A theme that has been repeated again and again in my time as
dean at Carlow University has been that we are living through a period of
disruptive change in the world of higher education. In addition to the urgent
challenges of seeking to grow enrollment and build financial health through
innovative and new programs, recent conversations throughout campus have
centered around the kinds of things that an institutional culture needs in
order to manage and thrive during change. Here are a few of the resources we’ve
been working with and that have helped advance our conversation about these
things.
Our Iceberg is Melting
For starters, before my arrival at Carlow, our president introduced
the university to Kotter’s change model through his popular book, Our Iceberg Is Melting. This has been useful as a foundation for understanding some of the dynamics
of institutional change. We’ve been able to take stock of the eight dimensions
of his change model and consider where we are at and where we have been. One
interesting dynamic has been that we have developed strong sense of urgency
from nearly everyone on campus. For the most part, people understand the
challenges we are facing and the need to make changes. At the same time, the
sustaining of a sense of urgency can have both a fatigue-inducing dimension as
well as creating some discouragement when change is happening but results are
not following as hoped.
Related to this, one new dimension of our conversations
about change this year has been around another aspect of Kotter’s work, based
on his XLR8 book. This book builds on his change model but suggests that an
institution’s hierarchical organizational structure may not be the best way to
facilitate change, and may actually work against change. He proposes that, in
addition to an organization’s hierarchical structure, in fact alongside of it,
a network of agile teams involving key motivated and skilled individuals from
throughout the institution can help drive the kinds of initiatives and
activities that can generate lasting change. This is in contrast to the kind of
changes that may be imposed from the top down through the hierarchical
organizational structure. We are in the early stages of putting this kind of
strategic plan management mechanism into place. At the moment, it is having the
effect of energizing a number of us in terms of owning specific aspects of the
strategic plan and also inviting other key people to engage with us in this
specific area. I am excited to see the full implementation of this model in the
weeks and months ahead.
Managing Transitions
A third dimension of our discussions have been about the
need to manage not just change but transition. This conversation has drawn on
the book Managing Transitions by William Bridges which reflects an understanding of how people
respond to change and takes account of the need to manage the various phases of
adjusting to new circumstances. Of particular interest to me was the idea of
listening carefully to understand the concerns that people raise during period
of transition. In particular, the concerns that are vocalized may not
necessarily be the real concern. Thus, rather than responding to each concern
that is verbalized by individuals, it is important to listen well to discern
what the real question is; and then to find ways to acknowledge those concerns
and to address those root concerns, to the extent possible.
All of us in higher education, whatever our role, have been
dealing with disruptive change in recent years and perhaps for many years now.
Looking at these changes at Carlow with the help of the resources above—and in
the context of rich conversations about these dynamics facilitated by campus
leaders—has helped me (and, I think, many of us) move to a point where we have
reason to be quite hopeful about the opportunities that changed circumstances
present us.
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