enrollment patterns and the diverse makeup of our institutions?
Dr. Greenstein takes on these questions in the context of student success, and as powerful factors in the sustainable financial success of our institutions. This is a conversation about innovation, disruption, and engaging in an effort to take on bold ideas in support of our own future as educators.
Links & Notes
- The Gates Foundation — Postsecondary Success
- Subscribe to Success Notes: The Postsecondary Success Newsletter
- About Dan Greenstein — Gates Foundation
- Bridging Higher Education’s Rhetoric and Reality in a Changing World by Dan Greenstein
Howard Teibel has joined the line-up of presenters at this year's Administrative Management Institute at Cornell University. This week on the show, Howard shares the inspiration for his presentation, Creating a Culture of Innovation & Creativity. Using examples of the work of animation studio Pixar under the leadership of Ed Catmull, attendees will learn to design a process that encourages people to think differently about organizational problem solving while generating a high level of enthusiasm, energy, and positivity across divisions.
Links & Notes
- Administrative Management Institute at Cornell University
- NACUBO HR Horizons: “Loosen the Grip on Silo Thinking”
- Navigating Change 168: Finding Inspiration on the Outside — Bringing Innovation to Higher Ed
This week on the show Howard Teibel sits down again with University of La Verne President Devorah Lieberman. Today, President Lieberman shares insights into the planning process with background on the University’s 2020 plan, forecasting 30-year career demand, and driving toward sustainability while maintaining agility.
Beyond theory, La Verne is demonstrating their promise of innovation through two programs designed to meet the needs of its community. The first increases access to education that meets future career demand, while the second improves the availability of aid to serve students today. Learn more about these creative programs from President Lieberman on today’s show.
Links & Notes
- Convergence at University of La Verne
“Jeff, what does Day 2 look like?”
That’s the first line of Jeff Bezos’ 2016 letter to shareholders, a question from a staff member at an all-hands meeting in which he describes a transformation that organizations can find themselves undertaking without careful and diligent attention. His response:
“Day 2 is stasis. Followed by irrelevance. Followed by excruciating, painful decline. Followed by death. And that is why it is always Day 1.”
We start our conversation on the podcast today, pivoting off of Bezos’ response and his drive to maintain the agility of Day 1 inside Amazon, with a question of our own: Where is higher ed? Is higher ed in Day 1 or Day 2?
There is power in exploring this question for ourselves and then finding ways to explore with others.
Jeff Bezos’ letter will take you just a few minutes to read, and it sets the stage for a broader discussion that is critical for us in higher ed to help move our institutions forward with courage.
Links & Notes
- Jeff Bezos’ 2016 Letter to Shareholders — April 12, 2017
We’re talking about mood today. Now, a discussion of mood may sound strange for you and your academic or administrative team to be paying attention to. It’s far from strange and we’re going to make the case that being receptive to your mood and those of your team is foundational to drive productivity and success for your organization.
This conversation is inspired by the work of Fernando Flores and writings of Gloria Flores in her book, Learning to Learn and the Navigation of Moods: The Meta-Skill for the Acquisition of Skills. You can find the link to her book in the links below.
Links & Notes
- Learning to Learn and the Navigation of Moods: The Meta-Skill for the Acquisition of Skills by Gloria Flores
- About Pluralistic Networks
One of the realities of complex human organizations is that culture is emergent, that we put teams and departments and structures in place and then we hope. Whatever sort of campus culture that comes out of that cocktail is what we’re stuck with.
Our guests today are here to demonstrate that culture can be crafted, developed, and encouraged when approached with intention. Jennifer Williams serves as director of campus climate, and Katy Rees as associate VP for finance and administrative services at Cal State University San Marcos. Thanks to the deep support of their president, the two have spearheaded an initiative to build a healthy culture and along the way uncovered some fascinating lessons around the role of strategy, demographics, and what it takes to truly engage around core service delivery.
Links & Notes
- CSU San Marcos Campus Connect
- CSU San Marcos FAS Division Quality Improvement (QI)
- "Intentionally Designing a Winning Culture" (PDF)
This week on the show Howard Teibel sits down with University of La Verne President Devorah Lieberman. Her tenure at La Verne and her approach to leadership is defined by a guiding principle: that students select a major not based solely on their interest in a specific discipline, but in a mission, a guiding cause that reflects the mark they want to make in the world.
President Lieberman joins Howard to share how this principle has come to reflect not just the encouragement she offers her students, but the approach the administration takes to ask deeper questions and allow their mission to serve institutional growth.
Links & Notes
- University of La Verne — President’s Message
This week on the show, founder and principal of rpkGROUP, Rick Staisloff, joins Howard Teibel for a conversation on leadership from the outside in. As seasoned consultants to higher education, the two address how to affect the way leadership sees themselves, the contingencies forcing change. According to Staisloff, if colleges want to be truly innovative, they need to start by educating their own leaders about the business model. How can this first step serve to improve the types of investments made in innovation, the expectations of these initiatives, and achieving a holistic cultural change on campus?
About Rick Staisloff
Rick Staisloff is the founder and a principal of rpk GROUP, a leading national consulting firm supporting colleges, universities, and other non-profits with their growth and reallocation strategies. He has been a leading voice in the development of new business models for higher education, working closely with the Association of Governing Boards, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Lumina Foundation, NACUBO, and others to develop a new language and new metrics around cost, price, and finance issues for the higher education sector. Staisloff served as Vice President for Finance and Administration for College of Notre Dame of Maryland (now Notre Dame of Maryland University) beginning in 1998, in addition to leadership roles at Carroll Community College and Maryland Higher Education Commission.
Links & Notes
- Want Breakthroughs that Last? Consider your Business Model by Rick Staisloff
- rpkGROUP
- Connect with Rick on LinkedIn
- Connect with Howard on LinkedIn
“The biggest mistake we make is that we think the best subject matter experts will be the best teachers,” says our guest, Elliott Masie. He’s head of the Masie Center, a think tank focused on how organizations can support learning and knowledge in the workforce and he leads the Learning Consortium of over 200 global organizations cooperating on the evolution of learning strategies. This is how our conversation begins today, but certainly not where it ends.
This is a conversation about adaptation. As administrators, coming to terms with the fact that our institutions are changing is only one step. Understanding how they’re changing and then getting out of the way as our principle educators experiment and evolve will be our coming charge. Masie’s take: employers care less and less about our transcripts; they want us to prepare our graduates to accomplish complex tasks. But do we really understand the contingencies in place to enable us to change from the inside?
About Elliott Masie
Elliott Masie is a futurist, analyst, speaker, and writer. He is editor of the online newsletter Learning Trends by Elliott Masie, in addition to a dozen books. He’s head of the Masie Center — a think tank focused on how organizations can support learning and knowledge in the workforce and he leads the Learning Consortium of over 200 global organizations cooperating on the evolution of learning strategies. He’s a broadway producer behind Kinky Boots, Godspell and more.
Links & Notes
- Masie.com
- About Elliott Masie
Friend of the show Jeff Shields is back to talk about building monumental change in independent schools as a preview of the 2017 NBOA Annual Meeting in Washington D.C. As President and CEO of NBOA, Jeff’s charter is to lift business officers beyond the baseline expectations of their roles and help them become change agents and true leaders in their schools. This week on the show, Jeff offers insight into one of the key learning opportunities to that end for independent school business officers, the NBOA Annual Meeting platform.
Howard Teibel will once again join the ranks of speakers at the NBOA Annual Meeting where he will present Facilitating Strategic Conversations. The annual meeting takes place February 26-March 1, 2017.
Links & Notes
- NBOA Annual Meeting
You never know where good ideas are going to come from. We take it as axiomatic that inspiration comes from synchronicity, and too often we leave it at that, relegating the best ideas to the whimsy of luck.
This week on the show we’re challenging this commonly held wisdom thanks to our work with key partner, University of Colorado, in developing a process to cultivate synchronicity, to bring the right people together, and drive a change in culture that celebrates the incubation of great ideas.
The story doesn't end on this week’s show. Howard’s latest piece for NACUBO’s HR Horizons electronic newsletter, “Loosen the Grip on Silo Thinking,” provides deeper background on the CU story and resources you can use right now to change the way you think about how you craft your best ideas.
Links & Notes
- NACUBO HR Horizons: “Loosen the Grip on Silo Thinking”
Howard Teibel recently sat down with noted educator and prolific writer Dr. Bill Massy talk about our changing perception of universities as complex human systems. The advanced modeling work that Dr. Massy has over his distinguished career has helped institutions around the world to better understand pedagogical performance improvement and the relationship of that work to administration and leadership through sound operational models.
The mix of tradition, culture, rules, norms, finance, pedagogy, and how we collaborate across the aisle — all of these elements contribute to the mix of our higher ed learning institutions. Dr. Massey is an award winning author, emeritus professor and former vice president of Stanford University and the perfect guest to help us navigate the web of today’s university.
Links & Notes
- Course-Level Activity-Based Costing as an Academic and Financial Tool (PDF) — William F. Massy
- Are U. S. Colleges becoming less productive? — Bill Massy
- Improving Measurement of Productivity in Higher Education — Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning
- Honoring the Trust: Quality and Cost Containment in Higher Education — By William F. Massy
- William Massy criticises university decision-makers’ data use — The Australian
Today on the show we present a conversation on one of the toughest components of managing an exceptional team: letting go of those who no longer perform to expectations. Dr. Robert Johnson, Dean of Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, joins us to talk about the personal skill of letting people go, the importance of clarity and honesty in communication, and building support for these hard decisions not just on your team, but across the institution.
- About Dean Robert L. Johnson, MD — Rutgers New Jersey Medical School Dean
Larry Levine, who serves University of Colorado as associate vice chancellor and CIO, joins us today to tell a story that will help drive our conversation on building exceptional teams. It’s a metaphor that helps to frame change in an organization through our relationship with our teams and our collective momentum. It starts on a boat and ends with a visceral and familiar experience we all share when working in underperforming units.
Links & Notes
- About Larry Levine
Succession planning — the way most of us do it — doesn’t work. Face it: the last thing that today’s leaders want to do is plan their exit while they’re still 100% invested in doing today’s work. And that’s why this topic is so important: it is precisely because it is unpalatable that we hide from it, dodge it, look the other way.
The opportunity is to think of our work in a holistic way and from day one, be thinking about how you would turn over or share your work with others. Today on the show we’re talking about succession planning and the impact on our institutions and teams when we don’t take an active role in stacking our bench with future leaders from within and outside the organization.
Links & Notes
- Why Companies are So Bad at Succession Planning — BusinessInsider
- 2016 National Profile of Higher Education Chief Business Officers — NACUBO
This week, we’re talking plainly about a subject that most leaders typically bury in metaphor. You might be organizing seats on your bus, or trying to put the right tools in your shed. Whatever the creative euphemism, you’re talking about your people.
Most leaders focus on finding the right people for their team, but that’s only step one. Having the courage to move people on when the organization’s needs no longer pair with theirs is another thing entirely. Sometimes people need encouragement or a gentle push to do something different.
How willing are you to accept disruption on your teams in exchange for exceptionality? That’s the central question that kicks off our conversation this week, and three considerations that will help you approach your staffing ecosystem with candor.
Links & Notes
- Radical Candor — The Surprising Secret to Being a Good Boss
The Public-Private Partnership is proving to be one of the more compelling solutions to complex financing challenges on campus, and if you’re not up to speed, you should start asking questions. This week on the show, Marcus Grimm joins us from Benchmark Construction to help us do just that, and tell us the story of Millersville University and their pledge to build robust new residential facilities without impacting their debt capacity.
But this story is just a preview. On December 1, Howard Teibel will be facilitating a webinar with guests from Millersville, Student Services, Inc., and RISE Real Estate to tell the story of their partnership and a clever arrangement that brought an end to traditional dorm-style housing on campus in less than five years.
Register Here
Panelists include:
Tom Richardson, Associate VP / Dean of Students, Millersville University
Geoff Beers, CEO/GM, Student Services, Inc.
- Jeremy Doss, Vice President, RISE Real Estate
Professor Brad Allenby maps the changes in higher education to grand revolutions of European history, that of the Glorious British Revolution of 1688 or the French Revolution leading to the Reign of Terror. As a faculty member at Arizona State University, Dr. Allenby has seen first hand the pressure building in the classroom and beyond it. Schools are facing challenges to their economic models, just as faculty are facing pedagogical challenges in the classroom. This week on Navigating Change, Dr. Allenby joins us for a conversation on change, how we market education, and what it means for all of us to remain relevant over the next twenty years.
Links & Notes
- Brad Allenby at ASU
- Technological, Social, and Sustainable Systems — Brad Allenby MOOC at EdEx
- The Techno-Human Condition by Braden Allenby and Daniel Sarewitz
- The Human as Design — Braden Allenby at The Chautauqua Institution
Over the last two episodes we’ve discussed two major functions of strategic thinking. In the first, we shared insights around uncovering your key message. In part two, we focused on how to get the attention of your audience with headlining your vision.
This week, we’ll focus on the key factors to bring strategic thinking to your work that asks the big questions.
Strategic thinking is not linear or delivering on daily work. It’s about peering around corners, across horizons, and uncovering trends that exist beyond the bubble of your institution.
We make split second decisions based on the headlines we see every day. Will we read the next email that hits the inbox? Will we take the time to read the next project plan in the pile? The answer depends on the power — and the persuasiveness — of the headline.
In our change workshops, we’ve seen headlines move mountains, messages that engage teams to pivot and take action with a focus on the long game, beyond the crises of today.
In part two of our three-part conversation on strategic communication, we’re talking all about headlining. We demonstrate the exercise that allows you to both define your key message, and build an emotional connection to a new reality with a team inspired to act.
Many of us, whether we recognize it or not, are doing an ineffective job at communicating strategically. If part of your day-to-day role is to move people and projects forward through influence, this week's conversation is for you. It starts with a deceivingly simple premise: your teams care less about what you want to do, than why you want to do it.In part one of a three-part conversation we dive into what it means to be a strategic communicator. Do you have a clear understanding of your own engagement to your projects? When asked, can you answer why the work is important to you? Do you understand how your message connects with your constituent audiences as a leader of your institution? This week on the show, learn key insights that will not only allow you to present the work of the campus clearly, but also engage and inspire your teams at the same time.
Dr. Lori Bergen is the founding dean of the College of Media, Communication and Information at University of Colorado. A veteran journalist turned academic, she’s president of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, and serves on the national advisory board of the Poynter Institute. Prior to CU, she served as dean of the J. William and Mary Diederich College of Communication at Marquette University.
Dr. Bergen joins us this week to share the story of University of Colorado’s new college, one of program change, discontinuation, merger, and the challenges that come of progress at a time of concern in our field. CU’s CMCI is truly a story of innovation and growth in higher education and serves as a terrific role model.
Links & Notes
- College of Media, Communication and Information
Boomers. Gen-Xers. Millennials. With three generations in the workforce, institutional leaders are standing in the middle of an ideological stew. Members of each bring with them their own belief systems, their own value of work and change, their own appreciation of mission. Sometimes, these belief systems come into conflict with one another. But when smart leaders authentically invest in understanding the nature of their workforce, when they are able to approach younger staff in a way that challenges and inspires them, their institutions have the potential to change the world.
This week on the show, Howard reviews his recent presentation aligning the Teibel Decision Making Model to generational differences in the workplace. In the process, we discuss a key resource, the generational value table.
Links & Notes
• Generational Value Table
Great leaders know the importance of visuals to move groups to action. This week on the show we’d like to introduce you to an expert in the art and technique of telling a story quickly, powerfully, and artistically.
Karyn Knight Detering is an artist and visual communicator and founder of Ideas Take Shape, a graphic facilitation company dedicated to helping her clients find creative ways to communicate their ideas and concepts. Her expertise is two-fold: she’s an artist, but also an improvisor, able to listen for key concepts and ideas to craft a story that cements understanding for businesses looking to drive change. She’s done some fantastic work for Howard and we’re thrilled to be able to share her ideas with you today.
Links & Notes
- International Federation for Visual Practitioners
- IdeasTakeShape.com
Scott Carlson is an award winning senior writer for The Chronicle of Higher Education, where he has been contributing to our field since 1999 across a range of issues: college management and finance, the cost and value of higher ed, planning, sustainability and so much more.
Today, Scott joins us to talk about his feature, “Should Everyone Go to College,” published in the Chronicle of Higher Education May 1 which has sparked some valuable discussion challenging deeply held cultural beliefs around the value of the four-year degree, vocational education, and access to educational resources for all.
Scott shares some of the surprising reactions to the piece from educators and administrators that might just pave the way for a change in how we think about education for the next generation.
Links & Notes
- Should Everyone Go to College? by Scott Carlson
- About Scott Carlson
Most new engagements begin with an idea. Leadership presents an objective and the team gets to work. Whether it’s a strategy retreat or a new team-building program, the most common march is one of people moving, celebrating activity, without a pause to ask the question: will this approach achieve the results we’re looking to achieve?
This week on the show, Howard Teibel shares a few common missteps in project management that can derail initiatives and offers three steps toward meeting collective buy-in and establishing momentum on your next project undertaking!
Our guest today is passionate about education. That, of course, could be said of any of us working in institutions across the country. Amy Laitinen doesn’t exercise her passion for education in the classroom, however. She fights for quality and transparency in Washington as director for higher education at New America.
Today on the show, Amy joins us to share her perspective on policy in higher ed, and the role of policy in fostering innovation and quality. There’s a gap, to be sure, and today we’ll discuss the complex competing factors that impact our ability to close it in our administrative conversations.
About Amy Laitinen
Amy Laitinen serves as director for higher education at New America. She’s served as a policy advisor on higher education at both the U.S. Department of Education and the White House. She was named by the Chronicle of Higher Education as one top ten innovators of 2013 for her work on federal policy and competency-based education. Today, her efforts are focused on crafting federal policies to increase quality and transparency in higher education.
Links & Notes
- Shifts in Higher Education
How do we transform our institutions and learning models to meet the needs of tomorrow’s students? What does “student success” mean to the academic mission of tomorrow’s institutions? How do we better adapt the college experience to address complexity and transparency? José Bowen currently serves as the 11th president of Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland, and he joins us on the show today to help map the winding road toward student success. Along the way we learn a deceivingly valuable lesson of music: count on modulation and improvisation as a versatile leadership mentality.
Links & Notes
- TeachingNaked.com
- Goucher College
Howard Teibel’s latest feature, “A Voice, a Vote, and a Veto,” hits the pages of this month’s issue of NACUBO Business Officer Magazine. It’s an approach to shared governance you might not be hearing right now, not focusing on rules, regulations, or fiduciary responsibility, rather addressing the human dynamic of shared governance and how developing your institutional skill in collaboration fosters balance and growth across academic, administration and board leadership. Our conversation today serves as both a preview, and a roadmap of three key concepts that will help you and your administrative and academic units to approach shared governance with a keen eye on the objectives you seek to achieve.
Special thanks to Dorothy Bassett who assisted in research and crafting this article. It will appear in the print edition of the magazine for one month before release online. We’ll replace the link as soon as it is available.
Links & Notes
- NACUBO Business Officer Magazine
Gerald Hector is Vice President for Finance and Administration at Ithaca College. In part one of our conversation last week, Gerald shared his insights on the importance of the CBO-CIO relationship, and we expected that to be the extent of our conversation. Then he surprised us with a fantastic pivot. In part two, we take on the power of storytelling in moving the institutional mission forward. From using metaphor to explain complex financial subjects, to his "Dollars & $ence" meetings, now central to his mission around campus financial leadership, Gerald's input is a valuable perspective far beyond his role as a technical finance leader.
About Gerald Hector
Gerald Hector serves as chief financial officer with administrative oversight to the offices of Auxiliary Services, Digital Instruction and Information Services, Facilities, and Business and Finance, as well as providing support and direction for all of the College's financial endeavors.
Links & Notes
- Enlightening IT — NACUBO Business Officer Magazine
- Navigating the New Normal White Paper — Southern Education Foundation
- Gerald Hector Series at The HBCU Nation — SoundCloud
Gerald Hector is Vice President for Finance and Administration at Ithaca College. He serves as chief financial officer with administrative oversight to the offices of Auxiliary Services, Digital Instruction and Information Services, Facilities, and Business and Finance, as well as providing support and direction for all of the College's financial endeavors. But he started in technology, and in his work understanding the requirements of the role, he cultivated a set of skills unique to finance. Today, we’re talking about the CBO-CIO relationship, and the fundamental changes ahead in how we impact our most important constituency: our students.
Links & Notes
- Enlightening IT — NACUBO Business Officer Magazine
- Navigating the New Normal White Paper — Southern Education Foundation
- Gerald Hector Series at The HBCU Nation — SoundCloud
This week we have the second of our live podcasts coming to you from the Western Association of College and University Business Officers Annual Conference in San Francisco. Howard Teibel is joined by the incoming WACUBO presidents in which they share their hopes and insights around the power of a diverse and inclusive association, along with living up to the pressure of the legacy of leaders that has come before.
Our guests this week include…
- WACUBO president Jean Vock, currently associate dean at Eller College of Management, University of Arizona
- WACUBO 2nd vice president, Robert Moore, currently senior vice president, Colorado College
- WACUBO At Large board member and Future Leaders’ Forum Program Committee Chair Arch Asawa, currently vice president for finance and administration and CFO, Soka University
- WACUBO 2016 Annual Conference Host Chair Teresa Costantinidis, currently associate vice chancellor for budget and resource management at University of California, San Francisco
Thanks to all our guests for taking part in this wide-ranging conversation at the live event at the WACUBO Annual Conference in San Francisco.
How do you get people to engage in a conversation around failure? According to our guest, “you can see in organizations where iteration and the failure that might come with it is accepted as something that can be positive, and something that can help us get to the destination we’re trying to get to.” Creating a culture of iteration, and adapting toward a state in which you see failure as growth is a challenge, but one worth taking. SVP of First American Education Finance Chad Wiedenhofer joins us today to talk about iteration and growth. How do you trigger conversations around alternative models of financing that business officers should be considering? How do you help lead your institution toward creative new models of revenue generation? These are central to our conversation with Chad today, and certain to open new opportunities for dialog at your institutions.
Links & Notes
- First American Education Finance
- The Higher Standard
In just a few weeks, the Western Association of College and University Business Officers 2016 Annual Conference is set to convene in San Francisco, California. The program is full of incredible speakers and events kicking off Sunday, April 24 with a Keynote by former Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice, and a catalog of university presidents and business officers who are leading the charge for change in their institutions. You can find out more about the conference at wacubo.org.
Ruth Johnston is Associate Vice President at University of Washington. As such, she serves as Chief of Staff for Planning & Management, and leads and facilitates UW's Organizational Excellence, working across the university leading and facilitating strategic planning, process improvements, developing future leaders, measuring performance, and helping to manage change. That background makes Ruth the perfect person to join us for this conversation.
Howard Teibel and Ruth Johnston are among the speakers at this year’s WACUBO annual conference. They’ll be presenting “Cultivating Organizational Excellence” together day one, April 24th at 2pm, leading a conversation around organizational maturity, defining organizational health, and uncovering how you support yourself and others through organizational change. So mark your calendars, and we’ll see you in San Francisco.
Risk mitigation is not new, says our guest. "But it's also not easy." And Janice Abraham should know. As CEO of United Educators, a premier risk management and liability insurance company in higher education, Abraham spends her days leading the charge in helping more than 1,300 academic institutions to think of both the upside and downside of all potential horizons. Within the context of academic structures, a robust discussion of risk today must include not just cooperation between academics and administration, but collaboration in preparing for risk scenarios. To what extent is this sort of interaction taking place in best in class institutions today? How far do forward-thinking boards need to go to be involved in risk strategy? These questions and more are on the table in this wide ranging conversation with our very special guest, Janice Abraham.
Links & Notes
- Risk Management: An Accountability Guide for University and College Boards — Janice Abraham (Amazon, iBooks, AGB)
- United Educators
About Janice Abraham
Janice Menke Abraham joined United Educators (UE) as president and CEO in 1998. During her tenure, UE has become known as the premier risk management and liability insurance company serving educational institutions; more than 1,300 schools, colleges, and universities rely on UE’s education-specific expertise. UE has been recognized by Ward’s 50 as one of the top performers in the property-casualty insurance industry.
At this year’s EACUBO Annual Workshop in Boston, Howard Teibel shared the stage with Bentley University President Gloria Larson in a conversation titled Building and Supporting your Leadership Team that centered on how leadership teams communicate their shared vision for success across the institution.
This week, we have a follow-up conversation between President Larson and Howard Teibel in which they share their observations in a few key areas:
- Hear President Larson’s position on the opportunities that come with generational transitions and power of the Millennial “triple bottom line” awareness
- Learn about the Bentley’s Center for Women in Business, and their role in facing the professional gender gap head on through public-private partnership
- Get key insights on how to set yourself up for success if you’re on a new team in a new organization from two people who have done it
- Find out how to stay focused through daily distractions as you evolve in alignment with your strategic goals
This is a wide-ranging conversation that addresses a central question: How do you manage the future of the university while solving the problems of today? Join us and share your comments!
Links & Notes
- Bentley University Center for Women in Business
- The Gallup-Purdue Index
In late 2013, our guest, futurist Bryan Alexander, and colleagues crowd-sourced a new metaphor into our higher ed vernacular: The Queen Sacrifice. According to Alexander, The Queen Sacrifice is a strategy in which “a college or university sacrifices one of its most vital elements (faculty, academic offerings) to ward off financial woe.” The perils of a queen sacrifice are plenty, implying both a practical fissure in the institution, and a cultural one. When financial restructuring is on the table, pushing cuts of academic programs shines a spotlight on institutional values and mission, in addition to financial woes.
This week on Navigating Change, Bryan Alexander joins us to address a question that eludes the most talented academic strategists: how do you transform academic structures and programs without diminishing the mission?
Links & Notes
- BryanAlexander.org
- Colleges prepare to sacrifice the queen
- Future Trends in Technology in Education
- Rascovar: At Mt. St. Mary’s, Newman was wolf in the hen house
- Revolution in Higher Education: How a Small Band of Innovators Will Make College Accessible and Affordable by Richard A. Demillo
Want to condition yourself to do 100 push-ups a day? Then start with just one, and do it right after you use the restroom. Such is the advice from Stanford professor BJ Fogg in his TEDxTalk about using tiny habits to launch big change in your life.
The same is true for organizational change. This week on the show, Gail Gregory joins Pete Wright to share the experience of UMass Lowell and their effort to transform the institution, one tiny initiative at a time. Gregory and UMass Lowell’s Lauren Turner published the story of that journey in the Winter 2015-16 edition of CUPA-HR’s Higher Education Workplace magazine. Find the link below.
Links & Notes
- Forget big change, start with a tiny habit: BJ Fogg at TEDxFremont
- Are You Ready for Change? Gail Gregory on Workforce Management at UMass Lowell
- Ron Friedman’s Peak Work Performance Summit
“I never used the words ‘strategic planning’…”
Mark Heckler has served as president of Valparaiso University since 2008. In his tenure so far, the institution has achieved some notable wins: expanded facilities, expanded academic programs and a five-year campaign achieving the largest fundraising goal ever achieved by a Lutheran University. Today, Dr. Heckler is overseeing the implementation of the most expansive and comprehensive Strategic Plan in the University’s 150-year history. Today, he joins us on the show to talk about the planning process employed at Valparaiso, and how he and his team created a framework for crafting the next chapter of the institution with an eye toward inclusivity and diversity of perspective.
Links & Notes
- Valparaiso University
When we talk about good customer service in higher education, what does that mean? Do your teams recoil at the word ‘customer’? Is there a shared interest in delivering quality service across the institution? If any of these questions are challenging for you to answer, don’t worry, you’re not alone.
This week on Navigating Change, Howard Teibel shares his insights in working with teams to embrace service across the institution. What does it take to bring a service mindset to your team? How do you help your team to better understand the audience you serve? Better still, how do you create a powerful movement for change — from those who work directly with your students, to those up and beyond your team?
Later this month, Howard will deliver Managing Up and Out at the NACUBO 2016 Student Financial Services conference. This presentation is focused on the intricacies of managing relationships beyond direct reports, with supervisors and peers across departments, all in an effort to build smart strategic relationships and serve our most important audience: our students.
Links & Notes
- NACUBO 2016 Student Financial Services Conference Schedule
"People don’t have a problem with change. They have a problem with the uncertainty that the change — or the anticipation of the change — creates."
Howard has returned from the NBOA Annual Meeting in Los Angeles and brings lessons learned from his time with business officers and leaders of independent schools. This year, the presentation focused on three key areas: Leading Change, Decision-Making, and Strategic Communication. The objective, to answer the question: where are you in your career and what do you see your role to be in your school? Are you the finance officer, head, or are you truly a champion for change? Thanks to a rich dialog with questions from group, this was an engaging and inspirational session.
This week on the podcast, we’re taking comments from Twitter during the session and responding directly.
University of Colorado at Boulder is launching the first new college on campus in over 53 years. This is the beginning of an exciting period for the institution, one of building, creating, and supporting growth through bold academic and administrative leadership. What does it take to bring teams together, especially after a period of uncertainty? This week on Navigating Change, we’re talking about making the transition to construction from deconstruction, and building an academic environment where faculty and staff find the support they need to help deliver on their promise of student success at CU’s College of Media, Communication and Information.
Links & Notes
- CMCI at University of Colorado
Burck Smith is the CEO and founder of StraighterLine, an education company that works to solve a major hurdle for many students: cost. They do this by offering accredited courses online for a monthly fee with credits that are guaranteed to transfer within their network of transfer colleges. This week, we welcome Smith to the show to introduce us to the StraighterLine approach and outline why it’s a good fit in the broader higher education ecosystem. In our on-going conversation around the value of transfers and alternative credit pathways, StraighterLine demonstrates an interesting and innovative approach to building capable students online.
Links & Notes
- StraighterLine.com
According to a study released last Tuesday, only 14% of students who start out in the community college system actually make the leap to a 4-year college and graduate. That the transfer system boasts some leaks is not a surprise to those of us who’ve been working in the field, but that the leak is so significant is stunning.
The reason we want to talk about this statistic this week on Navigating Change, and the transfer system in general, is that we’re seeing an increasing impact on the 4-year colleges, and an increased sense of ownership by these schools that this is not a “Community College Problem” alone — that it’s a challenge of shared ownership and responsibility to address it.
Links & Notes
- Transfer System from 2-Year to 4-Year Colleges Isn’t Working, Report Says
- New Report Ranks States Based on Colleges’ Performance in Helping Students Transfer to Four-Year Universities and Earn Bachelor’s Degrees
What does sustainability look like? That’s the question at hand on the show this week, as we navigate the waters of innovation and decision making through strategic use of data. Dr. Teresa Hardee, CFO and CBO at Delaware State University, joins us to share her institution’s story of breaking down silos, encouraging institution-wide participation, and creating a culture of transparency around the numbers.
One of the unique elements of this transformation is DSU’s Data Transformation Team. This team includes faculty and academic leadership, administration, finance, institutional research, marketing and a data scientist. Their role is to serve the institution as a resource in strategic decision making, and foundational support to back up the more creative initiatives they aim to achieve.
Links & Notes
- Delaware State University
- Delaware State University Office of Finance & Administration
About Dr. Teresa Hardee Currently serving as Delaware State University’s Chief Operating Officer, Dr. Teresa Hardee brings over 20 years of accounting, auditing, budgeting, and managerial experience. Dr. Hardee holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration (and a minor in Accounting) from Fayetteville State University, Master of Public Administration degree from North Carolina Central University, and an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Hardee is also a Certified Public Accountant.
Since joining Delaware State University, Dr. Hardee’s leadership has produced unprecedented standards of improving financial oversight and manageability, business-process management and leveraging technological advancements to ensure effective and efficient processes. Prior to Delaware State University, Dr. Hardee served as Chief Financial Officer of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University. Dr. Hardee’s transformational leadership has generated clean audits, performance improvements, strategic re-engineering, etc. She has been a member of the Executive Management Team for the last 10 years.
This week’s conversation is inspired by two pieces in higher education circles. The first, by Beckie Supiano for the Chronicle, is targeted toward telling the story of college pricing and the overall education market to key constituent audiences. The second, from Daemen College President Gary Olson, attempts to address six common myths around private higher education. Both articles highlight the undercurrent in our industry today- that we have lost ownership of the conversation around higher education in the media, and the tone is shifting to one of economic scandal above opportunity.
This week on the show, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright offer a response and continuation of the discussion around the myths of higher education, and invite you to contribute. Share your comments on the blog, or connect with us on Twitter @HowardTeibel or @PeteWright.
Links & Notes
- Six Common Myths About Higher Education by Gary A. Olson
- How to Talk to Regular People About What’s Happening to College Prices by Beckie Supiano
"Higher ed needs to eat its own dog food,” says Peter Kane, CEO of e-procurement firm Unimarket. This idea of dog-fooding, the concept that institutions practice extensively in their own operations what they teach in the classroom, has proved to be a challenge in higher education. When we run into internal operational challenges, can we honestly say that we’re as adaptable institutionally as we like to think we are? This week on the show, Unimarket CEO Peter Kane joins us to share his experience working with innovators in higher education who strive to be as good operationally as they are in the classroom. “Why shouldn't it be as good internally as we're trying to produce externally?” says Kane. “[Institutions] talk about themselves as if it’s really hard work, making change, and yet at the same time are keen to make change for themselves.” This week on the show, we share the perspective from an experienced practitioner in helping institutions implement change, transform operations, and develop long-term technology solutions that drive toward internal excellence across our teams. About Peter J. Kane CEO, Unimarket Peter was a partner with global accounting and consulting firm KPMG for 10 years including 5 years leading the management consulting practice in New Zealand. He was subsequently Senior Vice President for South Asia Pacific for global consulting firm BearingPoint, which focused on business transformation, operations improvement and technology implementation. Peter has held senior executive contract roles for large New Zealand organisations under-going significant change, including a national rural services company and national telecommunications business. He has also advised businesses on shareholding restructurings and acquisition and divestment strategy. In 2008 Peter invested in and joined the Board of technology start-up Unimarket where he has held the CEO position since 2011. Peter is a shareholder and director of a group of recruitment companies and also serves on the Board of Save The Children New Zealand. Links & Notes
- Unimarket
- Ep 112: The Challenges of Implementation with Unimarket’s Brian Sweeney
This week on Navigating Change, we invite writer, speaker, and teacher, Bryan Alexander, to join us and talk about the ever changing world of higher education. As a futurist, Bryan navigates trends in the field of how technology transforms education. In Teibel’s work with leaders, we focus on shorter timeframes, helping to free those overwhelmed by the act of change to move into action. In our conversation today, we attempt to bridge the two: how do we help one another to narrow relevant trends of today, to make the best choices for learners of tomorrow? How do we move our expertise beyond identifying current problems across our institutions, to envisioning our future free of those constraints, with a team rallied behind a journey to take us there?
Arguably the most challenging part of any change process is rallying the support of the people around you to join you on your way. This week on the show, we present Howard Teibel’s model for approaching any population you’re trying to influence in a specific direction. No, this isn’t about re-programming or hypnosis, though that would certainly be easier, even if ethically challenged. This model is for you — the change agent — a method of reframing your audience, of refocusing your efforts, and of driving the support of your most valuable supporters while not being distracted by those who don’t.
Howard Teibel once again joins the ranks of presenters at the NBOA Annual Meeting 2016 in Las Angeles. This week on the show, we talk about the levers and pulleys of financial sustainability — tools of financial officers to make change toward financial sustainability, enrollment, and growth — that provide the seed for Howard’s deep dive session to come at the conference. Striking the balance between enrollment management, financial aid, diversity and fiscal sustainability drives the forward thinking business officer, and we’re taking on these topics today.
When you’re on the outside, observing teams in action, you have the benefit of the unique perspective to offer insights that lead to real change. This is the benefit of the consultative model, and of teams engaging in external support to help lead change efforts. But what happens when you move from the outside in? How do you inspire the same to motivation to change in your teams once you, too, are part of the culture of the institution?
This week on Navigating Change we’re talking to Christian Recknagel about his work at Benchmark Construction. Christian moved from his role as lead consultant at E4 Consulting to internal change management lead at Benchmark, and faces the challenge of innovating from the inside out every day.
This week on Navigating Change, we’re talking about the space between power and control on campus. It is somewhere between these two concepts that there exists a détente between well-meaning though protective faculty and campus leaders. As an ideal, each recognizes their own power and influence, and uses it to build a better community of learners. More often, power is wielded to protect turf and demonstrate authority at the expense of true progress.
Today, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright discuss the tools and controls in place to help institutional leaders come to agreement and craft a model of shared governance each can be proud to own.
We’re back and settled into our post-EACUBO rhythm, so this week we thought we’d take a few minutes to reflect on lessons learned, lessons (hopefully!) taught, and leave you with some insights on the value of volunteer leadership. The big question: How do we engage the people we’re calling on as volunteers to marshal their energy, enthusiasm, and trust to get them to help us move our institutions forward? From boards to academic teams, this challenge cuts across leadership and calls on us to be at our most clear and creative.
We continue to learn much from our experience with these business officers and EACUBO 2015 was no different. The truth is, we are not alone. And as difficult as it may be to face our financial challenges, we can take some solace that we’re all learning these new lessons and skills together.
This week on Navigating Change we're once again recording live from the Cheers Lounge at the EACUBO Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. Howard Teibel hosts a conversation this week with two esteemed guests: Gregg Goldman, SVP and CFO at The University of Arizona and Chair of NACUBO, and Dave Button, CBO at University of Regina in Saskatchewan and past president of CAUBO. Each brings a unique perspective on the state of CBO readiness for complexity in the coming year, and they uncover a series of fascinating parallels in the state of higher eduction between the US and Canada.
This week on Navigating Change we’re recording live from the Cheers Lounge at the EACUBO Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. Howard Teibel has gathered the regional presidents for a conversation on the state of higher ed after a day of learning in sessions. For our time, we take on how the regions are equipping their members to take back the dialog on the value of higher education in a media landscape that has not been so kind.
Special thanks to WACUBO President Lynn Valenter, SACUBO President Ben Crutcher, and EACUBO Chair Mike Gower for their insights this week, and for taking their time to join us live in Philly!
Disruptive Innovation, the concept that new — typically inferior — products have the tendency to crowd out better products that are more costly, has been doing it’s own crowding in higher ed leadership. This week in the Chronicle, Evan Goldstein does his part to unravel the mystique of Clay Christensen and the DI landslide, a fascinating article in and of itself.
There is clearly disruption in higher ed. Does it fit the model of Christensen’s Disruptive Innovation to the letter? Perhaps not. But today on the show, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright talk about the role of disruption, and the power of leading from a position that embraces it as part of the engine of change.
Next month, eastern business officers and university representatives decend on Philadelphia for EACUBO’s 2015 Annual Meeting. Howard Teibel will be there, this year joining incoming EACUBO chair Lynne Schaefer hosting a conversation on Facilitating Strategic Conversations. How do you engage your team to take on complex projects? How do you rally around objectives that are handed down to you? How do you adjust your course when you realize your group is mired in old thinking? This week on the show, Lynne joins us for a conversation on all this and more as we gear up for another terrific conference.
The EACUBO 2015 Annual Meeting takes place October 11-14, 2015 at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown. For more information, visit EACUBO.org.
On September 28th the NACUBO 2015 Planning and Budgeting Forum kicks off in Austin, Texas and Howard Teibel will be there, joining Sue Menditto — NACUBO’s director of accounting policy — in a presentation on leadership and change and getting the organization you want. We’re thrilled to have Sue join us for our conversation today.
Sue kicks us off with some background on the conference and makes a fantastic case for attending. This is the fourth year for the Planning and Budgeting forum and 2015 is already at capacity.
From there, Howard and Sue walk us through a concept not entirely new to listeners of this show, but one with a unique new spin. Central to it is this idea that technical skills are a given, but soft skills have become the new differentiator in the best leaders. The twist is all about permission that leads to a new way of thinking about the work. For that, we hope you’ll dive in and listen to this week’s show!
This week on Navigating Change we welcome Manu Narayan to the show. Manu is a truly renaissance man. He’s an actor of stage and screen. He’s an accomplished musician. He’s a writer and producer. And for all his professional creative talents, he joins us to discuss his role of Young Alumni trustee on the board of Carnegie Mellon University.
Our conversation is broad in scope, but the lessons are important. Manu’s experience and youth at the table of senior leadership reflects more accurately the body of students the university educates, and the role of young alumni trustee serves to celebrate the critical importance of diversity of thought and experience leading our institutions.
Hard skills and soft skills. We’ve certainly discussed them before. Your organization is likely full of competent leaders, managers, and team members well qualified to perform their functions, expert finance leaders, marketing and enrollment specialists, academic leaders, and beyond. This week, Gail Gregory and Howard Teibel share their insights into the challenges they’re seeing across institutions. Our sensationalist headline aside, the not-so-surprising key learning: institutions replete with technical talent may be facing a shortage in the soft skills that can keep people working together and delivering results!
Last week’s conversation on turning leaders into guides inspired us to revisit the Teibel Decision-Making Model in the light of helping guides facilitate decision-making without authority. How do you help those empowered and accountable for change move through difficult decisions without skin the game yourself? This week we walk through the model through this lens and post the key question plaguing so many teams focused on change: Do you really understand the conversations you’re in? The projects you’re accountable to deliver? Why your institution needs you where you are, doing what you’re doing today?
This week on the show, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright revisit the Decision-Making Model with an eye on those charged facilitate change, without authority or accountability to make change themselves.
Making the transition from leader to guide, from administrator of your own institution to agent of change for others, is a complex effort both personally and professionally. At this year's AGB Conclave, new and seasoned administrators alike came together to learn and share as they work to turn their experience into support for others. This week on the show, Howard Teibel shares his experience leading a small portion of the Conclave, and offers insight into the challenges and opportunities ahead of us as we work together toward a strengthening higher education environment.
NACUBO is currently developing a body of research and series of tools to help business officers and their institutions assess their place in the economic landscape of higher education. Changing demographics and a decline in students, decline in state funding, decline in philanthropy, and an increase in tuition and fees above CPI are just a few of the factors impacting higher ed operations and the public impression of American institutions.
Thanks to research led by Senior Fellow of Finance and Campus Management Bob Shea, NACUBO is taking the lead in creating a definitive set of factors and a common language around the way institutions exist in the economic landscape. This week on the show, Shea joins Rutgers CBO Mike Gower and Howard Teibel to share how this project and it’s targeted outcomes will impact institutions in their drive toward sustainability and growth.
Today we’re talking about bottlenecks in project implementation, it’s a sort of spiritual follow-up to a conversation we had just a few weeks back, (The Danger of Thinking in Projects — Ep 101), and we have an expert with us to share the load with keen experience in rolling out large institutional software installations.
Joining us on the show this week, we have our special guest Brian Sweeney. Brian is the head of US Operations for Unimarket, providing procurement solutions to higher ed institutions around the world. Brian offers unique experience in software project implementation in higher education and shares his insights into the cultural change that comes with technological innovation across campuses.
Being in the middle of a major school merger, Mike Gower knows the importance of clear and concise strategic plan. As SVP for finance and treasurer at Rutgers, Mike has an active role in leading change as these institutions come together, aligning resources and data in service of delivering top tier education for their students.
This week, Mike joins Howard Teibel in Nashville, TN, as they take a few minutes out of their busy NACUBO Annual Meeting schedule to share thoughts on leadership and change in the spirit of the gathered community of finance leaders.
Nuno Cuoto lives and works from his RV. In his work as a consultant and project manager in higher education, his ultra-mobile command center has become a central component to leading change through his firm, Optimal Partners.
This week on Navigating Change, Nuno joins Gail Gregory and Pete Wright for a conversation around improved business models in higher education. It’s a discussion around the power of education, and how we as providers can thoroughly engage all stakeholders in the equation. We discuss the “Mentorship Mentality,” the challenges that face business offices in leveraging all their most creative assets in solving their most difficult challenges.
Nuno’s work as a social entrepreneur and community leader make him a terrific resource to spearhead an important conversation around creativity and inspiration, and how we are all working to build stronger, more vital higher education institutions today, to meet the needs of the community — and economy — of tomorrow.
The Administrative Management Institute is coming up July 27-31 at Cornell University, co-sponsored by our friends at EACUBO. This is a professional conference for line managers, department heads, and other leaders across the higher ed organization, coming together to talk about the role of effective decision making in developing and executing departmental strategy. If you’re a line manager, you might live in a world in which you believe that decisions are made above your pay grade. This week on the show, we dispel that myth and share how your behavior in the decision making process can affect the attitude of your team, your peers, and your leaders across the institution.
It’s a show of a different color this week as we take on a debilitating challenge faced by so many of our colleagues: we are terrible at disconnecting, recharging, and prioritizing ourselves over our work. The idea for this show started as a chance to talk about how we’re pledging to take smarter vacations, but it doesn’t take long before we veer into culture and the demands of communication, technology, and stress. No, this isn’t about higher ed, but if you work in this field with us, you know where we’re coming from. As we transition into summer, join us — Howard Teibel and Pete Wright — in our pledge to choose health, reduce stress, and recharge.
Links & Notes
- 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works—A True Story — by Dan Harris
- How to set up and use Do Not Disturb mode on iPhone and iPad
If you’re taking the stage as a presenter at the NACUBO Annual Meeting, you’re (hopefully!) well into preparing your presentation, rehearsing your slides, ensuring your jokes are funny, and timing what are sure to be copious applause breaks! But it’s never too late to learn from the greats, so this week on the show, Gail Gregory and Pete Wright are talking presentations, and offering insights that can help you turn your speech into a memorable event!
We often talk about the power of a strong partnership between the chief academic and business officers in driving institutional change. Today, we’re talking with two individuals who demonstrate the practical success that comes from just this sort of partnership, as their institution is truly tested with a change in their fundamental economic reality.
Faced with declines in state funding leading the nation, University of Colorado has been forced to develop innovative solutions that allow the institution to maintain its position as a leading research institution, while maintain affordability for its students. Doing so has required a best in class partnership between Senior Vice Chancellor and CFO, Kelly Fox, and Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Russell Moore.
Kelly and Russ will join Howard Teibel at the NACUBO Annual Meeting next month in Nashville to share their presentation, “Collaborating for Impact: The CBO/CAO Partnership in Practice.” Today on the show, they share the background of their story, and the core principles that drive their partnership, and conditions for change at University of Colorado at Boulder.
The board’s announcement that 2014-15 will be the last academic year for Sweet Briar College has given our field much to process. Each constituent audience — from administrators, to the board, to faculty and students, to staff and community — has been struggling, in some cases quite publicly, with a world in which their institution no longer exists. And now, as this closure moves into the courts, even more questions arise around the question of legality in this closure. It’s a complex scenario, but one which opens the doors to hard questions all institutions should be asking as they work to adjust to this new normal.
Are you considering shared services? It's is a concept rich in opportunity, and rife with concern across institutions facing the pressure of change. Administratively, taking advantage of streamlining opportunities makes intuitive sense; sharing administrative and technological resources across the university rather than department by department has the potential for reduced costs, increased specialization and expertise, and greater consistency in work practices. But the process of changing across the university is often misunderstood in an effort to sell benefits to impacted departments.
This week on Navigating Change, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright offer insights and experience in moving toward a shared services model from the administrative and faculty perspectives. It’s a conversation on the wide ranging implications of shared services from better hiring, greater cost management, and building strength in capturing and using data more efficiently.
Lasting change comes in two parts. First, you have to have a clear vision of where you'd like to go, with a leadership team aligned behind a mission, and a strategy to get there. Second, you have to build a culture that not only encourages, but inspires individuals to take action in support of your strategy each and every day. It is from incremental daily action that sweeping institutional change emerges. How do you lead from behind and mentor others to step forward? This week, Howard Teibel and Andrew Menke discuss strategies behind empowering teams to take initiative.
Following up on our conversation around what's going on in the education landscape in episode 99, we're talking about collaboration — real, true, and authentic collaboration between teams that don't fully understand one another. It's a conversation in which we attempt to resolve the noise between faculty, administrators, boards, and students in favor of improved signal. As Howard so aptly observes, "Success, for many presidents and cabinents, is simply the absence of collective dissent."
This week on the show, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright offer suggestions and observations to help institutions break down barriers and move toward significant and authentic shared governance across the institution.
We talk often about the importance of senior leadership alignment around mission, vision, and strategic goals for the institution. But once you define this strategic direction, how do you translate it into the day to day activities that move the institution forward? This week, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright discuss the importance of making the leap from “project thinking” to framing change around transformation, dodging the stagnation that comes with the return to business as usual, once change projects close.
The Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities just wrapped up their annual conference at Fordham University in New York City and Howard Teibel was on hand with our friends from Loyola to discuss "A New Way of Proceeding," Loyola's administrative and academic review. You've heard us talk about this project before on the podcast in our series on Loyola's work. This week, we're looking back on the project as Howard and the Loyola leadership team take the stage to present the results of their work and the ongoing transformation they're seeing at the institution.
Recorded straight off stage from the 2015 AGB National Conference on Trusteeship, Howard Teibel shares his reflections on trusteeship, and lessons he learned working with trustees navigating their most challenging issues. From the coming closure of Sweet Briar, to the challenges of institutionalizing change, Howard and Pete dive into the importance of changing our thinking from cooperation to collaboration, and shifting adversarial relationships toward finding alignment across the entire institution.
As we cruise toward our centennial episode of Navigating Change, we’re stepping back to share some of our key lessons learned. We’ve heard from presidents, chancellors, and trustees as they navigate their institutions though the rough seas of higher education, from the funding challenges facing the large publics to the demand challenges of community colleges, the value challenges of the smaller liberal arts colleges to the credibility challenges of the for profits. This week on the show, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright take a walk through the issues facing each group and set the stage for lessons yet to come.
This week on Navigating Change, we continue our conversation on governance with trustee Larry Baker. Dr. Baker serves as medical director for the emergency department of UnityPoint health in Des Moines, But for our conversation today, his most important role is as trustee, serving as chair on the board of Des Moines University Osteopathic Medical Center.
Our conversation has wound around a central theme: What is it that stakeholders in leadership look for in one another as they guide the collective institution? From the trustee perspective, how do you tell the story of relationship building with the president, senior administration, and beyond, balancing the needs of authority, accountability, and responsibility between parties? What is the role of the trustee in guiding and leading change in the institution?
This week, Dr. Baker joins Howard Teibel and Pete Wright to discuss the key principles that guide his work as chair on the board of the Des Moines University Osteopathic Medical Center.
The challenge and complexity around audacious change projects continues to grow in our institutions. This week on the show, we take on the impact of culture and environment on our ability to drive complex change projects.
Ron Friedman is an award-winning psychologist and author of “The Best Place to Work,” a book that offers a view of the latest research in management, motivation, behavior and beyond, to illuminate what really makes us successful on the job.
We’ve invited Ron to join us for a conversation around the design of workplaces that cultivate engagement and creativity and, as an academic himself, to share his insights into what education can learn and apply toward a stronger work environment that is ready to embrace change.
Links & Notes
- The Best Place To Work: The Art and Science of Creating an Extraordinary Workplace (Kindle Edition) — By Ron Friedman, PhD
- The Best Place To Work Book
About Ron Friedman, Ph.D.
Ron Friedman, Ph.D., is an award-winning social psychologist who specializes in human motivation.
He has served on the faculty of the University of Rochester, Nazareth College, and Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and has consulted for some of the world’s most successful organizations. Popular accounts of his research have appeared on NPR and in major newspapers, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, The Globe and Mail, The Guardian, as well as magazines such as Men’s Health, Shape, and Allure.
He is a frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Forbes, and Psychology Today.
Over the past month, we've talked with university presidents, trustees, and faculty, cultivating a dialog around building strong relationships between institutional leadership. In the face of strained board-president relationships, diffused shared governance practices, challenging financial and regulatory environment, stresses on the balance of leadership abound.
In light of the search for this careful balance of accountability, authority, and responsibility at the top, our conversation today focuses on the role of the board in helping the institution improve its decision-making prowess, provide leadership and vision at the strategic level, and above all else, to be consequential in the ongoing development and growth of the institution. What does it take to build a consequential board? What should we expect of the board of 2020? And what sort of impact does the board need to have in higher education?
This week we welcome Richard Chait to Navigating Change. Dr. Chait is Professor Emeritus of Higher Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and co-author of “Consequential Boards: Adding Value Where It Matters Most” published by AGB.
Links & Notes
- Consequential Boards — AGB Report
About Richard Chait
Richard Chait (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin), Professor Emeritus at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Chair of COACHE's National Advisory Council, studies the management and governance of colleges and universities. Chait has expertise on terms and conditions of faculty employment, including promotion and tenure procedures, academic freedom, and faculty evaluation. He also studies the roles, responsibilities, and performance of boards of trustees, and has written on faculty work life. For over 20 years, Chait has taught in HGSE's summer institute programs for executives in higher education. He has been a professor at the University of Maryland and at Case Western Reserve University, and was formerly associate provost at Pennsylvania State University. In 2001, Chait was selected by the Fulbright New Zealand Board of Directors as a Fulbright U.S. Distinguished American Scholar. In 2005, Chait received the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) Academic Leadership Award and a Research Writing Award from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). His recent books include Governance as Leadership (with W. Ryan and B. Taylor) (2004) and The Questions of Tenure, ed. (2002).
Teibel, Inc. has been working with UMass Lowell as part of the institution’s strategic planning process. Today on the show, we’re going to dive deeper into the project with our special guests from UML, Joanne Yestramski and Lauren Turner. The work of their teams across the institution has served to cement a culture of organizational agility in this challenging education market, and has fostered year over year growth in quality education, service, and enrollment. Joanne and Lauren join Gail Gregory and Pete Wright for a the story of UMass Lowell, from a massive shake-up in top leadership, to a culture of sustained growth and progress.
Our conversation today is a prelude to their presentation next week at the EACUBO Annual Workshop in Washington DC. Join Gail, Joanne, and Lauren as they showcase their work, and the evolving UMass Lowell organizational structure that has served them so well.
Our on-going series on governance brings us to the faculty perspective this week. From the point of view of an academic leader in the institution, we’re interested in putting a framework around expectations of governance, in particular: how do we do shared governance effectively in our institutions? Given the sometimes subtle nuance between authority, accountability, and responsibility for leadership, how do we know when we’re doing it well?
This week on the show, Professor Steve Fowl joins us to share his insights as an academic leader on what makes shared governance work. As a member of faculty, Steve paints a picture of an environment in which there exists clear and effective collaboration between faculty, administration, and board leadership.
The university board has an opporunity to help guide the strategy of the institution. But striking the right balance between engagement and over-involvement in leadership can be a challenge.
From his perspective — and his 16-year tenure as president of St. Edward’s University — Dr. George Martin has cultivated a reputation of leadership and balanced communication with the board of his institution. This week on the show, Dr. Martin shares the critical importance of developing a discipline of strategic planning, creating a culture of leadership that is always asking: “How is what we are doing now contributing to the strategic plan of the university.
Beyond the board relationship, Dr. Martin shares his perspective on the value of shared governance. “It’s a huge resource,” he says, “it allows you to take advantage of the tremendous minds and intellectual power that is on your faculty and to use that for advancing the university."
This week on Navigating Change, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright investigate the careful balance between the board and the president in protecting, growing their institutions.
In part two of our series on governance, we turn to Rick Legon. In his role as president of the Association of Governing Boards, Legon has worked with institutions around the world, helping to strengthen board relationships and further the dialog for change.
The challenge lies in creating a shared dialog, according to Legon. “Cultural norms exist to keep stakeholders in their place. We can’t continue that way, but the behavior is entrenched."
This week on the show, Howard Teibel and Rick Legon discuss the challenges in fostering strong board leadership to help institutions face their collective crises ahead.
The forces impacting higher education add complexity to a carefully balanced system of leadership in our institutions. Unique issues face boards, administrators, and faculty, and finding alignment between them is key in demonstrating progress toward strategic goals.
Today we begin a series exploring governance in higher education from the perspective of leaders across the institution. In a series of conversations with trustees, presidents, faculty and beyond, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright host a dialog around authority, accountability, and responsibility for leadership.
This week, we set the stage for our conversations to come and introduce the big questions we’ll attempt to answer as we take on governance—leadership, strategy, and creativity at the top.
Do you know your institutional research team? If not, you should. This question of data, and how we use it most appropriately and effectively is becoming an ever-increasing tool in driving change. But what comes with data is complexity.
Today on the show, we welcome Terra Schehr, Assistant Vice President of Institutional Research and Effectiveness at Loyola University Maryland. Terra shares her experience leading the IR team in demonstrating and serving the institution through data. Terra is being asked to collect and report new kinds of data — and reflects on some of her practices in benchmarking and longitudinal data around lifelong student experience. It’s a fascinating conversation on an incredibly powerful set of tools in service of institutional growth and change.
Dr. George Martin has served as president of St. Edward’s University for over 15 years. In his tenure there, he has become an expert navigator of the waters of institutional change. This year, Dr. Martin has launched a new project, an administrative review designed to capitalize on the university’s successes, and prepare to face the challenging landscape of higher education before us all.
This week on Navigating Change, Dr. Martin shares his experience in cultivating top-down and bottom-up decision making that positively engages the entire university community. He outlines his rationale behind embarking on such an audacious change project now, and what success will mean to the finance office — and the culture of St. Edward’s in the future.
The 2015 National Conference on Trusteeship from the Association of Governing Boards is coming up April 19-21in Phoenix and this year’s event promises a rich line-up of leaders and board members tackling the biggest issues facing higher ed institutions around the world. Howard Teibel is on the docket this year, joining the list of facilitators for the Leadership Institute for Board Leaders and Executives the day before the main session, April 18.
We’re thrilled to welcome AGB President Rick Legon to the show this week. Rick has served as AGB President since 2006. This week, he shares his keen insights in the challenges facing board leadership in today’s institutions, and how the Conference on Trusteeship serves to align leaders to face them. How do we maintain an affordable education while ensuring the highest quality? How do we address the glass ceiling of tuition revenue in supporting the institution? How do we adapt to the changing relationship between state and federal regulation and the education experience? This is a wide-ranging conversation that dives into the fundamental question: how do we frame the board’s role as one critical piece of the institutional leadership puzzle?
In Norse mythology, Loki was the trickster. In one of his particularly sticky exploits, he wagered his head with a group of dwarves and lost, creating a wonderful metaphor describing the complexities of difficult negotiations for us today known as “Loki’s Wager” — if a concept cannot be satisfactorily defined, it cannot be discussed.
Seemingly impassable problems are common in the boardroom. But in most cases, such challenges stem from weak trust and a poor culture around handling conflict. Astute leaders know that the great benefit of team work is leveraging different perspectives toward big problems. To do so requires reframing the intractable, and moving beyond Loki’s most frustrating wager.
This week on Navigating Change, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright discuss Loki’s Wager, and share insight that can help to adjust our natural assumptions around conflict, trust, and the ground rules required for an effective problem-solving and decision-making engine at the negotiating table.
Holiday breaks are coming to a close and students are heading back to classes as we celebrate one more trip around the sun. This week on Navigating Change, we take on four key trends bound to influence your decision making in 2015 as we reflect on the year gone by. In doing so, we’re setting the stage for our own conversation for year to come around institutional responsibility for external mandates, the role of academic performance measurement in data driven decision making, continued consolidations and shared services, and the leaders role in positively engaging the workforce in the face of great change ahead.
This week on Navigating Change, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright take on four key trends bound to influence your decision making in 2015.
The 2015 National Business Officers Association Annual Meeting is coming up February 22-25 in Boston and this year’s event promises a rich line-up of speakers and educators tackling the biggest issues facing independent school business officers around the country. Howard Teibel is on the docket once again this year, delivering a pair of deep-dive sessions on impactful group decision making and strategic communication.
We’re thrilled to welcome NBOA President and CEO Jeff Shield to the show this week. Jeff has worked tirelessly to ensure that this upcoming annual meeting is the best yet, and shares not only a fantastic origin story of the association, but offers welcomed insight around the importance of the business officer in the tight-knit independent school community, and the challenges they face in collaborative work across their campuses.
Over the last year, we’ve returned to the topic of administrative and academic collaboration a number of times. Our lesson: successful change projects are the result of academic leaders and administrative leaders working in concert with one another.
This week we welcome Dr. Ahmed Abdelal, Provost and Chief Academic Officer at UMass Lowell. His work provides a framework for the structure and culture that makes for a collaborative leadership model that transcends competition and gridlock.
This week on the show, Provost Abdelal joins Howard Teibel and Pete Wright to reflect on his philosophy around academic leadership and his successes in working toward respectful and reciprocal leadership across the institution.
Creating a culture adept at group decision making is one of the great leadership challenges. It requires alignment in the face of personal stakes on the team, political motivations, individual belief systems and ego. It requires individual contributors to have a keen ability to listen, and an even deeper ability to dig into a key question that is almost never asked, but may be the most important question for team processing: Why are we doing this? This week on Navigating Change, Howard Teibel illuminates the decision making process for teams, shares his own insights for making difficult decisions, and creating teams that do the same.
For those who live with it, perfectionism can be a powerful tool for creating great work, or a blunt force impeding forward motion. In either case, we often refer to perfectionist traits as profoundly personal, a set of behaviors that impacts us, but that we confidently stow away when teams are involved. The truth: the team is an organism made of individuals. And as individuals, we bring all our behaviors with us. It is the collection of individual traits that determines the identity of the teams in which we work.
This week on the show, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright unravel the nature of perfectionism on teams. From our common understanding of team norms to how this drive toward perfection can hinder the discovery of key insights that can live in the gap between awareness and action.
As leaders, it’s critical that we engage change on our campuses with enthusiasm, curiosity, and courage. Our teams are counting it, as are our extended constituencies — students, parents, and our community at large. In our efforts to engage with enthusiasm, our first and most important challenge is to embrace our own ignorance.
This week on the show, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright discuss the key tenets of process consultation, and offer guidance for asking tough questions of our own assumptions in our work to drive change in our institutions.
This week on Navigating Change we’re coming to you once again from the EACUBO 2014 Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida. Speakers at the conference have been taking on some of the most challenging issues facing chief business officers in higher education. This week, we’re joined by all four regional CUBO presidents for a conversation on the challenges they’re facing in their regions. From dropping high school populations to a changing demographic landscape to dramatically declining state subsidies, each region is working hard to ensure their members are prepared to face tomorrow’s challenges today.
Our Guests Regional Presidents, Associations of College and University Business Officers
Michael Gower, EACUBO Senior Vice President, Finance & Tresurer Rutgers University
Harold Hewitt, WACUBO Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Chapman University
Mary Lou Merkt, SACUBO Vice President for Finance and Administration Furman University
Kathy Qualls, CACUBO Senior Vice Provost for Academic Finance & Administrative Affairs University of Cincinnati
This week on Navigating Change we’re coming to you from the EACUBO 2014 Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida. Speakers at the conference have been taking on some of the most challenging issues facing chief business officers in higher education. We’re kicking off our EACUBO series with two people who serve as leaders in the effort to prepare CBOs for the demands of tomorrow’s institutions.
Lynne Schaefer is vice president for finance and administration at University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and currently serves as EACUBO vice chair. Marta Perez Drake serves as vice president for professional development for NACUBO. This week on the show, Lynne and Marta join Howard Teibel and Pete Wright to share their work in developing CBOs as strategic leaders prepared for broader challenges beyond the typical expectations of the office.
Our special thanks to all who turned out to join us at this special live event in Orlando, and to the EACUBO team that helped to make this happen!
This week on Navigating Change we conclude our three-part series in which we share the administrative and academic review from the inside out. Our final guest is Terry Sawyer, Vice President of Administration at Loyola University Maryland, and it was under his guidance as co-chair of the "New Way Of Proceeding" committee that deep investigation into institutional operations occurred. Terry’s role in senior administration, in partnership with his colleague and faculty co-chair Steve Fowl, put him in an ideal position to support challenging initiatives and difficult solutions across the institution.
This week, Terry shares his insights on the academic and administrative review from the administrative perspective, and how we were able to form a partnership to deliver both financial and cultural benefits to Loyola Maryland.
When navigating complex change initiatives, there may come a time when your team will face the challenge of calling on outside support for expertise, guidance, and potentially even leadership as you cruise uncertain institutional waters. How do you engage the right support, at the right time, in the right capacity?
This week on Navigating Change, Howard Teibel shares his experience in building outstanding relationships with external consultants as a consultant himself. From setting clear boundaries for communication, to taking on key strategic responsibilities, Howard’s insights offer a keen view into what makes a consultative partnership valuable in achieving the strategic goals of the institution.
This week on Navigating Change we continue our three-part series in which we share the administrative and academic review from the inside out. Our second guest is professor Steve Fowl of Loyola University Maryland, and it was under his guidance as co-chair of the "New Way Of Proceeding" committee that deep investigation into institutional operations occurred. Steve’s role as chair of the faculty senate at the time made him the perfect representative in the review process.
This week, Steve shares his insights on the academic and administrative review from the faculty perspective, and how we were able to form a partnership to deliver both financial and cultural benefits to Loyola Maryland.
The Central Association of College and University Business Officer’s Annual Meeting is coming up fast — October 5-7, Kansas City will play host to central region change leaders and business officers addressing the crossroads of higher education.
Gail Gregory will be on-site at the conference delivering her presentation, “Communicating Financial Information Effectively.” This week on the show, Gail joins Pete Wright to share her perspective on strategic communication and the evolving role and responsibility of the business officer, with a great review of the big events coming up this weekend. Listen in!
This week on Navigating Change we begin a three-part series to share the administrative and academic review from the inside out. Our first guest is Vice President of Finance of Loyola University Maryland Randy Gentzler, and it was under his guidance that the project ensured its focus not only on ideas for change consistent with mission but also ones that would have a positive financial impact.
As the chief business officer, Randy describes the project from its inception to deal with the short-term operating budget as well as defining a new model of financial success. Randy and Howard share their experience working as true partners in this project and offer key learnings for getting the most out of this unique relationship.
There are two fundamental considerations when communicating complex information from the business office. First, do you have the right data for your audience. Second, are you communicating that data using the right tools. Our special guest Nicole Trufant has been polishing her communications practice from the business office as Vice President for Fiscal Affairs at University of New England Next month, Nicole will join Howard Teibel on stage at the EACUBO 2014 Annual Meeting in Orlando as presenting, “Communicating Strategically to Make and Impact.”
This week on the show, Nicole joins Howard and Pete Wright to discuss how the role and responsibility of the business officer has changed in the last decade, and shares insights into her daily work to support her president, administration, faculty, students and parents across the institution.
Join the Teibel Team at the EACUBO 2014 Annual Meeting! We'll be recording live at the Cheers Reception on Monday evening, October 20. Come by and join the conversation, share your insights with Howard and Pete, and have a few well-earned laughs at the end of a long day of learning!
About Nicole L. Labbe-Trufant
Nicole Trufant serves as the Vice President for Fiscal Affairs at the University of New England (UNE). UNE was named as the 9th fastest Master's growing institution in the country by the Chronicle of Higher Education. Nicole leads all functional areas of finance and general accounting, resource planning and budget, human resources, legal affairs, student financial services and information technology services. Nicole is a CPA. She holds a BS in Accounting and BA in Sociology from the University of Southern Maine, an MSM in Management from New England College and is a graduate of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education Institute of Executive Management.
Last week, Canisius College President John Hurley welcomed faculty, students, and staff to the 2014-15 academic year at the school’s convocation event. In his speech, he outlined a vision for college success by way of three key areas: Redefinition — understanding what it means to be a student-centered institution; Revitalization — embracing new approaches to the academic model; and Innovation — evolving the business model to support a more agile institution.
This week on Navigating Change, President Hurley joins Howard Teibel and Pete Wright to reflect on his role as he begins his fifth year of service. He shares his approach to building trust in times of challenge, the critical importance of communication, and building support and understanding across a diverse body of students, faculty, and staff.
President Hurley offers candid insight into his role and it’s many opportunities and challenges.
This week on Navigating Change, we’re thrilled to have friend of the show, Michael Gower. Michael currently serves as senior vice president of finance at Rutgers University and the chair of EACUBO. He joins us on the show this week to share his insights on building trust, technology, and the forces impacting the changing business model in higher eduction.
The EACUBO Annual Meeting 2014 will be held in Orlando October 19-22. Michael and the EACUBO leadership team are leading a shift in the approach to the annual conference with new presentation models and events designed to give financial leaders the the tools they need to build trust and deliver on the mission of their institutions.
Hot news! Howard and Pete will be hosting Navigating Change Unplugged live on Monday, October 21 at the conference. If you’re going to be in Orlando, join us in person — details coming soon!
Howard Teibel will be joining the ranks of presenters at the Unimarket NOW user conference in Nashville October 22-24. To help us get ready, event co-chair Linda Penland joins us today with all the details. Linda has been a Unimarket customer since she lead the project to roll out shared services at her own institution, Creighton University. Today on the show, we talk about the challenges of such an audacious project, the hard work of communication and establishing cultural buy-in to new processes, and building excitement and momentum around important ideas.
Part two in our Grant Lichtman interview picks up with the political challenges that erupt in districts across the country. In the face of these challenges are schools making the change required to live up to the promise of true innovation in education. We reflect on the shared challenges of broken business models — both in K-12 and higher education — and the responsibility leaders have in owning positive change in the classroom. As Howard notes, “we may not be able to see the end of the road of ideological education, but we do know the practical end of the road: preparing students enabled to succeed in what comes next." This week on Navigating Change, Grant Lichtman joins Howard Teibel and Pete Wright for part two of a conversation covering his exploration, and the evolution away from assembly line education.
His latest book, #EdJourney: A Roadmap to the Future of Education, documents his 3-month journey across the United States, interviewing teachers, administrators, students, parents, and trustees to examine innovation in the K-12 classroom.
Grant Lichtman has quickly become one of the foremost thinkers and advocates for innovation in the classroom. His latest book, #EdJourney: A Roadmap to the Future of Education, documents his 3-month journey across the United States, interviewing teachers, administrators, students, parents, and trustees to examine innovation in the K-12 classroom. This week on Navigating Change, Grant joins Howard Teibel and Pete Wright for part one of a conversation covering his exploration, and the evolution away from assembly line education.
Seasoned business officer Amir Rahnamay-Azar joins us on the show this week to share his leadership practices as a new member of the Carnegie Mellon University leadership team. Just celebrating his 1-year anniversary, Amir has developed a strategic plan for his division, illuminating the objectives shared by the institution and how his operation contributes to achieving them. His process for encouraging buy-in and developing a collaborative leadership relationship with the provost is a true highlight of his work, and we encourage you to listen in as Howard Teibel and Pete Wright learn how Amir is shepherding the entrepreneurial into his administrative office.
NACUBO President John Walda joins the roundtable this week to share reflections on the NACUBO Annual Meeting 2014 in Seattle and the role of the conference in defining and supporting business officers in their work. In part two of our conversation, we discuss the importance of clarity and function of the business model to higher education, and John outlines a recently approved research project in which NACUBO will study the impacts of business model weakness. John and Howard share insights around the change expectations of student achievement in higher education. Finally, John shares his thoughts on the coming year for NACUBO and his role in leading the organization’s public policy initiatives.
NACUBO President John Walda joins the roundtable this week to share reflections on the NACUBO Annual Meeting 2014 in Seattle and the role of the conference in defining and supporting business officers in their work. In part one of our conversation, we discuss the impact of higher education on the country as reflected by speaker Bill Gates, and the role of the business officer as it continues to expand in institutions in our country. NACUBO continues to move the conversation around strategic communication forward and John and Howard both reflect on the necessity of clear and strategic communication to both internal and external audiences in maximizing the value in higher education programs.
University of Washington has become a beacon for organizational effectiveness in higher education. The work of building strength through communication and collaboration across the institution has helped to drive capacity for new projects and greater effectiveness in existing operations.
This week on the show, UW’s Ruth Johnston joins us to share insights on developing a best-in-class program around organizational excellence. Her team is behind the upcoming workshop, Effective Group Decision-Making & Communicating Strategically. Led by our own Howard Teibel, this workshop is designed for UW deans, senior administrators, and staff involved in organizational change.
Listen in for a unique perspective on driving change in higher education from a recognized leader the field.
We’re gearing up for the NACUBO 2014 Annual Meeting in Seattle coming July 19-22. As usual, the NACUBO team has built an incredible catalog of events and learning opportunities and we’re trilled to be a presenting part of it. This week on the show, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright walk through the key strengths of the event, from developing new business officers and helping to cultivate a culture of collaboration across campuses, to their leading voice in public policy around higher eduction.
This year, Howard will be co-facilitating a presentation on strategic communication with past Navigating Change guests Kelly Fox and Greg Lovins. Together, they’ll lead a discussion on the power of not only sharing a deep understanding of complex financial information, but sharing that information with campus stakeholders in a way that drives strategy across the institution.
The road to collaboration is paved with complexity. We forget that sitting on teams, driving toward improved processes and structures, fantastic new programs and initiatives, are real people with real emotional ties to the work being done. This can lead to unconscious conflict that impedes growth and progress. This week on Navigating Change, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright discuss the opportunities and pitfalls inherent in building strong teams and offer suggestions for cultivating a progressive and productive team environment.
Howard Teibel has joined the speaker line-up of this year’s NACUBO New Business Officers Program with his presentation, “Leading, Managing, and Surviving Change.” In this week’s episode of Navigating Change, Howard and Pete Wright explore the program and NACUBO’s aim to help those new to the CBO role develop skills they’ll need to lead in today’s institution.
The role of the chief business officer is evolving. New demands for the CBO call for involvement across the institution to influence and drive change, and these demands call for new skills in leadership, communication, and strategy. Now that exemplary understanding of the complexities of finance is a foregone conclusion, how can those new to this role develop skills for which they may have been heretofore untried? NACUBO has built a rich schedule of speakers and experts to help those new to the CBO role get acquainted to the new demands of finance leadership.
The New Business Officers Program will be held July 18-19 in the Metropolitan Ballroom of the Sheraton Seattle Hotel. The program is limited to chief business officers and financial officers who report directly to the president and who have been in their current positions for less than three years. For information on the program, please visit NACUBO.
Following up on our conversation with Deborah Sunya Moore from The Chautauqua Institution last week, we’re picking up this conversation around the constant balancing act between building and celebrating a strong culture, and innovating in new areas and directions. The big question: no matter how much we personally celebrate the importance of change, how do you cultivate a culture of change when members of your community do not share your beliefs? This week on the show, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright share insights around building a culture that anticipates and celebrates change and innovation while embracing the legacy of their institutions.
Taking on new challenges forces us to re-evaluate existing processes in new ways. This shake-up can introduce discomfort and confusion, par for the course in a change initiative, ultimately all for the reward of greater efficiency, productivity, and affinity. These challenges are magnified when your institution boasts a legacy over 100 years strong. Our guest, Deborah Sunya Moore, serves as associate director of programming with The Chautauqua Institution, an arts and education community in New York on a consistent march to balance innovation and change with the expectations of guests who have been attending Chautauqua for generations. This week on the show, Deborah Sunya Moore joins Howard Teibel and Pete Wright to share how the Chautauqua Institution balances change with culture year after year.
We’ve devoted many hours of this show to the role of the business officer of the institution. But today’s guest reminds us that there is great opportunity to guide and support the institution from the individual academic or departmental units. American Management Institute director Fred Rogers has spent the last 21 years working with this body of finance experts in association with EACUBO and Cornell University, building professional development programs that celebrate the great potential of unit level business officers to the institution. Howard Teibel will be presenting on Leadership and Decision-Making at the AMI conference, July 28-August 1 at Cornell University in Ithaca. This week on the show, Fred joins Howard and Pete Wright to share his perspective on AMI, and discuss the critical importance of strategic alignment across the institution.
Fresh from his time with the National Association for Education Procurement, Howard Teibel returns to share his impressions of the 2014 annual meeting. Procurement professionals are in a unique position, with the opportunity to move from the legacy transactional function to being seen as a key strategic partner in administration. But strategy is a new discipline. This week on the show, Howard Teibel joins Pete Wright to share his insights from NAEP, and shares his thoughts for procurement professionals looking to improve their decision making prowess and strategic position in the institution.
In episode 52, we discussed the role of a clear mission and vision to the strategic planning process. But we left that conversation feeling unresolved — how do you take your mission and vision and translate it into goals and objectives that move the institution forward each day? This week on the show, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright discuss the nature of organizational goal-setting, and how to engage the institution in a process to translate the mission into daily activities that encourage growth and innovation.
The WACUBO 2014 Annual Meeting has just wrapped in Las Vegas, and Howard returns with his thoughts, reflections, and connections. Encounters with Sal Khan of The Khan Academy and Professor Robert Zemsky of University of Pennsylvania highlight the trip, with a discussion of shifting models of core delivery that challenge higher education administrators and faculty alike. The bottom line: administrators are increasingly charged to both lead and support faculty with a push into a new era of service delivery. This week on the show, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright dig into this charge and share insights from a fantastic journey to Las Vegas!
Done right, and your mission, vision, and values statements can become beacons in your institution’s drive toward a powerful strategic plan. Done wrong, it ends up a in a dusty binder buried deep in a drawer. This week on Navigating Change, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright discussion the nature and importance of your mission and vision statements to the strategic plan, and offer insights for development and structure that will help your teams understand and rally behind your direction.
According to our guest Kelly Fox, Senior Vice Chancellor and CFO from University of Colorado at Boulder, communicating effectively is not just about making sure the leadership team is up to speed. It’s about positioning the most important messages of the institution in the most compelling light for every constituent audience, internal and external. This week on the show, Kelly joins Howard Teibel and Pete Wright to share her insights in effective communication, as Howard and Kelly prepare for their upcoming talk on the subject at the WACUBO 2014 Annual Meeting in Las Vegas.
In a recent editorial for the Chronicle of Higher Ed, Jeff Selingo offers his perspective on the gap between traditional education and new models of learning cropping up across the field. According to Selingo, "Traditional higher education tends to dismiss new entrants to the field in the belief that a college’s brand name resonates with consumers. In an age of democratized education, when learning happens everywhere, any day, throughout a person’s life, having a good brand name is no longer good enough.” This week on the show, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright discuss the massive shift occurring in traditional education and share insights on the characteristics of schools that are making this transition proactively.
A recent news item cropped up in the Chronicle pointing to a brewing rift between administrators and faculty over a transition to a shared services model. We’ve discussed shared services often on this show, both as a challenge for change agents and an accommodation toward financial sustainability. This week on the show, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright discuss the issues surrounding shared service model specifically, and offer insights for making the transition in a way that helps all constitutes move through the change process smoothly.
According to our special guest Greg Lovins, communication is not always easy for business officers to do. As vice chancellor for business affairs at Appalachian State University, Greg and his team are responsible to ensure the institution is equipped with the information they need to collectively make smart decisions and keen investments. Ensuring buy-in and collaboration among key constituencies is a challenge for the very best communicators, but when the message is loaded with complexity and offers a high opportunity for jargon, clear communication becomes much more difficult.
Greg will be joining Howard Teibel at the SACUBO Annual Meeting on April 13 for “Communicating Financial Information Effectively,” a pre-conference session from 12:30 to 1:20 on Sunday, April 13. This week on the show, Greg joins Howard and Pete Wright for an introduction to the interactive discussion they’ll be facilitating next week.
In “With Clarity for All,” Gail Gregory and Howard Teibel share the results of their work with leaders from Emory University, Caldwell College, and Carnegie Mellon University as they work to bridge three key leadership groups: faculty, administration, and the board. The solutions they uncovers illustrate that today’s successful CBOs are finding the common themes of mutual respect, common language, and collaboration to be key in meeting those challenges head on. This week on the show, Howard and Gail join Pete Wright to share their perspective on writing the feature for NACUBO’s Business Officer Magazine, and the critical importance of developing a culture of strategic collaboration across the institution.
In his article, “Financially Strapped Colleges Grow More Vulnerable as Economic Recovery Lags,” Mark Keierleber documents the changing tide of financial resolutions that some institutions are leveraging to stem losses. In it, we see institutions resorting to staff and faculty layoffs — a relatively recent occurrence that impacts not just the short-term financial sustainability of the institution, but the culture as well. This week on the show, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright talk about this trend as part of a package of adjustments the modern institution is turning toward for support as many struggle to adapt to new economic and educational realities.
Our special guest Andrew Menke serves as head of New Hampton School, an independent school with a nearly 200-year legacy in New Hampton, New Hampshire. The school is a model of “talent and shared purpose,” according to Menke, and he’s leading a cooperative of administrators, faculty, and staff working hard to reshape an education landscape. This week on the show, Andrew joins Howard Teibel and Pete Wright for a conversation spanning the nature of transformation in complex systems to broad community engagement in crafting responsible change. It’s a great conversations with a visionary leader!
If we're going to take on new challenges across our institutions, we have to get better at making decisions as a team. In our experience, making decisions that leverage shared experience and creativity, while not getting mired in process and politics, is one of the key best practice differentiators of highly effective organizations. Howard Teibel will be joining the EACUBO New York Area Programming Committee for their Spring Program on May 28. This week on the show, Howard and Pete Wright share a preview of the presentation and provide a framework for developing organizational effectiveness through better decisions.
We’re preparing for the EACUBO 2014 Annual Workshop in just a few weeks, and to help us out, we’re joined by guest Roger Stackpoole, Vice President of Finance & Administration at Le Moyne College. Roger and Howard Teibel will be presenting “Reaching Across the Aisle — CFO and CAO Strategic Partnership,” in which they offer insights and observations on cultivating a spirit of collaboration and cooperation between academic and business leadership.
This week on the show, Howard and Roger set the stage for their presentation with a discussion on building trust through transparency, shifting responsibility in building a healthy and financially sustainable organization, and cultivating a shared commitment to delivering the mission of the institution.
We invite you to listen to the show this week, and to begin to craft your questions and comments as Roger and Howard lead what promises to be an exciting, challenging, and participatory presentation in Philadelphia.
_About Roger Stackpoole_Roger is Vice President of Finance & Administration and Treasurer at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, NY. He is a driving force behind sustainability initiatives and strategic planning at Le Moyne College, and is past president of the Eastern Association of College and University Business Officers. Learn more about Roger at LeMoyne.edu.
On Monday, March 3, Howard Teibel will be facilitating a conversation with Amanda Ripley, an author of the Time cover story Reinventing Higher Education and Roger Stackpoole, Vice President of Finance & Administration of LeMoyne College. This week on Navigating Change, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright offer a preview of that conversation and share insights from Teibel's experience enabling teams to engage in big ideas with a keen eye on fiscal sustainability.
Academics represents the heart and soul of the mission of a great institution. And yet, even in service of that mission, the best chief academic officers understand the constraints defined by financial realities. This week on the show, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright discuss traits and characteristics of the best CAOs, and share insights on the spirit of academic collaboration that serves the mission in challenging times.
The relationship between the CBO and the institution is a powerful one. But making the transition between the role of manger to leader becomes representative of the responsibility of the role to the institution beyond the business office. This week on the show, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright discuss the traits of good business officers, and look at how the great ones challenge assumptions and become leaders of strategy.
In our efforts to help institutions lead change, we’re often placed in a position of helping chief business officers to sell change initiatives based on — sometimes harsh — financial realities. But arguing strategic direction based exclusively on financial modeling risks alienating your most critical strategic partners in administration. This week on the show, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright discuss the role of finance in strategy, and how finance leaders can move their initiatives forward with an eye on building support from administrative and academic partners that don’t live in the financial centers.
Becoming a leader of change is about far more than effective project management skill. It’s a unique and delicate art that must balance the processes that support complex organizational systems with the diplomacy to unite groups around big initiatives. This week on the show, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright share thoughts on becoming Leaders of Change as Howard prepares for his presentation on this subject at the National Business Officers Association Annual Meeting this March in Orlando.
The result of bringing together terrific individuals into a team can be a fantastic, productive foray into high calibre collaboration. Over time, we see formerly high capacity teams begin to fray at the edges, and defining clear standards and expectations both inside the team, and across teams and departments, can help to offset challenges. This week on Navigating Change, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright discuss the frustrations that come with accountability, standards, and managing clear expectations across teams.
It’s 2014 and we’re slowly coming back to work after a break. But what are we returning to? Today’s headlines on the Chronicle of Higher Ed report backlash against presidents making too much money and the way that information is reported to donors, tough odds on tenure-track jobs, and a New Year’s Eve piece at NPR excoriates online education — a tool for some institutions to revitalize excitement — and enrollment — in their programs. But the nature of change is challenge, and there is much to look forward to in the coming year. This week on the show, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright share thoughts on what’s to come, and how you can approach your challenges as an opportunity for change.
Working with a consultant on your change initiatives — internal or external — requires a shared understanding of expectations. But more important is a clear understanding of what it is you need your consulting partner to deliver. This week on Navigating Change, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright discuss the role of the consultant, the importance of "hired experience," and what it means to partner with an outsider when your internal environment is one of significant complexity.
Transformation is a powerful word, one we're tempted to use across our catalog of projects designed to produce change in our teams or organizations. But precision of language counts in our change projects, especially when it comes to setting expectations for teams that are going to be impacted the most. This week on Navigating Change, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright talk transformation, and the developmental, transitional, and transformational change we seek.
Decision-making is a difficult skill for any team, but at the senior leadership or board level, making difficult decisions brings with it the weight of the institution. This week on the show Howard Teibel and Pete Wright discuss the perils of difficult decisions in an industry in great flux, and offer suggestions on how you can diagnose whether your team is tackling the right issues for your organization at the right time.
When we're faced with jarring change — new role, new boss, merged organizations — we are often dealt with a complex individual emotional response. That response is magnified when it comes to team performance, but often for all the wrong reasons. This week on Navigating Change, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright take on the anxiety that comes with big change, and discuss how team responses can impact the transformation you're striving for.
Howard is back from Baltimore and this week we're talking EACUBO! Administrators and business officers are continuing to grasp with radical change inside and outside our institutions. This week on the show, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright discuss the EACUBO event in Baltimore and share insights and lessons learned from his work as presenter and facilitator this year.
There is a sense from higher ed media that with great diligence and focus, we can fix all of our institutions' ills. But the changing technological and communications landscape is pointing in new directions. This week on Navigating Change, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright begin a discussion on reframing the call to fix higher ed and offer their thoughts on what it might take to create something altogether new.
EACUBO 2013 Annual Meeting is coming up October 6-9 in Baltimore, MD, and as usual, Teibel, Inc. will be well represented. Howard Teibel will be delivering his latest thoughts on the finance role in strategy in his presentation, "Structuring the Finance Division for Success: Building a Strategic Organization to Support the Institution." In addition, he'll be facilitating an expert panel with Jeff Selingo and a panel of administrators and trustees discussing the changing landscape of higher education in the United States. This week on the show, listen to Howard Teibel and Pete Wright share thoughts on these presentations and more as they get ready for EACUBO 2013!
Active listening is a key skill. But while it's important to be able to listen well to teams in a period of transformation, it's even more important to be able to turn what you're observing into action. This week on the show, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright talk about the power of active listening in change processes, and how great leaders turn that skill into action on their teams.
This week on Navigating Change, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright conclude their three-part discussion on a robust decision-making process and the importance of uncovering the "why" of every change initiative. In this episode, we talk about how best practice organizations turn outcomes of change initiatives into action.
This week on Navigating Change, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright continue their three-part discussion on a robust decision-making process and the importance of uncovering the "why" of every change initiative. In this episode, we cover brainstorming and the critical importance of strong leadership in the process.
This week on Navigating Change, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright begin a three-part discussion on a robust decision-making process and the importance of uncovering the "why" of every change initiative. In this episode, we cover the foundational elements and visioning structure that helps teams understand the foundation of their change story, and how to connect with it as a team at new levels of depth.
Loyalty is a tricky subject made only more complicated when it comes to change initiatives. This week on the show, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright take on loyalty — to a person, to an institution, or to a cause — and discuss how an evolving sense of loyalty impacts teams.
Following up on our conversation around reflections on NACUBO 2013, we're digging into issues facing the finance organization on today's show. While we hit on the three key points around relationship building, communication, and what it means to be a leader, the real secret lies somewhere in keeping touch on the role of the individual as a seed for change. Join Howard Teibel and Pete Wright for a conversation on change and the challenges facing today's finance organizations this week on Navigating Change!
We're back from the NACUBO 2013 Annual Workshop — and what a terrific week it was! Howard Teibel is back with a review of key learnings and an assessment of the evolving direction of the organization. Did NACUBO make good on their renewed focus on Innovation in Higher Education? Listen in this week for our take!
At this year's NACUBO Annual Workshop, Howard Teibel will join NCAA business officers for a rich discussion on the nature of leadership, communication, and broadening the contribution to the strategic planning process. This week on the show, Howard Teibel shares his objectives for the session, encouraging business offers to get ready to think bigger than their functional roles.
This November, Howard Teibel will be heading to Chicago for the National Business Officers Association (NBOA) 2012 Strategic Leadership Conference. In brief, this is a conference dedicated to the people charged with moving our schools forward in times of great challenge and increasing complexity, with integrity and fiscal stability.
Originally published in HRHorizons for the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), Helping Employees Embrace Change, outlines the key elements that cause fear and confusion in team members when confronted with significant change, and how that individual frustration directly impacts the success of organizational change initiatives. Howard Teibel offers a framework for positive change, offering the techniques your organization can implement to turn natural confusion into a positive learning and growth opportunity.
This week on the Navigating Change Podcast, join Howard Teibel and Pete Wright for a discussion on the change framework introduced in the article, and the importance of building a positive change environment.
Helping Employees Embrace Change
``` “What happens when anticipated change becomes your worst fear?
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— Howard Teibel, "Helping Employees Embrace Change"
Halfway through my most recent talk at a higher education conference, I told the attendees that I wanted the first three rows to move to the back of the room and the last three rows to move to the front. After a brief pause of bewilderment and disbelief, attendees started gathering their belongings to move. That’s when I announced: “You don’t have to move. This is only a test.” The imaginary pitch forks aimed at me transformed into a collective sigh of relief.
For most of us, something routine like picking a seat at a conference entails a simple calculation: Sit in the back if you want to sneak out or text without being seen; sit in the front if you want to be actively involved in the discussion; or sit in the middle if you want the benefit of both those options. Whenever you ask someone to get out of their comfort zone—such as moving to a different seat—the reaction is often as predictable as it is humorous: Are you kidding? Why? I’m not moving.
Those same responses tend to surface whenever a system implementation is announced. Consider also the common reaction when word comes down that a restructuring will take within your division or perhaps organization wide. In both cases, internal emotional chaos ensues.
Is it possible to help ourselves and others relate to big changes in a way that empowers a positive reaction, even when the change appears on the surface to be negative? How can we learn to shift our mental framework from thinking about the bad things that might happen to envisioning the opportunities we can create for ourselves and others?
Three Common Reactions to Change
First, consider three different reactions to change.
- Cool ambivalence. Sheila has been working for her college for the past 18 years. Coming to work one morning she discovers an e-mail from her associate dean describing a plan to restructure the department, along with some changes in management. A consultant would be helping with the process. The rumors start buzzing, as staff members attempt to interpret the hidden meaning behind the announcement. Most of Sheila’s coworkers are 10 to 20 years younger and have little experience with change in the workplace. Sheila, on the other hand, recognizes this as something she has been through many times before. Over lunch she proceeds to share her perspective with coworkers to alleviate their fears about how wide-sweeping the change will likely be and suggests they not worry about much actually changing. This is simply someone’s latest “great idea” that they will need to weather.
- Irrational anxiety. Bob, an IT manager, is responsible for the human resource and financial systems used across the campus. He has been in this role for two years, having worked his way up the organizational chart during the past 10 years. During a staff meeting with the head of the department, Bob learns that the university is looking for a new strategy to replace the constant upgrades and patches needed to keep these systems current. A task force has been assembled focused on exploring ways to significantly improve efficiency in IT, specifically in the areas Bob supports. Upon hearing this news, his first thoughts are that his own job is in jeopardy. He proceeds to e-mail every colleague in the department detailing how bad this change will be. Within a week, half of the staff members in his department think they are in danger of losing their jobs. Two months later Bob is still talking about how bad the change will be, and his department remains in a state of high anxiety.
- Positive purpose. Joan joined the human resources department three years ago and enthusiastically wants to make a difference in the university’s hiring practices and processes, bringing to bear her unique perspective and success from her previous institution. Within six months Joan discovers how difficult it is to integrate new practices among her coworkers. Despite the skepticism she has encountered—including from her boss—Joan is determined not to give up trying to initiate positive changes. Every time someone tells her why something can’t be done, Joan listens and then shares her vision for a different way to consider the issue.
Sheila, Bob, and Joan reveal distinct reactions people can have when facing change. Sheila’s tenure at the college makes her resilient, but also ambivalent and unenthusiastic. Bob is waiting for the next shoe to drop—and in the meantime is stirring up anxiety among his coworkers. Joan not only ignores the negativity of others, but continues to offer ideas for making positive changes for her department and the institution.
What causes people to have such varied reactions in the face of change? Different life experiences, a perceived lack of options or fear of loss, and poor self-esteem or low confidence are among the many factors that may contribute to how an individual reacts to something new or different. How can we improve our personal reactions to an anticipated change and help others do the same? Often, the problem is not change itself but the ambiguity that change creates. Marilyn Ferguson, author of The Aquarian Conspiracy, may have characterized it best when she said:
“It's not so much that we're afraid of change or so in love with the old ways, but it's that place in between that we fear… It's like being between trapezes. It's Linus when his blanket is in the dryer. There's nothing to hold on to.”
Change forces us not only to recognize that we can’t rest in our comfort zone, but also to confront the fact that we might not be able to look forward sufficiently to see where we will land. Any change requires venturing into that middle place and looking for some hint of light at the end of the tunnel.
Taking the Positive Approach
"With a new governor, a new board of trustees and the reality that we are now a tuition-dependent institution, our organization needed help embracing change. I was looking for a way to help our managers and staff understand that personal responsibility for navigating change in our professional lives is a key component of a high-performing team,” says Bob Shea, vice president for business affairs at the Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI).
This need led Shea to offer a workshop to his division focused on learning to better accept and embrace change. In reflecting on the workshop, Shea noted that the people who benefited most from the workshop were those who brought a certain perspective to the experience. “The common thread among those who found it most useful were those having an open mind and some level of optimism for the future.”
One CCRI staff member who participated in the workshop recognized that she needed to adjust how she viewed work challenges. Terrie-Lynn Bell, media specialist in the IT department, had felt overwhelmed by the learning curve of her work and didn’t think she knew enough to do her job well. She was concerned she wouldn’t be able to resolve certain issues on her own, especially with regard to helping faculty with technical issues in the classroom.
Among the insights Bell took away from the workshop were the need to bring a positive attitude to each new challenge and to surround herself with others who also have a positive outlook. Getting on the negative bandwagon only spreads those negative vibes to others, and that can impact your own progress and success, observes Bell, who interacts frequently with students and faculty in her job. “If you struggle, they struggle. If you’re comfortable, they’re comfortable. If you laugh, they laugh.”
Four Rooms, Four Views
While most of us are hard-wired to seek what is within our comfort zone (e.g., a particular seat in a room), and while some of us are able to let the ambiguity of something new roll off our shoulders, there is a common cycle we all go through in times of real change. During the workshops at CCRI, attendees were introduced to the four-room model of change developed by Swedish psychologist Claes Janssen, which allowed them to identify where they were within the institution’s change cycle and became a useful mechanism for beginning to feel a greater sense of control for taking positive action.
The four rooms of Janssen’s model are contentment, denial, confusion, and renewal. The four-room model can be applied to any type of change—a reorganization, a potential layoff, or watching your child head off to college. Let’s use the implementation of a new hiring system to consider this model.
Contentment room. Within the workplace, a very familiar example of traveling through the four rooms is evident when an institution rolls out a new technology campuswide. Before the current system is shut down and the new system is up and running, most of us are in a place of contentment. Logging in, processing a transaction, and logging out is second nature—something we could almost do in our sleep.
Denial room. Then on a Monday morning you go to process a new transaction and nothing is the same. Yes, you received training on the new tool, but let’s be honest: Does anyone really pay attention until they have to do something for real? By the time you’ve reminded yourself how to log in to the new system, you could have processed the entire transaction and gone to lunch using the old system. It doesn’t take long for a sense of frustration, anger, and desire for the old system to return. In the denial room, you longingly look back and want to forget the reality of the change.
Confusion room. Most of us do need time to vent our frustrations, blame management, or get over our initial discomfort. Yet, at some point we must move on and “get with the program.” The sooner we recognize that no one is listening to our complaints and the new system is here to stay, the more quickly we can enter this third room. At this point we’re not completely ready to let go of the past, but we start to make greater efforts to get through the change. (This is also that middle place described by Ferguson, where we can’t bring back the past, but we don’t yet see how we’re going to end up in a better place.) Confusion itself is often misunderstood. This is an emotional state that actually signals the beginning of learning and the foundation for accepting something new. The next time someone shares with you how confused they are, respond “that’s fantastic.” You may get some odd stares, but what we’re really saying when we’re confused is that we’re trying to learn how to do something. We’re using our energy to look forward versus looking back. Getting to this room is a key milestone in navigating change.
Renewal room. As the confusion starts to wane and we develop a greater comfort and confidence with the new system, we find ourselves admitting that maybe the new way is better than the old way. This is when we enter the fourth room, and with it comes a sense of relief and satisfaction for having successfully tackled the change. In some cases, renewal may not last long before the cycle begins again—especially when it comes to perpetual technology upgrades.
Dealing With Big Amorphous Change
What happens when an anticipated change becomes your worst fear? For many in the workplace, that fear is losing one’s job. Immediately after the financial crisis of 2008, Brown University faced a 25 percent reduction in its endowment. Senior leadership took this as an opportunity to look for ways to streamline work, including not filling vacancies, providing for early retirement, and weighing potential layoffs. Brown leadership recognized this would be a challenging time for its people.
With a goal of helping the larger organization deal with the need to significantly reduce costs and potentially reduce head count, Karen Davis, Brown’s vice president for human resources, seized the opportunity to provide leadership for those who needed help adjusting to the ambiguity of what the future held. “In the early days of the financial crisis, we knew that it was likely going to have a significant impact on our bottom line as well as on jobs. However, we weren't sure of the size of the impact, nor could we predict what our comprehensive response strategy would be,” says Davis.
What Brown’s leaders did know was that the university was in for a period of dramatic change—something that typically does not come easy in the higher education environment. That convinced Davis of the need to help prepare the university community for change. “Our hope was to channel the collective worry into something more positive for individuals as well as for our community overall.”
Davis and her team focused on helping the larger organization deal with facts in a way that empowered them to take action rather than cause additional anxiety. The university sponsored a series of change-management workshop designed in conjunction with Brown’s Center for Learning and Professional Development, led by Judy Nabb. The workshop provided a forum for employees to articulate fears and concerns (personal as well as work-related) and to share them with colleagues. The workshops also provided an opportunity to learn new strategies for dealing with uncertainty, for pushing through change, and for taking control of one’s work life. Over the course of eight months, more than 260 Brown employees took advantage of the workshop experience.
According to Davis, the impact was positive and dramatic. Many employees benefited immediately from simply having a safe forum in which to express concerns about their jobs; the effect of the downturn on their families, friends, and neighbors; and even about Brown’s future. The relief many workshop participants felt after these conversations allowed them to focus on what they could do to prepare for the future, both personally and professionally, notes Davis. Ultimately, this led to a better understanding of university concerns and greater commitment to helping address the institution’s financial challenges rather than resisting the changes required to tackle them head-on.
As Michelle Venditelli, one Brown workshop attendee, stated: “There was a great sense of unease during that time, and I found the focus on change in this workshop experience very helpful. It gave me great tips for how to deal with stress on a personal level, but also helped me be better equipped as a manager to deal with the stress that my staff were feeling.”
Much of that spirit carries on today as the university community continues to deal with the fallout from the financial crisis and several significant leadership changes, new programmatic priorities, and external political threats, says Davis.
Unlearning and Relearning
Futurist and author Alvin Toffler once stated that the illiterate of the 21st century won’t be those who can’t read and write, but those who can’t learn, unlearn, and relearn. That remains a prophetic statement for the period of accelerating change facing many higher education institutions today. Unlearning is about allowing ourselves to go through the full cycle of change—from contentment to renewal. Personal power resides with our ability to recognize what is in front of us and to be willing to push through our own denial and confusion to reach that light at the end.
So, the next time you go to a workshop, consider changing your seat after the break. You might find a small power in shaking up your vantage point and in not waiting for someone else to tell you to move.
Academic planning often adopts the business approach to strategic planning. The results are predictable: clear, measurable outcomes; tight, pithy vision statement; focused strategy targeting a clear and "directable" organizational culture. But these assumptions don't fit the higher education planning environment, with many parallel lines of activity, complex vision, and an environment that is often far more self-directed. This week on the show, we bring you part four of our conversation with John Eldert, Vice President of Administration at Berklee College of Music as he joins Howard Teibel to discuss their work on adapting the business approach to strategic planning for higher education.
Academic planning often adopts the business approach to strategic planning. The results are predictable: clear, measurable outcomes; tight, pithy vision statement; focused strategy targeting a clear and "directable" organizational culture. But these assumptions don't fit the higher education planning environment, with many parallel lines of activity, complex vision, and an environment that is often far more self-directed. This week on the show, we bring you part three of our conversation with John Eldert, Vice President of Administration at Berklee College of Music as he joins Howard Teibel to discuss their work on adapting the business approach to strategic planning for higher education.
Academic planning often adopts the business approach to strategic planning. The results are predictable: clear, measurable outcomes; tight, pithy vision statement; focused strategy targeting a clear and "directable" organizational culture. But these assumptions don't fit the higher education planning environment, with many parallel lines of activity, complex vision, and an environment that is often far more self-directed. This week on the show, we bring you part two of our conversation with John Eldert, Vice President of Administration at Berklee College of Music as he joins Howard Teibel to discuss their work on adapting the business approach to strategic planning for higher education.
Academic planning often adopts the business approach to strategic planning. The results are predictable: clear, measurable outcomes; tight, pithy vision statement; focused strategy targeting a clear and "directable" organizational culture. But these assumptions don't fit the higher education planning environment, with many parallel lines of activity, complex vision, and an environment that is often far more self-directed. This week on the show, we bring you part one of our conversation with John Eldert, Vice President of Administration at Berklee College of Music as he joins Howard Teibel to discuss their work on adapting the business approach to strategic planning for higher education.
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