On Creativity in Student Affairs

I've been thinking a lot about creativity this summer. Summer is usually the time for strategic thinking or viewing my work from different angles and with different ways of allocating time. But what does creativity in Student Affairs look like?

There is quite a bit of noise around innovation in Student Affairs recently (just search #SAinnovate on Twitter. In fact, search #SA____ for anything and you're bound to find it. Good segue back to "creativity"...)

Creativity and innovation are often used interchangeably in the everyday Student Affairs vernacular, but they are very different concepts. The definition I appreciate is from Business Insider and it outlines innovation as the introduction of change into a relatively stable environment while creativity is "unleashing the potential of the mind to conceive new ideas." These are very different concepts and worth analyzing in our work in Student Affairs.

There is an incredible article a recent edition of The Atlantic that talks about the power of two, how the innate creative tension that comes from working together can lead to tremendous results. Perhaps unfairly, the article uses John Lennon and Paul McCartney as the prime example. The Beatles we are not, but the idea of leveraging the creativity of others to enhance your own creativity is an intriguing idea.

So with whom do you do your best creative work? It has always been primarily a solo venture for me, but the culture of Student Affairs is that we collaborate and do things together and think about things together and hang out together and be social together and let ideas happen together. But what if that doesn't work for you? The introvert in me (so pretty much all of me) finds solo contemplative time to be the most inspiring for thinking creatively. And this doesn't happen at work - work is spent in the weeds working on details and swimming through the minutiae, so creative time happens when it happens. Just as I can't sit down and write at an assigned time, I can't sit down and create at an assigned time, though there is value in incorporating creativity into discussions and planning. And perhaps summer is the time and place that creativity can happen!

Stefanie Lucas-Waverly wrote a nice piece for the Student Affairs Feature a year ago about turning creativity into transformative moments by removing boundaries and restrictions while thinking about her work. In particular, she mentions active listening as a key to creativity. This requires others (unless you are actively listening to yourself, which I argue I could do more of to be healthy), so how do you take down restrictions to thinking - remove the quick "no," remove barriers and roadblocks, etc - in your work in order to let creativity happen?

How do YOU encourage creativity in the workplace? Think about ways you can create space and time to be creative. I have a few ideas for my staff this fall and I'm excited to try them out. I'll report back here with details (even if it goes poorly!)

Creativity means taking chances. Where do you allow others to take chances? "Failing forward" is also now a thing. Failing forward is about turning mistakes into learning moments and if you are tuned into your ability to be creative, you should be failing forward constantly.

What if you don't feel like you are creative or you don't feel like you have creative colleagues? This article tells us that creativity can be taught and gives some great step-by-step methodology to help you encourage creativity.

Innovation is about rocking the boat for the better. Creativity is about more than just change - it's about doing something that feels like it's never been done before. No matter your position in an organization, you can promote creativity and use it in your work.

Here's a great video of a talk on creativity given by actor/comedian John Cleese, And just because it's awesome and because he's funny. Worth the watch. And remember: "Creativity is a not a talent. It's a way of operating."

I would enjoy your thoughts on this topic. Find me on Twitter @pottscharlie or please comment below about how you view creativity in Student Affairs work.

Thinking about Professional Development

I had the great privilege of serving on the faculty at the Regional Entry Level Institute through UMR-ACUHO in June. It was an incredibly valuable development opportunity for me and a great way to connect with new housing professionals in the region.

My topic was "Professional Development," and the topic seemed so vast and limitless that I was worried about shaping a session within the 90-minute time-frame. And if that wasn't enough, I presented in the final slot of the week, so I enjoyed hearing throughout the week "Charlie, maybe you'll touch on this during your session" and seeing my list of topics and ideas grow by the hour!

This gave me a chance to reflect on my own professional development. Within 7 years of finishing my master's degree program, I was starting my fourth job (Area Coordinator, Associate Director in activities, Associate Director in residence life and now my current job) and I had been so caught up in doing the things I thought I needed to do to get the next job that I hadn't take time to really think about how I'd grown professionally. Seems like incongruous thinking, but it's true.

So my session allowed me to talk about the things I had thought about over the last 10 years but never really said.

We defined professional development in our own lives by doing some mind-mapping. We talked about professional development being about finding where "personal interest" meets "institutional need." We talked about the high level of personal accountability required to develop as a professional - your supervisor and institution will hopefully support and provide resources, but YOU are responsible for taking advantage of opportunities.

Some things I want to share about the presentation:

-The best professional development is doing your job damn well.
-Use the competencies (CAS, ACPA/NASPA, ACUHO-I) as a guide.
-Conferences are only worth it if you bring ideas back and put them into action!
-Social Media is vital to your creating and cultivating a professional network. Be authentic!
-Write write write. Start a blog, share ideas, write about it and do it well.
-Mentors don't seek you out. You have to take initiative to find a mentor/coach.
-The "soft skills" (critical self-reflection, interpersonal communicaton, political savvy) get little attention but will make or break your career!

Here's a link to the actual presentation.

What would you tell a new professional about what "professional development" means to you? How often do you really reflect on your professional development experiences?

The RELI Experience

I recently wrapped up a fantastic professional development experience at the Regional Entry Level Institute through UMR-ACUHO.

I had the privilege of serving as a faculty member at the institute, which was a four-day gathering of new professionals (most with 1-3 years of professional experience) to connect, share and learn about housing and residence life. There were nine faculty and about 30 participants and it was an incredible experience.

 

There is such tremendous value in thinking locally and regionally about professional development and RELI was a prime example of the power of connecting in this way. I presented on professional development and will write a blog post soon about the ideas I have about development of new professionals.


The wonderful staff at the University of Northern Iowa put together this event and they covered every detail imaginable. Faculty presentations focused on assessment, supervision, legal issues, crisis management, facilities management, conference management, budgeting, occupancy management, navigating politics and professional development.

I certainly learned much more than I was able to share as a faculty member and I am deeply appreciative of this opportunity.

 

If you work in student affairs and are looking for professional development opportunities, think locally and regionally. Yes, it's usually cheaper to do so, but don't think locally or regionally just because budgets are tight for most of us right now... do it because there are incredibly talented people all around you in this field! You don't have to go far to learn a lot.

I'm excited to sit down and write about my session on professional development - stay tuned!

Photos by Sarah Holmes

Should we have a meeting?

I'm lost in a meeting culture. Many of you face this issue, too... from the corporate world to the student affairs world, we just meet too damn much. In any given week, 80% or more of my schedule is taken up by meetings, with most of the other 20% spent emailing ABOUT meetings. Maybe this doesn't bother you, but it's been frustrating me as I think more about how I spend my time and why we do the things we do.

Three common problems with meetings at my institution (and I'm sure you have experienced)...

1. We start each meeting with more than 5 minutes of small talk. I know we like each other, but the reason for the meeting should be at the front of our minds, not spending time talking about the weekend or pop culture stuff. (Note: This is where the introversion kicks in and I'm considered a jerk. I just like to think I'm trying to be efficient!). Is a scheduled business meeting the place for social time? Perhaps for some organizations, but I wonder if it's the best use of meeting time.

2. A member of the group almost always walks in late. Instead of being able to quietly grab a chair and listen, the group usually decides to walk through everything that had been discussed up to that point. So nearly 5-10 minutes are spent rehashing the first 20 minutes.

3. Near the end of a scheduled 60-minute meeting, the meeting is starting to wrap. The leader of said meeting will say "Any other items or thoughts?" Half of the group stays quiet and about half mutter "Nope..." so the leader says "Have a great day, everyone!" Which is the exact moment someone says "Well, I do have a question..." and a nearly perfectly timed hour-long meeting suddenly lasts 70 minutes and makes us 10 minutes late for our next meeting.

These incidents happen in a surprisingly high number of meetings I attend. Do they happen to you? How does it affect your engagement? Your interest?

A great piece by Carson Tate in the New York Times discusses the idea that time spent in a meeting "should generate a return on investment" and that meetings should have agendas and those agendas should align with organizational strategic priorities. He suggests using alternative methods like email or shared documents (e.g. Google docs). He also suggests having participants stand during in-person meetings to insure more efficient use of time.

Robert Pozen writes in The Wall Street Journal that if a meeting is absolutely necessary, it should never last longer than 60 minutes. Anything more than that and we lose focus. He also points to a clear lack of preparation in meetings that are ineffective. How many meetings have you attended that didn't have an agenda? How often do you lead meetings without an agenda (other than the one in your head)?

Meetings are a vital way to allow voices to be heard, but there are ways to improve the way we meet and the reasons we meet to still allow voices of colleagues/employees to be heard as well and increase our productivity and efficiency.

So what can we do?

1. Learn to say "no." Clearly there are meetings to which we cannot say no, but often our willingness to say no can help us moderate our use of meetings and keep us focused on our work.

2. Be serious about holding work time on your calendar and encourage your colleagues or employees to do the same. This allows us to challenge the need to set meetings and gives us a reason to say "no" more often. I have done this when the opportunity allows, but I quickly found that colleagues mocked it. I'd get a call to schedule a meeting and colleagues would say "I know you have time - your schedule is full but it's your 'fake schedule.'" No. That is my schedule. Work time - even a short amount of time to respond to emails, voicemails or - better yet - just to THINK for a few minutes, can be incredibly rejuvenating.

3. Have a purpose for meetings. Is the topic ready for discussion? Is there a clear agenda? Would another day (or week) of prep time allow for a better discussion? And if it has purpose, you'll keep it short. Limiting an agenda will narrow the focus of the meeting and will enable more effective use of in-person gatherings.

4. Respect other peoples' time. Schedule 45 or 50 minute meetings to allow your group to leave and get to their next meetings on time. Is social time at the beginning or end of a meeting part of your organization's culture? Does it need to be?

5. Never meet just to meet. If a topic does not need to be discussed or there are no topics that need immediate attention, DON'T MEET! Cancel or postpone a meeting - it frees up time in your schedule and you reward your colleagues/employees with additional work time in their day.

Ironically, the poem of the day in the Writer's Almanac on the day I started this post was...

At the Very Lengthy Meeting

by Kevin McCaffrey

At the very lengthy meeting
I actually felt my soul leave my body
and rush toward the ceiling—
and fly around the walls and flare
toward daylight, toward the windows—
to throw silently its impetuous emptiness
against the glass in vain.
It could not go anywhere, the clear moth.

Then it lay on the rug, not exhausted
but bored and so inert that it almost—
though nothing—
took on a hue, stained with all the breaths
and words and thoughts that filled the room:
the yellow-green color of old teeth.

#SAcommits: The trouble with language

The Student Affairs Collaborative started a very admirable project to keep mental health at the forefront of conversation throughout May, both in terms of our work in student development and as working professionals. I genuinely applaud those who started the blog posts and the brought the conversation forward.

But I have a problem with language. The hashtag chosen for this initiative is #SAcommits.
#SAcommits. Commits. When talking about mental health. I understand the pun - that by getting involved we are committing to an important conversation. But "committing" someone, as we all know, is also the term for putting someone into what is usual involuntary treatment for any variety of mental health challenges.

My problem is not with the project - I think it's vital and it's a conversation that does not happen enough. My problem is with language. Too often we excuse the use of language when it benefits us. If an organization we didn't like decided to use the term "commit" in such a way, we'd swiftly and harshly condemn them for not understanding their point of privilege if they haven't struggled with depression or anxiety. The use of the term (I'm assuming) is to convey the message to the broad audience and increase basic understanding of mental health issues. By while attempting to spread the message to the widest possible audience, a term is being used that is most often connected to the negative stigmas around mental health to the broadest audience of people. 

The argument was made that it is the profession's way of "reclaiming" that word to use in more positive ways. I understand reclaiming words - it defuses the power of the word and (ideally) changes our understanding of it and society's acceptance of it. But the problem with reclaiming words in this way is that we then get offended when someone else uses it in the way we find offensive. The whole "We're allowed to use it this way, but others should not" argument. And Twitter is a constantly flowing stream of information - so those jumping in and seeing it without context for the creation of the hashtag (something I have yet to see, by the way, thanks to an inability to read all Tweets all the time ever) may also be put off or misunderstand what is a well-intentioned attempt at changing the meaning of a commonly used term.

The stories that have been shared are incredible and powerful and will be helpful to so many readers. I truly commend those who have been brave enough to share their lives and struggles. But there are very few of us who truly understand or have experienced the commonly understood meaning of the term "committed." Sure, we work with students (and even colleagues) who are committed temporarily for treatment, but there is a big difference between continued therapy to navigate mental illness (a privilege many don't have - even in this country) and what we usually mean when we say "committed." To blur the line between the two in order to have a catchy or punny hashtag is irresponsible.

What about #SAwellbeing or #SAhealth or #SAmentalhealth?

I know very little about mental health aside from what I've learned in my job training and experienced at work and perhaps that's where I fall short in my understanding of this use of language. I want to engage in this conversation. I really do. But as long as #SAcommits is the hashtag and the central identity of the conversation, I just can't do it. 

Pecha Kucha

The theme of the American College Personnel Association's annual conference in Indianapolis this spring was "Reinvent." As part of the reinvention of the conference, there were several innovative and exciting opportunities for professionals. One of those ideas new to the conference was a Pecha Kucha night.

Pecha Kucha is a style of presentation that involves showing 20 images for 20 seconds each. The images advance automatically while the presenter narrates. The style is all about precision - sending a message in a short amount of time.  In addition to keeping presentations short and to the point, the style keeps the audience engaged. It was an amazing experience at ACPA. While I certainly am not in the big leagues like the presenters in Indianapolis, I thought I'd give it a shot.

The Gustavus Residential Life professional staff is doing "Knowledge Drops" this spring. Each week a professional staff member presents for 5-10 minutes on a topic they are interested in, passionate about or just think the staff would benefit from hearing.

So my Knowledge Drop became my first attempt at Pecha Kucha. I thought it would be a neat introduction to the style of presenting and also allow me to share some info.

My Pecha Kucha presentation is "Lost in Translation: Why Michael Jordan Would Be a Horrible High School Basketball Coach." It's about how and why the most skilled among us have difficultly translating their talent into an ability to teach that talent. Well, the presentation is only 6:40 long, so I shouldn't say anymore!

Enjoy!

Warning: The volume isn't so great on this recorded version... make sure to crank it up! Also, there's no way I really sound like that in real life. Right?

Developing Capacity

The Student Affairs Collective hosted another great #sachat on Thursday, April 24. The topic was "the glorification of busy." Every week I am amazed at the turnout of student affairs professionals on this chat venue and I struggle to keep up with the conversation - we make Twitter move rapidly!

Being busy as a professional is a tricky thing. What is busy? How do you define what you mean by busy? This is probably an unfair question in April. Most of us in student affairs are in one of our busiest times - staff selection, student organization turnover, professional staff hiring, room selection, etc. We are hypersensitive to our schedules right now so the timing of the chat was perfect.

I struggle with "busy" often. I choose to allocate time to work and time to life how I see fit. Not everyone agrees with the way I do it and I don't always agree with the way others do it. But I own my own definition of busy and try not to talk too much about it. The idea of "busy" is tied closely to our perceived self-worth and our need to validate our competence as professionals. We get competitive and we try to "one up" one another by comparing schedules and number of hours spent at work. It's unfair and it's unhealthy. Stacy Oliver wrote a great blog post about this very topic about a year ago and I reflect on it often when rationalizing the amount of work I think I have to do or that I see others do.

I hate the phrase "I don't have time." We do have time. We always have time and, in fact, we all have the same amount of time in a day and in a week that our colleagues do. It's a matter of how we want to use the time and asking ourselves about the importance of how we have chosen to use our time. If your answer to a request is "I don't have time," then you need to either re-prioritize your time or just be authentic with your answer and tell us why you don't want to do it or that don't have the ability (yet) to get something done. Honesty works - covering up the truth with "I don't have time" doesn't work.

There's a big difference between one's ability to WORK HARD and the CAPACITY one has to accomplish many things. We all know people who work constantly but never seem to accomplish much - and the inefficiency is often mistaken for hard work. The act of always saying we are too busy is a mask for our own self-consciousness about our lack of capacity. 

We need to think critically about how we help new professionals develop capacity. We need to stop rewarding those who might work longer hours and stop judging those who try to find that elusive balance we hear so much about. Capacity is the ability to take on responsibility and fill up our bucket. Some people have bigger buckets than others, but we can help each other understand the volume and pace of work that we are all capable of handling. Some of it's innate, some of it is learned. But instead of focusing on competition, we should focus on helping others grow their capacity to do more and to do it better.

I welcome your thoughts on how we can work to help others develop capacity. Is it innate? Is it learned? Share your thoughts here or find me on Twitter @pottscharlie