While You're Changing Things, Think About Making the Change Last

This is a thoughtful resource and well worth reading with regard to any institutional planning, not just in the area of its focus: Student services. The author, Robin P. Krakowsky is senior vice president of administration, Johnson & Wales University. Writing in Business Officer, she notes that he found plenty of specific information about the vast changes in student services that have been made on many campuses in the last 20 years, but little about how to sustain those changes once made. He undertook some research and serves up results, analysis, and a model:

The resulting “Model for Sustaining Change in Higher Education Administrative Student Services” (see table) describes the primary and secondary factors that help make change a reality as well as the related commitments and actions that sustain the changes over time. A discussion of the model's application will come later in this article . . .

Not surprisingly, the elements most relevant and critical for supporting continuous improvement, increased effectiveness, and sustainable change center on people and the organizational culture. These three primary factors fall into three categories: leadership; human—both managerial and individual; and cultural.

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Regional SCUP Events! Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers at one of three SCUP regional conferences this spring:

• March 14–16: Baltimore, MD
• March 24–26: Cambridge, MA
• April 5–7, San Diego, CA

New Book: An Evil Side to 'Positive Thinking'?

As one who found the book, Who Moved My Cheese?, to be incredibly condescending, Kerry Howley's review of Barbara Ehrenreich's new book, Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America, is sufficient to ensure that this blogger will find that book and read it. The review is published in Reason and we found it via The Chronicle of Higher Education's Arts & Letters Daily. If you purchase the book through this link at Amazon, SCUP will receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Ehrenreich weighs down her argument with dubious chains of causation and ponderous overstatement, but her central point still shines through the mess. Platitudinous happy-talk seems so harmless that most of us barely notice it, yet it can be a burdensome, even bullying, attempt to enforce emotional conformity.

Ehrenreich is always interesting, always comes from a politically progressive perspective, and the processes by which she comes to conclusions are often easy to disagree with. But she makes unique and thought-provoking observations about our culture.

We think a planner would find her observations about the ubiquity of positive thinking, and its "cultural pressure so totalizing we sometimes fail to notice its existence," of interest in organizing and observing stakeholder meetings, focus groups, and the like.

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Regional SCUP Events! Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers at one of three SCUP regional conferences this spring:

• March 14–16: Baltimore, MD
• March 24–26: Cambridge, MA
• April 5–7, San Diego, CA

From Here to There: Effectively Managing Organizational Change

A useful quick read by Casey J. Wick (PDF) from Facilities Manager about unfreeezing the status quo, shaping a new one, then re-freezing:

Ask any manager to recount a time when significant changes to their organization were required, and the response will more than likely be a woeful tale of suspicion, resistance, and eventually reluctant acceptance. Initiating and implementing organizational change can be, and very often is, a journey characterized by periods of temporary progress followed by slow regression back to old habits and operating practices. Countless challenges and barriers rooted in individual and group perceptions lay around each and every bend in the road to effective and lasting changes. More importantly, the journey of organizational change is one in which the pressure influencing change can shift rapidly and without warning making the destination seem unattainable. Fortunately, with firm commitment and thorough planning, the initiation and implementation of pressure-driven changes can be successfully made within an organizational setting. . . . Other strategies identified include manipulation, co-optation, and explicit/implicate coercion. While these strategies are defined and accepted, they are not considered desired or even ethical. Most often these tactics lead to rapid inappropriate changes that are short lived. Additionally, these strategies certainly leave participants feeling as though they have been deceived and taken advantage of. Such emotions will only serve to diminish individual and group trust which is extremely destructive to an organization.

From Here to There: Effectively Managing Organizational Change

A useful article from APPA's Facilities Manager (PDF):

Effective strategies for reducing or eliminating resistance are essential to the process of implementing lasting and effective organizational change. While there are several strategies generally accepted as effective, they all have certain traits in common and are most effective when used in combination. Developing a positive climate for change is at the top of the list. The beliefs employees hold about the organization will affect their responses during times of change. Effective, honest, and transparent communication with employees will help to build a positive belief about the change leaders and in turn will facilitate dissipation of the related anxiety within the organization. . . . With few drawbacks, education is clearly one of the most desirable strategies. However, regardless of the format in which it is delivered, education can be time consuming and costly. . . . Participation is another strategy change leaders frequently rely on. Acting as a substantial contributor will instill a genuine sense of ownership within the participants and stakeholders alike. . . . Facilitation is yet another highly effective change strategy and is essential in situations where individual stress, anxiety and adjustment difficulties underlie the resistance. Several other strategies are defined and characterized within the process of overcoming resistance. Other strategies identified include manipulation, co-optation, and explicit/implicate. While these strategies are defined and accepted, they are not considered desired or even ethical. Most often these tactic lead to rapid inappropriate changes that are short lived. Additionally, these strategies certainly leave participants feeling as though they have been deceived and taken advantage of. Such emotions will only serve to diminish individual and group trust which is extremely destructive to an organization.