To improve the quality, effectiveness, and satisfaction of advising while creating time for more meaningful advising interactions, our advising team meets, discusses, and decides to address these targets through the use of personally curated advising resources to provide a blended learning approach to advising (Horn & Staker, 2017).
The pilot advising unit of 15-20 advisors must be clear on what is wanted, determine what key behaviors drive those desired results, and maintain frequent meetings to discuss and evaluate contributions toward those behaviors. Dr. Harapnuik (2017) cautioned, “most people are very busy just doing their work, so adding anything new or looking to innovate is very challenging.” This shift will require a considerable change from the current traditional model for advising at our institution.
The 4 Disciplines
- D1: Focus on the Wildly Important
- D2: Act on the Lead Measures
- D3: Keep a Compelling Scoreboard
- D4: Create a Cadence of Accountability
The 5 Stages of Change
- Stage 1: Getting Clear
- Stage 2: Launch
- Stage 3: Adoption
- Stage 4: Optimization
- Stage 5: Habits
The 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) strategy that follows will be used to meet the needs of learners and advisors by embracing blended learning opportunities in our advising interactions. We must trust the process and acknowledge that this opportunity to revolutionize advising is too significant to ignore.
Wildly Important Goal (WIG) is to move 60% of our advisors from traditional to blended advising within the next two years.
(Downloadable PDF viewing option 1)
Preview view (alternative viewing option 2)
Full-size view link
(alternative viewing option 3 – view in Canva)
Using Influence to Execute Change
The ADL Program has equipped me with two change strategies to assist in the implementation of my plan to innovate advising. These two strategies work well together because any time the human element is involved with change, a well-thought-out plan is needed to be successful.
The Influencer model helps by utilizing the six sources of influence to change the vital behaviors to achieve the desired results. Once identified, the team can now prepare to execute the actions needed to see the proposed change become a reality. The Influencer Strategy equips advisors with the personal, social, and structural abilities to successfully set and meet the lead measures identified by 4DX. As the team focuses on one wildly important goal, 4DX helps the team to prioritize the change that needs to come first.
The Influencer and 4DX strategies each address the social component essential to the advising unit’s ownership and success and any innovations we implement now or in the future. As advisors meet and collaborate throughout the development of the personally curated resources they provide on their ePortfolios (EP), they identify transactional and informative portions of their advising interactions that could be translated into multiple formats to meet the needs of many types of learners. As the team works to identify the lead measures, they can further embrace ownership of the change initiative. As this ownership forms, the team strengthens as advisors share their motives and purpose. The positive deviants become models and create peer influence for the potentials and resisters to the change efforts.
As the advisors develop ideas for implementing the innovation plan, they create excitement about the changes reflected during the weekly scoreboard review. As a result, the team finds inspiration by celebrating these successes despite the day-to-day job to be done. This compelling scoreboard strengthens the teams’ structural motivation, influencing the successful change strategy.
References
McChesney, C., Covey, S., & Huling, J. (2012). The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals (1st ed.). Free Press.
FranklinCovey. (2011, July 26). Move Your Middle – Chris McChesney [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3ThJ5b3vww
Harapnuik, D. (2017, June 3). How to proactively limit the whirlwind. It’s About Learning. https://www.harapnuik.org/?p=6912
Harapnuik, D., Thibodeaux, T., & Cummings, C. (2018). Choice, Ownership, and Voice through Authentic Learning. Creative Commons License.
Horn, M. B., & Staker, H. (2017). Blended: Using disruptive innovation to improve schools. John Wiley & Sons.
The Advisor That Cares 