DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION: HOW TO CREATE AN ENVIRONMENT WHERE ALL STAFF CAN THRIVE!

SARA HEMINGASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF STUDENT INVOLVEMENT

GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY

LAUREN LONG EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF STUDENT INVOLVEMENTGEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY

LEARNING OUTCOMES

• GAIN NEW KNOWLEDGE OF TECHNOLOGIES THAT EXPAND OUR ABILITY TO COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY AND IMPLEMENT FLEXIBLE AND TELEWORK SCHEDULES.

• LEARN HOW APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY CAN BE USED AS A FORM OF COLLABOR ATIVE INNOVATION TO CREATE A HEALTHIER WORK EXPERIENCE FOR STAFF.

• LEARN HOW TO MEET THE NEEDS OF TODAY’S NEW PROFESSIONALS WHILE MANAGING THE EXPECTATIONS OF SEASONED PROFESSIONALS, TO CREATE A SPACE FOR ALL STAFF THRIVE!

• LEARN THE BENEFITS OF IMPLEMENTING A FLEXIBLE AND TELEWORK SCHEDULE FOR “HIGH TOUCH” STUDENT CENTERED DEPARTMENT.

Disruptive Innovation in Higher Education?

Brookings Institute considers Disruptive Innovation in Higher Ed:

Should college come with a money-back guarantee?We should make “going to college” be more like hiring a contractorRethinking college: Disruptive innovation, not reform, is needed

https://www.brookings.edu/series/disruptive-innovations-in-higher-education/

Dr. Edward Sears, President of City Vision University, offers a course on Disruptive Innovation in Higher Education.https://www.slideshare.net/techmission/disruptive-innovation-in-higher-education-full-course-slides

Disrupting College: How Disruptive Innovation Can Deliver Quality and Affordability to Postsecondary EducationChristensen, Clayton M.; Horn, Michael B.; Caldera, Louis; Soares, Louis, Innosight Institute

What About Disruptive Innovation in Student Affairs?

Can we use this idea to rethink how we approach creating an environment where staff can thrive?

Can we disrupt the environments that are causing attrition of Student Affairs professionals?

According to research in 1998 and in 2006,

50-60% of Student Affairs Professionals leave the field within the first 5 years!

(Lorden 1998; Tull 2006)

- Sarah M. Marshall, Megan Moore Gardner, Carole Hughes & Ute Lowery (2016) Attrition from Student Affairs: Perspectives from Those Who Exited the Profession, Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice, 53:2, 146-159,

WHAT WE CAN POTENTIALL CHANGE?

• Excessive hours, Burnout and Work Life Conflict

• Role of Supervisor

What Do Engaged and Thriving Staff Look Like?

What words come to mind when you envision staff who are engaged and thriving?

Gallup’s Five Essential Elements of Well-Being: Purpose • Social • Financial • Community • Physical

Those who are engaged in their work and who have high well-being in at least 4 of the 5 elements are…

30% more likelynot to miss any work days because of poor health in any given month

42% more likelyto evaluate their overall lives highly

45% more likely to report high levels of adaptability in the presence of change

Miss 70% fewer work days because of poor health over the course of a year.

59% less likelyto look for a job with a different organization in the next 12 months

Gallup Business Journal, Oct. 27, 2015

Mixed Messages

Kelly E. Wilk, Chapter 3: Work-Life Balance and Ideal Worker Expectations for Administrators part of How Ideal Worker Norms Shape Work-Life for Different Constituent Groups in Higher Education: New Directions for Higher Education, Number 176.

• Established culture of working long hours adds to administrators' pressure to be present during the regular work day and after hours.

• “Supervisory face-time expectations and the culture of working long hours left many of the student affairs administrators feeling discontent with their work-life balance.”

• “Without formal policies, administrators worried that they were not performing as ideal workers when they took advantage of informal flexible accommodations.”

New Systems are Needed!

79% of Student Affairs administrators that participated in their study indicated difficulty finding a balance between their personal and professional lives even with some degree of flexibility of coming in late or flexible hours.

What constructs of Student Affairs need to be altered and reexamined to meet the needs of today’s student affairs professionals?

• Assist professional staff in managing multiple roles which includes SELF-CARE

• Change the institutional culture around work-life balance practices

Nicole Lepone Mayo’s dissertation, The Analysis of Student Affairs professionals management of role conflict and multiple roles in relations to work life balance published in 2013.

What New Systems Need To Be In Place?

• in what we both view and communicate as the “IDEAL worker."• in what kind of environment we want to create.• to decide if we want to build teams that we can retain, help grow,

and support 21st century students.• in expectations that only face-to-face, hands-on advising and

support is the source for setting students up for success.• to disrupt our thinking, we need to make a shift.

WE NEED A SHIFT….

Without compromising the QUALITY of work we provide and expect.

CASE STUDY:

Student Involvement at George Mason University

How Did We Get Here?

X The need to reconsider how we view roles and responsibilities as advisors to students.

X Changing needs and desired approaches from millennial staff.

X The impact of managing up.

X Navigating change for both new and seasoned professionals.

X Staff retention and well-being.

…if you commit to the intensity of the peak

moments, it’s important to commit to the recovery... use

the very short breaks within your day similar to the pauses

between the high-intensity intervals”

Google’s Chief Business Officer -

“A large system maintains itself and grows stronger only as it encourages great amounts of

individual freedom”

– Margaret Wheatley, 2006Leadership and New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic

World.

DISRUPTING THE PROCESS…USING APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY

What Is Appreciative Inquiry?

“At its heart, AI is about the search for the best in people, their organizations, and the strengths-filled,

opportunity-rich world around them. AI is not so much a shift in the methods and models of

organizational change, but AI is a fundamental shift in the overall perspective taken throughout the

entire change process to ‘see’ the wholeness of the human system and to 'inquire' into that system’s

strengths, possibilities, and successes. ”

– Excerpt from: Stavros, Jacqueline, Godwin, Lindsey, & Cooperrider, David. (2015). Appreciative Inquiry: Organization Development and the Strengths Revolution. In Practicing Organization Development: A guide to leading change and transformation (4th Edition),

William Rothwell, Roland Sullivan, and Jacqueline Stavros (Eds). Wiley

5D Process

1. DEFINITION – WHAT IS THE INQUIRY?

2. DISCOVERY - APPRECIATING THE BEST OF WHAT IS

3. DREAM – IMAGINING WHAT COULD BE

4. DESIGN – DETERMINING WHAT SHOULD BE

5. DESTINY – CREATING WHAT WILL BE

Questions Asked, Dreams Envisioned

Dreams –Creating new approaches to communication, transparency and work/life balance

Discovery:When are we at our best?

Design:Creation of workgroups

Definition:Creating an environment where all staff thrive

Onward & Upward

X Memorandum of UnderstandingsX Flexible Work Schedules

X Office Communication

X Onboarding Processes

X Programming Standards

X Performance Management

X Increased Accountability & Staff Engagement

X Staff Satisfaction

Destiny: Our Results

100% agreed that the Flexible Work MOU provided them:

• the ability to manage their personal life and work life more effectively.

• the ability to be more productive at their job and enabled them to be more engaged in their work.

100% felt valued by their supervisor and the Executive Director.

50% felt valued by institutional leadership.

100% agreed they believe their supervisor is committed to their ability to thrive at work.

86% agreed that the Flexible Work MOU increased positive feelings about their work environment and that it increased satisfaction with their job.

87% agreed the process offered them the opportunity to contribute to the department around a topic they were interested in.

63% felt that participating in the AI Process positively changed their experience at work.

75% agreed it created an authentic space for their voice to be heard.

Staff Assessment Results

Utilizing Technology to Support the Disruption

X Using tools such as Cisco Spark or Web X

X Office365

X Shared Calendars

X OneDrive- Document Sharing

• Considerations around using technology to stay connected to students while freeing up the boundaries of the traditional "work-place.”

• Offer Student Affairs the opportunity to meet the demands of both today's new professionals and today's generation of students who need to be empowered and encouraged to lead and learn versus have their hands held for every step.

Cisco Spark...Increased Communication & Flexibility.

• Chat with individuals or

groups from your desktop,

• Share documents

• Use whiteboard and save your

work.

• Staff meetings can include virtual staff

• Train students at a distance.

• Video calls,• Group

messaging, Individual messaging

• Document access.

Office 365...Increased Transparency & Accountability

Plan events, manage tasks and deadlines together.

• Create multiple working groups for different programs and projects

• Access files, planner tools and calendars.

• Shared team calendars to

communicate about when staff are teleworking,

on vacation

• Reserve common space or

conferences rooms

Appreciative Interviews…

Partner up with someone sitting next to you or across from you.

You will be engaging in an Appreciative Interview experience.

You will have the chance to learn the practice of discovery and reflect on what could be happening in your department to create some disruptive innovation.

The goal would be to yield a positive work environment and learn about a colleague's positive experience and ideas.

Appreciative Interview GuidelinesX Let the interviewee tell his/her/their story. Try to refrain from giving yours.

You will be next.

X Listen attentively, be curious about the experience, the feelings and the thoughts.

X Allow for silence. If the other person does not want or cannot answer a question, it is okay.

X Have fun.

X At the end of the two interviews, take a moment to talk with your partner about what the interview process was like for you.

QUESTIONS?Contact Information:• Lauren Long- llong3@gmu.edu• Sara Heming- smorrisr@gmu.edu

THANK YOU!#NASPA18