Maximize your Work Breaks

This week is focused on maximizing work breaks or cyclical work slowdown opportunities.

As many of us approach our college spring breaks here are some tips for managing that time depending on what your situation is and what you really need. These are not formal resources, they are easy reads that I've located through web searches.

• When you are taking time off, by yourself, traveling with family or friends, or as a caregiver,
• When you struggle with disconnecting even on vacation,
• When you aren't taking time off but work is slower,
• When you have to cover at work while others around you are taking time off.

And also... information overload is real, and the work of managing our resources can be a significant drain on our time and energy. Of course, I hope that you've been a SUNY WIT subscriber for a long time and have saved every message from this list, and will happily run a search of your saved messages, but of course, that's not very efficient! Happily there is now something better.

The new SUNY WIT Weekly Blog is an easy way to look back through WIT posts for that resource you half remember and want to access now. Created and maintained by the SUNY WIT team, the Blog gathers WIT posts, SICAS Culture Code Snippets, and NYSERNet Women in IT resources in one location. It's easy to bookmark and search and will provide an archive of resources. The archive is not yet complete (as it will take time), but it is ready for use!

Finally, don't forget to play our SUNY WIT Women's History Month Trivia, as soon as Dariann sends out this week's link!

All the best,
Holly

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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.

Build Safety

WIT Updates The Culture Code: Snippet #2 - Build Safety

SICAS March Update

There is a lot of talk about safety these days, and rightly so. According to Daniel Coyle in The Culture Code book, safety among teams is the first of the three big skills that create successful groups. The three big skills are:

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

And he calls them skills because they can be learned and implemented. They are not innate characteristics. That's good news for all of us.

In chapter 1, p10-11, Coyle lays out the concepts of belonging cues, based on research conducted by Oren Lederman at MIT. His research supposes that before oral language, humans used other signals to cue each other into a sense of cohesion and safety as we evolved and formed our societies, that these cues are still in use by our unconscious brains, and that they can be seen in cohesive groups today. They can also be missing in groups that are not cohesive and where some people are not feeling safe. The research draws on group observations and on experiments to see how changes in belonging cues impact the group feel and the group outcomes. As Coyle summarizes " Belonging cues are behaviors that create safe connection in groups. They include, among others, proximity, eye contact, energy, mimicry, turn taking, body language, consistency of emphasis, and whether everyone talks to everyone else in the group. Like any language, belonging cues can't be reduced to an isolated moment, but rather consist of a steady pulse of interactions within a social relationship."

Wow...and didn't COVID throw a wrench into all of that? Haven't we all been trying to build back our student populations and their feelings of belonging? And aren't we all finding our way through this new world of remote/hybrid/on-campus work teams? I am confident we can take this information from The Culture Code and use it to be more intentional about how we signal belonging to the diverse teams that IT needs in order to carry us into the future. Think about these belonging cues in your next [meeting/interview/office social gathering/casual office chat/zoom or teams meeting or work session]. Take note of who is making eye contact with who, who is talking, how carefully are speakers being listened to, what kinds of energy are being projected into the group and how is that being received? How are ideas presented and who gets to present ideas? How safe does that meeting feel to you? How safe do you think it is for everyone else? What, if anything, could be changed for the better? Observe a few group events and then ask yourself whether there are some updates needed.

As we work to update the culture code to replace outdated behaviors with ones that work better for everyone, creating a culture of group safety will be the first step. Coincidently, I had gathered a few resources on creating psychological safety back in December for the SUNY WIT list, and you can locate that now on the SUNY WIT Blog

#InspireInclusion

Welcome to March 2024 and Women's History Month! #InspireInclusion

There is a lot to celebrate about our progress and our contributions, along with a whole lot more to do, and this month will provide great opportunities for us all to participate in.

First, plan to celebrate International Women's Day, Friday March 8th somehow on your campus or with your colleagues.

Our Plattsburgh events are happening today and include a social media photo opportunity organized by our campus WIT interest group and our DEI Office, and a speaker brought in by the Gender and Women's Studies department.

The Theme for International Women's Day 2024 is #InspireInclusion.

"When we inspire others to understand and value women's inclusion, we forge a better world. And when women themselves are inspired to be included, there's a sense of belonging, relevance, and empowerment. Collectively, let's forge a more inclusive world for women. When women aren't present, we must ask: "If not, why not?" When women are discriminated against, we must call out poor practice. When the treatment of women is not equitable, we must take action. And we must do this each time, every time. To truly include women means to openly embrace their diversity of race, age, ability, faith, body image, and how they identify. Worldwide, women must be included in all fields of endeavour. "

Second, Dariann Zielinski at New Paltz is offering us a WIT Women's History Trivia. This is going to be fun! Weekly questions, cute little prizes, and all for WIT subscribers. Dariann will update us all when it's ready. We'll all have a chance to show our knowledge, learn even more, and engage in a friendly competition.

Third, SUNY is offering a webinar for International Women's Day | Women in STEM Panel I Friday March 8 (see details below). SUNY’s Office of Research, Innovation, and Economic Development is hosting an International Women’s Day "thought-provoking panel discussion celebrating women's contributions to the field of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)." Register online

All the best,

Holly

Hold the Door Open

Original Post Date: February 28, 2024

This week's wisdom is about opening doors, and about making the effort to hold them open for others to walk through.

Celebrating Women in Technology gives us many opportunities to reflect back on the black women trailblazers who went before us and persevered towards incredible achievements that made it possible for our modern society to exist. Now there are living trailblazers who are creating more opportunities.

This weekend I heard a radio program based on a New Yorker interview (it's not open access sadly) featuring actor Lily Gladstone, who is an Academy Award Nominee for Best Actress- the first Native Woman to be nominated - for their role in Killers of the Flower Moon. In the interview, Lily is asked what it's like being the first, getting all that attention, being the one to kick in the door. Their comment in response to that really stuck with me, so much that I had to look it up and share it with all of you! Because it gave me a new perspective on the challenges facing trailblazers who also consciously keep the new trails lighted and stand in the doorways holding them open.

Lily said "I’m friends with Sterlin Harjo, the co-creator of “Reservation Dogs.” We’re both in the circuit right now, and we happened to find ourselves in the same hotel the week before last. He put it really well. He said, “We’re in a position where we’re kicking the door in. When you kick the door in, you should just put your foot in the door and stand there.” Kicking the door in and running through it means it’s going to shut behind you. While I’m the first specifically Native American Indigenous woman, I stand on the shoulders of a lot of performers. It’s all circumstantial that I have this moniker of the first, and I’m certainly not going to be the last. If I’ve kicked the door in, I’m just trying to stand here and leave it open for everybody else."

As we close out Black History Month and enter Women's History Month, let's honor the people who opened doors for more of us to walk through. And let's hold the doors open for as many more people as we can!

All the best,

Holly

Chart Your Own Course

This week's wisdom is about charting your own course. 

My email is starting to fill up with announcements for spring conferences, in addition to the regular ongoing professional development series meetings. 

Charting your own course leads to a more fulfilling life. And the more you know, the more choices will be available. Making your own decisions about what you want to learn, where you want your career to take you, and deciding for yourself when and how you will add to your strengths, increases your sense of autonomy and makes life much more enjoyable. Selecting your own professional development is part of that, as discussed in this brief article from LinkedIn.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/power-autonomy-empowering-professionals-cpd-andrew-carlsson/   

As stated in the article, " Autonomy in CPD choices allows professionals to personalize their learning experiences, access diverse providers, adapt to their unique career paths, consider cost implications, and explore innovative approaches." 

So, look at some of these professional development options and see if something is here for you!
Stretch yourself and step out of your comfort zone to attend something a little different than your usual topic or your usual learning mode. 

Always available: 

SUNY provides links to amazing resources on the Emergeing Technologies MOOC and WIKI  https://emtech.suny.edu/objectives/lifelong-learning/

Coming up tomorrow:

The second Zoom gathering of theNYSERNet Women in IT Community of Practice 

Thurs. Feb. 22^nd at 12pm ET 
Sign up at and share the resource page at: https://cvent.me/3N9LK9  to get the zoom links and calendar invites for your schedule. 

Coming up Friday: 
Upcoming Webinar!: Constructions of Race: Racism, Whiteness, and Whiteness Studies  
February 23rd, 2024 from 10:00am-11:00am 
The Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice (DEISJ) Fellows program will be presenting a webinar led by Krystal Perkins, Carla DuBose, and Timothy Gerkin. This 60-minute webinar will provide an overview of the new SUNY Diversity Equity Inclusion and Social Justice General Education category with a focus on race. We will review the learning outcomes and discuss DEISJ concepts, theories, and pedagogical interventions that can help faculty build a DEISJ designated course or infuse DEISJ content and learning outcomes related to race into their courses. Topics will include defining race, racial constructions, social justice movements for racial equality, and pedagogical tools.
Register Today: Click here for more information and to register.

 

Later this spring, two of the biggest library and IT professional development conferences in SUNY: 

The SUNYLA Annual Conference at SUNY Buffalo State University, June 11–14, 2024. https://sunyla.org/sunyla-conference/
New SUNYLA members, apply for a professional development scholarship that will fund your SUNYLA conference attendance this June!

Financial assistance is available for new SUNYLA members to attend this year’s conference. The Sylvia Chu Memorial Scholarship aims to encourage involvement with SUNYLA and to provide opportunities for professional growth for its members. The award is a voucher that covers the conference registration fee, one pre-conference session, and conference meals. Please submit your application letter by March 25, 2024, via this online form:  https://form.jotform.com/240304265394150 

The SUNY Technology Conference (STC 2024) Join your SUNY colleagues in beautiful Lake Placid. The conference takes place a little earlier this year, from Tuesday June 4^th – Thursday June 6^th.  

Register To register for the conference, please visit the STC website at http://www.stc.suny.edu  Pre-conference activities Monday June 3rd^th, includes traditional golf and curling with some new,

fun additions! Visit the conference website for more details. Keynote Lori Bajorek, President and CEO of the National eSports Association. She and her team will have a booth in the exhibit hall. You’ll have a chance to discuss ways to integrate eSports and education. 

 

Please take a moment to share other conferences or professional development opportunities you know about with everyone on this list!

All the best,

Holly