institutional change

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 come in two major varieties: (1) those that are not of their own making but are imposed on ...

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 well to avoid the trap of shaping its perception of reality based on self-referencing. By self-referencing I ...

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, will need to bring about changes on several levels: administrative, cultural, organizational, relational, and in ...

At a recent conference on leadership I was again struck by how the level of energy (anxiety?) in the room increased when the topic focused on change. This is natural, of course, since one of the critical functions of leaders, including deans, is to bring about positive change on several ...