Leading Engagement in Higher Education

Typing Public Engagement to Institutional Priorites

Barbara Holland & Judith Ramaley

Topics for This Session

• Social, economic and environmental challenges we face today

• What leaders are thinking about• Making the case for engagement as a

strategic response to internal and external priorities

• Creating a culture of engagement• Drawing on the urban advantage• Getting started on your action plan

Challenges we face today

• The world has become increasingly complex and interconnected.

• Innovation is a constant in the economy

• We all must think both locally and globally and act accordingly

• Our communities are becoming more diverse.

• Challenges have become wicked.

What does all of this mean for our institutions?

• The generation of knowledge is changing.• New knowledge, skills and competencies will be

needed.• We must foster resilience and flexibility in our

graduates and in the communities with which we have the closest relationships.

• We also must become more resilient and adaptable ourselves.

• We will connect to cross-sector networks in the community and collaborate better internally and with the external community.

Drawing on Your Urban Context

Today, more than two-thirds of America’s population and two-thirds of its jobs are based in major metropolitan areas, which produce 75 percent of the nation’s output. Our future will be shaped by the success of metropolitan hubs as sources of innovation, creativity, health care, transportation, employment, governance and education.

How is academic culture changing?

• A more integrated view of teaching and research• Improved access, equity, quality and completion• Moving from individual to collaborative work• More diverse models of academic employment

and career paths • Moving from a culture of imitation to one of

innovation and distinctiveness• Large scale renewal of the workforce• Leadership transitions• More diverse approaches to evaluating the work

of faculty• More collaboration for discovery and learning

with the broader community

Succesful 21st Century Institutions Must Be:

• Intentional• Focused• Integrated and collaborative• Responsive• Engaged• Explicit about campus culture in regard to the

experiences and expectations of students, faculty and staff

Engagement can help!

• A world filled with Wicked Problems that require collaboration and knowledge-sharing to understand and address

• A growing need for Sustainable Communities characterized by wise use of resources-Both conditions require new problem-solving and solution-finding skills.-Both require resilience and adaptability.

What is a Wicked Problem?

The problem involves many stakeholders with different values and priorities.

The issue’s roots are complex and tangled.

The problem is difficult to come to grips with and changes with every attempt to address it.

No one knows how to solve the problem and there is nothing to indicate the right answer.

Every wicked problem is a symptom of another difficult problem and can grow new roots.

from Camillus 2008, HBR

What is a sustainable community?

A sustainable community is one that is economically, environmentally, and socially healthy and resilient. It meets challenges through integrated solutions rather than through fragmented approaches that meet one of those goals at the expense of the others. And it takes a long-term perspective – one that’s focused on both the present and future, well beyond the next budget or election cycle.

Institute for Sustainable Communities. Montpelier, VT.

What is Resilience?

• The ability to bounce back or cope successfully despite substantial adversity (Rutter, 1985). The term is now applied in both environmental and social contexts.

• Once considered to be a fixed personality trait. • Now resilience is approached as a dynamic,

modifiable process (Luthar, Cicchetti, & Becker, 2000).

• Sociological definition: The ability of groups or communities to cope with external stresses and disturbances as a result of social, political and environmental change (Brand and Jax 2007).

Creating Sustainable Communities: From technical to adaptive solutions

• PREMISE: The kinds of challenges we face today to create sustainable communities and thriving universities cannot be managed with well-researched technical solutions.

“What is needed from a leadership perspective are new forms of improvisational expertise, a kind of process expertise that knows prudently how to experiment with never-before-tried-before relationships, means of communication and ways of interacting that will help people develop solutions that build upon and surpass the wisdom of today’s experts.” (Heifetz et al 2009)

What is Adaptive Leadership?

• “Adaptive Leadership is the practice of mobilizing people to tackle tough problems and thrive.”

• “New environments and new dreams demand new strategies and abilities, as well as the leadership to mobilize them.”

• Plus, the ability to work together to achieve them. From Heifetz, Grashow and Linsky, (2009) The Practice of Adaptive Leadership, p. 14.

Exercise OneCampus Concerns

• What are your campus leaders worried about?– Senior administrators– Faculty and staff leadership– Student leadership

• What are your institutional priorities? – In your strategic plan– Projects and initiatives launched on campus

to address concerns and priorities– Issues identified by governor, legislature,

system office or governing board

Making the Case for the Value of Engagement

as a Strategic Response• Explore the elements of community engagement and civic engagement and what they mean in practice on our campus.

• Find ways to position engagement as a significant strategy for supporting a larger campus vision and achieving institutional goals while connecting campus and community.

• Foster more buy-in to the concept of engagement and foster experience with engaged strategies for research, learning and teaching, especially among faculty and students.

Q. How can we best respond to changing societal needs and

expectations?

Answer: Community Engagement is a method, a way of doing teaching, learning and research that draws upon the knowledge, experiences and interests of both the internal campus community and the broader community outside academia.

Working together, campus and community members exchange knowledge, answer critical questions and apply their learning to a range of significant problems and opportunities both on campus and beyond.

How is community engagement different from civic

engagement?• Community Engagement – the

overarching term encompassing all aspects of an institutional agenda of interaction with communities

• Civic Engagement – A specific form of Community Engagement that focuses on the development of civic and social responsibility in students and the civic actions and roles of the institution

The Carnegie Definition

Community engagement is the “collaboration (among) institutions of higher education and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity.”

Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

Defining Features of Community Engagement

• Partnership (work “with” communities)• Mutually beneficial outcomes

– Addresses a community-identified need – Through an intellectual activity of

importance • Reciprocity

– Enhances community capacity– Enhances student learning and/or research

studies• Knowledge exchange relationship

– 2-way, co-creation and use• Deliverables for academy and for

community

Especially Tricky Terms

Mutually beneficial means all parties have articulated expected benefits and understand and support the expected benefits sought by others.

Reciprocity speaks to a sense of “fairness” in the exchange of knowledge, level of effort and involvement in the work, assumption of risks and benefits, interpretation of outcomes and use of the knowledge gained.

Your Prework

Since engagement is an important

response to change…

…how can we move it from the margin to the core?

A Culture of Engagement

“Organizational culture, like other cultures, is a blend of the members’ thoughts, narratives, relics, actions and reactions.” Brian Mumby, The Political Function of Narratives in Organizations. (1987)

Building a Culture of Engagement

• To create a portfolio of ways to support a more intentional agenda of engagement activity.

• To collect evidence and assess the value and impact of engagement from the perspectives of everyone involved in the effort.

• To align institutional assets effectively with community assets and focus on key themes of interest to both campus and community.

Engagement works on several scales that interact with each other

– At an individual level: how actively we are involved in learning and the time and effort we devote to this endeavor.

– At an organizational level: how we work together and the extent to which we share expectations, goals, resources, and risk and benefit with other participants

– At a community level: how well we use campus and community resources to achieve the mission of a campus and to build strong, democratic communities

– At a regional or national level: how we collaborate with other institutions to be effective resources for local/regional development and progress

– At an international level: By collaboration with other institutions and organizations to respond to compelling global challenges, and advance the global perspective of our students.

What does a culture of engagement look like?

• Innovative and relevant educational programs, research and information resources that draw on the region.

• New academic structures and approaches to faculty and student work.

• Scholarship that arises from and contributes to efforts to promote human well-being in a healthy environment.

• Partnerships that address social, economic and environmental issues at home and abroad ranging from single studies and projects to long-term collaborations, depending on the focus and goals of the relationships.

What does a culture of engagement look like?

• Integration of efforts across the institution and a focus on integration, coherence and progressively more challenging expectations and assignments.

• Resources to invest in the future through engagement with people throughout the local community, the state, the region and beyond, as appropriate to mission.

In sum, these components result in a Culture of engagement throughout the university with recognition, support structures and technical assistance infused across the campus.

Exercise 2Getting Started on Your Action Plan: Reading Your Internal Environment

• How well is your institution supporting engagement now?

• What proportion of your faculty and students are involved in some form of engaged scholarship or learning or both?

• Have you an agreed upon language for talking about engagement? If not, how might standard definitions (eg, Carnegie) be introduced?

• What problems and priorities might be addressed through engagement strategies?

The Urban Advantage

• A richly diverse environment that attracts and retains students, faculty and staff

• Extensive opportunities for student or spousal employment during and after studies

• Diverse and challenging opportunities for student experiential learning throughout their studies

• Extensive networks (research, development, exchange with business, industry, government, education, CBOs

• Access to foundations, major donors, other organizations and networks with knowledge resources

• Easy access to transportation for regional, national, international exchange and collaborations

The Urban University Advantage

• Geographically placed in major economic/policy/transportation hub; rich opportunities to integrate T, L, R in ways that improve scholarly outcomes and organizational productivity

• Intellectually positioned to partner with other sectors to improve quality of life and opportunity, to work on ‘wicked problems’, leading to discoveries and innovations replicable elsewhere in an urbanized world

• Economically advantaged by opportunities to work with other sectors in myriad ways and link to new resources

Exercise 3Scanning Your Urban Context

• What issues are getting the most attention from local media, business groups, non-profits, advocacy groups, neighborhood associations, others?

• What is the alignment between your institution’s academic strengths and these community priorities?

• How is your university involved in working with others to address any of those issues now?

Create an Engagement Narrative

An effective narrative about engagement can change an institution’s sense of itself and include engagement as a defining feature of institutional identity.Stories often work better than data or cause-and-effect logic because they tap into “powerful areas of cognitive capacity.” Telling stories offers an opportunity to build shared commitment and cohesiveness.Adapted from Emily Borthwick-Wong and Janna Jones, The Learning Community Model, About Campus May/June 2012

Telling the Story

An engagement model is fundamentally different from traditional scholarly and curricular approaches and cannot simply be grafted onto a traditional model.Institutions need a narrative and shared language that emphasize how a culture of engagement both internally and externally can be an integral part of its culture and identity.Phrases can often carry a story.

Let Knowledge Serve the City

Stage 4: The Engagement Narrative

While you create your action plan keep in mind: Today is Already

Tomorrow• We have entered a decade of major change

in academic culture, values, priorities, methods and operations.

• The choices we make now will influence our capacity to contribute to the quality of life in our towns and cities, our states, our nation and the world for many decades to come.

• To play our role in shaping the future, we will depend more and more upon collaboration and resource sharing and the co-creation of knowledge. Adapted from Holland 2014