How to find them…
https://cruciallearning.com/blog/how-to-find-vital-behaviors/
Category: Advising
Putting it together
Innovation = Care
Put simply, care. Care about students. Care about advisors. Care about departments. Care about program and state requirements. Care about policies. Ultimately, care about changing lives.
… how vital the role of a strong advising relationship is to students’ retention and success. Providing students with 24/7 access to personally curated information resources can guide them throughout their programs’ completion. This innovation aims to improve the experience for both advisors’ and students’ while strengthening that relationship.
Short, D. R. (2022, September 18). An Invitation to Innovate Advising. The Advisor That Cares. https://advising.blog/the-advisor-that-cares/
Why = Make a difference
Guiding students to find or reconnect with a passion for learning and to make meaningful connections throughout their learning experience on the way to becoming life-long inquisitive learners.
Helping advisors find their purpose and joy in helping others by helping them overcome challenges and valuing their input as change agents.
… my purpose is to make a difference in other people’s lives.
Short, D. R. (2022, October 23). Why? The Advisor That Cares. https://advising.blog/2022/10/23/why/
Goal = Motivation/Ownership
- Who do our students want to become?
- Who do our advisors want to help them become?
- What motivates our advisors to come and guide students?
- How does each impact the lives of our students and advisors? (CSLE2COVA, 2018)
I want to help revolutionize advising.
Short, D. R. (2022, October 23). Head vs. Heart. The Advisor That Cares. https://advising.blog/2022/10/21/head-vs-heart/
References
CSLE2COVA. (2018, August 8). LMD EP07 preparing learners for life. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb4q5dUV4uY
Grenny, J., Patterson, K., Maxfield, D., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2013). Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change, Second Edition. McGraw-Hill Education.
Change Behavior
Jeni Cross does a great job of outlining that common sense ideas are often antithetical to behavior change in her TEDxTalk. I found Myth #1 interesting. This first common sense myth believes that education or information will change behavior. In this example, the speaker gave a compelling perspective on how we must present information to influence behavior change. The speaker illustrates that we can learn from social science to affect change by making personalized and tangible information for a more significant impact. To do so, “knowing your audience is a key factor in change” (TEDx Talks, 2013a). The recommendation to “frame loss, not gains” was a surprising shift in perspective. Common sense might say to outline and highlight everything an organization will gain from a change strategy but “hearing what you are losing is more motivating than hearing what you are gaining” (TEDx Talks, 2013a). Common sense, myth #2 states that you must address and change attitudes to change behavior, but the speaker illustrates that attitudes follow behavior, not predict it. Therefore, you can avoid fighting to change attitudes by connecting values to behavioral expectations. You instead set expectations. Myth #3 about common sense says social interaction, pressure, and modeling are some of the most significant influences on motivation. An effective way to enact change is to connect behaviors to issues about which people care to “make the change meaningful” (TEDx Talks, 2013a).
The vital behaviors outlined by Joseph Greeny align with many of the cautions proposed by Jeni Cross. For example, Greeny’s first source of influence, personal motivation, sounds like the personalized social interaction defined by Jeni Cross. Creating that tangible presentation helps to increase urgency around the reasons for change. Myth 2 about attitudes and expectations sounds like the vital behaviors identified by Greeny. Lastly, change agents identified by Greeny tie directly to the social norms and modeling outlined in meaningful change efforts by Cross.
The results I wish to achieve through the Innovation to Advising is to equip students with the knowledge and information needed to make informed decisions. The goal is to do this while simultaneously relieving advisors of the repetitive, prescriptive, and informational components of advising to create space for advisor-advisee relationship building and meaning-making through reflection on what is working and what could be better.
References
TEDxTalks. (2013a, March 20). Three myths of behavior change – what you think you know that you don’t: Jeni Cross at tedxcsu. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5d8GW6GdR0
TEDxTalks. (2013b, April 26). Change behavior- change the world: Joseph Grenny at tedxbyu. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T9TYz5Uxl0
Influencer – Goals and Measures
This post is the first step in developing an influencer strategy that can help in the Innovation of Advising, which empowers students and advisors in creating authenticity in the advising relationship.
Identify Results
Transform transactional advising general information and onboarding orientation to video, audio, and text resources in flipped advising modules with digital assessments by the Fall 2025 intake cycle.
Measurement
Measurement efforts can utilize typical question/quiz formats for transactional pieces of advising to clear various holds and satisfy specific enrollment requirements.
Further and ongoing assessments
- Open-ended feed-forward monthly one-minute (what’s working/what can be better?) check-ins with students and advisors. Results open the door for collaboration opportunities that improve, clarify and streamline online resources for various readers, levels, and delivery modes and preferences.
- Satisfaction surveys for advisors to express bottlenecks and pinch-points described by students. 30-minute weekly advisor check-ins to discuss and brainstorm for solution-oriented collaborative groups from across campus support (admissions, financial aid, IT, records) that provide solution-based improvement ideas as front-line interaction experts.
- Departmental Likert surveys to obtain valuable and informative data metrics at targeted assessment points (two-three times during each semester). An example is an informational Tik-Tok campaign about the impact of dropping and currently available (live) resources/support services around significant drop deadlines. Followed by a “did this information help you” survey to assess growth mindset messaging‘s and support service referrals’ impact on retention/student success.
- Site visit statistics used to track resource utilization during targeted campaigned proactive outreach.
Vital Behaviors you are trying to change
- Create and allow for flexible advising options (online, e-advise, module/quiz-based, video/quiz-based, in-person), allowing for the ultimate diversity of choice, ownership, and voice for each learner and advisor within accepted and set boundaries/expectations. This vital behavior empowers and frees students and advisors from mandated expectations of advising interactions to express their individuality while contributing to the collaboration of compelling flipped advising opportunities.
- Advising modules can include internal triggers to direct students’ needs based on assessments from within advising modules. Answers/scores can launch informative videos, initiate a referral to support services (Careers, ARC, advising, financial aid/scholarships), targeted outreach, and follow up from stakeholders to explain options and impacts and/or advising/coaching campaign links. During peak advising/registration times, outreach efforts/campaigns will direct students to flipped advising resources. This action leaves advisors’ schedules open and available during critical availability timeframes.
Cultural/Organizational Influencers and Why
- Advisors will be one of the most significant cultural influences in this change strategy because they have the front-line perspective of students’ frustrations and confusion. This innovation will empower advisors to help improve the student experience while reducing the repetitive and transactional calls, emails, and appointments that prevent them from more meaningful interactions with students.
- Stakeholders will be another source of significant cultural influence in the transformation of advising as it encompasses and overarches all offices and services of the university structure (such as the records department; scholarship, financial aid, and veterans affairs; system administrators; technology support, service desk, and instructional designers; administrative support).
Innovation = Care
Put simply, care. Care about students. Care about advisors. Care about departments. Care about program and state requirements. Care about policies. Ultimately, care about changing lives.
… how vital the role of a strong advising relationship is to students’ retention and success. Providing students with 24/7 access to personally curated information resources can guide them throughout their programs’ completion. This innovation aims to improve the experience for both advisors’ and students’ while strengthening that relationship.
Short, D. R. (2022, September 18). An Invitation to Innovate Advising. The Advisor That Cares. https://advising.blog/the-advisor-that-cares/
Why = Make a difference
Guiding students to find or reconnect with a passion for learning and to make meaningful connections throughout their learning experience on the way to becoming life-long inquisitive learners. Helping advisors find their purpose and joy in helping others by helping them overcome challenges and valuing their input as change agents.
… my purpose is to make a difference in other people’s lives.
Short, D. R. (2022, October 23). Why? The Advisor That Cares. https://advising.blog/2022/10/23/why/
Goal = Motivation/Ownership
Who do our students want to become? Who do our advisors want to help them become? What motivates our advisors to come and guide students? How does each impact the lives of our students and advisors? (CSLE2COVA, 2018)
I want to help revolutionize advising.
Short, D. R. (2022, October 23). Head vs. Heart. The Advisor That Cares. https://advising.blog/2022/10/21/head-vs-heart/
References
CSLE2COVA. (2018, August 8). LMD EP07 preparing learners for life. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb4q5dUV4uY
Grenny, J., Patterson, K., Maxfield, D., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2013). Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change, Second Edition. McGraw-Hill Education.
C. C. C.
Collaboration Coalition Collective
Collaboration: “noun the action of working with someone to produce or create something”
https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en
Coalition: “noun an alliance for combined action, especially a temporary alliance of political parties forming a government or of states”
https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en
Collective: “adjective done by people acting as a group”
https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en
Why?
Apple’s call to Think Differently states, “the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do” (Harry Piotr, 2013).
“[I] see things differently, [I am] not fond of rules, and [I] have no respect for the status quo” (Harry Piotr, 2013).
Help me change the world.
Why: By genuinely caring about others and desiring to make a difference, I believe innovation in advising will equip and empower students as they become lifelong learners by helping them identify growth opportunities.
How: Enabling learners to embrace choice, ownership, and voice by modeling an authentic learning environment in advising creates the foundation for students to take control, be active participants, and make meaning out of their learning experiences.
What: Students become self-directed learners who have confidence in their ability to successfully navigate various challenges, circumstances, and opportunities throughout their life far beyond graduation.
I do what I do because I care about people. Therefore, I can honestly say that my why is at the heart of my innovation plan. You see, my purpose is to make a difference in other people’s lives. I “want to transform [my] learners’ lives and change their world” (Dwayne Harapnuik, 2019). My motivation is to improve the advising experience for students (and advisors) while believing they deserve the opportunity to experience choice, claim ownership, and find their voice through their authentic college experience (Harapnuik et al., 2018).
All the while, the University and society benefit from this advising innovation because as our students become lifelong learners, they will effectively process information, make informed decisions, and successfully navigate their educational experience. This significantly impacts lives as we are poised to help our students become thriving citizens beyond their time with the institution.
We owe it to our learners to equip them to be influential members of our digitally connected world. Dr. John Kotter (2012) cautions that we cannot effectively convey the need for change if we do not create a sense of urgency about our obligation to the learners we serve. We must help others recognize why they should care, why they need to change, and what limitless opportunities await due to this evolution. We can do this by winning over hearts and minds. Doing so, I believe that together we can make a difference.
Are you ready to make a difference with me?
References
Dr. John Kotter. (2012, February 6). The Biggest Mistake I See: Strategy First, Urgency Second. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx46Z2daVtQ
Dwayne Harapnuik. (2019, January 22). What’s your why – EDLD 5304 week 1 assignment tips [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jR8422m3K-A
Harapnuik, D., Thibodeaux, T., & Cummings, C. (2018). Choice, ownership, and voice through authentic learning. Creative Common License.
Harry Piotr. (2013, September 30). Apple – Think Different – Full Version [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved October 22, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sMBhDv4sik
What is my Why?
I decided the best way to get in touch with my why would be to explore my ePortfolio to see where the why has come up.
Allow me to share some of those purposes, beliefs, and why statements; thoughts, actions, and intended results I have shared and identified since beginning the ADL Program:
I sincerely love helping people and strive to empower them.
The Advisor That Cares, Bio
To help students navigate the complex and unknown world of higher education in order to help them achieve their academic goals.
The Advisor That Cares, Advising Philosophy
I have a passion for helping people.
The Advisor That Cares, An Invitation to Innovate Advising
I hold my role as an honor and a privilege.
The Advisor That Cares, An Invitation to Innovate Advising
I want to affect the heart of my audience by sharing my heart for people and my desire to make a difference.
The Advisor That Cares, I am Change 02/10/2022
We must constantly send out updates and find other ways to communicate excitement and a sense of urgency about our plan.
The Advisor That Cares, Communicating Vision 02/15/2022
My goal is to empower students and to act as an advocate until they learn enough to advocate for themselves.
The Advisor That Cares, Why ePortfolio 04/03/2022
I sincerely care about people and I want my kindness and caring to show through the resources and information I share throughout my portfolio.
The Advisor That Cares, Why ePortfolio 04/03/2022
I have the privilege of encouraging students, supporting my colleagues, and trying to make a difference to my fellow human.
The Advisor That Cares, Creating a Learning Manifesto 06/29/2022
Encouraging my advisees to take ownership of their degree program, the path to attainment, and to set goals for themselves.
The Advisor That Cares, Technology and Advising 06/10/2022
I value my role in others lives.
The Advisor That Cares, Creating a Learning Manifesto 06/29/2022
[My innovation plan is] born out of a desire to resolve student complaints, issues, and perceptions of a lack of information.
The Advisor That Cares, Creating a Learning Manifesto 06/29/2022
So that I can make a difference.
The Advisor That Cares, Creating a Learning Manifesto 06/29/2022
Helping students find their way through university jargon to make well-informed decisions about their paths and futures is paramount to me.
The Advisor That Cares, Creating a Learning Manifesto 06/29/2022
I believe that I have an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of those around me.
The Advisor That Cares, Creating a Learning Manifesto 06/29/2022
I believe that we each have an opportunity to play a valuable role in our student’s journey.
The Advisor That Cares, Creating a Learning Manifesto 06/29/2022
My innovation plan intends to shift learning to foster more proactive, active engagement for my learners.
The Advisor That Cares, The New Culture of Learning & Me 08/22/2022
Inspiring students to take ownership of their education and learning journey by improving learners’ engagement.
The Advisor That Cares, The New Culture of Learning & Me 08/22/2022
Advising is one of the first places students experienced the university. Embracing the learner’s mindset will allow us all to aspire toward endless innovation goals as an institution.
The Advisor That Cares, Growth Mindset Revisited 10/08/2022
In addition to making sure learners have a positive advising experience, we can help create a strong learning foundation that learners carry with them into their academic subjects and beyond to their lives and futures.
The Advisor That Cares, Creating a Significant Learning Environment
Head vs. Heart
While reading and watching the content for this, my fifth course in the ADL program, I found myself feeling a bit conflicted and frustrated. The research process that helped me identify my learning philosophy had me pulling away from my behavioral psychology undergraduate roots. Yet here I am, immediately thrust me back into concepts of behavioral change?
Wait a minute.
The Influencer book provides a framework for behavioral changes. As behavioral and social scientists, the authors share research findings, stories, and strategies that support change efforts. I am re-watching the Behavioral Science guys’ reminder that information overload and appeals to the head are not ways to inspire changes in behavior. Instead, we must appeal to the heart through “influential questions” (Crucial Learning, 2015).
But I thought I identified that I most align with humanistic and constructivist learning theories. Now I am returning to behaviorism? Behavioral change?
Fortunately, Dr. Dwayne Harapnuik’s post the head won’t go where the heart hasn’t been allowed me to explore connections of behavioral change through a cognitive lens which helped alleviate some panic. In this post, Dr. Harapnuik relays that “the science community is beginning to recognize the importance of the affective domain” (Harapnuik, 2015). To clarify, “the affective domain includes factors such as student motivation, attitudes, perceptions and values” (The Affective Domain in the Classroom, n.d.).
In this first assignment, I must balance and allocate the heart and the mind for change initiatives/strategies. Specifically, my innovation plan. The first task is identifying and articulating our Why, How, and What statements.
Simon Sinek defines why with the following questions:
- What is your purpose?
- What is your cause?
- What is your belief?
- Why does your organization exist? [Which I extend to include – why does your innovation exist?]
Using the neuroscience of the human brain, Simon Sinek illustrates the importance of starting with why through a golden circle, in which he explains that our feeling and emotional, limbic brain is “the part of the brain that controls behavior” (TEDx Talks, 2009). Sinek points out that by sharing our purpose and beliefs, we will attract others with those commonalities. He illustrates his point with a beautiful example from Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.’s (MLK) I have a dream speech. He points out that MLK “didn’t go around telling people what needed to change… he told people what he believed” (TEDx Talks, 2009).
Now to connect with what I believe? How do I get people to feel the way I feel? What is my why? While this seems big and overwhelming, I find encouragement in Simon Sinek’s call to action that “those who start with why… have the ability to inspire those around them…” (TEDx Talks, 2009).
Contemplating Tom Asacker’s questions on behavior change, I agree that “it is our personal narratives that move us to change the world and to improve our lives and the lives of others (TEDx Talks, 2014). I believe my own experience with learning gives me the purpose and passion for empowering my learners.
I want to help revolutionize advising. Dr. John Kotter argues that to enact change, one must “win over the hearts and minds of people” (Dr. John Kotter, 2011). Much like Sinek’s Golden Circle illustration, Kotter references two parts of the brain responsible for different functions (emotions/feeling vs. rational/thinking) and encourages change efforts must remember to focus on both aspects. Kotter (2012) urges that the “heart provides the energy to make something big, a big leap happen.” Kotter (2013) recommends that change agents work to create excitement and energy through transparency for the need and desire to strive for something better.
You see, I am all in.
“This is not an easy process but we owe it to our children and to the young men and women who are going to our universities and colleges with dreams of building a better world”
(Harapnuik, 2014).
References
Dr. John Kotter. (2011, March 23). John Kotter – the heart of change [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NKti9MyAAw
Dr. John Kotter. (2012, February 6). The biggest mistake I see: strategy first, urgency second. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx46Z2daVtQ
Dr. John Kotter. (2013, August 15). Leading change: establish a sense of urgency [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Yfrj2Y9IlI
Harapnuik, D. (2014, September 16). People who like this stuff. . .like this stuff. It’s About Learning. Retrieved from https://www.harapnuik.org/?p=5198
Harapnuik, D. (2015, January 9). The head won’t go where the heart hasn’t been. It’s About Learning. Retrieved from https://www.harapnuik.org/?p=5461
TEDx Talks. (2009, September 29). Start with why — how great leaders inspire action | Simon Sinek | TEDxPugetSound [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4ZoJKF_VuA
TEDx Talks. (2014, June 30). Why TED Talks don’t change people’s behaviors: Tom Asacker at TEDxCambridge 2014 [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0jTZ-GP0N4
The affective domain in the classroom. (n.d.). Teach the Earth. Retrieved from https://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/affective/index.html
Introduction, 5304
EDLD 5304, Leading Organizational Change, is my fifth course in the ADL Program, but it is the first that recommended an option to share a video introduction. I decided to get brave and record one for the class discussion boards, but I would also share it here since many of my readers may not yet be joining me in the program.
Hello. Howdy. Hi There!
Growth Mindset Revisited
I’m not going to lie; I felt a little frustrated as I read the two meta-analyses on the growth mindset. I thought, “well then, why in the world did we read the growth mindset book and do so much work focused on the growth mindset?!?” Then I realized that I most likely would not have made it to this fourth course in the ADL Program without that opportunity to embrace my growth mindset.
As I move along in the program and contemplate how the growth mindset fits within my innovation and my daily interaction with students, I know that I have to help my learners understand the growth mindset and really work to overcome their fixed mindset voices, but creating significant learning environments has taught me that without carrying that mindset and those actions forward into a holistic learning environment the growth mindset won’t have the opportunity it needs to ignite the learners’ mindset. Everything I hope to do with my innovation to advising seeks to empower the learner to take ownership of this, their authentic learning opportunity. I want to model, foster, and cultivate their big-picture understanding of how they learn. I want them to seek and find the connections those opportunities and understandings provide in all aspects of life.
I cannot fully articulate the dichotomy that is in this program. It is one of the most challenging and frustrating processes for every assignment. There is so much to process, and you must seek as much context as you require to understand all the lessons available. The growth mindset revisited could not have come at a better time. As I wrestled through the 3 Column Table and UbD Template portions of Creating Significant Learning Environments, I appreciated every encouraging message of yet. I was grateful that I knew cognitively, based on research, that intelligence is something earned through hard work. As I reflect on my learning experience, I cannot help but keep asking:
“How do we make advising authentic?”
The choice, ownership, and voice this authentic innovation project provides me continues to inspire me to provide my learners with the same opportunity. I want to utilize the advising experience as potentially the first place a student could experience such an understanding of the learning process. From personal experience, I know the shift that takes place affects every other aspect of your life. You start seeing relationships, communication, and interactions all as potential opportunities to be a catalyst for change and improvements.
Advising is one of the first places students experience the university. Embracing the learners’ mindset will allow us all to aspire toward endless innovation goals as an institution.
Sisk, V. F., Burgoyne, A. P., Sun, J., Butler, J. L., & Macnamara, B. N. (2018). To what extent and under which circumstances are growth mind-sets important to academic achievement? Two meta-analyses. Psychological Science, 29(4), 549–571. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617739704
The Advisor That Cares 