How I Spent My “Summer Vacation”

The Summer of 2020 was the summer that wasn’t for most all of us. The pandemic and related economic downturn sent many of us inside (except for front-line essential workers who still went to work every day) and removed most of the hurried rush from our daily lives. This allowed many Americans to slow down and see racial strife in our country in new ways.

It was unfortunate that media coverage of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests were overtaken by riots — much in the way the message of NFL players who knelt during the National Anthem to protest racial injustice was overtaken by those who amplified the alternative narrative to make the kneeling about the American flag. Nevertheless, I believe a good portion of Americans began to see, for the first time, that racism in this country is systemic, composed of several layered and troubling elements that society works hard to mask and downplay.

Maximizer is my top strength in the Clifton Strengthsfinder assessment, so I gave some thought toward how I might make the most of “the great slowdown.” I’m not a project person, so it wasn’t going to be about building something, although learning to play the guitar or taking up a new hobby were considered. After being greatly moved by the BLM movement, I committed to expanding my understanding of racial injustice in this country.

I was raised in a very homogenous community outside of Flint, Michigan, and my primary exposure to anyone different from me was playing basketball in the city. It wasn’t until I attended graduate school at the University of Michigan that I really spent any considerable time in conversation with people of different racial and religious backgrounds and sexual orientations. I found that many of my beliefs were rooted in a lack of exposure and understanding that led to stereotypes, prejudices, and bias. When I got to know people who were different from me, I began to see everyone as individuals. The more I got to know my fellow students, colleagues, and friends, it became evident just how much I had to learn about diversity and race.

Over the last 30 years, my career in community colleges has given me the opportunity to learn a great deal about race through reading, workshops, and many friendships, acquaintances, and interactions with others. As much as I thought I knew about race, nothing prepared me for what I learned this summer. My journey started with emailing a statement to the College on the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others, then reflecting on how to go beyond those words and take action — if only for myself.

• A friend recommended I visit the Justice in June website where I found a brilliantly curated inventory of videos, podcasts, and articles about race in America. I started with the 10 minutes a day routine and moved from there.

• I invited MVCC employees of color to join me for two rounds of meetings where many shared their experiences at the College and recommendations on how to make MVCC more inclusive. Their stories have inspired and changed me more than they will ever know.

• Netflix had a special section of shows about the Black experience in America, and “I Am Not Your Negro” caught my eye. It was a documentary that felt more like a film to me because it was done in a way that engaged me from start to finish. It focused on race relations in mid-20th-century America through the eyes of author James Baldwin. This led me to look up his “pindrop speech” at Harvard in 1965 on YouTube, which subsequently filled my “recommended videos” queue with fascinating resources about race that I would not have found otherwise.

• I took several different implicit bias tests from the Harvard implicit bias project.

• And on the recommendation of a colleague, I’m currently reading “Microaggressions in Everyday Life” by Derald Wing Sue and learning about the devastating cumulative effect of microaggressions that people of color experience every day. I have come to believe that microaggressions are a very uncomfortable valley through which white people need to walk and learn about the implicit bias that we all have — and yet, I’m embarrassed to say that I had never heard the term “microaggressions” until just a few short years ago.

You might say this blog post is the equivalent of the first day of third grade, standing in front of the class to present how I spent my summer vacation. At times it felt like anything but a vacation, with many uncomfortable moments and new revelations. As is the case with so much learning, it’s not as much about the answers you find as the questions you discover that make the difference in your growth. Looking back on this summer, which has been filled with so much stress and reasons to be sad, this work feels like the first few steps of a long, meaningful, and fascinating journey that will likely never end for me.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact me directly at presblog@mvcc.edu. 

Coming to Back to Life

I put socks on twice this week … er, I mean I worked two days in my office this week. Monday, July 20, was our first day back as part of a three-phase return for the Fall semester. I have to say it felt good and was a refreshing change for me in contrast to my “Zoom cocoon” of the past four months.

The Utica Campus was spotless. Our Facilities crew has been working on campus all this time and we all should be grateful for their commitment and hard work — the place is beautiful. The buildings and grounds stood out more than usual because there were so few of us on campus. It was a different feeling for sure. However, this was the plan all along: to keep our population density low to minimize risk and begin testing our approach to safety while the numbers are small.

After arriving on campus, I went to the checkpoint at Payne Hall and got my bracelet for the day. My first day it took less than five minutes to check in with a few people in line, and three days later it took less than one minute. The people staffing the doors to check for bracelets as people entered the building provided me an extra level of assurance that the people on campus have minimal risk of COVID-19, having answered the mandatory questions and not having a high temperature.

We have a couple of police academies in operation, in addition to several classes in the Science and Technology Building finishing classes that were suspended in the Spring. Walking around campus with my mask on felt as normal as going to the grocery store and was a small change to reap the benefit of running into colleagues and having unscheduled, informal conversations.

Walking around campus gave me a chance to reflect on just what a massive disruption this pandemic has created. We can “get things done” and check off our daily task lists while working remotely. But as I’ve learned over the years, “how” we get things done is often just as important as “what” gets done. Zoom and email certainly provide the technological means for our work, but the human element — even when six feet apart with a mask — is a powerful thing, particularly when it comes to the student experience.

Our challenge is to hold on to enough of that human element and provide what we can to the extent possible with safety measures in place. I often say that change never happens at the right pace — it’s too fast for some and too slow for others; too much for some and too little for others. Our phased return is intended to provide a slow and measured change to allow the College to implement safety protocols in ways that allow for evaluation and adjustment and provide all of us with a steady and supportive experience in emerging — if only a little bit — from our Zoom cocoons…and revisiting parts of our closets we haven’t seen in months.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact me directly at presblog@mvcc.edu.

Another Phase of “New Normal”

MVCC went fully remote on March 23, 2020. Over those 119 days, our world was turned upside down and rotated a few different ways, but we’re still on our feet. We all have masks now and the rhythm of our days is different yet the same. The Mohawk Valley region is doing fairly well with limiting the number of infections and maintaining capacity in our healthcare system. Higher education (and MVCC) was approved to reopen when the region achieved Phase Four status, so we’ll move from fully remote to partially remote on July 20, 2020. As we look toward our staggered return to campus, I can’t help but reflect on where we’ve been and where I see us going.

To maintain a reasonable density of people on campus, we’re bringing staff back in a staggered, phased approach. On Monday, July 20, we’ll begin a three-phased, staggered return of our workforce. Our Responsible Restart Plan that was approved by SUNY has an outer limit of the percentage of our full-time employees, but we’ll be well short in each phase, having the wiggle room to increase on-campus staffing if we need it as follows:

• July 20 — No more than 33% (26% projected)
• Aug. 3 — No more than 50% (34% projected)
• Aug. 24 — No more than 66% (46% projected)

While many of our essential employees in Facilities, Public Safety, and IT have been coming to campus every day and “flex-essential” employees in the Business Office and many others have been coming to campus periodically over the past four months, it’s time for many of the rest of us to move toward the “masked normal” they’ve all been living. We’ll have roughly 25% of our courses on campus along with more than 150 students living in the residence halls. Additionally, we’ll have an as-of-yet unknown number of students coming to campus for access to the internet, useful study spaces, and likely a sense of a normal college experience with in-person human interaction under current social distancing guidelines.

The transition to remote operations over the past few months has brought new and unique experiences to us both individually and collectively. We’ve been able to grieve the sense of loss we’ve felt from our lifetimes of routine and also celebrate the building of new memories both personally and professionally. Our challenge going forward is to commit ourselves in the effort of keeping everyone safe while raising our own bar of personal accountability to make sure the work gets done for students and each other in the face of unsettling and unfamiliar circumstances. I’ve been so proud to see our culture evolve over the past few years to increasingly adapt, innovate, and rise to the challenges that came our way.

Just when we thought transitioning to remote operations was our greatest challenge, rising to what the coming Fall semester is likely to bring will most certainly challenge us to bring our best selves to work every day, so get ready to surprise yourself and each other with what we’re going to do.

If you have any questions, please contact me directly at presblog@mvcc.edu.

Change, Grief, and Working Remotely

When I am faced with a confusing phenomenon or experience, I challenge myself to make sense of it. Working remotely has been a confusing and uncomfortable shift for me, which has me thinking a lot about change lately. I have studied organizational change for almost thirty years, and generally enjoy change in both my personal and professional experiences. But the past three weeks have provided a palpable application of what I’ve come to learn. Two important elements of change worth noting are the pace of change and the emotions of change. It was clear that this change to remote operations was much too quick for everyone, but processing the emotions associated with what we all are experiencing feels far more complex.

It’s easy to say the pace of change moves too fast for some, too slow for others, and rarely just right for anyone. In this case, it seems safe to say that it moved at the same pace and was not right for any of us. But we did it, which is a statement of triumph in itself. I like to think of change moving at a pace best described by Tushman and Romanelli (1985) in their model of punctuated equilibrium. All living organisms (and organizations) evolve through periods of equilibrium (no change) and sudden periods of punctuations (change). The longer the periods of equilibrium, the punctuated periods of change will be more dramatic. Optimally, organizations will have more regular periods of change with muted punctuation levels and smaller periods of equilibrium for rest and recovery. Similar to a high-performance athlete who trains their muscles through periods of intense workouts (punctuations) and periods of rest and recovery (equilibrium), an organization can become stronger by learning how to manage change. Needless to say, the move to remote operations was a heavy deadlift that required all of us to “move on the count of three!” And we did it.

The emotions of change are directly tied to the pace of change. If change occurs suddenly with little time to comprehend the reasons, implications, and significance of what’s happening, emotions can be confusing, intense, and mixed in ways that are difficult to manage. Rick Warren, Pastor of Saddleback Church in California, gave a great TEDx talk on remaining relevant. He said understanding and managing change is critical to stay relevant in the modern world. Recognizing the link between change and grief is critical in that when we think someone (including ourselves!) is resisting change, they may just be grieving that change. As he said, “There is no growth without change; no change without loss; no loss without pain; and no pain without grief.” We may not be resisting change, we may very well be grieving, and it’s important to acknowledge that possibility. With that in mind, I found a seven-stage model on the phases of change in Google images and overlaid that with the Kubler-Ross model of the five stages of grief. Many of the stages have the exact same description in both models.

With regard to working remotely, I’m proud to say I think we’re all doing it pretty well, and things are going relatively smoothly under really stressful constraints. However, I share all of this because I’m seeing a subtle shift in many Zoom meetings and emails over the past three weeks, and in my own feelings, as well. It seems we’ve moved through the shock and denial phases and are moving at varied paces into feelings of frustration, anger, and bargaining with the toll and grind of our collective circumstance.

The stories of our faculty and staff contacting students and providing them with inspiring levels of support, understanding, and flexibility continue to multiply by the day. This unprecedented crisis is pushing all of us to embody the notion of “every student, every day” in ways we perhaps never thought possible. We are living our core values of modeling the way, inspiring confidence, encouraging excellence, and truly embracing our community. For example, one student couldn’t bring herself to log in to her five classes because she was so overwhelmed with the thought of learning online. Her Student Support Advisor convinced her to give it a try, and the student found each and every one of her faculty members willing to provide her the flexibility and support to feel confident that she could do it. As a result, the student reported it wasn’t as bad as she thought and she’s committed to finishing her semester.

We have come to expect an endless well of patience, goodwill, and empathy from ourselves and our colleagues to move students through their academic journey — a tall order under the best circumstances. Right now, many of us are experiencing the same recurring cycles of stress, isolation, anxiety, and being overwhelmed as our students. I mentioned early on the need to support each other in all of this, but as we transition through these stages of change, and even grief for our loss of normalcy, it’s more important than ever to reach out, check in, and stay connected so we can find support and strength in one another.

If we acknowledge the pace and emotions associated with this stressful change in our personal and professional lives, we increase our understanding of what’s happening. We’ll then be better equipped to develop coping mechanisms to successfully navigate these unchartered waters that are anything but smooth. If we keep everyone in the boat, we’ll all make it to shore on the other side.

If you have any questions, comments, or insights, please contact me directly at presblog@mvcc.edu.

Week 1 of COVID-19 Remoteness Down …

Humans are generally social creatures. Even many who consider themselves introverts are hard pressed to say the social-isolating parameters under which we’re all living are not a challenge. This historic reality is and shall continue to test each of us in ways we’re only just starting to understand.

I spent my first full week of working remotely straining for some kind of routine to touch a sense of normalcy in this remarkably abnormal environment. I meet with my office team every morning for a Zoom meeting just to stay connected and pretend that we’re still doing our morning catch-up in the office before phones start ringing and meetings commence. It’s certainly not the same, but I cherish these virtual check-ins since they are as close as we can make it for now.

Things are definitely different, but Zoom meetings with colleagues still getting work done in spite of the circumstances motivate me. I’m inspired by stories of faculty and staff reaching out to students to encourage and support them through this major disruption, which for many was just one more thing they didn’t need to contend with in their already complex lives. Also inspiring are the innovative actions departments like the Business Office, Information Technology, Residence Life, and others have taken to adapt and stretch themselves and their processes in this new environment. 

When I need a boost of positive energy, I visit our internal MVCC Workplace social platform to see the great pictures and posts from employees sharing their experiences and staying connected despite being apart. I’m not going to lie, the email volume is a bit intense and the unprecedented screen time can feel like a burden somedays. The workday isn’t as tight as it used to be, and when work and home are all happening in the same place, the time can just bleed and feel like you’re always on despite never feeling completely on — if that makes any sense.

One thing that I believe needs to be reinforced is what I’ve come to learn about change — it moves too fast for some, too slow for others, and rarely right for anyone. This change came much too fast for everyone — the transition to working remotely all happened in about a week. We’ve quickly gone from talking about work/life balance vs. work/life integration to everything completely converging on us. When speaking about change I always encourage people to be patient with themselves and also with others. Never has that notion been more important.

I join many of you in wrestling with the feeling of wondering if I’m being productive “enough” without really knowing if that can be defined in this environment. I can block out time for a Zoom meeting here and there, but then something pops on the family front, or a distraction (like the snack cupboard or refrigerator!) presents itself to pull me away from being as productive as I think I should be. I think of those parents with young children at home and I can barely imagine what that must be like. I’ve been watching Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show: At Home Edition, and he asked Lin-Manuel Miranda if he was writing any new Broadway musicals like Hamilton, and he replied, “Writing? Working? I’m learning how to teach my kid math!” So even the most successful professionals are dealing with prioritizing each day, which brings a special blend of unprecedented freedom and opportunity with brutal isolation and monotony.

Here at the start of week number two, I’m going to try and “model the way” myself and encourage everyone to let go of any guilt — whether subtle or prominent — for feeling less productive than we think we should be. By recognizing the magnitude of this time in history that we’re living through as our present, we should all embrace each other in knowing that everyone is doing their best under the circumstances. Some days are going to be busier than a good day on campus and others will feel like we’re adrift in an open sea.

Our individual and collective resilience for ourselves, our students, and our family and friends will be something that truly will make us stronger when we get on the other side of this. We’ll be able to look back on last week when everything felt so foreign and clunky and face future challenges with a newfound strength and confidence that we wouldn’t have had if we hadn’t gone through this crisis together.

If you have any questions, comments, or insights, please contact me directly at presblog@mvcc.edu.

MVCC Hall of Fame — A celebration of values

MVCC President Randall J. VanWagoner with the 2019 MVCC Hall of Fame inductees (from left): Professor Emeritus Michael Sewall, Professor Emeritus and MVCC alumnus Robert Decker, Vice President Emerita Dr. Maryrose Eannace, and Administrator/Professor Emeritus Frank Przybycien. 

I recently had the privilege of emceeing the MVCC Foundation’s annual Hall of Fame induction ceremony. It is always an inspirational event that recognizes the incredible careers of individuals who have made significant contributions to Mohawk Valley Community College. While this year’s class of inductees mirrored the same caliber of excellence as current members of the Hall, something in the air seemed to wash over many in the audience.

I’ve always felt that our format reflects the distinctively personal nature of this institution. Many other organizations seize the opportunity to make induction ceremonies important fundraisers, which in the non-profit world is a commonly accepted best practice. Rather than selling tickets and tables and securing sponsors for a big dinner, admission to MVCC’s Hall of Fame event is free with a very nice reception of heavy hors d'oeuvres followed by a ceremony that introduces each inductee and allows them a few minutes to share their reflections and insights. It’s an evening where the focus is intentionally focused on the inductees — their lives, their values, their careers, their contributions — nothing more and nothing less.

When the ceremony concluded, I had separate conversations with multiple attendees who all initiated unsolicited comments following the same theme. As inductees made their individual remarks, many in the audience picked up on three common threads in their stories that connected back to induction ceremonies of previous years. Each inductee has a unique story to tell with their distinctive personal career at the College, whether the person is faculty, staff, administrator, alumni, or friend of the College. First, the words they share speak about how much they treasure their personal relationships with people who work at the College. MVCC seems to be the perfect size that fosters meaningful connections among everyone associated with the place. Second, the inspirational vision of the College to transform lives through learning motivates people over many years of putting forth extra effort to helping students succeed and consequently sustain and improve our local community. Finally, a consistent theme among inductees is the enormous pride they feel in being associated with MVCC knowing the important work that occurs here continues a compounding positive impact on this community that cannot be found in many organizations or places of work. 

Meaningful relationships, transforming lives, and uncommonly enduring pride are three themes that these amazing Hall of Fame inductees bring to life through reflections on their outstanding careers here. It reaffirmed for me that our core values of Model the Way, Inspire Confidence, Encourage Excellence, and Embrace Community underscore the essence of what makes this College so special to those of us with the good fortune to work here. As we collectively face increasingly disruptive times full of accelerating and uncomfortable change, it is comforting to know that the core values of this institution endure and will continue to tether us through the future times — good, bad, and everything in between — on cloudless days and others when we simply have to make our sunshine.

If you have any questions, comments, or insights, please contact me directly at presblog@mvcc.edu.

The Transformative Power of Holistic Supports in the Guided Pathways Framework

For years, community colleges have increasingly been moving toward a “student-centered” approach to the college experience. Putting students at the “center” of our work may seem like common sense, but unpacking more than 300 years of higher education customs, norms, values, and traditions has not been easy. I’ve seen more fundamental change occur across the higher education landscape in the past five years than I have in the previous 25 years. 

The technological and societal changes impacting our students have accelerated these changes. Less than 10 years ago, most community colleges wouldn’t have considered having mental health professionals on staff — we created two positions nine years ago. Five years ago, most colleges would have thought having a food pantry on campus was going too far and compromising our mission — we created our pantry three years ago, and last year New York State mandated that all college campuses have one. The intense pressures many of our students feel outside of class often dwarf the pressures they feel inside of class. Learning often becomes secondary and fades into the deafening din of poverty, food and housing insecurity, childcare, transportation, domestic violence, gender identity, unseen disabilities, health concerns — and the list goes on ad infinitum. 

Our collective work with Guided Pathways has prompted us to reconsider the entire student experience and account for this broad spectrum of needs by reimagining how students enter our college, and the support they receive while they’re here and even after they leave. We’ve had nine different workgroups examine our programs and services in light of nationally researched evidence-based practices and make 280 recommendations, several of which involve creating a more holistic approach to our student support services. And these recommendations came from just five of the workgroups — four have yet to finish and three new groups were recently charged. 

It’s abundantly clear to those closest to the work, and even those of us at a distance, that Guided Pathways is not a fad, not an initiative, and not a short-term thing. Guided Pathways is a multi-year, ongoing commitment that uses an evidence-based framework to guide thoughtful analysis of how and why we do things for students, and how to demystify the centuries-old myths created by higher education that amount to professional malpractice under a modern lens. 

The holistic approach we’re taking through our Guided Pathways work is timely and critical. Seeing our students as individuals with complex lives — individuals with challenges in their student life and pressures and obstacles in their private life, which can limit their success as students — will only become more critical as society advances and the options to learn and gain skills increase. 

To provide effective and meaningful support for students with this depth and breadth of life complexity can be a significant challenge when we add the rigors of an academic schedule into their environment. A tenuous existence can quickly turn to chaos without someone to help a student make sense of the experience and to adapt to the new environment. A focus group done by the Paige Group showed us that the most successful MVCC students are the ones who make a meaningful connection with a member of our faculty or staff. Without this support, students often are left to consult with friends or classmates on critical decisions that may result in a more challenging outcome. The importance of a student having a strong connection to our staff and faculty is often echoed in anecdotes shared by many colleagues over the years, and this connection is too important to leave to chance. 

While much work remains to be done, the changes that have been made thus far are bringing the best of the emerging practices from around the country and here at MVCC to scale in an effort to make a significant difference for the future success of our students. It’s hard to imagine, but this is just the beginning. 

If you have any questions, comments, or insights, please contact me directly at presblog@mvcc.edu.

Organizational Healing

Seeing the faces of several hundred new graduates walk across the stage last week prompted a period of reflection for me. It was enlightening talking to graduates at the post-commencement reception back on campus. Multiple grads shared their mixed emotions about how excited they were for their next step while also feeling sad to be leaving MVCC. This made me think about how excited I am for all the changes soon to come with our Guided Pathways efforts while still processing the emotional toll of another extremely challenging budget process that included several difficult personnel decisions.

I found insight in a quote from Rick Warren, Pastor of Saddleback Church, in his TED talk about “How to Remain Relevant.” He says, “There is no growth without change; there is no change without pain; no pain without loss; and no loss without grief.” In all my years of studying and experiencing change, I’ve never connected the two cycles. However, if you overlay accepted change models with the five stages of grieving, they’re almost identical. Warren goes on to say that many times it’s not that people are resisting change, it’s more likely that they are grieving. Recognizing this as a natural organizational reality surfaces the notion of organizational healing.

Change is often referred to as a constant in our lives, but it seems that regardless of how well-managed change may be, it likely will be experienced across the spectrum from minimal to traumatic depending on the impact. This is especially true when the change is dictated not by innovation, or in the name of student success, but rather is driven by external factors like money or lack thereof. Budgetary cuts are just that — cuts that serve as wounds to the organization. And, like surviving any trauma, there is a period of recovery with necessary self-care. Organizations are complex adaptive systems much in the same way the human body is, and as such they need time to heal. 

While we experienced enrollment growth during the Great Recession, change was comparatively easier because there was “more.” In the subsequent years of enrollment decline, the organizational growth has been harder because there was “less” and we challenged ourselves to do “better” — our new mantra of “more and better with less.” This has come from our adopted philosophy of “preserve the core and stimulate progress” that requires us to manage the paradox of personnel reductions while adding new positions to meet emerging demands. 

The annual rhythm of balancing a budget under increasingly complex constraints can wear on us as individuals and test our collective resilience. However, the organizational will to march on is what makes the difference and this requires a period of healing to absorb the impact of the change, pain, loss, and grief. This is how we gather our strength, lift each other up, and find the resolve to continue. During these times we must rely on our organizational rituals, continue celebrating and recognizing the bright spots that make us who we are to feed our souls and nurture our hearts. It is indeed different for all of us, but as many colleagues have said, “We’ll get through it, because we always do.” That enduring spirit of finding a way, of modeling the way, is what inspires confidence and encourages excellence, and allows us to embrace our community.

Change is hard. But recognizing grief as a natural part of the change process allows us to take the necessary deep breath and move toward healing that will allow us to endure and focus on the future that holds ever-more inspiring stories from students and colleagues going beyond expectations in ways we have yet to imagine — all of which make change, however difficult, worth it.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact me directly at presblog@mvcc.edu.  

Aligning Organizational Culture: The Importance of Why

With the overwhelming pace of technological change and the complexity and divisiveness of changes in society, people may increasingly find themselves not only overwhelmed, but less than inspired in their daily work. As changes at our colleges accelerate in the midst of intensifying external pressures, it can be natural to feel anxious about all that is not within our immediate control regardless of our job or position. An ever-changing context like this increases the need for a tether to provide some level of consistency and emotional security as we go about our work.

The extent to which people can link their j-o-b to a higher purpose can serve as that tether in all the disruption. I always come back to the parable of the person in 16th-century Europe who came upon three workers doing the same job and asked them what they were doing. The first worker said, “I’m laying brick.” The second worker said, “I’m building a wall.” The third worker said, “I’m creating a cathedral.” They were all doing the exact same work but had three very different views of how they were approaching that work, with the last one having a deeper sense of why they were doing what they were doing.

Having a sense of why jobs exist and how work gets done can serve as intrinsic motivation and inspire work/life harmony for each of us. When we’re motivated and inspired in our work it doesn’t seem like work, and the time seems to pass quickly. When motivation and inspiration are absent, it’s the exact opposite and we’re not likely to do our best work while our levels of stress, frustration, and unhappiness increase. 

We are fortunate to work in a community college where our collective efforts have the power to transform the lives of our students and better our community in countless ways. If we apply the “laying brick/cathedral” parable to work here at the College, it could be said for any of the following:

• I’m teaching my classes/I’m helping my students learn/I’m transforming lives by challenging and supporting them to learn and grow to become all they hope to be.
• I’m taking care of the grounds or buildings/I’m making the campus look good/I’m transforming lives by creating a beautiful learning environment.
• I’m doing the task in front of me/I’m helping others/I’m transforming lives by helping the College serve students a little better every day.

Author and speaker Simon Sinek offers a similar three-level framework for organizations in his book, Start with Why. He talks about the golden circle of organizations thinking about what they do, how they do it, and why they do it. The most successful organizations flip this model and think first about why, then about how and what they do. For colleges, it’s easy to think of our vision statement as our why; core values as our how; and mission statement as our what. Thinking in this way adds an emotional element to the work and subsequently increases engagement, motivation, focus, and performance for the entire organization.

Connecting to a higher purpose and having a shared reason for why we do our individual work can create a collective energy and shape our overall organizational culture in positive ways. Having a common why is the fundamental building block to an aligned, healthy, and high-performing organization. It’s not easy and takes constant reinforcement, but the more we can all hone in on why we each do what we do — and the extent to which we share the same why — the better we can continue to make this a special place to work, learn, and grow as members of the MVCC community.

Ideas shared in this post are informed by my book, Competing on Culture: Driving Change in Community Colleges. If you have any questions or comments, please contact me directly at presblog@mvcc.edu. 

In Search of Abundance & Connection: Stress and Exhaustion in the Modern Workplace

Peter Drucker is credited with saying, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” If colleges and universities are to pursue new strategies for success in the future, culture had better be a major priority. However, as the foundations of nearly every industry are undergoing fundamental change, the dynamics of the modern workplace are growing increasingly complex and make tending to culture and the variables that  shape it more difficult than ever. 

I recently saw a presentation by Future of Work Strategist Heather McGowan, who pointed out that society may be changing even faster than technology. Consider modern-day politics and media outlets that are increasingly filled with subtle (and not so subtle) messages and issues of race and “otherness” related to the impending minority majority — where whites will no longer comprise more than 50 percent of the United States. It’s also no longer about male/female: gay/lesbian, as now gay marriage, transgendered, and gender fluidity are more common in society. A record number of women and racial minorities were elected to Congress last fall, signaling a major change in political leadership and representation. The legalization of marijuana in several states is just one more example of societal changes that few would have predicted 10 years ago. And finally, the daily energy required for the critical thought to parse through what is real and what is “fake news” within the negative rhetoric too easily found in the media only increases the likelihood of negative cycles associated with getting through a typical day.

For those working in public community colleges across the country, we have watched competition, shifting demographics, and changes in the economy lead to negative effects on enrollment in many regions. All of this at a time when public postsecondary education is increasingly moving from a public good to a private commodity for those who can afford it. As a result, many colleges are basically operating with the same amount of operating dollars (or less) than we had seven years ago, which has prompted difficult decisions and fewer people to do the important work of our colleges. Increasingly constrained resources combined with accelerating technology and significant changes in society naturally create a higher level of intensity in the modern workplace. This constant pressure annually compounds itself with no rest. The difficult changes keep multiplying, which can wear on even the strongest of souls.

The increasing intensity from societal change and the accelerated pace of work manifests itself in greater incidents of anxiety and exhaustion. All of it leaving individuals with little reserve to invest in relationships that are the core to our well-being as humans. It’s easier to just go home and plop in front of a screen rather than coordinate social calendars. Over time, we may lose sight of our own needs and the needs of those closest to us. For those with children, divorces, ailing or aging parents and family members, disabilities and other variables, the stresses can be even greater. The fraying of social relationships has helped foster what Dr. Vivek Murthy, former U.S. Surgeon General, calls an epidemic of loneliness. He talks about how people want to be seen and known authentically in ways that John Zogby predicted 10 years ago in his book, The Way We’ll Be. 

These variables show up in every modern workplace on a daily basis in ways that quietly and often invisibly influence our interactions and decision-making. In addition to employees wrestling with the variables in the modern workplace, colleges and universities have an additional challenge as these forces are influencing changes in student populations. More students are coming to campus with anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues that have changed the classroom dynamic and added to the stress associated with the work of faculty and staff who work with students.

These changes in the modern workplace and general human condition provide the context to changes that need to happen at our colleges. To keep pace with changes in technology, teaching and learning, and other areas, robust professional development and personnel enrichment programs are essential to create a continuous feed of new ideas into the institution and provide opportunities for employees to learn and grow. Recognition programs are also essential to shine a light on the outstanding work of our colleagues. This is more than “this new generation today grew up where everyone gets a trophy.” It’s more about people giving their best to their employer and being seen and celebrated for going above and beyond on behalf of students and colleagues — to recharge the batteries and inspire them to keep going. Colleges of all sizes and shapes need to intentionally design “creative collisions” that allow employees time and space to interact informally. This can take the form of brown-bag lunches, mid-semester “thank you bagel gatherings,” college-sponsored coffee breaks, coordinated happy hours, and other informal convenings. Finally, college-sponsored wellness councils are more important than ever to consider ways to coordinate and nurture these social gatherings; prompt physical wellness programs; support mental health offerings; and promote financial well-being in ways that help employees shape a better future for themselves.

Social events and other wellness programs intended to promote wellness of all kinds can be useful, but if people are outright exhausted, simply more support may only add to the stress. This is why it’s important to disconnect at times. Whether it be taking vacation, a staycation, a mental health day of rest, setting more realistic expectations (under-promise and over-deliver), or not being bound by your smartphone and 24/7 email, “slowing down to speed up” is critical. People talk about work/life balance as a holy grail of sorts, but it’s more realistic to consider the concept of work/life harmony — it’s not about balance, but about congruence in all you do that feeds personal positivity. Increasingly, the value of managing your energy, not your time is gaining attention as the most productive concept to help with this “easier said than done” concept. 

As our mantra increasingly becomes “doing more AND BETTER with less,” the stress and pressures will only increase, making it harder to establish and nurture social connections and personal relationships, but making it even more important for us to see and support each other as colleagues and friends. As we spend so much of our days finding ways to love our students, we can’t forget to find ways and make a stronger effort to love each other and ourselves as well. Organizational cultures that make this a priority will go beyond surviving the uncertain future that is emerging across the higher education landscape — they will be the ones that thrive.

If you have any thoughts on this or ideas about what more can be done to foster connections and creative collisions with your colleagues here at MVCC, please don’t hesitate to contact me directly at presblog@mvcc.edu.