Cleaning up the Mess

This week we are focusing on cleaning up and setting things into a better order.

I had an unexpected experience while volunteering for an Earth Day roadside cleanup this past weekend, yes, one of those with the gloves, orange vest, and the giant garbage bags and the grabber sticks. And coffee and donuts! Instead of making me feel better- more connected- part of something positive...I got really angry. Angry at everyone who had littered on that road, at every fast food restaurant within a 100 mile radius, at everyone who hadn't joined in the cleanup effort, and every car that sped by without slowing down even a bit. And that anger surprised me, until I really thought it through. Cleaning up someone else's mess is not something that gives me satisfaction in the moment, however once the mess is cleaned up and we can move past that into something better I am always happy. It happened last weekend and it's happened many times in my career.

As employees and managers in SUNY, we often need to clean up messes- our own and those created by other people. We should acknowledge that those efforts can create negative emotions like frustration and resentment. It would be wonderful to find good methods for helping our teams process and move through those emotions so that they can move past that and into a more positive and satisfying workspace.

Technical and functional messes are hard enough, but staffing "messes" (I don't like using that word in reference to people...can it be used for the situations people are in?) are the ones that really need our attention. Staff who are unproductive, uncollegial, act in biased ways, are suffering from biased actions against them, hate on their jobs and their customers, can't wait till retirement, are hurting and lashing out, have been worn down by toxic bosses or environments, are financially or emotionally or health stressed and it's spilling over into their work. Those situations need to be attended to with the best efforts we can bring to bear. And maybe coffee and donuts!

In case you are now or ever have been around one of those situations, here are a few resources that might help you with setting things into a better order:

• How Managers Can Change Toxic Workplaces And Build Effective Teams
• How to Heal a Wounded Workgroup You Inherit
• How To Deal With Racism At Work
• SUNY Work Life Balance
• WellNYS Everyday: Making better choices to be well and stay well
• Supporting Your Employees During Hard Times: A Manager's Guide
• Employer Toolkit: Work Design for Health
• Wisdom from women leaders in higher education
• How To Address Subtle, ‘Friendly’ Sexism At Work

If you have a go-to strategy, please share it with all of us on this list!

All the best,
Holly

WIT Weekly Wisdom: A message for SUNY WIT list subscribers on the topics of Connecting, Learning, Stretching, Teaching, Reaching, and Balancing.

Have a suggestion for a WIT Weekly Wisdom message? Contact Holly Heller-Ross at hellerhb@plattsburgh.edu.

Past and current posts are available on the SUNY WIT Weekly Blog.

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Be Cool! Support a Positive Climate on Earth Day (and all year long!)

This week we have 2 topics, updating the way we give feedback and the upcoming Earth Day (April 22th).

First, from the Washington Post- an article and embedded video in giving feedback to Gen Z. I loved this specific strategy and think it will work for all generations! Watch the short video to see the tips in action.

Essentially, the tips are- give feedback right away, encourage collaborative solutions to issues or things that need to be different, explain what needs to be different, and make a warm human connection that promotes growth and doesn't heap shame or blame. Sounds good to me, and I am a Boomer!

Second, since 1970 the USA has been celebrating Earth Day. The theme for 2024 is Planet vs. Plastics. As stated online, "For Earth Day 2024 on April 22nd, EARTHDAY.ORG is unwavering in our commitment to end plastics for the sake of human and planetary health, demanding a 60% reduction in the production of ALL plastics by 2040." For libraries and IT areas, in SUNY we are already committed to reducing, reusing, and recycling, but we are heavily involved in using plastics in our work. As a proud graduate of SUNY Plattsburgh's Environmental Science program, I've been incorporating elements of ecosystem thinking and a sustainability focus through all my work. We are connected, and each decision we make contributes to the directions we are moving towards and away from. I hope that you can participate in some Earth Day activity, on your campus or in your community.

And to celebrate another pioneering woman scientist, we owe a debt of gratitude for elements of our understanding of the impacts of climate and greenhouse gases to Eunice Newton Foote, who experimented with greenhouse gases and their relationship with air temperature, all the way back in the 1850s. "Foote’s experiments in the 1850s demonstrated the ability of atmospheric water vapor and carbon dioxide to affect solar heating, foreshadowing John Tyndall’s later experiments that described the workings of Earth’s greenhouse effect. Despite her remarkable insight into the influence that higher carbon dioxide levels in the past would have had on Earth’s temperature, Foote went unnoticed in the history of climate science until recently."

So, we can have a positive impact on the internal working climate through the way we give feedback and support our colleagues, and on the external climate through the way we support our environment. Cool right?

All the best,
Holly

WIT Weekly Wisdom: A message for SUNY WIT list subscribers on the topics of Connecting, Learning, Stretching, Teaching, Reaching, and Balancing.

Have a suggestion for a WIT Weekly Wisdom message? Contact Holly Heller-Ross at hellerhb@plattsburgh.edu.

Past and current posts are available on the SUNY WIT Weekly Blog.

Join the SUNY Women in Technology (WIT) listserv, send an email to: lyris@ls.suny.edu with the phrase “subscribe suny-wit” as the body of the message.

Celebrating A Total Eclipse Of The Sun

What a week!

A stunning solar eclipse coinciding with National Library Week...no wonder I'm buzzing!

Since SUNY Plattsburgh was in the path of totality, we held an eclipse conference and an eclipse watch party. One of the conference sessions (by Dr. Rajesh Sunasee and Dr. Amy Valentine) was titled "Eclipsed Voices in STEM" and highlighted the stories of Henrietta Lacks and Alice Ball - women whose contributions to science were hidden, overlooked, minimized, or appropriated. If you don't know these women, now is your chance!

For National Library Week, we are awarding our Feinberg Library Undergraduate Research Prize - a $500 scholarship to a student whose research required library resources and achieved academic excellence, hosting a student/faculty/staff library worker appreciation lunch, and giving away rooted cuttings of our famous library schefflera plant.

I'd love to hear what other campuses did for the eclipse and are doing for the week of celebrating the contributions of the library. So write in!

All the best,

Holly

WIT Weekly Wisdom: A message for SUNY WIT list subscribers on the topics of Connecting, Learning, Stretching, Teaching, Reaching, and Balancing.

Have a suggestion for a WIT Weekly Wisdom message? Contact Holly Heller-Ross at hellerhb@plattsburgh.edu.

Past and current posts are available on the SUNY WIT Weekly Blog.

Join the SUNY Women in Technology (WIT) listserv, send an email to: lyris@ls.suny.edu with the phrase “subscribe suny-wit” as the body of the message.

WIT Updates the Culture Code: Snippet #3: Safety is Belonging

Last month we introduced The Culture Code’s three big skills that create successful groups:

1. Build Safety,
2. Share Vulnerability, and
3. Establish Purpose.

Safety is created through a steady stream of belonging clues, which are regular interpersonal indications that the group values each member. Within a safe environment colleagues then start safely sharing vulnerable moments, addressing issues, and creating opportunities for everyone to grow.

Coyle illustrates this in chapter 4, p. 50-55, telling the story of the day after a bad loss (with lots of missed shots and turnovers) for the San Antonio Spurs basketball team in 1994. The team gathers in the gym for a post-game meeting, the coach (Gregg Popovich) walks in, and rather than exploding- takes extra care to connect with each player; greeting, chatting, mock wrestling, whatever feels right for each person, before launching into the group meeting. And then, instead of playing the game tape as they had expected, he plays a CNN documentary on the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. He engages the players and assistant coaches in a discussion of that issue, what would they have done back then, how events unfolded, how the country struggled and changed. Only after they had re-established their strong sense of community did he shift the discussion to feedback about the game. Tough, truthful feedback. Feedback that was necessary if they were going to learn what went wrong and hopefully not repeat it the next game. Coyle then brings in research about how to deliver tough, truthful feedback that actually strengthens the team. On p. 56-57, he covers what a team of academic psychologists called “magical feedback”. Feedback that resulted in a significant future effort and performance boost. This is it: “I’m giving you these comments because I have very high expectations, and I know that you can reach them.” Coyle goes on to explain that this feedback contains “a burst of belonging cues.” “1. You are part of this group. 2. This group is special; we have high standards here. 3. I believe you can reach these standards. These signals provide a clear message that lights up the unconscious brain: Here is a safe place to give effort.”

That’s a lot to think through! Is our culture reinforcing a sense of safety? Do our performance feedback practices convey belonging messages? Are we aware of differences in how the diverse people on our teams are interpreting the belonging cues we are sending out? Are we hitting the right notes for everyone, or do we need to update that part of our culture code?

As we go about our regular work, we need frequent reminders that we are in a safe environment, part of an important group, and that our leaders and colleagues believe we can achieve at a high standard. When we don’t get those reminders we disconnect, disengage, and our performance might drop below what we are truly capable of. If we can hear or deliver tough, truthful feedback and avoid feeling or creating defensiveness or disappointment, we can strengthen our teams. If we supervise others, structuring our feedback to include these belonging cues can be a very powerful way to boost our staff retention, and boost performance. Not a bad return for a simple approach!

SUNY Women in Technology (WIT) and SICAS are collaborating to bring a regular culture code snippet to the SICAS Center Newsletter.

Want more regular ideas for increasing gender diversity in technology? Join SUNY Women in Technology (WIT) listserv, send an email to: lyris@ls.suny.edu with the phrase “subscribe suny-wit” as the body of the message. (Subject is optional)

Have an idea for a snippet? Email Holly Heller-Ross

DEI is alive and well in SUNY (so Support your Local ODEI)

First, a special thanks to Dariann Zielinski of SUNY New Paltz for the idea of a Women's History Month Trivia Contest, and then for making it happen each week in March! The weekly winners will receive their small gifts (I'm getting the mailings organized this week), and there is also a grand prize gift card, sponsored by the Council of Chief Information Officers (CCIO). The WIT team is very grateful to all who helped make this a special month!

Now, this week's focus is on DEI efforts in academia. This overview article from the Chronicle of Higher Education details some of the national legislative actions limiting DEI in recent years, and how colleges and universities are addressing them. If you hit a paywall when following the link, contact your library to see if they are providing access to your campus - I know the Feinberg Library at Plattsburgh does.

The article reports on specific legislation, rationale from the legislators and governors, and responses from DEI advocates and students looking for support. There is a lot of confusion at many levels. In SUNY however, we have a clear mission and an ODEI Office committed to this mission:

"ODEI is responsible for devising and implementing a range of programs to promote the diversity of SUNY’s human resources. The office promotes the integration of diversity-related instruction and research into ongoing SUNY system-wide initiatives to enhance academic excellence. ODEI partners with baccalaureate, doctoral granting institutions and community colleges to achieve the holistic integration of New York’s underrepresented and economically disadvantaged populations into the academic culture of higher education. Through its various initiatives, ODEI strengthens SUNY’s ability to create a learning environment needed to develop the extraordinary leaders who will succeed in an increasingly culturally diverse and globalized society. The office focuses on SUNY’s goal of providing the highest quality educational experience that is fully representative of the diversity of human difference in New York State."

I'm happy to say that is what the WIT and this community is all about as well!

In addition, most SUNY campuses have a local DEI office , where we can access services and support resources. I often highlight external resources on this list, bringing you articles, research, video, and support organization links, but...sometimes we miss out on terrific resources close to home. So don't miss out! Get connected to your campus DEI office and all that they have to offer.

All the best,
Holly

WIT Weekly Wisdom: A message for SUNY WIT list subscribers on the topics of Connecting, Learning, Stretching, Teaching, Reaching, and Balancing.

Have a suggestion for a WIT Weekly Wisdom message? Contact Holly Heller-Ross @ hellerhb@plattsburgh.edu

Past and current posts are available on the SUNY WIT Weekly Blog.

Join the SUNY Women in Technology (WIT) listserv, send an email to: lyris@ls.suny.edu with the phrase “subscribe suny-wit” as the body of the message.