Category: Professional
Vital Behaviors
Find and Clarify Your Vital Behaviors
- Advisors will formulate and share their why statements, then create web based advising resources/ePortfolios to utilize in their advising interactions.
- Advising will 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 teams collaborate on content development and establish best practices for ePortfolio implementation into advising interactions while holding one another accountable for use of the resource.
- Long term development goals might include content 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, Accessibility Resource Center, advising appointments, financial aid/scholarships status updates and direct inquires), 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.
How credible is each Vital Behavior that you listed?
Have you found credible research done by others that validates the behavior you listed? Yes
“Blended advising draws directly from the benefits of synchronous, on campus advising—”same time, same place” experiences that enable human connection and spontaneity—while simultaneously taking advantage of the asynchronicity and computer-mediated environment of online advising—or “different time, different place” experiences that afford more opportunities for flexibility and accessibility, thereby leaving out any weaknesses from either method”
Ambrose, G. A., & Williamson Ambrose, L. (2013). The Blended Advising Model: Transforming Advising with ePortfolios. International Journal of ePortfolio, 3(1), 75-89.
“… improve the advising experience by helping students prepare in advance for advising meetings and to be more mindful in the making of academic decisions through pre-engagement, reflection, and planning”
Ambrose, G. A., Martin, H. E., & Page, H. (2014). Linking advising and e-portfolios for engagement: Design, evolution, assessment, and university-wide implementation. AAC&U Peer Review Winter.
Through content unites and modules in various technologies, advisors integrate services and resources that can be evaluated to show an individual’s understanding of and meaning applied to learning.
Steele, G. E. (2016). Technology and academic advising. Beyond foundations: Developing as a master academic advisor, 305-326.
Have you conducted a positive deviance study to determine what has worked for you or others in the past? (Chapter 2) Yes, through the use and pilot of this advising ePortfolio.
Change How You Change Minds
Check YES or NO for each question.
- When trying to convince yourself or others to change minds, do you create ways to experience the need to change (For example: field trips, pilots, trial runs, or other hands-on experiences) rather than simply trying to talk yourself or others into changing through presentations, lectures, pep talks, or other verbal means? Y N
- Do you use powerful and credible stories as a way of touching people’s hearts and minds with the need to change? ** For more information on how to change minds, see Chapter 3 in Y N
Diagnose the Current Behavior—Why Does Change Seem Impossible?
When it comes to your current results, to what extent are the following factors a source of your current behaviors? These questions should apply to others whom you are trying to influence (boss, team, company, etc). Check YES or NO for each question.
Personal Motivation
- Do you or others take satisfaction from the right behavior or dislike the wrong behavior? Y N
- When the going gets tough, do you or others think carefully about how the Vital Behavior would help with long-term goals and align with moral values? ** To work on personal motivation, see Chapter 4 in Y N
Personal Ability
- Do you or others have all the skills or knowledge to perform what is required? Y N
- Do you or others have the self-control to engage in the Vital Behavior when it’s hardest to do so? ** To work on personal ability, see Chapter 5 in Y N
Social Motivation
- Are the people around you or others actively encouraging the right behavior or discouraging the wrong behavior? Y N
- Are you or others modeling the right behaviors in an effective way? ** To work on social motivation, see Chapter 6 in Y N
Social Ability
- Do you or others provide the help, information, and resources required, particularly at critical times? Y N
- Do you or others hold people accountable for behaving in the right way? ** To work on social ability, see Chapter 7 in Y N
Structural Motivation
- Are there clear and meaningful rewards (such as with pay, bonuses, or incentives) when you or others behave the right way? Y N
- Are short-term rewards in alignment with the desired long-term results and behaviors you or others want? ** To work on structural motivation, see Chapter 8 in Y N
Structural Ability
- Are there aspects in the environment that make the Vital Behavior convenient, easy, and safe? Y N
- Are there enough cues and reminders to help you or others stay on course? ** To work on structural ability, see Chapter 9 in Y N
Desired Results, Measures, and Members
What are the results you want to achieve?
- For Advisors:
- Transform transactional advising general information and onboarding orientation to systems, procedures, degree plan, resources to video, audio, and text resources in personally curated web resources by the Fall 2025 intake cycle for individualized flipped advisor guidance.
- Advising Team:
- Like-minded solution-oriented workgroups collaborate and cross collaborate to identify and implement solutions for orientation, enrollment and support for current and prospective students by Fall 2025 while reevaluating “standardized” touch points and robotic interaction limiting scalability.
What are the measures you’ll use to track your progress?
- Assess Learners:
- Measurement efforts can utilize typical question/quiz formats for transactional pieces of advising to clear various holds and satisfy specific enrollment requirements When students illustrate or articulate successful behaviors they are able to by pass standardized interaction currently required for registration.
- Likert survey assessments to gauge students understanding of resources, services, access, links to advising campaigns and support service referrals throughout assessment utilizing advising system.
- 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.
- Team Assessments:
- Advising teams share focused 3-minute check-ins daily to share weekly goals and intentions. These can be scheduled meetings, video messages, or emails.
- Meetings are scheduled for longer communications or clarifications as needed/requested to honor and respect each individuals day utilizing advisors preferred communication (video chat, text chat, in-person meeting, team discussion).
- Weekly team-wise meetings (30 minutes or less) to review what’s working and what could be better as ensure all individuals are progressing in their advising resource and to provide opportunities collaboration planning.
- Collaborative peer-groupings twice a month to evaluate effectiveness, to provide feed-forward, to reflect on what is working and what could be better in individual and group collaborations at all levels within the advising unit.
- Workshops (quarterly) to gauge and assess progress to goals and celebrate successes.
- Advising teams share focused 3-minute check-ins daily to share weekly goals and intentions. These can be scheduled meetings, video messages, or emails.
- Department/Unit Assessments:
- Weekly think-tank sessions with solutions-collective, inviting stakeholders as needed and coordinated to solve various needs that arise throughout the different academic cycles
- Monthly department meetings to solution-storm (brainstorm) problems held separately (sacredly) from any staff meetings, professional developments, or presentations to re-engage with our individual why and collective why
- At minimum quarterly collaborations with departmental and support service stakeholders across campus to ensure messaging and initiatives align with available offerings
- Anonymous satisfaction surveys for advisors to describe bottlenecks and pinch-points as expressed by students following signification deadlines in academic cycles to evaluate improvement opportunities to policies and procedures
- Monthly departmental updates, requests, and feed-forward to and from academic departments to improve communication and accuracy for learners
- Ongoing collaboration groups with university coalition collective to scale procedures, evaluate and update policy, and improve training resources for all
Who is involved in your efforts?
- 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
- Collective of solution-oriented collaborative 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 admissions; records; scholarship, financial aid, and veterans affairs; system administrators; technology support; service desk; instructional designers; administrative support; and support services to provide improvement ideas as front-line interaction experts.
Vital Behaviors
How to find them…
https://cruciallearning.com/blog/how-to-find-vital-behaviors/
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
Educational Trauma
This morning in my daily scroll, I saw the following come up in a random group I follow. I couldn’t help but extrapolate this to our learning experience and the difficulty we all confront as we form Learning Communities and try to form trusted relationships for feed-forward. I suppose not everyone struggles with these aspects of trust, but I certainly do. Therefore, I wanted to share this here in hopes that it helps you as you form connections and build trust.
“The inability to receive support from others is a trauma response.
Your “I don’t need anyone, I’ll just do it all myself” conditioning is a survival tactic.
And you needed it to shield your heart from abuse, neglect, betrayal, and disappointment from those who could not or would not be there for you.
From the parent who was absent and abandoned you by choice or the parent who was never home from working three jobs to feed and house you.
From the lovers who offered sexual intimacy but never offered a safe haven that honored your heart.
From the friendships and family who ALWAYS took more than they ever gave.
From all the situations when someone told you “we’re in this together” or “I got you” then abandoned you, leaving you to pick up the pieces when shit got real, leaving you to handle your part and their part, too.
From all the lies and all the betrayals.
You learned along the way that you just couldn’t really trust people. Or that you could trust people, but only up to a certain point.
Extreme-independence IS. A. TRUST. ISSUE.
You learnt: if I don’t put myself in a situation where I rely on someone, I won’t have to be disappointed when they don’t show up for me, or when they drop the ball… because they will ALWAYS drop the ball EVENTUALLY right?
You validated your core belief that you can’t really trust people! That is how much you believe it! Your wiring is hooked up to this belief system.
You may even have been intentionally taught this protection strategy by generations of hurt ancestors who came before you.
Extreme-independence is a preemptive strike against heartbreak.
So, you don’t trust anyone.
And you don’t trust yourself, either, to choose people.
AND you don’t trust life itself maybe? Does Life have your back?
To trust is to hope, to trust is to be vulnerable.
“Never again,” you vow. Consciously or subconsciously.
But no matter how you dress it up and display it proudly to make it seem like this level of independence is what you always wanted to be, in truth it’s your wounded, scarred, broken heart behind a protective brick wall.
Impenetrable. Nothing gets in. No hurt gets in. But no love gets in either.
Fortresses and armor are for those in battle, or who believe the battle is coming.
It’s a trauma response.
It is an old wounding layer in your system that needs new wiring, a do over.
The good news is trauma that is acknowledged is trauma that can be healed.
You are worthy of having support.
You are worthy of having true partnership.
You are worthy of love.
You are worthy of having your heart held.
You are worthy to be adored.
You are worthy to be cherished.
You are worthy to have someone say, “You rest. I got this.”
And actually deliver on that promise.
You are worthy to receive.
You are worthy to receive.
You are worthy.
You don’t have to earn it.
You don’t have to prove it.
You don’t have to bargain for it.
You don’t have to beg for it.
You are worthy.
Worthy.
Simply because you exist.”
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
The Advisor That Cares 