I have been working on the wrap up of my work, analyzing the interviews. I did not meet officially with Jason this week. We have been communicating via email and had a networking happy hour on Tuesday.
The networking happy hour was similar to the last; however, much bigger! I met people from all different program areas and divisions. One of the people from the last happy hour and I interviewed was there, so it was nice to see a friendly face. He also introduced me to people as the evening went on. As silly as this sounds, I have to motivate myself quite a bit to get to these events. Once I am there, I am glad I went, but many times at the end of a long work day, going out and doing more work-related activities is a chore. I was exhausted when I got home! It is important; however, to be known and seen at these events. Leaders need to be shown as part of the group and human (something outside of the confines of an office). It allows leaders to see their team as individuals as well.
I expect to work on project with Jason through the rest of the summer. We both feel like there is more that can be explored with the work. Revisiting the original questions, one of them was to determine what the gaps were and how to address them. We have definitely identified some gaps, but the trickier part unsurprisingly is how to address them. This requires a bit more strategy and planning. If there is anything I have learned from reading Change Wars and Turnaround Leadership for Higher Education this semester is that it takes a lot of forethought in order to make successful change (Fullan & Scott, 2009; Hargreaves & Fullan, 2009).
Fullan, M., &
Scott, G. (2009). Turnaround leadership for higher education. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Heargreaves, A., & Fullan, M. (2009). Change wars. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree.
