Think Collaboration!

This week's focus on Collaborative Work comes from a list of topics suggested by Carrie Martin, Associate Librarian at Purchase College. Carrie suggested coverage of "Collaboration ideas with colleagues in your area or in other areas/departments (in your organization/institution or at other companies/institutions)." Thanks Carrie for the topic!

It's finals week here at SUNY Plattsburgh, and the excitement of soon-to-be-graduates, and student/staff/faculty stress is palpable! The library is open late, student clubs are hosting their last events, graduation award ceremonies, art shows, and senior seminar showcases, and many other special events are all on the schedule- making the campus even more alive and the demands on IT and library staff even higher. And one trend is still going strong- students working on group projects. Faculty are assigning group projects in many different disciplines because they know that many careers will require the ability to work in teams. Working in teams is a skill for sure, and cross departmental/institutional teams can require extra skills.

Collaborations that can be sustained through the efforts required to produce value have to be addressing problems or opportunities that matter to the institution- so I recommend starting with your strategic goals. What are the strategic goals that you have yet to achieve? Which of these require collaborative effort or a broader diversity of thinking than you have inside your regular work group? Those will be good starting points for collaboration ideas.

Cracking the Code of Sustained Collaboration identifies 6 training areas that enhance collaboration by concentrating on skills that recognize that "there’s a time to listen and explore others’ ideas, a time to express their own, and a time to critique ideas and select the ones to pursue—and that conflating those discussions undermines collaboration."

Collaborations can be short term or long term and take different shapes with different needs. A recent FORBES article on this mentioned that "Long-term collaborations are reliant on consistent, ongoing communication to succeed and remain on-track with big picture goals."

You might be aware of the work underway at Cornell University regarding partnerships with external organizations called the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. If not, it's worth a look. While their focus is not on internal collaborations, the description of the academic silos is one that rings true to me. "Universities are sprawling, brawling, radically decentralized organizations. They are far from being “command and control” entities. They are structured as loosely nested fiefdoms, typically with deans of colleges across the university having a great deal of power. But power is relative, and not the same as operational control ... " Second, self-reinforcing disciplinary silos and norms of academic publishing impede new insights from reaching potential collaborators beyond the strict confines of disciplinary boundaries."

So, when you get a chance to relax for a moment after your college's end of semester activities, think about potential collaborations you could pursue that would enhance your working environment, your career satisfaction, and your college mission.

WIT Weekly Wisdom will also take a break- I'm headed for a family vacation myself. I'll be back in June!

All the best,
Holly

The Season for Optimism

Optimism

What it really is, why we need it, and how to keep it.

For every person struggling with a tough problem, for every member of an underrepresented group trying to be heard, and for every leader working to make necessary changes, "perpetual optimism is a force multiplier" to quote the late former Secretary of State General Colin Powell. Powell had 13 rules for leadership and perpetual optimism was lucky number 13. So whatever you do, if you also have optimism- you'll do better and go farther.

So what exactly is optimism? Let me say this - it's not "toxic positivity" or pretending everything is fine, or ignoring difficult issues. There is such a thing as too much optimism - or the optimism bias which blinds us to real risks. The optimism bias is a negative because "We tend to overestimate the likelihood that good things will happen to us and underestimate the likelihood of bad things. Scientists call this optimism bias, and it’s one of our most pervasive cognitive illusions."

Generally however, optimism is a positive. According to the website Teen's Health (which you can read in English or Spanish), "Optimism lets us see disappointing events as temporary situations that we can get past. It strengthens us to try again rather than give up. It allows us to keep our goals and dreams in play so we can act on the motivation to keep working toward them." I selected this source because teens are still building their worldview, and when we think of ourselves as lifelong learners, that growth mindset view of ourselves as a still developing person is useful. Staying optimistic can be challenging at times, this 2020 NYT article How to Stay Optimistic When Everything Seems Wrong, tells us "Optimism isn’t about ignoring negative feelings. It’s about being hopeful about the future, even when the present seems wholly negative." The article has good advice and tips for when you are just not feeling it!

Optimism is good for your health and longevity and good for your career.

Spring in NY is a great time to be optimistic! Enjoy the greening/flowering world.

All the best,
Holly

WIT Updates the Culture Code: Snippet #4: Design for Belonging

This month we will continue exploring the first of Daniel Coyle's (The Culture Code) 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.

In Chapter 5, Coyle tells a story of Tony Hsieh and his remarkable entrepreneurial history with companies and with communities. Tony Hsieh's life ended in tragedy in 2020, and several of his projects were unsuccessful, nonetheless, there is still a lot to learn from his path. His success in creating powerful belonging clues was a critical component of all his success according to Coyle. And further, Coyle connected the details of Tony's strategies to a research-based successful project pattern published in the 1970s by MIT researcher Thomas Allen known as the Allen Curve. Essentially, the Allen Curve shows a powerful positive relationship between close physical working location and the frequency of communication and interaction. Frequent interaction and communication were directly correlated with more positive project outcomes. And, that frequency "rapidly decayed" when colleagues were moved to different floors. "It turns out that vertical separation is a very serious thing. If you're on a different floor in some organizations, you may as well be in a different country." Coyle summarizes it like this on p.72, "proximity functions as a kind of connective drug. Get close, and our tendency to connect lights up."

Tony founded the software company Link Exchange after graduating from Harvard and sold that for millions to Microsoft in 1998. He then remade the struggling online retailer ShoeSite.com into the successful company Zappos, which reached $1.1 billion in revenue in 2009 when he sold it to Amazon. He then set up a huge urban community project to bring life and commerce back to a 28-acre block of the Las Vegas community surrounding the Zappos headquarters. Coyle described a walk with Tony through this area with a sense that he was a "human version of a social app" connecting with everyone he met and connecting them with each other. His tools are "grade school simple" = " Meet people, You'll figure it out".

Could proximity regulated connection-driven success really be that simple? Even if it is, the reality of our SUNY organizations- our distributed locations, our buildings, our remote and hybrid workers, and the size of our organizations mean that we can't immediately change things. There are resources dedicated to spaces that encourage engagement, the impact of the Allen Curve on remote work, and careful research into the complexities of workspace preferences and needs that make it clear that there is no simple answer here.

Nonetheless, we can consider designing our spaces for more psychological safety and connection whenever we have renovation opportunities. We can set aside time for team communications. We can work to mitigate the social differences between in-person and remote work experiences. And we can recognize and value interpersonal connections for their contributions to our wellbeing and our productivity.

Navigating Onliness

This week's focus is on strategies for being the only person of your identity in the workplace.

Does it sometimes seem as though you are going it alone at work? The only woman in tech, the only person of color, the only boomer, the only one with small children, the only LGBTQIA +, the only Gen X, Gen Z, Gen Y, or First Gen college graduate, or the only person living with a disability? The only person of your faith? The only person who's new? There are a multitude of identities, and a multitude of ways that we can feel alone. And, happily, there are a multitude of ways that our teams and supervisors can help us feel connected!

From How the LGBTQ+ community fares in the workplace: "Our research shows that stress increases when a person experiences “onlyness,” or being the only one on a team or in a meeting with their given gender identity, sexual orientation, or race. Employees who face onlyness across multiple dimensions face even more pressure to perform."

From How to Talk About Religion at Work: "Your job as a manager is to make the time to gain a general awareness of different religious identities in the world, just as you would with other important aspects of a person’s identity. This is especially important when you’re leading multi-cultural teams or people across geographies. Building cultural competence will help you understand people who come from backgrounds different than your own, show respect and empathy for their experiences, and cultivate a communication style that appeals to everyone. Leaders who practice cultural competence believe that our unique backgrounds are our strengths — rather than obstacles to overcome — and pay attention to how our differences can drive engagement, productivity, and success."

From How to Navigate Being the Only Woman on Your Team: Advice From Local Women in Tech: "It’s easy to fall into a pattern of being deferential with male colleagues in meetings and day-to-day work. That’s the path of least resistance, but taking it often comes at the expense of being as effective as possible and can undermine your confidence and impactfulness and limit future opportunities. My greatest piece of advice is to stay focused and embrace disagreement where appropriate to help others better understand problems or possible solutions, and model respectful listening with all colleagues when they speak. Say “yes” to new opportunities and don’t be afraid to fail."

Here are a few more easy-read resources on understanding and handling some of these situations:

• Going It Alone: The Burden Of Being The “Only” Or One Of A Few
• When You’re the Only BIPOC in the Room
• RELIGIOUS RIGHTS - New York State Attorney General
• Succeeding as a Gen Z Leader In Higher Ed

As always, please share any thoughts or resources you have on this topic so that we can all learn more and do better.

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.

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