Managing Change With a Balanced Approach
Individuals and organizations often dread the thought of making a significant change, even when they understand why it’s necessary. One of the challenges in orchestrating change is getting all interested parties to agree with the objectives and methods for achieving them. Because today’s environment doesn’t allow schools, colleges, and universities to stand still, change management skills are vital to ensuring long-term success.
Here’s how two colleges and an independent K-12 school successfully managed a major change by involving their faculty, staff, and—in one case—students and alumni.
Whitman Replaces Mascot
Changing a mascot can fire up students and alumni, yet Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash., managed to do so with a minimum of dissent. How? By involving the campus community every step along the way.
In late 2015, to answer continuing questions about the appropriateness of the current mascot, the new president assembled a working group of students, faculty, staff, and governing board members and charged them with answering one question: “Is the Missionary an appropriate mascot for Whitman today?”
“The working group developed a survey that was distributed to 18,000 alumni, students, and other Whitman community members,” said Gina Ohnstad, director of media and public relations. “When the results came back, it was clear the majority did not believe the Missionary was an appropriate mascot.”
Whitman, a small liberal arts college with 1,500 students, is nonsectarian, despite the former mascot’s implication, said Josh Jensen, vice president for communications and public relations. “That was confusing. The Missionary mascot is a reference to Marcus Whitman, who was a missionary in this region and for whom the college was named."
In the spring, a new working group reached out to the campus community once again, this time asking two questions: What is your idea for a mascot, and how does it demonstrate the institution’s ideals? “We received thousands of suggestions,” Jensen said. After narrowing down ideas and doing competitive research to avoid duplications, the task force presented four options in a survey to the entire community.
“We had a clear frontrunner, which became the selected mascot: The Whitman Blues, which refers to the local mountain range, the Blue Mountains,” he said. “We announced the mascot in November, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Of course, there are a handful of folks who are nostalgic for the past, and lots of people were invested in the suggestion they submitted, but overall our community valued the inclusive nature of the process, the ability to weigh in, and the way we selected—or really the way they selected—the mascot. That made all the difference.”
The college was prepared to listen to feedback throughout the process. “We knew this could be a touchy subject,” Ohnstad said. “When the surveys went out, we were ready with a bank of people to take calls. The main college line was prepared to transfer alumni who called with opinions. We were ready to listen, and we communicated every step of the way. No one could say ‘This was surprising.’ Everyone had multiple options for getting their message to us. People felt heard.”
Changing the mascot is not always just about switching the symbol, Jensen said. “People, particularly alumni, were concerned that the change could signal a broader shift in who Whitman is culturally. We reassured them that our values as an institution have stayed constant, and we remain committed to providing the high-touch liberal arts education that they received.”
Bolles Reduces Risks
A new enterprise risk management process at The Bolles School in Jacksonville, Fla., resulted in two key outcomes: a positive change in culture surrounding risk management and an understanding that risk management is a shared responsibility, said Nancy Greene, chief operating officer and chief financial officer (CFO).
“With all of the risks that have been flying at schools—everything from active shooters to allegations of sexual misconduct—it became obvious to me that the CFO alone could no longer manage risk,” she said. “The only way we can effectively change the culture is by making sure the silos are broken down, getting everyone onboard, and not owning risk management alone.”
The independent college prep school with 1,630 students and three campuses started its enterprise risk management process in 2012. After developing a framework, Greene met with her leadership team to obtain their buy-in. Her board was already in agreement.
“We explained the benefits of a risk management process, why we needed to implement it, and why we needed the leadership team’s help,” she said. “Our insurance agent talked about the losses we had seen and what they translated to monetarily.”
She next invited about 20 people from different departments to participate in small group sessions, explaining, “We’re trying to reduce the amount of risk at our school. Anything is fair game. What do you see that we could do better? What keeps you up at night? Have you seen something in an area of the school other than your own that carries risk?”
Those meetings resulted in a laundry list of risks, some of which could be corrected immediately. “When you take a collaborative approach, it’s a messy process, which is OK,” Greene said. “You can’t dismiss people’s ideas or others will think, ‘I’m not opening my mouth because they might think my idea is silly.’ You can refine suggestions later.”
The three-year process has created a culture of risk awareness among board and staff members. “We do regular training, and it’s widely accepted,” she said. “People are now reporting risks they see. It’s changed our culture and made it overall a better place.”
For example, she might get this message: “Hey, I just wanted you to know there’s a huge crack in the sidewalk, right near the front entrance. It could be a trip and fall risk for guests.”
Also, visitors are now required to go through a guardhouse and obtain a visitors’ badge. If a visitor doesn’t have a tag, employees are not reluctant to walk up and say, “May I help you? Are you here to see somebody? While you are here at The Bolles School, we need you to check into our system.”
She attributes the positive outcome to communication and collaboration. “The only way you change a culture is making people feel involved and good about it,” she said. “I facilitated this process; I didn’t own it. Our board and staff were the brains behind it.”
Gettysburg Contains Costs
Like many institutions, Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pa., wanted to determine how to curb tuition increases, promote accessibility, and maintain excellence. In the fall of 2014, the school began an evaluation process similar to continuous improvement.
“Our goal was to engage in a process that would ensure careful stewardship of the resources available to us and our ability to increase financial assistance to students, while sustaining a superb liberal arts experience,” said Janet Morgan Riggs, president.
Daniel Konstalid, vice president of finance and administration, said 80 percent of the college’s budget currently comes from student-related revenues, including net tuition and room and board fees. The endowment supports less than 10 percent of the college’s financial aid budget.
In the first phase of the process, dubbed Sustainable Excellence, the process was more top/down with division heads suggesting initiatives for cost savings. Those initiatives were shared with the college’s Forward Thinking Group, which includes elected faculty, for input and feedback. During the second phase, the process switched to bottom/up. Three working groups composed of faculty and staff generated ideas in administrative operations, benefits, and curricular efficiency.
To effectively manage change, you need to find the right balance between a top/down and bottom/up approach, says Howard Teibel, president of Teibel Education Consulting Inc. in Natick, Mass, who works extensively with schools, colleges, and universities, including Gettysburg, looking to implement change. He is also working with United Educators on its change management process. “You can start with the bottom/up approach and use the community to help develop the strategy, or you can start with the top and say, ‘Here’s a draft, and we would like your input.’ Too often, leaders think they have to have all the answers. That’s where they shoot themselves in the foot."
To help people through the change process, you need to get them involved, which means giving up some control over the outcome. “At the leadership level, you need to have a clear and compelling message, share the brutal facts of what the institution is dealing with in the context of the larger education environment, articulate a positive vision for change, and engage as many people as possible in the dialogue,” Teibel said.
That approach worked for Gettysburg. “We put together cross-division teams to think about areas that might be available for cost containment, cost reduction, and reallocation,” Riggs said. “Our charge to these working groups was to generate as many ideas as they could. It was not their job to evaluate the ideas, but to think broadly and provide a list of possible initiatives.”
Division leaders were purposely kept off these teams, Konstalid said. “We tried to remove the chilling effect of having someone like me sitting in a group where my directors are proposing ideas. When you lift the constraints, you get challenging questions like, ‘Why couldn’t we do this differently?’ or ‘Why can’t we do without this?’ We think the combination of top/down and bottom/up helped the process.”
Riggs cited one example of the bottom/up approach in action: To control costs, the college switched its employee health care from an open-access to a network-driven system and changed carriers. “There was clear unhappiness across our employee population with the arrangement,” she said. “We listened to what people had to say and worked hard to make things better. When things weren’t getting better, we changed back to something similar to what we had before. Although it’s not as cost effective, it serves our employees better.”
Riggs and Konstalid agreed that engaging the campus community from the beginning has been a key component in their progress. “It’s important for the community to understand why you’re involved in such an undertaking and how it will advance the institution,” Riggs said. “You can engage the campus community in a variety of ways. Sometimes it’s through working groups, but it can also be through open forums or surveys where people have the opportunity to make suggestions.”
By Margo Vanover Porter, a freelance business and education writer
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