At the CUPA-HR Annual Conference and Expo 2024, the three keynote sessions offered insights on how higher ed can articulate its value proposition for employees. How can HR, campus leaders and other culture architects ensure their institutions are places where candidates want to work and where employees want to stay? And how can we bridge the cultural, political and intergenerational divides so many of us are experiencing on campus to help our communities thrive?
There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution to these challenges, but the keynote speakers reminded higher ed HR pros not to underestimate the value of a shared purpose. Here are a few of their insights into remaking workplace culture through deliberate community-building, connecting through traditions and reinforcing our collective values.
Fighting Burnout and Finding Community
Workplace culture strategist Jennifer Moss opened the conference in Orlando with a reminder that, while it’s been many years since the COVID-19 pandemic, its lessons still linger. During that time, many of us asked, is what I’m doing important? Does it make a difference?
For so many in higher ed, the answer is yes. But Moss also shared a hard truth: the passion that leads people to work in higher ed may lead to burnout or passion fatigue. The solutions offered for burnout are often focused on the individual (“take a bath” or “meditate”), when they need to be systemic and even societal. Burnout isn’t about having a bad day — it’s chronic stress, classified as a disease by the World Health Organization. A strange irony is that burnout from overperforming at work often looks like underperformance (exhaustion, disengagement and cynicism).
One solution that Moss proposed is to encourage employees to deliberately build stronger community and positive social connections, both essential to building bridges and combatting loneliness. According to the data Moss shared, eating just one lunch per week with coworkers, rather than alone at a desk, can aid employee happiness and performance. So can spreading positive gossip (saying nice things about others behind their backs), which subconsciously supports psychological safety.
Takeaway: It’s key that workplaces tie efforts to reduce employee burnout to specific objectives and key results so that individuals aren’t responsible for solving the crisis on their own.
Great Storytelling for a Shared Purpose
Annual conference attendees experienced the magic of Disney firsthand during the closing night EPCOT excursion. But what makes Disney so magical? According to keynote speakers Jeff Williford and Jay Pyka of the Disney Institute, it’s all in the details. Disney excels in the finer points, with each park and resort providing a unique and immersive experience, from what music guests hear, to what smells are piped in, to the thatched roofs in Animal Kingdom made by South African artisans.
How does Disney engage over 70,000 employees — aka, cast members — to ensure that the details are done right? While cast members’ jobs may be different, from serving food at EPCOT to directing riders on Space Mountain, they all share in one common goal: creating happiness. In their talk, Williford and Pyka emphasized that culture is defined by how people behave, and training is critical to achieving desired behaviors. Caring and communication are also vital elements of culture. The extent to which organizations genuinely care for their people is the extent to which those people will, in turn, care for customers and each other. And high-quality communication can reinforce culture as much as lack of communication will undermine it.
Disney uses their expertise in storytelling to train and unite cast members in the common goal of creating happiness and embracing Disney culture. In fact, the first class new employees attend as part of their onboarding is one on Disney traditions because it helps them connect with the history and culture.
Takeaway: Higher ed workplaces can create a powerful connection between employees and the institution’s mission, fostering a sense of belonging and commitment.
Gen Z and the Future of Work
In her closing keynote, Heather McGowan, a future-of-work expert, offered a hopeful vision of work — and of a society where more of us are united than divided. But she also admitted that “it’s difficult to be a human right now.” There’s a profound lack of connection among people, an uptick in loneliness and disconnection, and social divisions stemming from the pandemic, politics and social media.
Why? One reason is that work has replaced what people once found in community, whether through church or bowling leagues or book clubs. McGowan said that’s why current and future generations entering the workforce seek jobs that reflect the totality of their values and personality.
Gen Z is especially known for seeking greater meaning in work. They desire mentorship, they want to be part of something bigger than themselves (meaning), and they want to live their values through work (mission). They’re rejecting the work contract of previous generations, which promised job security in exchange for employee loyalty. Why, McGowan asked, are workplaces still demanding loyalty without offering the same security they did in previous generations?
In asking for work to be meaningful, Gen Z is sending a critical lesson for the future of work, McGowan believes, one that workplaces need to take seriously to recruit new employees and retain existing ones. The data show that what employees want most in a job is growth, autonomy, achievement and respect.
Takeaway: The future of work might just be in listening to what Gen Z is trying to convey: We all need a shared purpose and meaning in work.
Looking for More on Work Culture?
Jennifer Moss’s new book, Why Are We Here?: Creating a Work Culture Everyone Wants, will be published in January. You can also check out these CUPA-HR articles and resources:
Next Steps to Empower Your Multiyear Growth Road Map
In higher education organizations, enrollment management plans can be like the weather: short term, ever changing, and subject to the whims of the seasons each year.
But for your organization and programs to thrive no matter the conditions, a multiyear growth road map is needed to keep all parts of the organization aligned and moving toward a strategic set of goals.
In my last article, I discussed the importance of taking a step back to assess the people, processes, and technology of your organization to identify opportunities for improvement and high-quality growth. This critical first step results in an organizational development plan that moves your institution from good, to better, to best in class.
With this article, we’ll dig deeper to outline how you can build a multiyear growth road map that allows you to weather everything from regulatory storm clouds to enrollment droughts, keeping your focus on a longer-term strategy. You’ll learn how to get started, measure your progress, and ensure that feedback loops are in place for continuous improvement.
A multiyear growth road map helps your teams move beyond term-to-term thinking to develop activities that ladder up and contribute to a true organizational vision. Everyone has a part to play that is specific, measured, and celebrated.
The First 90 Days
As with any effective plan, laying a strong foundation can lead to long-term success. In the context of your multiyear strategic road map, building the foundation involves these steps:
Hold discovery sessions: Engage with individuals and teams across your organization and open up space for productive — and sometimes uncomfortable — conversations. You are looking for concerns, challenges, and hopes for the future. This phase isn’t about problem-solving. It’s about understanding the existing culture and building trust.
Complete an internal readiness assessment: This critical component looks at your institution’s existing strengths, weaknesses, and roadblocks. The readiness assessment process ensures that any proposed changes are offered within the context of your institution’s culture and helps you paint a realistic picture of what you’re ready to take on.
Conduct a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis: Once you have identified your internal current state, you can then compare that to the broader market and competitive landscape. Where is your organization or portfolio strongest, and where is it at greatest risk? Where are the potential market opportunities that you can begin to assess? Where are the most likely threats from competitors, regulation, resource shifts, or other market trends?
Prepare for action: As the first 90 days close, you’ll have developed a much clearer image of a business case and action plan. This could mean starting with centralizing marketing efforts, for example, or it may involve planning for a technology tool or system and data mapping for eventual migration. Each institution is different.
Year One: The Blueprint
With a solid understanding of your institution’s current landscape — both internally and externally — it’s time to launch into the first year of your strategic road map. These 365 days are about implementing basic changes to boot up the structures, systems, and processes that will support growth in later years.
Build your blueprint: Your blueprint is your North Star for change. It’s a clear vision that outlines your key goals, timelines, and measures of success. Think of it as a collection of SMART goals: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
Take simple steps: This is where you implement the first round of changes, which should be relatively achievable. This could be adopting a new customer relationship management (CRM) system, refining a marketing strategy, or establishing new faculty support systems. The goal here is to get the basics right, then let these efforts evolve over time.
Gather feedback: This may be the most important part of your first-year efforts: garnering input on the efficacy of the changes made from stakeholders from all levels and departments at your institution. Feedback loops help you gauge your progress and identify areas that need adjustments.
Year Two: Optimize and Accelerate
With a firm foundation now in place from your first year’s efforts, the focus shifts toward refinement, optimization, and acceleration of your growth initiatives. This phase is crucial, as it’s where you begin to see the fruits of your labor blossom.
Double down on success: Now is the perfect time to capitalize on what’s working. Your teams are eager for a win, so identify any initiative that has shown promise — be it a marketing strategy that’s driving higher engagement or an educational program that’s exceeded enrollment expectations. By scaling these successful ventures, you can ride the momentum and amplify your results.
Refine with data: Use the data accumulated from the initial implementations to tweak and improve your systems and processes. Engage in conversations with your teams to pinpoint any bottlenecks or slowdowns in the student journey. Experiment with new approaches based on these insights, and critically evaluate the impact of these changes. This iterative process is key to continuous improvement.
Celebrate and share visible wins: Success is a powerful motivator. Make it a point to regularly share and celebrate each tangible achievement — whether it’s a surge in student enrollments, heightened faculty engagement, or the seamless adoption of a new process. Publicizing these wins not only builds internal momentum but also reinforces the collective commitment to your strategic goals.
Years Three and Four: Knowledge Sharing and Independence
As your strategic initiatives mature, the focus will naturally transition toward sharing knowledge and strengthening your internal teams. This critical period in years three and four is about empowering your staff and shifting your role from hands-on implementer to guiding coach.
Empower through ownership: Encourage teams to take full ownership of the implemented processes and changes. This allows you to step back and adopt a coaching role, guiding your teams through challenges and ensuring they have the confidence and skills needed to manage and refine these new systems independently. This is also the time to ensure your organization has strong documentation on its processes and training both for knowledge sharing and to support future hiring and onboarding.
Build internal capacity: Looking ahead and preparing for a future where your organization can operate and evolve without the need for external partnerships is essential. This requires a dedicated effort and a commitment to providing ongoing training, resources, and support to build a robust internal capacity. Invest in these areas to develop a self-sustaining system that thrives on its own merits.
Celebrate the milestones: After your extensive efforts over the past few years, taking the time to celebrate is not just rewarding but necessary. Highlight the significant impacts made by your teams, and take a moment to reflect on the growth, changes, and obstacles that have been overcome. This celebration not only acknowledges the hard work but also reinforces your institution’s positive culture and its commitment to continuous improvement.
The Journey to Sustainable Development Starts Today
Successful organizational development requires a multiyear effort that encompasses careful planning, precise execution, and a dedicated team of leaders. From the initial 90 days to the subsequent years, each phase of the process moves your institution closer to becoming stronger and more agile.
Our team at Archer Education has helped dozens of institutions build and execute comprehensive multiyear strategic plans. These plans are tailored to enhance enrollment and retention, setting each institution on a path to long-term success.
If you’re ready to transform your organization and achieve remarkable results, reach out to us at Archer Education. Let’s make your educational vision a reality together.
Melanie Andrich is vice president of strategy and development at Archer Education. Melanie is a results-driven higher education leader with 20-plus years of experience in developing and supporting high-quality, accessible, and scalable academic programs and services. She spent the first half of her career at Rutgers University running study abroad programming and leading the first fully online professional master’s degree program for the university. She then moved into management consulting to help colleges and universities with academic innovation, enrollment management, and organizational transformation initiatives.
Albuquerque Public schools board President Danielle Gonzales has been appointed to the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees the Nation’s Report Card.
Gonzales is one of two new members appointed Oct. 1 by U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. She has represented District 3 in Albuquerque’s North Valley since 2022.
Gonzales is a senior fellow at One Generation Fund and has previously worked at New Mexico First, the Aspen Institute, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She previously was a fourth-grade teacher.
“I am deeply honored to be selected to serve on the National Assessment Governing Board,” Gonzales said in a news release. “I look forward to contributing to the board, based on my background, experiences, and expertise, the ability to translate complex research into practical and relevant decisions. I have lived experience, as a bilingual person, Hispanic woman, parent, and product of the very public school system I now serve.”
Expected to be released in early 2025, the 2024 Nation’s Report Card will provide critical information about how education systems are helping students make up lost ground since 2022 and meet the standards and expectations necessary to succeed in school and beyond.
The nonpartisan 26-member Governing Board was established by Congress to set policy for the Nation’s Report Card. The board decides what grades and subjects to assess, content to include, and sets the NAEP achievement levels. It works with the National Center for Education Statistics, which administers NAEP, to release and disseminate results.
Selecting an interesting project topic is the key to success in commerce studies. The topics given above are not only the current trends, but they also have in them much scope for extensive research and practical application. Certainly, as far as the topic is concerned, one could develop his knowledge in commerce and finally come up with an impactful final year project for MBA , BBA , MCOM , BCOM exams conducting viva or its other related performances based on the same project like in job interviews to academic presentation skills.
With these creative ideas in your hands, you’re going to start a very interesting academic journey that will not only meet the requirements but also satisfy and prepare you for future careers in any sector related to commerce. From studying digital payment systems to investigating trends in consumer behavior, every project brings deep, industry-relevant learning—and perhaps you will discover something truly new along the way.
Hello Deans, you are crucial in determining how education will develop in the future because you are the designers of your higher ed’s academic vision. Building successful learning environments where faculty and students flourish depends on your leadership. We’ll look at the role of dean in higher education and how deans can foster innovation in higher education institutions, and their creative approaches in this blog that can improve instruction and student participation, turning your classrooms into places where learning happens and ideas are generated.
We’ll also demonstrate how the Creatrix suite can help you at every stage and provide you with the resources you need to have a significant, long-lasting influence. Let’s get started and support your academic community in realizing its greatest potential!
The Role of Dean in Higher Education – Understanding the Dean’s Influence on a Campus
With your influence over all facets of your institution’s learning environment, deans are the beating heart of academic leadership. Your influence greatly influences student outcomes, research, and teaching in addition to administrative tasks. Here is the common role of dean in higher education that demonstrates your impact:
Decide on the priorities and institutional culture.
Take the lead in implementing cutting-edge instructional strategies and technological advancements.
Make certain that the courses adhere to the most recent developments in education.
Motivate and assist educators in investigating novel teaching strategies.
Promote initiatives that increase student involvement and academic performance to increase student engagement.
Faculty and students can flourish in a dynamic learning environment when your vision serves as the cornerstone for educational excellence.
You take the initiative to implement tactics that raise student retention and success and involvement while fostering engaging learning environments.
What’s Working Globally: 8 Proven Strategies for Deans to Elevate Teaching & Engagement
While researching how deans can foster innovation in higher education institutions we arrived at a stunning analysis; we discovered how effectively leading deans from all around the world are changing education by pushing the envelope and implementing cutting-edge tactics. And we have documented on what’s working with them and the reasons these strategies are spreading throughout institutions worldwide for you to help you better!
1. Synergy across disciplines
The most progressive deans of today are bringing students from various disciplines together to work together on real-world issues. Students studying business and engineering at the University of Michigan collaborated to develop ground-breaking solutions that enhanced critical thinking and teamwork, an approach that is quickly becoming recognized as a hallmark of academic innovation.
2. Using Technology to Accelerate Learning
Deans from the best universities across the globe are utilizing technology to transform education, from virtual reality to AI-driven tools. We figured out that Virtual reality (VR) and Gamified Learning were implemented at Stanford University recently! The main intention behind these initiatives was to enhance student engagement and understanding in subjects like anatomy and architecture! These technologies indeed allow students to study complex subjects in immersive and interactive ways.
3. Investing in Faculty Development as a Strategic Move
Giving professors the freedom to take the lead in innovation is crucial in the rapidly evolving field of education. At UC Berkeley, deans arranged workshops on active learning strategies, equipping teachers with the means to design more engaging, student-focused classrooms and demonstrating how supportive faculty members contribute to student retention and success.
4. Innovation through research and experimentation
It is also surprising to witness institutions such as Arizona State University provide faculty with resources to experiment with cutting-edge curricula. This is so welcoming indeed. By funding experiential learning projects, deans and decision-makers enable educators to test new models of teaching, and curriculum mapping, resulting in programs that increase student engagement and academic achievement.
5. Change-Driven Loops of Student Feedback
The next best strategy we figured out was that the academic institutions globally are utilizing student feedback to enhance their pedagogical approaches. They throng on 360-degree courses and faculty evaluation tools to listen out students’ opinions for improvement. It has been demonstrated that listening to students can significantly improve the learning experience. Georgia State University’s “Student Engagement Surveys” revealed insightful feedback that resulted in significant improvements in course delivery.
6. Real-World Partnerships for Experiential Learning
Another surprising discovery was this – Through partnerships with industry, top universities are witnessing a thirty percent increase in student engagement. More than 85% of participants at the University of South Florida reported feeling more prepared for the workforce as a result of the tech companies’ collaborative efforts with the university.
7. Diversity and Inclusion as Innovation Drivers.
We do not want to overlook this particular strategy! Institutions that prioritize diversity benefit from both innovation and engagement. At the University of Toronto, deans launched initiatives to bring diverse perspectives into the classroom, resulting in richer discussions, explorations, and new ideas, demonstrating that inclusive environments lead to more creative outcomes and better attainments!
8. Risk-Taking & Experiencing Safe Environments
The last thing we observed was promoting an environment where faculty and students feel comfortable taking chances to learn, adapt, grow, and shine. This strategy will for sure enable the upcoming generation of innovators to push boundaries and fail fearlessly, MIT has established “Innovation Labs,” which provide a creative environment where experimental projects flourish.
The Role of Creatrix Campus Suite in Supporting Deans
To all deans and academic leaders, managing a faculty is no small task, but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. With Creatrix Campus, it’s easy to foster a culture of teamwork and innovation.
Encourage a Collaborative Culture: Picture professors working together on projects and easily exchanging ideas with one another. Creatrix makes that a reality.
Way to Miss the Admin Stress: Turn in the paperwork to Creatrix so you can focus on helping students succeed—that’s what really counts.
Easy Decisions: With Creatrix’s perceptive analytics, you can easily adjust your strategies to achieve better results by identifying exactly what’s working.
Create an Engaging Learning Experience: The tools aren’t just for management; they’re here to help improve student outcomes. By streamlining how faculty teach and interact, you’ll be building a more engaging and inspiring academic environment.
Creatrix isn’t just another platform—it’s your partner in transforming the way your institution runs, making your job smoother and your faculty more effective.
Case Study: University of Otago – Empowering Deans with Creatrix Campus
But don’t just take our word for it—let’s look at a peculiar student retention and success story from an institution that embraced the Creatrix Suite.
“Creatrix’s curriculum mind mapping based on learning outcomes, competency standards, and graduate attributes is excellent.” — Stephen Duffull, Dean School of Pharmacy, University of Otago
Client Overview
The University of Otago, one of New Zealand’s leading institutions and ranked in the top 1% globally, was looking to innovate its academic management systems to support its pharmacy school. Faced with the complexities of curriculum management, EPA tracking, and faculty workload, they needed a solution that could streamline their academic processes.
Key Challenges
Otago’s Pharmacy Department was juggling:
Complex curriculum mapping: Multiple layers such as LOs, SLOs, EPAs, competency frameworks, and professional standards were difficult to manage manually.
EPA tracking and rotational planning: Managing placements across five hubs required a detailed, integrated system.
Timetabling inefficiencies: Manual scheduling for courses, faculty, rooms, and teaching events slowed operations and led to conflicts.
Faculty workload management: Needed a more transparent and automated way to measure and balance faculty workload.
How Creatrix Empowered Deans
Creatrix helped Otago create a connected digital campus, where Deans like Stephen Duffull could:
Streamline curriculum mapping: A visual mind map that ties in learning outcomes, assessments, and professional competencies, making it easier for Deans to track academic progress.
Automate EPA planning: A dynamic rotational planner for EPA tracking, reducing manual work and ensuring smooth coordination across hubs.
Master Timetable Scheduler: Automated scheduling with alerts for conflicts, integrating seamlessly with Google Calendar.
Faculty Workload Management: Real-time tracking of faculty workloads, helping Deans better allocate teaching, research, and admin duties, with instant visual analysis.
Business Impact
With Creatrix, Otago saw immediate gains:
2X faster implementation times
Seamless onboarding and reduced admin overhead
Greater faculty productivity and balanced workloads
Efficient curriculum and EPA management—all under one system
Deans at Otago now had the tools to lead academic innovation, boost engagement, and drive institutional excellence.
Conclusion: Empowering Deans to Lead Innovation
We know that deans are crucial in shaping the future of higher education. Your leadership drives innovation and boosts student engagement. By exploring the Creatrix suite, you’ll discover tools that can simplify operations and enhance your institution’s academic culture. Take the next step—visit the Creatrix Campus suite of solutions and see how deans can foster innovation in higher education institutions. Let’s make a difference together!
A new survey of more than 400 New Mexico parents of school-aged children shows widespread dissatisfaction with the state’s public schools, that communication gaps between schools and parents are a serious concern, and that many parents have misperceptions about their children’s academic achievement.
Results of the survey, “The State of Educational Opportunity in New Mexico,” were released Oct. 2 by NewMexicoKidsCAN, an education advocacy organization (and parent organization of New Mexico Education), focused on improving New Mexico’s public education system.
The state survey was part of a national report authored by 50CAN, of which NewMexicoKidsCan is an affiliate. 50CAN is “focused on building the future of American education,” according to the organization’s website. That 214-page report, “The State of Educational Opportunity in America” provides a deep, 50-state dive into parental views of public education in their home states.
Researchers surveyed more than 20,000 parents across the country, making it one of the largest education-focused surveys of parents in the past decade. This survey explores the ecosystem of educational opportunities inside and outside of school, and how they interrelate and impact a child’s success.
“With such a large sample size, we are able to dig into the findings by state and across a range of important audiences. By making the findings publicly available, this is a gift of data that can inform conversations among communities and elected officials.” said Pam Loeb, Principal at Edge Research.
The New Mexico survey provides insight into the educational opportunities available to children across New Mexico.
The New Mexico survey uncovered key findings, including:
Parental dissatisfaction is widespread: Only about a third of New Mexico parents say they are “very satisfied” with their child’s school. Nationally, 45 percent of parents reported high satisfaction. New Mexico was one of the lower-ranked states in terms of parental satisfaction.
Communication Gaps Between Schools and Parents: Only 29% of New Mexico parents report feeling extremely confident in understanding their child’s academic progress ranking New Mexico second to last in the nation.
Misperceptions about Student Achievement: 41% of New Mexico parents believe their child is above grade level in reading, yet state assessments show only 39% of students are reading at grade level.
Afterschool Programs Show Promise: New Mexico ranks 22nd nationally in student participation in supervised afterschool programs, surpassing 28 other states. This success is likely attributed to increased state investments through the Extended Learning Time Program, which may have boosted overall participation rates.
“This survey amplifies the voices of New Mexico parents,” said Amanda Aragon, Executive Director of NewMexicoKidsCAN. “The results reveal significant misperceptions about student performance, serious communication gaps between schools and parents, and widespread concerns about school satisfaction.
“It’s clear that many parents are not getting the information they need about their children’s academic progress. We must do more to close this communication gap and empower parents to be true partners in their child’s education.”
“With such a large sample size, we are able to dig into the findings by state and across a range of important audiences. By making the findings publicly available, this is a gift of data that can inform conversations among communities and elected officials.” said Pam Loeb, Principal at Edge Research.
Dr. Martha Kenney knows your time is precious. She cares deeply about employee engagement, burnout prevention, work-life balance and career development amongst professional women. That’s why she works with women in medicine and beyond find work-life alignment. She helps women gain clarity on who you are, what you want in life, and what truly matters to you.
She’s also an Assistant Professor who researches mechanisms of chronic pain in young adults who are living with sickle cell disease. I’m delighted to share this conversation with Dr. Martha Kenney in this featured interview on The Social Academic.
Introducing Dr. Martha Kenney, time management expert, professor, coach, and mom
Jennifer: Hi everyone. Welcome back to The Social Academic, where I talk all about online presence for professors, researchers, and other people who have PhDs. I’m so excited to introduce you to my guest today, Dr. Martha Kenney. Martha, would you mind introducing yourself and letting people know a little bit about yourself?
Martha: Sure. Thank you so much for having me, Jennifer. It’s really a pleasure to be here.
I’m Martha. I’m a pediatric anesthesiologist, clinically by training. But, I spend the majority of my time doing research. My research is focused on understanding the mechanisms of chronic pain in young adults who are living with sickle cell disease. I also do research in other pain disparities area as well.
In addition to that, (as if that’s not enough), personally, I’m married with two young kids. So, I’m a really busy mom as well. I’m also a certified coach. I’m a certified executive career coach. I coach women primarily in academia around challenges related to work-life balance, time management, burnout management in general. Read Martha’s bio.
I’m also a behavior design consultant. I got some training in a certification through the Tiny Habits Academy, of which somebody hasn’t read that book by BJ Fogg, they should definitely check it out.
I work a lot with behavior management. How do we change our habits? How do we rewire our routines in a way that sets us up for success so we can be able to execute the goals that we actually have.
Jennifer: Ooh, that is so interesting. It sounds like you do it all.
How did you get into coaching? How did you decide that research, even though it was something that you love, that you wanted to do more than that? You wanted to work with people one-on-one as a coach as well.
Martha: That’s a great question. I got into coaching because of my experience in academia. I’m a physician scientist, clinically I did a very long training path. I finished everything in the fall of 2018 and took on my first position.
“Like most people who go into academia…I don’t wanna say we don’t put in thought into our first position, but I feel like we don’t know the questions we need to ask.
We’re not really prepared to take on our first position. Nobody actually sits you down and says, ‘These are the things you need to ask. These are the red flags that you need to look for.’”
Honestly, when you’ve been through a long training, whether it’s a PhD or an MD track, you’re just happy to have a job when you’re done. Like, yay, I have a job! You’re excited about that. All of this to say that the place that I started was not a good fit. It was not a good fit for many reasons.
Jennifer: Yeah.
Dr. Kenney’s success story with coaching as a former burnt-out academic
Martha: I had clarity on what I wanted to do, where I wanted my career to go.
The problem is that if you’re in an organization where there’s a values misalignment, no matter what you do, you can’t change the values and the mission of that organization.
And no matter what you do, you can’t. Unless you change your identity, which you can’t / which is hard to do, right? Because you are wired the way that you are, and you’re passionate about the things that you’re passionate about, so you can’t really change yourself also.
So what ends up happening is I see a lot of people kind of dwell in this organization.
There’s constant push and shove where there’s just misalignment between what you value, what’s important to you, and what the organization or the department considers to be important. That’s the situation I found myself in.
One of the ways to navigate around that is that someone recommended that I get a coach. I’m so grateful that I got a coach back in 2018 before coaching was sexy and hot. Right?
Jennifer: Right.
Martha: Through that experience, what I learned is that, so this is the way I kind of often explain it to women who approach me about working with me.
Let’s say you’re on this academic journey and you’re walking your path and you encounter a huge block. Imagine a huge boulder block that’s right on your path.
You feel stuck. Not only stuck, for some people, they can feel overwhelmed. It can even contribute to burnout in so many ways. And you don’t know how to navigate it.
There’s two options. One option is you’re like, “Okay, this is okay. This is not the best situation, but I’m just gonna work really hard. And you know, eventually this roadblock, whether it’s an individual, whether it’s a systematic thing, will get out of my way eventually ‘cause my hard work is gonna pay off.”
The reality is, your hard work is just chipping a few pieces off of that rock. So, what ends up happening is that you yourself are gonna suffer for it.
What coaching does is it opens your eyes into the alternative possibilities. It doesn’t take you away from your destination first. A coach can guide you to make sure that that is the right destination, that is the right path.
Perhaps your path is a different path that doesn’t have that roadblock. And that’s really not the path you’re supposed, you really should pursue.
In addition to that, you get clarity that that’s truly the path you need to navigate, then a coach acts as a bridge. And also almost like a flashlight and a lack of a better analogy to say, “Hey, have you noticed that corner is not being blocked?” You know, “How do you feel about going around this corner? It’ll get you to your destination. It might be a little bit windy, but it’ll get you there.” A coach acts like as a bridge between where you are now and where you wanna be in the future.
A good coach will help you realize that there are so many things within your control. You can’t control the boulder block, but you can definitely find the things you can control that helps you navigate around it so you can ultimately achieve your goal. That’s what my coach did for me. I was like, “Oh my gosh, this is like, amazing.”
One of my passions is really helping other people feel great about themselves and help them be successful in their endeavors. I’m like, “I wanna be a coach too!” I wanna give individuals the same feeling that I had cause without my coach I would’ve left academia to be honest.
Jennifer: Yeah
Martha: Through the help of my coach, I stayed the path. I learned to navigate around the path and really create a career that’s authentic to me. And also, find an institution that is aligned with my values and my goals as well.
Dr. Kenney’s coaching at Time Matters Today – Her take on work-life balance
Jennifer: Oh gosh. Thank you for being so open about that, because I feel like the vulnerability with which you shared that story, people are really gonna feel that, that people are gonna recognize themselves in a similar place or needing the kind of support that you received. So tell me about like, your coaching. How does it differ from like, the coaching that you had when you needed it?
Martha: So my coaching is really focused on work life balance, and I use that term because that’s what we’re familiar with. But I actually don’t believe in work-life balance.
Jennifer: Ooh.
Martha: To me it’s something that’s like, nonexistent, right?
Jennifer: Interesting.
Martha: ‘Cause the reality is life is an evolving process and there’s never gonna be a period where like you’re 50% work and 50% life.
And then also work is a compartment of the bigger compartment that is your identity in your life, right? It’s a bucket in your life. And so work should be a full expression of your identity and not like that this is life. This is you and this is work. You’re the same person in both spheres.
Work should really contribute to your personal fulfillment. And so really what I work with. The reality is I use that term ’cause that’s what people are familiar with.
Really what I do is help women really attain better work life alignment. And what does that mean? It means is that really gaining clarity on who you are, what you want in life, what truly matters to you.
Because oftentimes people come to me because they’re overcommitted, they’re overextended, they’re having challenges with time management.
People call me ‘a time management guru.’ I lead workshops. I can tell you all the steps you need to take. I can tell you how to plan your week. I can tell you what priority system you should use and so many things.
But the reality is if you don’t have clarity on what truly matters? If you think of your life as like a bucket, it’s gonna be filled with really meaningless things because you’re constantly going to pile things on without really passing through the judgment value. “Is this really important to me? Is it really worth my time?”
I help people really to, you know, get clarity on who they are, what truly matters to them, and then also who the people that they wanna serve. The people you wanna serve might be the people in your home. It might be the people in the work setting. And then really create goals and execute those goals around that. I believe that what my clients can tell you is that as a result, they have better clarity, more confidence in themselves. They’re able to really draw boundaries around their time and their energy.
People hear me say often over and over again: your time and your energy are finite resources. You can do anything, but you cannot do everything. And so you really have to take the cautious approach of really determining what is important to you and commit into that.
They find I don’t discover more time for them because I’m not God. There’s always gonna be 24 hours in a day. But what I do discover, what I help them do is with the 24 hours that they have, really being able to dedicate themselves to the things that truly matters. Giving them the boldness to say no to the things that don’t matter, and be released from the guilt that comes with that, especially for women in academia. And then also really develop tiny habits or behavioral steps that, okay, we’ve decided that this is the goal.
I can lead a time management workshop and talk about planning your week all you want. Then I’ll encounter people like, “Oh, I tried it, it worked really well for the first and second week, but then I’ve kind of slipped right back into my pattern.” Of course you did, because your pattern is a routine and it’s a habit. It’s an automated behavior. So how do we unwire that and really insert a more intentional and productive habit so that eventually it becomes automated? Eventually planning your week every Friday, at the end of the workday, or Monday morning, or whatever day or Sunday, becomes a routine habit that you do on a regular basis.
That’s my long-winded way of saying I help people manage their time. And feel good about how they use their time and their energy. And also modify their behaviors to be more intentional towards their goals.
Jennifer: That sounds so cool. Oh, you know, a question came up while you were chatting, when you were talking about tiny habits and behavior change. I’m curious, what is something that, like you had maybe a bad habit about that you have worked to improve using your methods?
Becoming more productive and finding a solution for bad habits
Martha: No, I mean, a great example is, so if we go back to my story, I started off of a 100% clinical position.
Jennifer: Mm.
Martha: I was in an environment where despite having a very clear plan, and even going into meetings with my leadership, with, you know, PowerPoint slides printed out and PDFs of my plan and what my research plan was, and having great collaborators who were really interested in me working with them, there’s still nobody wanted to invest in that. I was given literally no protected time.
One of the things that I realized was extremely important in all of us, this is common sense, is I needed to develop an automatic writing habit. The position I am in right now, I have protected nonclinical time dedicated to research. My research time at that time, the first three years of my career, was just free time. You know, when I’m not clinical. So it was my personal time, but I had two young kids. So I also wasn’t gonna try to kill myself to do this.
I developed a writing habit that allowed me to write, eventually write about 25 minutes every single day. And that 25 minutes was, regardless of whether I would go, I was going to the OR that particular day, or if it was a weekend. If it was a weekend, I woke up an hour earlier than my kids, would write for 25 minutes, they’re awake and I’m done.
And I kid you not, Jennifer, in six months on a full clinical load, I published three papers.
Jennifer: Wow!
Martha: Yeah. In the six month period, you know, one was a review paper, but two of them were original research papers.
Jennifer: Amazing!
Martha: Using retrospective data. This is with no protected time. And so I think oftentimes I say this and nobody really believes me. You actually don’t need as much time as you think to accomplish something.
Jennifer: Hmm.
Martha: Oftentimes the problem is our habits. Because the reality is even if I did not have that particular habit and had not developed it in that time period, right now I have 75% protected time, I could have this protected time and be very unproductive. Submit a paper, two papers in one year, despite having 75% protected time.
A lot of it has to do with our maladaptive habits and our not being intentional about building important habits. And so how I started this particular writing habit is I realized that whenever I would get up in the morning and get dressed before I would go to work, I would go downstairs to my office, and then I would actually end up, you know, checking my email before I would go to work. Well, no, there’s no ever any urgent email that I need to actually respond to.
So I created a tiny habit recipe. Any habit you want to develop, you wanna create a, an anchor moment, which is basically inserting that habit into a routine that you have. And my routine was I would turn on my computer in the morning.
And so what I said is that after I turn on my computer in the morning, and then here comes a tiny habit, I would write two sentences in a manuscript and I would have the particular manuscript that I’m working on. And then you also then wanna insert a celebration, which is, I think where BJ’s research really stands above some of the other habit books, because a lot of the habit books will teach you that you wanna give yourself a reward, but anything that you’re trying to wire in your brain, it needs to be instant gratification. And so he, you know, these emotions that create actually that desire to repeat a behavior and over and over again, behaviors guided by our emotions, right?
As soon as I would complete that, those two sentences, I’m a very affirming person. And what makes me feel good is to, you know, state positive affirmation statements. So I would say to myself, “I am an NIH funded researcher.” I was not, I was not close.
Jennifer: But you said it.
Martha: But I said it and it made me feel good!
Jennifer: I love that. So you got your two sentences, and then you’d have your positive affirmation.
Martha: Yes. Yes. It’s like an affirmation and a proclamation at the same time. Yeah. And so I said that it made me feel good. And eventually the two sentences like increased, you know, the two sentences would take me like less than five minutes, then it would increase to more.
Then I could crank out like a paragraph in 25 minutes. And I just kept doing that. Cause imagine this, you are writing in a paragraph in 25 minutes and writing 25 minutes a day. How long is it gonna take me to finish that manuscript?
Jennifer: Hmm. So you really created a recipe that ensured that you got your writing in at the start of the day, like kind of when you already had this habit of checking your email and you just switched that to writing the two sentences?
Jennifer: That’s so cool. That’s really interesting. One of the things that it seems like you are intentional about is who you work with, and that’s women. Is that, is that correct?
Martha: Yes.
Jennifer: Tell me a little bit about that decision and why you enjoyed working with women?
Martha: I got into coaching because of my personal experience. And as I started, before I became a coach, I started sharing my story. I was invited to different institutions to talk about, ’cause I, I did a lot of work around time management to folks talk about time management and career development for early career faculty at school, different universities.
And so, as I was telling, you know, given these workshops and given these talks, have all these conversations with women afterwards, and one of the things I realized was that my experience was not unique. Yes, it was unique to me, but there were so many women who had that same shared experience. And oftentimes when we’re going through some of these experiences, I haven’t really dived into some of the nitty gritty, you know, the gaslighting, the discrimination, all of the stuff that’s like in there, you know, the misogyny that kind of fueled a lot of this, right?
You think you’re alone and you suffer alone. And so as I started sharing my story, I realized that, “Oh gosh, there’s so many women that are experiencing this.”
And for me personally, I’m in a place where I love my academic career. I love being in academia, and I love being in academia because my mind is not wired to align with the traditional academic culture.
Jennifer: Hmm.
Martha: And by unwiring my mind and rethinking in a different way, it has helped me thrive. And it has helped me be successful in my career, and personally. And so, like, I really want other women to experience that joy because we’re seeing women leave medicine and academia at higher rates than men. And so, and for me, that’s extremely concerning.
Even though there’s more women in medical school, on the PhD path than ever before, we have such a leaky pipeline, extremely leaky. And so that’s why you see only 25% of full professors at schools of medicine across the country are females. You know, 25%, which is like utterly ridiculous. We make half. We’re 50% of the population. So, yeah. So, so I think that all of that is, is challenging. And I think that helping, that’s, you know, helping other women who have gone through the journey.
And I feel like when I speak to people or when I coach people, they feel there’s that level of trust because they feel like I’ve gone through that same experience as them. And I can offer, if anything, just a listening ear. And definitely as they open up to coaching, help them really transform their thinking and also their lives at the same time.
Recognizing burnout
Jennifer: One of the things that you mentioned was that after these workshops, women would come up to you and they, they’d have conversations about the things that they were experiencing, maybe how similar it was to what you talked about. What are some of the ways that women, academics especially, can recognize their burnout, recognize when maybe a change does need to happen?
Martha: Oh, that’s, that’s a great question.
Mental, physical exhaustion are like common signs of it. Disengagement from the workplace and from the things like your responsibilities and the things that even previously may have brought you some enjoyment no longer become like very enjoyable at all. Going to work with a sense of dread. You know, all of those things. And also like how your inter- how this, all of this feeds into your interactions with your family.
If you’re not happy at work, because as I mentioned, work should be a component of bringing you personal and professional fulfillment. And so if work is, if you’re not happy there, it really feeds into your personal fulfillment. It’s harder for you to be happy elsewhere. And it becomes obvious in what your kids may say, what your significant other may say as well.
I think that if people are experiencing this just exhaustion, this dread, this lack, this disengagement from work, even anxiety that’s attached to all of it, I think those are all signs that they really should reach out for help. There’s nothing wrong with asking for help. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it. It makes you stronger, from my opinion.
Jennifer: I love that. So it sounds like the first step, if you’re listening to this and you are experiencing some of these feelings of burnout and exhaustion, your first step is to reach out for help. Can I ask, who, who do you recommend people reach out to? Is it a mental health professional? Is it a coach like yourself? What’s a good direction for someone to go?
Martha: Well, I think like the, probably the first most non-intimidating thing to do is to speak to a, a trusted peer or a colleague, right? Because oftentimes when people feel that overwhelmed like me in that situation, I, you know, I didn’t wanna speak to a stranger. I don’t even wanna speak to a mentor or have them judge me.
And so I reached out to a trusted friend. You know, I spoke to one of my, some of my physician colleagues, but also reaching out to like my personal friends outside of medicine who knew me really well was extremely helpful for them to act as a sounding board. And I think, I think as you begin to talk about your feelings, it will become obvious whether you need to also speak to a mental health provider.
Right now most universities also have free access to mental health providers for faculty members. And I would say take advantage of that. I absolutely did when I was at my lowest. It was just like one session and it was like a breath of fresh air. So definitely take advantage of that.
And then, you know, from there, I think coaching is really incredible guide that can really help you. And coaching obviously definitely can be paired with therapy because therapy is very different from coaching. If you need therapy to address underlying psychological or mental health issues, definitely pursue that. And then coaching can also kind of help really was like kind of the action steps.
Jennifer: So helpful. That’s great. I really appreciate you sharing those different options. And I like the one about talking with friends and people outside of academia too, how that can be helpful. So I appreciate that.
Jennifer: Now, this is a podcast that’s about online presence. And you’re a researcher, you’re a coach, you do, oh gosh, there’s one other thing you did that was recent. I can’t remember what it was. But with all of these things, how, how do you communicate? I mean, I imagine that your online presence has something to do with it, but tell me a little bit about what makes up your online presence and how you feel about it?
Martha: I feel like I’m in a more comfortable and great position with my online presence now. I think when I started, I just wanted to get, even, this was even before I had a coaching business.
Jennifer: Yeah.
Martha: I wanted to get my ideas out there. I’m somebody that I love to write, I love to journal. I’m very conceptual and very theory based, which is why I have a conceptual framework for my coaching. ’cause that is because I’m like that. I wanted to just get my ideas out there. And so I started off with just a blog and even I, I stopped writing my blog now, but like, I started off with a blog. It was great. Okay. I got my ideas out there. ’cause I felt like I had all this stuff inside. I’m like, I need to, I need to get it out.
Jennifer: I love that.
Martha: And I also then started exploring different social media platforms to just share my ideas. And I think for me, that was a search because, you know, my sister, who’s much, much younger than me, told me to go on Instagram because that’s her generation’s social media platform.
And I tried Instagram for about like, maybe six months or so. But I hated it. And there’s nothing wrong with Instagram. I would say as people are thinking about getting your ideas out there through social media, find the platform that is authentic to your personality.
Jennifer: Yes. I love that. Wait, wait. Before you go on, can I ask like, what helped you know that Instagram was definitely not for you? Because other people are listening to this being like, wait, I wanna delete my Instagram. So how did you know?
Martha: So no. Okay. So what I knew was like, when my sister was like, okay, you gotta create Reels, right? And you gotta figure out like what’s trending and et cetera. And I did a reel based on something that was trending and I put the video up for like, maybe two days and then I promptly deleted it because I watched a video and I was like, this is not you. Like this is just not you.
Jennifer: Yeah, yeah.
Martha: Like, this is so fake and it’s not you in any form.
Jennifer: Mm.
Martha: And I have to lean on my strengths and I need to find a platform that values good writing.
Jennifer: Yeah.
Martha: ‘Cause that is where I’m strong
Jennifer: I like that. I like that. So what platform did you end up really liking ‘cause of the writing component?
Martha: LinkedIn
Jennifer: LinkedIn
Martha: Yes. And so like, yeah, I mean, LinkedIn has been, I have, I, I think it’s been almost a year since I went all in on LinkedIn.
Jennifer: Yeah.
Martha: And, you know, I used to share posts like five days a week, but now I moved, I decreased it to three days a week just because I started a newsletter. And I wanna nurture my newsletter audience as well.
But what I love about LinkedIn is, I mean, sometimes I just put a selfie pick of myself. Like, a picture of me, like, sitting in front of my desk. That is my picture, you know, for like, my inter-LinkedIn. I think in the year that I’ve been on LinkedIn, I have done maybe two videos. I don’t have to do video. I’ve been able to really garner a, a nice engaged community without putting forward video content. ‘Cause I just don’t, that’s not where I lean and I don’t have that time also, or that capacity takes too much time as well. I find writing to be therapeutic for me.
And so whatever you do from a social media perspective, it has to be enjoyable. I enjoy writing these pieces, and so I find it to be fun.
And so LinkedIn rewards that, you know, it’s, people write great posts and people comment on it. People engage on it. They, their algorithm is like really based more on your content and not your images and flashy, they don’t even do hashtags. You know, that’s like, so that’s great.
So that fits for me. And, and for somebody else, they might be like more like the images side of things, which would be Instagram and more trendy or video, which would be TikTok, et cetera. So like, but I, you know, I just tell people, find, you know, experiments with different things and find what is authentic to your personality, where it’s not a burden for you to actually put yourself out there.
Jennifer: I have another question, which is actually about your LinkedIn newsletter. How did you decide that you wanted to go beyond writing posts and actually create a regular piece of content like a newsletter?
Martha: So I realized that when you write a post, sometimes some of the people that are following you, not everybody sees it. And so, and I was writing a lot like five days a week. So some people will miss like a, a certain post. And it also, I wanted to just build a better connection with the people who are following me. And so I started, it’s an email newsletter.
I actually, first, before I did an email newsletter, I created an email course, a five day email course for female faculty members who work in academia. And so I created the course and I got great feedback and I was like, oh, I just don’t wanna like people to finish a five day course. And then like, that’s it. I’m like, bye, you know, you’re not gonna work with me with coaching, then it’s okay, bye. You know, I wanna continue to nurture that. I wanna continue to share my ideas, share advice, and also just get feedback from them. Also insights to create more new content.
And so it was because of that, I created an email newsletter, which I’m having a blast investing time in. I love, with that people respond to some of the posts and I get emails from people, and I’m able to actually build relationships that are a little bit deeper.
Jennifer: Ooh, I like that. Deeper relationships.
Experience with negative social media reactions
Jennifer: I’m curious as a researcher and a coach, some of the professors that I talk with have fear or anxiety about them showing up as a coach online, even though it’s something that they care about and they do.
I think they’re a little worried about what their academic community might think about that. Have you experienced negative reactions sharing all of your identity on social media and being online?
Martha: I’ve gotten a lot of sarcastic comments.
Jennifer: Oh, sarcastic comments. Okay.
Martha: But I’m like, “Oh, so what?” Right? This is how I think about it. And this is what I tell other people. The reality is that each of us are multifaceted individuals. Right?
Jennifer: Right.
Martha: Oftentimes our role in our workplace is not gonna tap into every facet of your personality and what brings you joy. I’m now starting to do a teeny bit of coaching at my institution, but it’s not enough. It’s not like there’s a blog for me to write at my institution or a newsletter for me to generate. I wouldn’t want to do it because there would probably be all these rules attached to it anyways.
For me, this is an opportunity to really show a part of Martha and really feed a part of my identity and personality that’s not being fed in the academic setting.
This is just another part of who you are that you’re not necessarily able to display in the academic setting. Regardless of what you do, people will have something to say about it.
I think when I started showing up so heavily on LinkedIn, and I’ve written a couple posts about this where people started making comments thinking I’m preparing myself to quit medicine.
I’m like, no, I love my job. If you actually read my content, that’s what I’m writing about. How I got to the place where I love my job. And I love the department and the institution that I work at. I love my colleagues. This is me tapping into a creative aspect that I didn’t even know I had.
Since showing up on social media, I realized that, Oh, I am a creative person. I always thought as a science-y, brainy person, I had no creativity whatsoever. I was like, Oh, actually this is my creativity. There’s right in this stuff. It’s actually very fulfilling.
So people will say whatever they want at the end of the day. When you become an entrepreneur, whether it’s a coach or something, or it’s a consultant in academia, it does not fit in the mold in academia. It’s not part of the traditional academic culture. But the reality is also things are changing in academia. The most of the people who are going to have something to say about that are people who are kind of a little bit older or the older generation who aren’t even on social media anyways, much. You kind of just have to let go of that thought.
In addition to the sarcastic comments, I’ve also received like really encouraging comments. A I have people following me, reading me. Like, they never comment. They never ‘like,’ but I’ll meet them at a conference or I’ll see them somewhere and they’ll be like, “Oh, I love your content. I read this.” And I’m like, you’ve never liked a post, never commented. These are academic people. So you’ll actually also be surprised as well.
Jennifer: Oh, that is so familiar to me. Someone asked, “I’ve seen your social media post recently and I feel like you’re not getting a lot of likes?” And I’m like, “No, but I’m getting clients.” The professors that I work with email me and they say, “I saw your post and I wanna work with you,” but they’ve never followed me or liked, liked anything I’ve shared. That’s totally fine. People engage in the way that makes sense for them.
Martha: Yes.
How to connect and work with Dr. Kenney
Jennifer: Before we wrap up, I really want anyone who’s listening to know if you’re like a good fit to work together. Who are your ideal clients? Like who do you want to reach out to you, who are you excited to work with?
Martha: I’m excited to work with any woman in academia who’s like, “Okay, I love being a scientist. I love being an academic physician, but I don’t know how long I can do this for, because I’m burnt out, because I’m exhausted, I’m overwhelmed, but I just don’t know what my next steps are.”
Jennifer: Ooh.
Martha: Those are the kind of women I love to work with to help get clarity on your next steps. If you’re overwhelmed, struggling with time management, I’ll help you to define the boundaries or boundaries around your values and create better work life alignment.
At the moment, I’m not taking one-on-one clients because I just launched a group coaching program that’s gonna start in two weeks. Yes. Super excited! Most of my clients will probably be through the group coaching program. Another cohort will start in January.
Jennifer: So cool. If you’re listening to this, you can get on the waitlist for the January cohort.
Martha: Yes.
Jennifer: That is so exciting. Martha, thank you so much for talking with me today. Is there anything else you’d like to add before we wrap up?
Martha: Thank you so much for having me as well.
One of the things that I would love to add is the fact that oftentimes I think in academia, we don’t like to do a lot of these introspective, what we call soul searching things.
I’m still relatively early career about to go to mid-career. I’ve been struck by the number of senior women, five, 10, even 20 years ahead of me career-wise, who have come to me for coaching.
They have come because they never took that time to really get clarity on their values. They were like, “You know what? I went on the ladder. I got to this particular position and realized that the last 10 years, the last five years I’ve just been going through the motions and I’m so unfulfilled. I’m so unhappy, I don’t even know what my next steps are.”
Time is such a precious thing. And so the person who is gonna value your time and your energy the most is you and your loved ones. Taking that time to really get clarity on what you want.
What do I want?
What truly matters to me?
Who am I here to serve?
What are their problems?
How can I be of help? What solutions can I provide to them?
Am I really walking on the path that I truly desire?
Taking that time is so precious and it’ll make such a world of a difference for you so you don’t look back as a 90 year-old with tons of regret about what if.
Jennifer: Aww, Dr. Martha Kenney, I have loved this conversation.
How can people get in touch with you, connect with you on social media after this ends?
Dr. Martha Kenney is a board-certified pediatrician and pediatric anesthesiologist who completed undergraduate education at Brown University followed by medical school, residency, and fellowship training at Johns Hopkins University. She is currently an Assistant Professor at Duke University where she leads the Pain Equity and Disparities Lab. Her research is focused on pain in people living with sickle cell disease and marginalized communities and is supported by a 5-year K award from the National Institutes of Health. She also holds several prominent leadership positions, including guest editor for the Journal of Pain, member of the professional development & education committee and co-chair of Diversity, Inclusion & Anti-racism SIG for the US Association for the Study of Pain, member of the National Pain Advocacy Center’s Science & Policy Advisory Council.
Outside of teaching medicine and conducting research, Dr. Kenney is a certified professional life coach and certified behavioral design consultant with a deep-seated passion for employee engagement, burnout prevention, work-life balance and career development amongst professional women. She is particularly passionate about working with young female professionals and entrepreneurs. She is a sought out speaker and has spoken at prominent universities and national conferences and facilitated workshops.
Dr. Kenney is married with two young kid. In addition to coaching business, she and her husband own a commercial print shop based in Durham, NC. She loves to read, journal, and serve and support members of her community and church.
There is a looming skills deficit across all disciplines currently being taught in Universities today. The vast majority of degree programmes are, at best, gradual evolutions of what has gone before. At their worst they are static bodies of knowledge transmission awaiting a young vibrant new member of faculty to reignite them. Internal reviews are too often perfunctory exercises, seldom challenging the future direction of graduates as long as pass rates are sustained. That is until is to late and failure rates point to a ‘problem’ at a fundamental level around a degree design.
We, collectively, are at the dawn of a new knowledge-skills-cognition revolution. The future of the professionals has been discussed for some years now. It will be a creeping, quiet, revolution (Susskind and Susskind, 2017). Although we occasionally hear about some fast food business firing all of its front-of-house staff in favour of robotic manufacturing processes and A.I. Ordering services, the reality is that in the majority of contexts the intelligent deployment of A.I. to enhance business operations requires humans to describe how these systems operate with other humans. This is because at present none of these systems score highly on any markers or Emotional Intelligence or EQ.
Image generaed by Windows Copilot
Arguably it has become increasingly important to ensure that graduates from any and all disciplines have been educated as to how to describe what they do and why they do it. They need to develop a higher degree of comfort with articulating each thought process and action taken. To do this we desperately need course and programme designers to desist from just describing (and therefore assessing) purely cognitive (intellectual) skills as described by Bloom et.al, and limit themselves to one or two learning outcomes using those formulations. Instead they need to elevate the psychomotor skills in particular, alongside an increasing emphasis on interpersonal ones.
Anyone who has experimented with prompting any large language model (LLM) will tell you the language used falls squarely under the psychomotor domain. At the lowest levels one might ask to match, copy, imitate, then at mid-levels of skill deployment one might prompt a system to organise, calibrate, compete or show, rating to the highest psychomotor order of skills to ask A.I. systems to define, specify, even imagine. This progressive a type of any taxonomy allows for appropriate calibration of input and output. The ability to use language, to articulate, is an essential skill. There are some instructive (ad entertaining) YouTube videos of parents supporting their children to write instructions (here’s a great example), a skill that is seldom further developed as young people progress into tertiary studies.
Being able to assess this skill is also challenging. When one was assessing text-based comprehension, even textual analysis, then one could get away with setting an essay question and having a semi-automated process for marking against a rudimentary rubric. Writing instructions, or explanations, of the task carried out, is not the same as verbally describing the same task. Do we imagine that speech recognition technology won’t become an increasingly part of many productive job roles. Not only do courses and programmes need to be designed around a broader range of outcomes, we also need to be continuously revising our assessment opportunities for those outcomes.
References
Susskind, R., & Susskind, D. (2017). The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts (Reprint edition). OUP Oxford.
TORONTO – September 25, 2024 – Leading provider of higher education engagement solutions Top Hat announced today three new innovative additions to its platform’s growing AI capabilities that further the company’s mission of empowering evidence-based learning.
The new optional features are an extension of Ace, Top Hat’s AI-powered assistant launched in fall 2023, which has already been embraced by more than 40,000 educators and students to foster more impactful learning experiences. On top of helping educators quickly adopt proven teaching strategies and scaling personal support for students, Ace now provides new tools to help foster discussion and practice.
“Top Hat was founded as a technology company in 2009 with one mission: reimagine the lecture experience. Today, we are rethinking how AI can change the entire higher education experience,” said Maggie Leen, CEO of Top Hat. “Ace wasn’t designed to replace anyone or anything—it was designed to enhance connections between educators and students by facilitating the kinds of evidence-based learning that we know leads to improved outcomes. These new innovations further that capability, while continuing to give educators and institutions complete control over how Ace is used.”
AI-Generated Discussion Questions
First among the new features is the ability to use Ace’s AI-powered lecture enhancer to generate discussion questions in a few clicks, allowing educators to encourage more student interactions in classroom sessions. Ace generates the questions from educators’ own lecture slides, making it easy to use the proven strategy of low stakes, frequent assessments to drive student participation.
The discussion question generation option is available now to all Top Hat users.
Expanded Study Assistant Access
The availability of Ace’s study assistant feature has been expanded to all Top Hat users on desktop and in the mobile app. This gives all students access to the kind of personalized study support normally only available through a tutor, whenever and wherever they need it. Students are already using Ace to break down concepts, find guidance through difficult homework questions, and test their knowledge anytime and anywhere.
AI-Powered On Demand Practice Sessions
Ace’s new practice tool lets students independently test their knowledge, when they want and as often as they choose. Students simply start a quick practice session on the Top Hat mobile app, and Ace generates multiple choice questions based on the content in their assignment. They then get instant feedback so they can review their learnings and score in each session, helping build confidence in their understanding of the material.
Students can now generate practice sessions in Top Hat Interactive eTexts as well as additional content their instructor assigns.
What do students think of learning with Ace? They love it. As Arielle Bennett, student at the University of Pennsylvania puts it, “Ace is AMAZING!! It answered all of my questions in a timely, detailed manner and provides the best summaries of the chapter. With Ace, I have taken more precise and in-depth notes and have better understood the course content as well.”
As the leader in student engagement solutions for higher education, Top Hat enables educators to employ proven student-centered teaching practices through interactive content and tools enhanced by AI, and activities in in-person, online and hybrid classroom environments. To accelerate student impact and return on investment, the company provides a range of change management services, including faculty training and instructional design support, integration and data management services, and digital content customization. Thousands of faculty at 750 leading North American colleges and universities use Top Hat to create meaningful, engaging and accessible learning experiences for students before, during, and after class.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
How does Disney engage over 70,000 employees — aka, cast members — to ensure that the details are done right? While cast members’ jobs may be different, from serving food at EPCOT to directing riders on Space Mountain, they all share in one common goal: creating happiness. In their talk, Williford and Pyka emphasized that culture is defined by how people behave, and training is critical to achieving desired behaviors. Caring and communication are also vital elements of culture. The extent to which organizations genuinely care for their people is the extent to which those people will, in turn, care for customers and each other. And high-quality communication can reinforce culture as much as lack of communication will undermine it.
Why? One reason is that work has replaced what people once found in community, whether through church or bowling leagues or book clubs. McGowan said that’s why current and future generations entering the workforce seek jobs that reflect the totality of their values and personality.
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