Improving Climate from Where You Are Right Now

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Improving Climate from Where You Are Right Now

• Don Schutt, Director,Office of Human Resource
  Development (OHRD)
• And
• Kathleen Paris, Sr. Consultant
• Office of Quality Improvement, UW-Madison
• 2002

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What do we mean by climate?

• Prevailing atmosphere of civility and mutual
  respect
• Measured by how it feels to people who work and
  learn here.
• Created by day-to-day behaviors of everyone

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Circle of Concern
Circle of Influence
Focus Your Energy on Those Things You Can
Influence1
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Circle of Concern
Circle of Influence
If you focus on things you can do something
about, the positive energy and effort tends to
enlarge your Circle of Influence.1
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Ideas for Improving Climate

• Six Questions to ask your Staff
• Operating Principles
• Dialogue
• Critical Friends Exercise
• Appreciative Inquiry
• Community-building events
• Six Questions to ask your Staff
• Monitor climate around your desk or workstation
• Campus Learning Opportunities

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Six Questions to Ask
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Six Questions to Ask

• Do I know what is expected of me at work?
• Do I have the materials and equipment I need to
  do my work right?
• At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I
  do best every day?

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4. In the last seven days, have I received
recognition or praise for doing good work? 5.
Does my supervisor, or someone at work seem to
care about me as a person? 6. Is there someone at
work who encourages my development? From
Buckingham and Coffman6
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Do Not

• Survey unless you have intention to act
• Rely soley on the numbers
• Identify anyone individually
• Survey for what you already see7

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Operating Principles
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Operating Principles

• Statements that define how things are done in a
  department or office including what is valued and
  how members related to each other and those they
  serve

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OHRD Operating Principles

• Principles of Practice
• The Office of Human Resource Development at
  UW-Madison strives to advance these principles in
  our daily interactions with others.
• Principle 1 Community through Respect
  Civility
• It is critical to promote respect and the
  practice of civility in the workplace community.
• Principle 2 Excellence through Diversity
• Diversity of gender, ethnicity, disability,
  religion, sexual orientation, culture, position,
  job function, and years of service are crucial
  components in the pursuit of excellence.
• Principle 3 Success through Learning
• Continuous professional development is vital to
  individual and organizational success.

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One Offices Operating Principle

• If we cant help people who come through our
  door, they always leave with a phone number and a
  name.

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Uses for Operating Principles

• Brochures, strategic plan, Web site for your
  department, unit, office
• Have handy in staff meetings
• Get out and review when faced with problems,
  issues to resolve
• Remind yourself and others when actions are
  counter to principles

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Focus Question

• What values, beliefs, principles do we share in
  this department/office about the work we do, how
  we conduct business, how we treat each other and
  how we treat those we serve?

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Seek a shorter list with strong consensus rather
than a laundry list without agreement.
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Dialogue

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Discussion vs. Dialogue
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Discussion

• Origin to break apart
• Conversations where people highlight and defend
  their differences
• Most common academic approach

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Dialogue

• THINKING TOGETHER
• An inquiry that surfaces ideas, perceptions, and
  understanding that people do not already have
• Effort is not to convince others, but to
  UNDERSTAND

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Try this at a party or social event

• Listen to a conversation where you have an
  opinion, but pretend to yourself that you dont
  have an opinion or assumptions about the topic.
  What do you learn or hear differently?

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Necessary Conditions2

• Participants must suspend their assumptions
• Participants must view each other as colleagues
  or peers
• A facilitator must be present, at least at first
• not everyone agrees on the facilitator.

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Also Important

• People need to be clear about what is happening
  action is not the immediate purpose of dialogue
• It is about the process of thought, not its
  products

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Defining Qualities of Dialogue

• Suspension of judgment
• Release of the need for specific outcomes
• An inquiry into and examination of underlying
  assumptions
• Authenticity
• Slower pace with silence between speakers
• Listening deeply to self, others, and for
  collective meaning

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I could imagine having a dialogue about
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Critical Friends Groups
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Process Built on Reflection

• Focus on developing collegial relationships,
  encouraging reflective practice, and rethinking
  leadership
• Critical is intended to mean important or key
  or necessary
• Three occasions for reflection
• (1) peer observations
• (2) tuning a teaching artifact using the Tuning
  Process or
• (3) consulting about an issue using the
  Consultancy Process

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Consultancy Process Three Roles

• Facilitator
• Reviews the process, keeps time, keeps group on
  task, guides debriefing
• Presenter
• Prepares an issue for consultancy, sits outside
  the group, takes notes, responds to feedback
• Discussant
• Address the issue presented, follows protocol

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Time, Six-Step Process

• Step One Facilitator Overview (3 minutes)
• Step Two Presenter Overview (5 minutes)
• Step Three Probing or Clarifying Questions (5
  minutes)
• Step Four Discussants Group Discussion (12
  minutes)
• Step Five Presenter Response (5 minutes)
• Step Six Debriefing (5 minutes)

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Appreciative Inquiry
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Assumptions of Appreciative Inquiry3

• In every organization, something works
• Change can be intentionally shaped by finding
  what works and recreating, duplicating, expanding
  the conditions that create the successes.

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Assumption of Appreciative Inquiry

• Organizations grow in the direction of what they
  repeatedly ask questions about and focus their
  attention on.
• Thus, the questions we ask ourselves become very
  important

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Usual vs. Appreciative
Inquiry Inquiry

• What are our problems? What hasnt worked in the
  past?

• Describe a time when things were really going
  well around here. What conditions, elements made
  those things happen? What could we do to have
  more of those conditions?

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Another Assumption of Appreciative Inquiry

• People have more confidence and comfort during
  times of change when they carry forward parts of
  the past.
• If we carry parts of the past forward, they
  should be what is best about the past

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An Appreciative Inquiry Tool The Interview

• Describe a time when you felt the
  team/department/office performed really well.
  What were the circumstances?
• Describe a time when you were proud to be a
  member of the team/department/office?
• What do you value most about being a member of
  this team/department/office?
• Share results What are the themes?

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From themes, createProvocative Propositions

• Present-tense statements of ideal
  circumstances that enable people to do more of
  what works
• The information we need to answer students
  questions is at our fingertips
• Faculty and staff who call us for help only
  have to speak to one person

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How Might You UseAppreciative Inquiry?

• At home?
• On campus?
• With organizations you belong to?

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Community-Building
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• A characteristic of effective academic
  departments Effort is devoted to
• department-building activities 4

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Department-Building Activities

• Seminars and special symposia
• Faculty/staff meetings
• Newsletters
• Regular social events
• Communal space (mail room, break room, etc.)
• Others?

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Taste of WCER
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each year's cooking event produces a slightly
different lineup of cooks and a slightly
different set of guests. I would imagine that
some folks may meet for the first time at this
event Prof. Paul Baker, Wisconsin Center for
Education Research, UW-Madison
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"People didn't come to this event because it's a
free lunch -- it's part of the culture here,"
says Lois Opalewski, a 28-year employee. "This is
a good place to work and to be, and our social
events are one reason that's true.5
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Mentoring

• Be a mentor or mentee

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Mentoring Programs for Students

• Students of color and underrepresented groups
  http//www.lssaa.wisc.edu/mentor/index.shtml
• Undergraduate student research
• http//www.lssaa.wisc.edu/urs/
• Mentoring of current students by alumni (Physics,
  Bacteriology, Geology, School of Education,
  College of Engineering, etc.)
• Partners for Success for graduate students of
  color
• http//info.gradsch.wisc.edu/mp/partners/part
  nershome.html

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Mentoring Programsfor Faculty and Staff

• Non-represented Classified Staff Mentoring
  Program
• Academic Staff Mentoring Program
• Women Faculty Mentoring Program
• Others?

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What Is The Climate Around My Desk or Work
Station?

• What message is conveyed by the physical space
  that I inhabit, decorate, work in?
• What is communicated by what I have on my walls,
  on bulletin boards, on doors?

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What Is The Climate Around My Desk or Work
Station? continued

• How can people expect to be treated when they
  approach me?
• Do I introduce myself to new people or do
  anything to welcome newcomers?
• What do I do to create a more positive climate?

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Campus Learning Opportunities

• Leadership Institute contact
• Seema Kapani, skapani_at_vc.wisc.edu
• S.E.E.D. (Seeking Educational Equity and
  Diversity) contact Seema Kapani
• Appreciative Inquiry Network contact Jay
  Ekleberry, jpeklebe_at_facstaff.wisc.edu

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Campus Learning Opportunities, cont.

• Managers Supervisors training through OHRDsee
  http//www.ohrd.wisc.edu/MSD/
• Creating a Collaborative Learning Environmentsee
• http//www.wisc.edu/provost/ccae/ccle/splash.html
• Office of Human Resource Development see
  www.ohrd.wisc.edu

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Watch For On-Line Learning and Professional
Development Transcript!

• By Fall, 2002, an on-line transcript will show
  what courses, training, workshops you have
  completed at UW-Madison.

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References

• 1Covey, Steven. (1989) The 7 habits of highly
  effective people. New York Simon and Schuster.
• 2Bohm, David, Factor, Donald Peter
  Garrett.(1991). DialogueA Proposal.
  http//www.muc.de/heuvel/dialogue/.
• 3Hammond, Sue Annis. (1996).The thin book of
  appreciative inquiry. Plano, TX Thin Book
  Publishing Company.

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References, continued

• 4 Chabot, Brian. (March, 2002). Characteristics
  of excellent departments. Academic Leader A
  newsletter for academic deans and department
  chairs. Madison, WI Magna.
• 5 Iseminger, Jeff. (November 18, 1998). A guy
  thingMen prepare parade of palate pleasers.
  Wisconsin Week. University of Wisconsin-Madison.
• 6 Buckingham, Marcus and Coffman, Curt. (1999).
  First, Break All the Rules. New York
• Simon and Schuster.

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References, continued

• 7Hafner, Kristine. (1998). Current Trends and
  Practices Partners for Performance.
  http//www.ucop.edu/ucophome/businit/
• surveys/climate/sld001.htm.
• Suggested Reading
• Maister, David, H. (2001). Practice what you
  preach. New York The Free Press.

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VISION\Campus Climate/Improving Climate From
Where You Are Right Now.8-8-02