Your Role in Re-inventing Higher Education

Tammy M. Gocial, Ph.D.Associate Academic Vice President

Maryville University tgocial@maryville.edu

314-529-6893

HERS Value for Leading ChangeThe HERS Community:

HERS is dedicated to creating and sustaining acommunity of women leaders through leadership development programs and other strategies with a special focus on gender equity within the broader commitment to achieving equality and excellence in higher education.

HERS Value for Leading ChangeHERS Curriculum:

• Institutional Awareness –

• Local knowledge within broader higher ed context

• Networking –

• Connect, share, and learn with each other at HERS

• Engage others on campus toward common goal

• Self-Knowledge –

• Know thyself and how your leadership can make a difference

HERS Value for Leading ChangeBroader goal of HERS program:

Knowledge, skills, and understanding are applied to a self-designed leadership project that provides an opportunity to consider how your leadership can make the broadest impact across your institution and beyond.

Creating Context for Leading Change

“…effective change leadership in higher education is rarely if ever about imposing specific answers; it’s about asking the right questions.”

Buller, 2015, p. xii

Creating Context for Leading ChangeWhen you saw the topic of change on the agenda for the institute, how did that make you feel?

In general, why do people seem to be averse to change?

What kinds of questions or issues regarding change on your campus came to light from your senior officer interviews?

Creating Context for Leading ChangeHow are feelings about change different in the academy than in other industries or sectors?

What exists within the culture of the academy that should be attended to when thinking about leading a change initiative?

Creating Context for Leading ChangeHigher Education is facing the perfect storm:

• Very high person-oriented industry

• Effort to fulfill multiple agendas

• Limited direct evidence of outcomes

• Decrease in state and federal support due to budget deficits

• Crippling student loan debt

• Changing student demographics

• Changing faculty composition

• New expectations given changes in technology

Creating Context for Leading ChangeIntentionality and thoughtfulness should be a hallmark of any change initiative

• Think about change in three key phases:

• Initiating change

• Leading change

• Evaluating change

• Wash – rinse – repeat

Note: throughout the process, need to manage pace

Initiating Change

Key issues involved in Initiating Change are:

• Developing the agenda for change

• Articulating the rationale for change, and

• Defining the scope/substance of change

Initiating ChangeWhat is the agenda for the change initiative?

• Identify the problem to be addressed

• Frame the problem in a way that will invite engagement and minimize criticism

• Clarify and communicate a compelling vision

• Affirm that the problem is within your sphere to propose/address

• Identify the internal and external personal, political, and cultural factors that should be addressed

Initiating ChangeWhat is the rationale for the change initiative?

• Be sure to take time to conduct a thorough exploration of why a particular change initiative is important and how it contributes to continuing excellence – provide clear language that considers the mission and values of the institution

• Provide the ways students might benefit and identify the impact on other stakeholders

• Indicate how the change may be necessary to the institution’s survival

• Articulate clearly how the institutional culture is being considered

Initiating ChangeWhat is the scope/substance of the change initiative?

• Be mindful of what to include and what to exclude => focus on the right questions and problems

• Technical or Adaptive problem

• Quantitative or Qualitative change

• Incremental or Transformational

(from Hulme, 2016)

Leading Change

“In order to be truly transformative in our approach, we must change our entire way of thinking about change and move from trying to manage it to leading it.”

(Buller, 2015, p. 24)

Leading ChangeKey issues involved in Leading Change are:

• Identifying and engaging the diverse individuals who will implement the change

• Choosing the strategies and process for implementing the change initiative => clarify the timeline

• Managing conflict and making appropriate changes / corrections in implementation as needed

• Communicating the progress of change

• Managing the reactions of others throughout the process

• Acquiring and utilizing resources effectively

• Accounting for legal and compliance issues as needed

Evaluating ChangeKey issues involved in Evaluating Change are:

• Providing clear outcomes for the project and clear evidence that will be collected to evaluate achievement of those outcomes

• Gathering feedback and reactions from constituents who are directly involved in the process and who are directly affected by the change initiative

ReferencesBuller, J. L. (2015). Change leadership in higher

education: A practical guide to academic transformation. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

Eckel, P., Green, M., Hill, B., & Mallon, W. (1999). On change III: Taking charge of change: A primer for colleges and universities. Washington, DC: American Council on Education.

Hulme, E. (2016). Thriving through change. St. Louis, MO: Credo Thriving Institute, Keynote Address.

Additional Suggested ReadingsEldridge, J., Price, J., Kushibab, D., Callahan, C. & Yowell, S.

(2012). Creating environments conducive to change. NASPA Leadership Exchange, Summer, 22-25.

Gmelch, W. H., & Buller, J. L. (2015). Building academic leadership capacity: A guide to best practices. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Heifetz, R., Grashow, A., & Linsky, M. (2009). Leadership in a (permanent) crisis. Harvard Business Review, July-Aug, 62-69.

Kezar, A. (2014). How colleges change: Understanding, Leading, and enacting change. New York, NY: Routledge.

Kotter, J. P. (2013). Leading change. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business Review.

Additional Suggested ReadingsProsci, Inc. (2016). Best practices in change management,

2016 Edition, Executive Summary. Fort Collins, CO: Author. Retrieved from http://empower.prosci.com/2016-best-practices-change-management-executive-summary

Selingo, J. J. (2013). Attitudes on innovation: How college leaders and faculty see key issues facing higher education.Washington, DC: The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://www.cnm.edu/news/academe/documents/attitudes-on-innovation

Zemsky, R. (2013). Checklist for change: Making American higher education a sustainable enterprise. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.