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The Dean and Change: Willfulness or Necessity?

Israel Galindo Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond Theological school deans serve in the capacity of institutional change agents. By virtue of leading from the center, deans bring about change through vision, influence, and, by pushing against inertia. As a person...

What Niccolo Machiavelli Can Teach Deans

Israel Galindo Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond The relationship of the dean with faculty does not have to be adversarial, but it occasionally can be. Edwin Friedman wrote, “Living with crisis is a major part of leaders’ lives. The crises...

How Organizations Stay Stuck

Israel Galindo Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond I’ve been observing several leaders in the process of making decisions. Some pertain to leaders making organizational or institutional decisions (dealing with employees, closing a program, dealing with a crisis). In only a...

Five Essential Functions of the Dean

Israel Galindo Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond I agree with Stephen Graham’s assertion that “Right now, theological schools need leaders, not just managers.”(1). He wrote, “Theological schools need leaders who are willing to name the changes that have taken place,...

The Dean as Positive Deviant

Israel Galindo Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond Albert Einstein said, "Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even inapable of forming such opinions." Every organization does...

“The Dean and the Educational Fundamentals”

Israel Galindo Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond At a recent consultation with a school I once again encountered the dilemma faced by school leaders who lack a background in the field of education. This school has been in existence for...

The Dean and Organizational Change

Israel Galindo Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond Bringing about organizational change isn’t rocket science, but it’s not easy either. Those deans who step into a leadership position that requires engaging in institutional and organizational development, in effect and by default,...

The Dean and Assessment

Israel Galindo Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond Deans in theological schools tend to come up from among the Faculty, often out of academic disciplines not grounded in the field of education. While many have become effective teachers through years of...

The Dean in the System

Rebecca Slough Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary When some members of the first Deans Colloquy group were together this past January, we spent a part of one day reviewing basic principles of systems theory. Two themes, in particular, that we discussed...

The Vocation of the Dean

Steven Schweitzer Bethany Theological Seminary “When I grow up, I want to be Dean.” Somehow, I doubt that many of us who currently occupy the office of Chief Academic Officer said this when we were kids. I remember thinking about...

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We invite friends and colleagues of the Wabash Center from across North America to contribute periodic blog posts for one of our several blog series.

Contact:
Donald Quist
quistd@wabash.edu
Educational Design Manager, Wabash Center

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