This Deep Dive will explore the skills and sensibilities necessary to create a school culture that encourages interpersonal connection, enables effective coordination of work, and reinforces individuals’ leadership commitment to the organization and its mission.

Higher Education is going through seismic change. Old ways are crumbling as the value proposition is increasingly questioned in our public discourse. Student needs are changing, while the ways we deliver education and work together are transforming. As leaders, it is clear we must reshape or dismantle many of the old structures to build anew.

What if the practice of how we work together can be learned? There is a great deal of struggle and ambiguity around being an effective team or organization. As a result, individuals often suffer.

Every organization, large and small, functions as a network of commitments. These commitments are what make it possible to execute against an overarching mission. To create an innovative culture in higher education, we need to shift our way of thinking from consensus to commitment-building.

What if innovation is not the creation of shiny new things, but the building of new habits and practices across your organization?

The Creativity & Innovation Program is an immersive experience to build new habits of coordination within and across your organization. Develop an articulated vision through storytelling and headlining, bring high-velocity decisions to your organization, brainstorm and practice pitching ideas to inspire leaders to act, and practice change management principles to help your team deal with uncertainty and accelerated change.

When we are skilled in common workplace practices, such as closing the books or onboarding an employee, we don’t need to think about them. What if the practice of working productively together could be learned and performed in the same skillful and natural way? Being an effective team or organization is sometimes a struggle, and success in this regard can be ambiguous. Learn how to practice with ease as an effective team.

The biggest challenge facing leaders is the careful balance of running the college or university as a business while ensuring it lives its mission. This tension is historical and resides with the Chief Business Officer and Chief Academic Officer or Provost.

We speak of our academic and administrative teams needing to be more innovative, but don’t provide a roadmap to develop and enhance these skills, much less put them into action. What if innovation is a human practice that can be learned?

As higher education moves beyond the pandemic, what do the next few years hold for small institutions? Connect with small institution colleagues to discuss post-pandemic business and financial management issues. Share your thoughts about today’s challenges and tomorrow’s uncertainties.

A conversation for action is engaging in making requests, fulfilling promises, and effectively coordinating with each other. A conversation for possibilities is asking the question about who we want to be, where we’re going, and why. Most of us are so focused on the activities and actions of the day that we rarely practice or learn the art of being in conversation oriented around possibilities.

Higher Education is undergoing a major change. Old ways are crumbling as the value proposition continues to be questioned. Student needs are changing, while the ways we deliver education and work together are transforming. As leaders, it is clear we must reshape or dismantle many of the old structures to build anew.

Being a leader is recognizing opportunities to declare when change is needed and inspiring others to follow. Equally relevant, our people are living through a most uncertain period, one that is provoked by moods of overwhelm, indifference, or even resignation about the future. Well-being is today’s strategic imperative.

How can we retain the best of what we have learned over the past couple of years while discarding practices that don’t provide value? There is a risk that we will fall back into a pre-pandemic mindset and lose the urgency and focus that produced innovation across our campuses during the most difficult of times. Retention of our best people is at stake in a time that has come to be known as “The Great Resignation.”

What can someone do to cultivate a change in professional identity? What skills and sensibilities enable someone to shift into a new role in a different domain? What actions can someone take as they transition from a familiar organization to unfamiliar territory?

The pandemic has proven to be a moment of innovation and positive change for schools, and with 2020 and 2021 behind us, now is the time to look beyond the next fiscal year. Embrace the opportunity to reengage your leadership team in longer-term strategic thinking and financial planning. Learn how to think strategically across your teams and execute a plan that addresses your vision for the future.

Culture includes the history, norms, rules, and unique language of an organization. Culture is an institution’s greatest strength, but it also can be its greatest weakness. When we find ourselves in a position to reinvent processes—such as budget and planning—the history and expectations of the institution can impede progress on productive change. In this interactive session, presenters will explore how budget and planning processes support, shape, and have the possibility to transform culture.

Innovation is often interpreted as the rollout of a novel idea or shiny new object. What if innovation instead is the transformation of how we work together and make offers to address larger concerns. In this session we will build on cultivating humble leadership and explore practices we can embody that generate value for the communities we serve.

As leaders of our institutions, our voices can be front and center in the reconstruction of our institutions. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that we have the capacity to change. At the same time, the chorus of voices looking to get back to normal is upon us.

There are two types of conversations we lead and find ourselves - Conversations for Action and Conversations for Possibilities. A conversation for action is engaging in making requests, fulfilling promises, and effectively coordinating actions with each other. A conversation for possibilities is asking the question “who do we want to be and why?” Strategy at its heart is exploring possibilities for the future.

Higher Education is undergoing a similar struggle. Old ways are crumbling because they do not work anymore. The value proposition to students is in question. Costs are spiraling out of control. Student’s needs are changing. It is clear, that we are going to have to dismantle many of the old structures and build anew.

Are you committed to a new vision or complacent with how things have always been done?

Building a culture that can innovate from the bottom up

Innovation is not about the "new" idea but is about taking a current concern and identifying how to address the issue in a way that genuinely satisfies a customer’s needs. School leaders find it difficult to embrace the principle that everyone can innovate. How do you empower those around you who don’t believe they can innovate?

Explore case studies from institutions that have built this inclusive way of operating.

Being a Leader Without Being an Expert

15-min Goldmine

Leaders are often expected to not only provide expertise in their field but also have all the answers when challenges arise. In order for an institution to thrive in a post-pandemic world, its leaders must embrace leadership skills that emphasize collective responsibility and ownership to identify pressing issues. This shift away from ego and “being in charge” can empower school leaders to embrace ambiguity, acknowledge when they don’t know what to do and practice navigating problems with their teams.

The Rock, Peter Blume’s oil painting from 1948, made after the bombing of London, shows the tension between destruction and rebuilding. In the midst of crisis, the old structures must come down. Then, we have to build anew.

Higher Education is undergoing a similar struggle. Old ways are crumbling because they don’t work anymore. The value proposition to students is in question. Costs are spiraling out of control. Student’s needs are changing. It is becoming clear: We are going to have to dismantle many of the old structures. And we are going to have to build anew.

The Strategic Imperative of Diversity and Inclusion - Maximizing uniqueness and belonging to build more innovative teams

In this time of uncertainty and change, the principles of diversity and inclusion have been lifted as an explicit strategic imperative across the country. How can we engage and mobilize our teams to demonstrate a commitment to inclusive hiring practices and transform the make-up of our student body?

Cultivating Leadership Competencies - Resiliency, Humility and Courage

Great leadership is rising above the noise and guiding your organization through an uncertain and open future. It is the act of generating collaboration with the willingness to publicly declare how your institution will change.

Join Teibel Education President Howard Teibel; Rutgers University Executive Vice President — Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer Michael Gower; and University of Colorado Boulder Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Russell Moore on Friday, October 30th for a Webinar discussion on the Future of Higher Education and the roles we can play to navigate through this crisis.

In this session, we will explore current trends and thinking about the workplace of the future, both in the short and long-term. The session will be an opportunity to explore how you can orient your organization or team to think beyond the current crisis and anticipate creative ways to think holistically about the nature of work.

Crises, replete with both complexity and change, require administrators to both lead and manage effectively. Managers need to make immediate choices and allocate resources to address urgent needs. Leaders must provide both honesty — a clear accounting of the challenges your team faces — and credible hope that collectively you and your people have the resources needed to meet the challenges you face each day. The risk of failure is great, but the work of cultivating these skills can be learned.