Category: Training & Development

  • AI in Practice: Using ChatGPT to Create a Training Program

    AI in Practice: Using ChatGPT to Create a Training Program

    by Julie Burrell | September 24, 2024

    Like many HR professionals, Colorado Community College System’s Jennifer Parker was grappling with an increase in incivility on campus. She set about creating a civility training program that would be convenient and interactive. However, she faced a considerable hurdle: the challenges of creating a virtual training program from scratch, solo. Parker’s creative answer to one of these challenges — writing scripts for her under-10-minute videos — was to put ChatGPT to work for her. 

    How did she do it? This excerpt from her article, A Kinder Campus: Building an AI-Powered, Repeatable and Fun Civility Training Program, offers several tips.

    Using ChatGPT for Training and Professional Development

    I love using ChatGPT. It is such a great tool. Let me say that again: it’s such a great tool. I look at ChatGPT as a brainstorming partner. I don’t use it to write my scripts, but I do use it to get me started or to fix what I’ve written. I ask questions that I already know the answer to. I’m not using it for technical guidance in any way.

    What should you consider when you use ChatGPT for scriptwriting and training sessions?

    1. Make ChatGPT an expert. In my prompts, I often use the phrase, “Act like a subject matter expert on [a topic].” This helps define both the need and the audience for the information. If I’m looking for a list of reasons why people are uncivil on college campuses, I might prompt with, “Act like an HR director of a college campus and give me a list of ways employees are acting uncivil in the workplace.” Using the phrase above gives parameters on the types of answers ChatGPT will offer, as well as shape the perspective of the answers as for and about higher ed HR.
    2. Be specific about what you’re looking for. “I’m creating a training on active listening. This is for employees on a college campus. Create three scenarios in a classroom or office setting of employees acting unkind to each other. Also provide two solutions to those scenarios using active listening. Then, create a list of action steps I can use to teach employees how to actively listen based on these scenarios.” Being as specific as possible can help get you where you want to go. Once I get answers from ChatGPT, I can then decide if I need to change direction, start over or just get more ideas. There is no wrong step. It’s just you and your partner figuring things out.
    3. Sometimes ChatGPT can get stuck in a rut. It will start giving you the same or similar answers no matter how you reword things. My solution is to start a new conversation. I also change the prompt. Don’t be afraid to play around, to ask a million questions, or even tell ChatGPT it’s wrong. I often type something like, “That’s not what I’m looking for. You gave me a list of______, but what I need is ______. Please try again.” This helps the system to reset.
    4. Once I get close to what I want, I paste it all in another document, rewrite, and cite my sources. I use this document as an outline to rewrite it all in my own voice. I make sure it sounds like how I talk and write. This is key. No one wants to listen to ChatGPT’s voice. And I guarantee that people will know if you’re using its voice — it has a very conspicuous style. Once I’ve honed my script, I ensure that I find relevant sources to back the information up and cite the sources at the end of my documents, just in case I need to refer to them.

    What you’ll see here is an example of how I used ChatGPT to help me write the scripts for the micro-session on conflict. It’s an iterative but replicable process. I knew what the session would cover, but I wanted to brainstorm with ChatGPT.

    Once I’ve had multiple conversations with the chatbot, I go back through the entire script and pick out what I want to use. I make sure it’s in my own voice and then I’m ready to record. I also used ChatGPT to help with creating the activities and discussion questions in the rest of the micro-session.

    I know using ChatGPT can feel overwhelming but rest assured that you can’t really make a mistake. (And if you’re worried the machines are going to take over, throw in a “Thank you!” or “You’re awesome!” occasionally for appeasement’s sake.)

    About the author: Jennifer Parker is assistant director of HR operations at the Colorado Community College System.

    More Resources

    • Read Parker’s full article on creating a civility training program with help from AI.
    • Learn more about ChatGPT and other chatbots.
    • Explore CUPA-HR’s Civility in the Workplace Toolkit.



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  • Five Resources to Level Up Supervisor Training and Leadership Development – CUPA-HR

    Five Resources to Level Up Supervisor Training and Leadership Development – CUPA-HR

    by Julie Burrell | July 2, 2024

    Supervisor training and leadership development are top priorities for HR — and it’s no wonder why. Skilled supervisors are critical to increasing employees’ job satisfaction. A solid leadership pipeline ensures that both institutional knowledge and talented employees remain at a college or university. And higher ed employees have a strong desire for professional and leadership development, which affects how they view their jobs.

    How can institutions support supervisors and those who might move into that role? How can HR mitigate supervisor burnout? What about encouraging career development for employees who want a more fulfilling role, but not necessarily as a supervisor? Several higher ed HR practitioners have shared with CUPA-HR how they are tackling these common challenges.

    10 Roadblocks to Supervision (and How to Surpass Them) (Watch Now) and Roadblocks to Supervision: Clearing a Path for Peer-To-Supervisors, New Supervisors and Hybrid Team Supervisors (Read Now)

    While it might be evident that a supervisor is struggling, diagnosing the reason why is more complex. That’s exactly what this pair of valuable resources is designed to help with. Based on supervisor trainings at the University of North Carolina System, this webinar and companion article break down supervisor struggles into an adaptable list of roadblocks that prevent supervisors from flourishing. These range from interpersonal skills (such as misaligned communication styles), to systemic workload issues (supervisors being too busy), to communication across divisions (leaving HR out of the loop when a problem arises).

    Building Leaders From Within: UT Rio Grande Valley Blends Leadership Development With a Master’s in Higher Ed Administration (Read Now)

    The need for an internal talent pipeline at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley was clear. So was the need to retain valuable employees, who sought career development opportunities. (The desire for promotion or more responsibility is the third most-cited reason for higher ed employees seeking new jobs.) To address both challenges, HR teamed up with administrative and academic leadership to create an innovative — and mostly free — Master of Arts in higher education administration program for current employees. Learn how they built and executed this initiative, which welcomed 100 employees over the past few years.

    BRIGHT Leaders Program at UT Dallas (Watch Now)

    Recipient of the 2023 CUPA-HR Innovation Award, the BRIGHT Leaders program at the University of Texas at Dallas speaks to the needs of today’s employees, who desire flexible professional development programs. This webinar explains how BRIGHT Leaders encourages everyone on campus to lead from where they are. UT Dallas’s “all-access pass” model means any employee can take any leadership training session at any time. No matter their position or leadership level, all staff and faculty (and even students) are welcome to attend, and there’s no selective process that limits participation.

    Investing in People: How to Create a Coaching Culture on Your Campus (Read Now)

    Gone are the days when coaching was either for executives only or a remedy for poor performance. In fact, coaching can increase employee engagement and job satisfaction as well as boost retention and job performance. But coaching looks different from campus to campus. This article delves into how three institutions — Vanderbilt University, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and the University of California, Berkeley — created cultures of coaching on their campuses. This data-driven resource not only outlines these unique coaching programs, but also offers resources and tips to help you convince leadership that coaching is an essential element of creating future leaders.



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  • How Three Institutions Built Winning Retention Programs – CUPA-HR

    How Three Institutions Built Winning Retention Programs – CUPA-HR

    by Julie Burrell | May 21, 2024

    New CUPA-HR data show some improvement in turnover in the higher ed workforce, but staffing hasn’t fully bounced back to pre-pandemic levels. Managers still face challenges filling positions and maintaining morale, while employees are seeking jobs where their satisfaction and well-being are prioritized.

    CUPA-HR’s recent webinar offers solutions that may move the needle on employee retention. Retaining Talent: Effective Employee Retention Strategies From Three Institutions brings together HR pros who showcase their high-impact, cost-effective approaches to increasing satisfaction and well-being, including:

    • Professional development programs driven by employees’ interests
    • Effective supervisor-employee communication, including stay interviews
    • Actionable campus climate surveys using liaisons
    • Mentoring programs and leadership pipelines
    • Recognition programs and community-building events
    • Employee Resource Groups to enhance belonging

    Here are some of the highlights from their programs.

    Stay Interviews at Drake University

    A stay interview is a structured, informal conversation between an employee and a trained supervisor — and can be key to retaining top talent. Maureen De Armond, executive director of human resources at Drake, considers stay interviews to be a critical tool that nevertheless go underused in higher ed. Overall, only 8% of employees stated that they participated in a stay interview in the past year, according to The CUPA-HR 2023 Higher Education Employee Retention Survey.

    De Armond stresses that stay interviews can build trust, increase communication, and show that you care about employees as people, not just their job performance. If you’re looking to get started, De Armond recommends checking out the Stay Interviews Toolkit.

    Actionable Climate Surveys at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

    What’s worse than not conducting a climate survey? Not doing anything with the answers employees have taken the time to provide, says Nicole Englitsch, organizational development manager at UTRGV. To make surveys actionable, they’ve enlisted campus climate liaisons.

    These liaisons, who are mostly HR professionals, are assigned to specific departments. The liaisons have been trained by their external survey partners to help their departments understand the results and engage in action planning, guided by a three-year timeline. This network of partners helps ensure that UTRGV’s goals of making survey results both transparent and actionable are achieved.

    For more on their employee engagement and retention efforts, see Building Leaders From Within: UT Rio Grande Valley Blends Leadership Development With a Master’s in Higher Ed Administration.

    Recognition and Community-Building at Rollins College

    How can institutions create a culture of belonging and valuing employees? David Zajchowski, director of human resources at Rollins, explains how their high-impact recognition and community-building programs range from informal coffee-and-doughnuts gatherings to special awards ceremonies for employees.

    Probably the most popular way of valuing employees while increasing connection is Rollins’s annual Fox Day. On a random day in spring, the president surprises employees and students with a day off from work and class to participate in community-building college traditions.

    Despite the effectiveness of employee recognition, many employers may be leaving this low-cost retention incentive on the table, as only 59% of higher ed employees said they received regular verbal recognition for their work in the Employee Retention Survey. Wondering how your employee recognition program stacks up? See a comparison of recognition programs and take a self-assessment here.



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  • UT Dallas’s BRIGHT Leaders Program: An All-Access Approach to Leadership Training and Career Development

    UT Dallas’s BRIGHT Leaders Program: An All-Access Approach to Leadership Training and Career Development

    In 2020, the human resources team at the University of Texas at Dallas was set to launch its leadership and professional development program, the culmination of 18 months of dedicated work. As the pandemic took hold, the question confronting Colleen Dutton, chief human resources officer, and her team was, “Now what do we do?” In their recent webinar for CUPA-HR, Dutton and Jillian McNally, a talent development specialist, explained how their COVID-19 pivot was a blessing in disguise, helping them completely reconstruct leadership training from the ground up.

    The resulting, reimagined program — BRIGHT Leaders — received a 2023 CUPA-HR Innovation Award for groundbreaking thinking in higher ed HR. BRIGHT Leaders speaks to the needs of today’s employees, who desire professional development programs that are flexible and encourages everyone on campus to lead from where they are.

    An All-Access Pass for Career Development

    UTD innovated by first addressing the needs of remote and hybrid employees. Recognizing that “our workforce was never going to be the same after COVID,” Dutton says, they transformed their original plan from an in-person, cohort model into an accessible, inclusive training program they call an “all-access pass.” Any employee can take any leadership training session at any time. No matter their position or leadership level, all staff and faculty (and even students) are welcome to attend, and there’s no selective process that limits participation.

    Their new, all-access approach inspired a mantra within HR: “Organizations that treat every employee as a leader create the best leaders and the best cultures.” This open-access philosophy means that parking attendants and vice presidents might be in the same leadership development session. Employees attend trainings on their own schedules, whether on their smart phones or at their home office. UTD also offers three self-paced pathways — Foundations, Leadership and Supervisor Essentials, and Administrative Support Essentials — that employees can complete to earn a digital badge. They’re also encouraged to leverage this training when applying to open positions on campus.

    Some of the Microsoft Teams-based programs UTD established in their first year include: Lessons from Leaders series, BRIGHT Leaders Book Club and Teaching Leadership Compassion (TLC). They also partner with e-learning companies to supplement their internal training materials.

    Dutton and McNally note that sessions don’t always have to be conducted by HR. Campus partners are encouraged to lead trainings that fall within the BRIGHT framework: Bold, Responsible, Inclusive, Growing, High Performing and Transformative. For example, an upcoming book club will be led by a team consisting of the dean of engineering and the athletic director.

    Making UTD an Employer of Choice

    In line with UTD’s commitment to workplace culture, the BRIGHT Leaders program speaks to the needs of a changing workforce. Early-career professionals don’t want to wait five years to be eligible for leadership training, Dutton stresses. “They want access to these leadership opportunities and trainings now.”

    UTD’s flexible professional development training approach helps confront a concerning trend: almost half of higher ed employees (44%) surveyed in The CUPA-HR 2023 Higher Education Employee Retention Survey disagree that they have opportunities for advancement, and one-third (34%) do not believe that their institution invests in their career development. Offering robust, flexible professional development and leadership opportunities is part of UTD’s commitment to be an employer of choice in North Texas.

    For more specifics on the BRIGHT Leaders program, view the recorded webinar. You’ll learn how HR built cross-campus partnerships, how they’ve measured their return on investment and how they’re building on their successes to train future leaders.

    The post UT Dallas’s BRIGHT Leaders Program: An All-Access Approach to Leadership Training and Career Development appeared first on CUPA-HR.

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  • Trends in Higher Ed Employee Learning and Development – CUPA-HR

    Trends in Higher Ed Employee Learning and Development – CUPA-HR

    by CUPA-HR | February 1, 2023

    Employee learning and development (L&D) offerings at higher ed institutions have changed significantly over the last three years. To find out what other institutions are doing in this area, Krista Vaught, assistant director of employee learning and engagement at Vanderbilt University, conducted a survey in the summer of 2022. Survey responses from L&D professionals at 115 institutions reveal the following trends in program delivery, attendance, topics and outcomes.

    Program Delivery

    Since 2020, synchronous online sessions have been offered by most (89) institutions, followed by self-paced modules (85). Some institutions indicated that at certain points, employees were limited to online learning and self-paced only, as they did not host live workshops.

    Prior to the pandemic, synchronous, in-person workshops were the primary delivery method at most institutions. Now, synchronous online is the primary method at 35 percent of institutions surveyed, asynchronous online at 30 percent of institutions, synchronous in-person at 18 percent of institutions and hybrid at 17 percent of institutions.

    Attendance

    Attendance and participation have fluctuated. In the early 2020 shift to remote work, there was a sense that employees had newfound time to pursue L&D, at least initially. From March 2020 to December 2021, 31 percent of institutions surveyed saw increased participation, while 27 percent said it was mixed or hard to tell. Eighteen percent said it increased then decreased, and 17 percent said it decreased.

    What did institutions see in 2022? Results were mixed again. Twenty five percent said attendance and participation were about the same as prior to 2022, 23 percent said it decreased, 21 percent said it increased and 27 percent said it was mixed or hard to tell.

    What’s causing the fluctuations and challenges in attendance and participation?

    • Time and availability
    • Burnout
    • Increased workload as employees transition back to more on-campus work or take on additional responsibilities because of turnover, leaving less time to pursue learning
    • Unsupportive supervisors who see learning as taking away time from work rather than part of work
    • Employee preference for different delivery methods (in-person versus virtual)
    • Learning opportunities are not always prioritized, resulting in last-minute no-shows

    Topics

    According to respondents, the most popular workshop topics fall under management and leadership, and wellness and communication.

    Assessing Outcomes

    Follow-up surveys are the most popular tool for assessing outcomes of workshops, followed by attendance and participation numbers.

    Prioritizing Learning and Development 

    In the ongoing competition for talent, L&D can be a game changer, both in attracting new talent and retaining the talent you already have. By investing in and prioritizing programs to support managers, develop leaders and promote better communication, institutions can create a workplace that’s hard to leave.

    Interested in more data and insights HR pros can use when brainstorming L&D initiatives, making a case for those initiatives, and designing them and assessing them? Head over to the full article, Higher Education Learning and Development Trends in 2022 – Where We Are now and Where We’re Headed (members-only) in the winter issue of Higher Ed HR Magazine.

    To learn how one institution launched a multi-faceted retention initiative, including manager and leadership development opportunities, watch the recording of the recent CUPA-HR webinar Solving the Retention Puzzle.

    Related Resources:

    CUPA-HR Learning Framework and Resources

    Management and Supervisor Training Toolkit (CUPA-HR Knowledge Center)

    Creating Your Individual Development Plan (E-Learning Course)

    Understanding Higher Education (E-Learning Course)



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  • Uncovering Workplace Barriers by Auditing the DEI Experience – CUPA-HR

    Uncovering Workplace Barriers by Auditing the DEI Experience – CUPA-HR

    by CUPA-HR | April 20, 2022

    Detecting bias can be a challenge, particularly when it comes to long-standing practices that are firmly rooted in our campus culture and systems. Left unchecked, these routine practices may create unintended barriers to inclusion and belonging.

    In the recent CUPA-HR virtual workshop, “Detecting Systemic Bias in Talent Practices,” Dr. Aarti Shyamsunder, DEI solutions consultant at YSC Consulting, and Pooja Shahani, founder and CEO of Kintsugi Consulting, discussed methods higher ed HR practitioners can use to pinpoint these barriers to inclusion. One method is to audit the DEI experience at your institution by reflecting on the following questions to determine who is present, who is participating and who holds the power.

    • Who runs things? Who are the individuals that make decisions? Who are the leaders? Who sits on the board? Do they all look the same? Is there a pattern in who gets to run things?
    • Who does the office “housework?” Who organizes team outings and takes meeting notes? Are these individuals recognized for their work? Women in the workforce often take on these additional duties.
    • Who gets credit? Are team members receiving praise and recognition for their contributions to a job well done? In academia, this could include whose name gets listed first on research or other academic work.
    • Who knows whom? Is there a pattern of individuals who know each other who receive more information and therefore have more opportunities to progress?
    • Who is speaking? Who gets to take space in a room? Is there an obvious difference in how often men in the room speak versus women?
    • Who gets development opportunities? Who are the individuals who get access to high-visibility roles that end up becoming senior-level positions? Who is being invested in?
    • Whose experience matters? “Covering” is a term that means downplaying our identities. What kind of covering demands (often unspoken) do we make of people so they feel compelled to change themselves in order to belong?
    • Who gets invalidated? Whose presence and voice are missing from meetings?

    Exploring long-standing practices through the lenses of various campus stakeholders is essential to creating a higher ed workplace that is both inclusive and welcoming. Look for ways you and your team can audit employee experiences and uncover barriers at your institution.

    Related resources:

    Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Toolkit (CUPA-HR members-only resource)

    DEI Maturity Index

    Diversity Resources

    Diversity and Inclusion Start With the Hiring Process: Two Institutions Getting It Right (The Higher Ed Workplace Blog)



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  • Diversity and Inclusion Start With the Hiring Process: Two Institutions Getting It Right – CUPA-HR

    Diversity and Inclusion Start With the Hiring Process: Two Institutions Getting It Right – CUPA-HR

    by Jill Thompson | February 16, 2022

    For institutions to become diverse, equitable and inclusive workplaces for faculty and staff, HR must take a critical look at current hiring processes and analyze not only who’s being hired, but who’s doing the hiring. Are search committee members trained in DEI issues and prepared to conduct interviews in a way that exemplifies the institution’s commitment to DEI?

    As we wrap up the first two weeks of the 21-Day Equity Habit Building Challenge: Less Talk, More Action, we’re calling attention to inspiring higher ed hiring initiatives and resources from two institutions. HR pros will want to bookmark these resources to help them think through small adjustments or total redesigns of their institution’s hiring processes and DEI training for search committees.

    UC Davis’ Guide for Hiring Managers

    To helping hiring managers develop skills related to diversity and inclusion, UC Davis’ HR team created a guide to attracting, selecting and hiring diverse talent. The guide lists ways the institution can improve its reach for open positions and the diversity of candidates, as well as tips for incorporating inclusive language, targeting outreach, selecting recruitment panels, developing interview questions and making accommodations for applicants with accessibility issues.

    Oakland University’s Diversity Advocate Program

    Oakland University’s Diversity Advocate (DA) faculty hiring program was highlighted in-depth in the Fall 2021 issue of Higher Ed HR Magazine. The goal of the program is to mitigate bias in the hiring process. At one of the 21-Day Challenge Town Halls, OU’s team discussed the advantages of applying its DA model to the hiring process, namely ensuring equity doesn’t fall between the cracks by designating a DA to be an attentive participant in the search process.

    While Oakland University created the DA program for faculty hiring, they have gone on to create the Diversity Equity Advocate (DEA) program aimed at staff hiring. Although the DEA program is still considered a pilot program, it’s a great example of how Oakland University is shaking up search committees to achieve a more diverse workforce.

    Search committees are one of the first points of contact for job candidates. It’s imperative that these committees are prepared and trained to conduct inclusive interviews with diverse candidates and to bring issues of equity to the forefront. HR practitioners can use the resources listed here to spark ideas and action within their institutions.

    Haven’t joined in on the latest 21-day challenge yet? There are still two weeks left! 21-Day Challenges are open to CUPA-HR members only.

    Check out these articles to see how other institutions are promoting diverse, equitable and inclusive hiring practices:

    Embedding Racial Equity Into HR Practices

    The Equity Case for Competency-Based Hiring

    Breaking Down Hiring Barriers for Veterans: The Journey to Becoming a Military-Friendly Employer

    Hiring Heroes: Providing Employment Opportunities for Military Veterans

    How Two Universities Are Building Community Partnerships to Strengthen Local Hiring

    Removing Hiring Barriers for the Disability Community

    Examining Implicit Bias and Its Effect on Hiring and Inclusiveness

    e-Learning Courses:

    Building a Successful, More Inclusive Search (Individual)

    Building a Successful, More Inclusive Search (Group)



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  • Develop to Retain: Tools and Resources for Higher Ed Professional Development – CUPA-HR

    Develop to Retain: Tools and Resources for Higher Ed Professional Development – CUPA-HR

    by CUPA-HR | December 7, 2021

    It’s Employee Learning Week — a great reminder for employers to showcase their commitment to talent development by highlighting development opportunities available to employees. Whether you’re an HR practitioner in search of professional development ideas for yourself and your HR peers, or you’re looking for ideas to engage and develop other employees at your institution, here are several tools, tips and resources to help you take the next step.

    Professional Development Tools for the HR Pro

    • CUPA-HR Learning Framework — A tool that assists in defining HR practitioners’ knowledge, skills and attributes and then helps create an action plan for growth and set developmental goals. Jump start your development by using the quick start guide, then build your skills further by diving deeper into the framework competencies.
    • Creating Your Individual Development Plan — A must-have for anyone who wants to map out a strategy for career success in higher ed HR. This free CUPA-HR e-learning course provides an introduction to individual development plans (IDPs) and will guide you through the process of creating your plan, discussing your career with your leaders and implementing your strategy for success. CUPA-HR e-Learning is sponsored by PageUp.

    Ideas for the Higher Ed Community

    Apart from their own professional development, HR pros often create and help facilitate professional development opportunities for employees at their institutions. Here are some jump-start ideas from the article Optimize Your Hybrid or Remote Work Workforce — Considerations for Higher Ed HR Leaders, featured in the fall issue of Higher Ed HR Magazine.

    • Encourage managers to use an employee’s development plan to guide regular coaching calls. Gallup suggests ongoing coaching conversations — rather than annual performance reviews — can be of great benefit to both the employee and the employer. These meaningful conversations highlight the organization’s commitment to employee engagement, which can help retain employees for the long-haul. Encourage managers to use employees’ development plans during coaching calls as a guide to the conversation. Setting up the right systems and processes to help employees perform their best from any location is a great operational step, but reorienting managers to think about performance and productivity around outcomes instead is an important strategy.
    • Get creative with your learning and professional development offerings. William Paterson University’s HR team created a university-wide development program so all 600 non-faculty employees had a chance to participate. Their unique approach to talent development demonstrated institutional support for professional development, provided a platform for employees to engage and collaborate, and inspired additional ways to support employees, such as mentorship programs, goal setting and career advancement. Read more about the program in the special awards issue of Higher Ed HR Magazine to learn how the HR team adapted it to a virtual format — a great alternative for employees working in a hybrid or remote setting!



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  • 3 Takeaways From the CUPA-HR Annual Conference – CUPA-HR

    3 Takeaways From the CUPA-HR Annual Conference – CUPA-HR

    by CUPA-HR | October 7, 2021

    Thank you to all who attended the CUPA-HR Annual Conference and Expo in person and virtually this week! It was wonderful to welcome new and familiar faces, celebrate CUPA-HR’s 75th anniversary, and explore outstanding sessions with so many of you.

    For those who weren’t able to attend, here are three conference takeaways you can put to use wherever you are.

    • The Power of Kindness — Opening keynote and host of the Netflix series, “Kindness Diaries,” Leon Logothetis shared some of his experiences travelling the world fueled only by the kindness of strangers. “Kindness,” said Logothetis, “is simply a portal into human connection.” Overwhelmed by all the work to be done to support your institution’s workforce? Logothetis offered this advice: “To change the world, start by changing one life.” Who can you connect with and invest in at your institution? How can you use the power of kindness to make a difference in their life?
    • Birds and Frogs — Tuesday’s keynote speaker, David Epstein, spoke about the data supporting the value of generalists in a world increasingly focused on specialization. During his presentation, he offered an insightful message on how organizations can adapt successfully to change. Epstein used the example of birds and frogs; frogs are down on the ground, seeing all the granular details while the birds soaring above have a broader view of the big picture. Epstein asserted that we need both of these types of people to enhance our campus “ecosystems,” and should actively seek them out.
    • Ubuntu: I am because we are — Shola Richards topped off the conference with his energetic and inspiring message about the African concept of Ubuntu, which means “I am because we are.” Richards encouraged HR pros to use the spirit of Ubuntu in our various units and teams back on campus and to recognize that we will go a lot farther together than we will if we go alone — no matter how small we feel (“be the mosquito, tiny but impossible to ignore”) or how difficult the situation (“be the buffalo, and run toward the storm”).

    We can’t wait to hear about the projects, initiatives, conversations and connections sparked by this year’s conference. Be sure to save the dates for our Virtual Spring Conference, April 19-21, and our 2022 Annual Conference, taking place October 22-24 in San Diego! Registration details coming soon.



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