196: What a higher ed conference can teach us about provocation, storytelling, and staying engaged as we age

Last month, I had the opportunity to have my perspective tested. As someone that works in higher education, you might think that’s not much of a novelty. On the contrary — none of us is immune to cemented positions and calcified opinions. The NACUBO 2018 Annual Meeting was a chance for me to face some of my own, and I walked away with three experiences I wanted to share this week.

191: Plymouth State President Donald Birx Faces Transformation Head-on in Clusters

Plymouth State University is making a dramatic shift, moving from a traditional university structure to a cluster-based model, which will give students a new combination of education and engaged scholarship necessary to compete successfully in an increasingly complex and demanding world. 

189: Preparing Grads for the World Beyond the Walls with Bentley President Gloria Larson

Bentley University President Gloria Larson returns to Navigating Change this week to share the story of her new book, Prepared U: How Innovative Colleges Drive Student Success. “How you go to college is more important than where you go to school,” says President Larson. In the book — and her work at Bentley University — Larson demonstrates the changes required for institutions to deliver both the hard skills and soft, and help cultivate graduates ready for the challenges ahead. 

188: Building Your Culture from the Bottom Up — The Operations Review

This week on the show, Howard Teibel leads us through a conversation about building this new muscle. You’ll have a better understanding of what it means to engage your community, what it means to work through problems collaboratively, and how to send the message throughout the enterprise that you truly care about what they believe are the most important issues you face together. 

184: Grant Lichtman on ‘Moving the Rock’ and Schools' Struggle with Identity

Our guest today returns to share the story of his research toward his latest book and his work understanding the nature of change in education today. In Grant Lichtman’s latest book, Moving the Rock: Seven Levers WE Can Press to Transform Education, he outlines the three fundamental questions facing education today: Why should we change, what is the change going to look like, and how do we get there?

182: Finding Your Calling — Part 1

What does it mean to have a calling? How do you know you’re living a life of contribution? As a leader in higher education, are you living up to the mission of your institution? Howard and Pete get to share some rare face-to-face time in this conversation coming to you from a shady porch at The Chautauqua Institution in New York.

180: Challenging our Blindspots — Moods, Assessments, and Assertions with Author Gloria Flores

This week, we welcome Gloria Flores to the show, co-founder and President of Pluralistic Networks. In her work, Gloria is committed to developing innovative ways for people to learn to collaborate, to listen, to build trust, and to build value for each other. Of particular interest to her is the creation of learning environments that will enable people to develop what many describe as “soft skills,” but that really should be referred as “crucial skills” for today’s world.

179: The Teacher as Learner — Finding the Future of Teaching in Meat with Berkeley Prof. Ricardo San Martin

This week on Navigating Change, Berkeley Professor Ricardo San Martin joins us in a conversation about teaching. What does transformational teaching look like and what does it mean to present that teacher as learner. How can we empower students to explore with each and build a sense of their own ownership in the learning process?

178: Gates Foundation’s Daniel Greenstein on Equity, Sustainability, and the Road to Opportunity

Dr. Daniel Greenstein serves as director of Education, Postsecondary Success in the United States Program, for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In our conversation this week, Dr. Greenstein takes us on a journey of student success, and presents powerful factors in sustainable financial success of our institutions. This is a conversation about innovation, disruption, and engaging in an effort to take on bold ideas in support of our own future as educators.