getting ready to go back home

Getting Ready to Go Back Home

• How do I tend to interpret the world around me?

• How does change ripple through an organization?

• How do people react to change?• Where will the resources come from to invest

in this?• What do I do if I am not in charge?• What do I do if I am in charge?

What do you see and what solutions do you employ?

• Structural Frame: definitions of roles, allocation of work, blueprints for change

• Human Resources Frame: emphasis on communication, investment in people, management of conflict, empowerment

• Political Frame: organizations are coalitions, management of scarce resources, exercise of power, negotiation

• Symbolic Frame: management of meaning, belief, stories and rituals, attention to organizational culture

Adapted from Bolman and Deal

What influences the rate of adoption of ideas and strategies in good times

or bad? (adapted from Rogers 1995)• Relative advantage: Is this way better?• Compatibility: Is this consistent with the

values, experiences and needs of people who will use it?

• Complexity: Is this easy to understand?• Scalability: Can you start small and grow?• Observability: Are the result visible and

compelling?• Adaptability: Can this way be adjusted to

different settings, disciplines/perspectives and situations?

Deep Organizational Change is Uneven

The institutional response to change can be confusing. Some of the stages can be co-mingled or may occur at different rates throughout an organization, affected by multiple mini-cultures and environments characterized by different decision-making conventions, time frames and sense of urgency, priorities, and constituencies.

Academic Disciplines Academic and administrative cultures and

values

Resisters [1] Skeptics [2] Cautious [3] Committed

[1] Risk Management

[2] Culture of Evidence Barrier

[3] Disciplinary Barrier and Definitions of Scholarship

Barriers to Change

Diffusion of Change Across Academic Units: A Bell-Shaped Curve of

Barriers

• The Committed: Support and reward them.

• The Cautious: Provide infrastructure, leadership behavior and incentives that make it safe to experiment.

• The Skeptics: Offer visible and compelling evidence.

• The Resisters: Do not let them dominate the scene.

How do people react to change?

• Who may oppose your plans and what can you do to win them over, or, at least, keep them from derailing your efforts?

• How do reactions unfold and what can you do to help people adapt to the “new reality?”

• Are there other changes going on that you can use to clear a path for your curricular agenda?


• How do I tend to interpret the world around me?• Does my institution have a common framework

for understanding change?• How does change ripple through an

organization?• How do people react to change?• Where will the resources come from to

invest in engagement?• What do I do if I am not in charge?• What do I do if I am in charge?

Where will the resources come from to invest in building an engagement agenda?

Recruiting People: Use the strategies of the Bell shaped Curve

Creating the capacity for change: Remember the phases of the change cycle

Identifying resources: finding time and money

Recruiting People: Use the Bell Shaped Curve!

• Move from right to left and do not be drawn into the depths of the far left.

• You only need to convince about 25% of the people.• There are strategies available to lower or remove the

barriers between the cautious and the committed.• Skeptics require evidence that the new way is valid.

They do not need to adopt those practices themselves.

Creating the Capacity for Change:Think of change as a form of participatory action

research and apply a theory of change.

• Build a compelling case.• Create clarity of purpose.• Work at a significant scale and in a scholarly

mode.• Develop a conducive campus environment.• Create the capacity to continue the process

over time and to learn from the experience.

Where will the Resources Come From?

o Cutbacks and doing more with less“ This continuous downsizing-it is corporate anorexia. You can get thin but it’s no way to stay healthy.” (Gary Hamel, Fortune Magazine 1994)

o Doing better with lessThis will buy you time but won’t work forever.

o Design your way out and invest in the future. “ You can’t achieve prosperity with a savings plan. You need an investment plan.” (Francis Mertz, Fairleigh Dickinson University

Releasing Frozen Assets

o Restructuring and bringing related units together- Do not start here! It just upsets everybody.

o Redesign of campus operations and academic programs

o Quality initiatives and improvement of services

o Faculty and staff developmento Creative use of partnerships, internal and

externalo Use of external validation to encourage and

reward new behavior



• Does my institution have a common framework for understanding change?




What if you are not in a position of real influence?

• Do you have a mandate for change? If so, from whom? How influential is your sponsor?

• What other priorities are competing with yours?

• How are important decisions made at your institution?

• Who already buys into this agenda?• How can you recruit additional advocates?• How can you attach this agenda to the

ambitions and goals of campus leadership?



• Does my institution have a common framework for understanding change?




Getting started: Design a participatory model of change

to create a compelling sense of purpose.Professional Learning Communities

– Who names the problems/asks the questions?– Who identifies and evaluates the options?– Who shares resources to advance the agenda?– Who cares about the choices being made?– Who bears the risk and who enjoys the benefits?– Who interprets the results and defines success?

Adapted from David Mathews (2006)Reclaiming Public Education by Reclaiming our Democracy

Model the scholarship of learning and teaching.

Understand your institutional history and the lessons it offers about how your campus has responded to external threats or change initiatives in the past.

Avoid decision traps. Take time to frame the questions, assess your situation, use the tools of scholarship and learn from your experiences.

Remember that you are part of a community of learners. Approach your task as a scholarly act.

Model the scholarship of learning and teaching

Be clear about your educational philosophy and goals and link your response to that agenda.

Take time to learn about the process of change itself. Hold yourself to high standards of proof and conduct.

Listen to how people talk about what is happening and be ready to respond to rumors and confusion. Be open, be clear, communicate frequently.

Creating an Urgency for Change1. Campus Forums and Roundtables; frequent

communication2. Send teams to workshops and conferences or

participate in webinars3. Clarify your mission and the core strengths

required to accomplish your mission4. Review your strengths and weaknesses5. Conduct self-studies and reviews of relevant

data6. Create new ways of working together and new

patterns of learning.

getting ready to go back home

Documents

changediffusion of change

deep organizational

changehuman resources

management of scarce

negotiationsymbolic

empowermentpolitical

structural frame

management of meaning