July 23, 2025 • 44 mins
Episode 2: The One Thing New Academic Leaders Forget to Do
Lead With YOU Podcast | Hosted by Dr. Nicole Robinson
In this episode of the Lead With YOU podcast, Dr. Nicole R. Robinson dives into one of the most overlooked components of academic leadership transitions: culture.
Newly appointed Deans, Chairs, Provosts, and other higher ed leaders are often coached to conduct listening tours, schedule stakeholder meetings, and learn the ropes during their first 90 days. But there’s one crucial step most forget—understanding the culture they’ve just stepped into.
Nicole shares a powerful story from her own leadership journey, offers a framework to decode institutional dynamics, and explains why even the best strategies will falter if they land in a culture that’s misaligned, wounded, or unready.
What You’ll Learn
- Why the first 90 days of leadership are a critical window—and how most leaders waste it
- What “culture” really means in a higher ed setting (spoiler: it’s not your mission statement)
- The 4 P’s Framework of Academic Leadership:
- People – How relationships and informal influence shape progress
- Place – Why institutional history and environment matter
- Process – The reality of how things actually get done
- Power – The visible and invisible forces that dictate who has voice and agency
- A real story of a brilliant leader whose initiatives failed—not because they were wrong, but because the culture wasn’t ready
- How to begin scanning your own institution using Nicole’s 4 P’s Reflection Worksheet
Resources & Tools
- 4 P’s Reflection Worksheet: Start assessing your current leadership environment using CCBD’s signature framework. → Download here
- Explore the ASCENT Leadership Program: A powerful transition support experience for academic leaders entering new roles or leading change. → Learn more at www.ccbydesign.org/ascent
Quotable Moments
“Culture doesn’t introduce itself at the door—it sits quietly, watches, and then… it resists.”
“If you can name the culture, you can lead within it—or lead it in a new direction.”
“Culture resists not out of spite—but out of memory.”
“Leadership isn’t about how well you perform—it’s about how well your work lands in the system it enters.”
“The first 90 days aren’t about proving yourself. They’re about understanding what you’re stepping into.”
Tune In If You’re…
- A newly appointed Dean, Chair, or Provost
- A mid-career leader trying to reset your leadership approach
- Struggling to get traction in a new or changing role
- Tired of well-intended advice that skips over the real complexity of campus life
- Curious about how to lead with more clarity, strategy, and cultural alignment
Subscribe & Share
Love what you heard? Make sure to:
-->Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Apple, or your favorite app
-->Leave a review to help more leaders find us.
-->Forward this episode to a colleague navigating a leadership transition
Connect with Nicole
· Website: www.ccbydesign.org
· LinkedIn: Dr. Nicole R. Robinson
· Email: nicole@ccbydesign.org
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:02):
Hello there.
Welcome back to the Lead WithYou podcast by CCBD.
My name is Dr.
Nicole Robinson.
And if you had an opportunity tolisten to episode one, you know,
and that little intro that Idropped, I was just really
kicking things off.
And you know that this podcastis a testament of my just doing
(00:23):
it and doing it, although it'snot perfect, but just doing it.
You know, in higher education,particularly as academic
leaders, we have been trainedthat everything needs to be
really, really polished.
We've convinced ourselves, or Idon't think it's we've convinced
ourselves, I just think it'spart of our culture that if
things haven't been peerreviewed, if it hasn't been
reviewed, if it hasn't Hasn'tbeen branded, hasn't been
(00:45):
benchmarked, is not ready to beshared.
And sometimes I think that wewait so long for perfect that we
actually miss these really keymoments of opportunity.
So I'm here once again as atestament of just doing it.
I don't have any fancy music.
I don't have any special introoutros.
(01:05):
I don't have a sound engineer.
I don't have anyone helping mewrite content.
I am just here doing it.
And I'm excited about sharingthis time with you because your
time is valuable.
You're very busy individuals.
So I just appreciate you givingme this time.
The one thing I can let you knowor can make sure I keep my
(01:27):
promises.
I always want to make sure Ibring quality content to you and
share with you.
Being able to share contentthat's going to really impact
your life and impact your worklife and really be valuable to
you.
So I'm excited about that as faras what I am able to bring to
you until I can get the fancymusic and all of those other
(01:49):
cool things actually movingforward and going forth.
Those things, I keep sayingthey're not here yet, but we
will have them here.
So one quick note over thecourse of this podcast, I'll be
introducing myself to you insmall snippets over the
different episodes.
Why?
Because we're complex people andI want to share pieces of my
story when they naturallyconnect with the themes that we
(02:11):
are exploring.
So for now, I'll just start withthis little quick snapshot.
So I began my academic careerstraight out of graduate school
as a department chair.
On day one, no ramp up, no prep,no waiting in the wings, no
transition that happened there.
I was a brand new junior facultymember, had just graduated from
(02:33):
Florida State University Schoolof Music with my PhD in music
education and landed my veryfirst job at the University of
Memphis School of Music.
I was so excited about moving toMemphis and doing that
particular work.
Thank you.
(03:01):
The position I had at theUniversity of Memphis would have
been equivalent to a departmentchair, but actually we were
called division heads becauseour units were so large.
So the music education divisionprobably served annually about
500 students between ourtraditional undergraduate,
master's, and doctoral students,including those who were in our
three summer master's degreeprograms, our certification-only
(03:22):
programs, our licensureprograms.
And when I first walked inMemphis, we had a doctoral
degree.
We added one for a time being.
We had, I think, three master'sdegree, and then we had
Undergraduate degree with threeconcentrations.
So that was my intro intoleadership.
They won straight off the batand I loved every minute of it.
So, you know, I've always had anatural propensity for
leadership and maybe because Icome from a lineage of that.
(03:45):
My mother was a schoolprincipal.
And so there's probably somethings that naturally I kind of
legacy wise received as far asbeing a leader.
Over the years, once Itransitioned from the University
of Memphis, I held facultypositions at other institutions
where I held both formal andinformal leadership roles, and
(04:06):
that included VirginiaCommonwealth University School
of Music and Syracuse UniversitySchool of Music.
Eventually, I joined theUniversity of Utah School of
Music as the Beverly TaylorSorenson Endowed Presidential
Professor, a mouthful there, andthat within itself had a
built-in leadership piecebecause basically each
(04:28):
university had an endowedposition and we had a huge
outreach component with theschool system across the state
of Utah.
So it was a lot of statewidecoordinated effort in that role,
which once again came once againwith other both formal and
informal leadership roles andresponsibilities.
And then while I was at theUniversity of Utah, I was asked
(04:50):
to serve as associate vicepresident for equity and
diversity for main campus, whichI really enjoyed doing.
But that was like really deepdive into a central level
leadership role and position,which I learned a lot and really
appreciated that opportunity.
And I always make sure I specifyI was the AVP for equity.
(05:12):
The main campus, becauseUniversity of Utah at the time
actually had a similar positionfor their medical campus.
So it was a large institutionand they very much valued DEI.
And so that was one of thethings that was there.
So I spent over 25 years inhigher education.
And those 25 years have prettymuch been in leadership roles of
(05:33):
capacity in some form orfashion.
After 25 years, six years agoexactly, I made the decision to
leave higher education andlaunch this consulting practice,
Cultural Connections by Design,which now supports colleges and
universities across the country.
Since I've launched in 2018, Ithink I have served over 150
(05:55):
colleges and universities.
I used to have a tracker.
We used to track that, but it'sbeen a minute since I tracked.
And I've done lots of differentthings for these institutions
from organizational culturechange.
I did a lot of DEI work,diversity, equity, and inclusion
work and support.
And then now doing a lot moreleadership development because
what I found in the work that Iwas doing, that one of the gaps
(06:15):
were making sure that ourleaders were prepped and ready
for the work and theorganizational change we were
doing.
CCBD primarily works withacademic colleges and
universities, but we have donesome corporations healthcare
organizations and a lot ofnonprofit organizations
primarily, but those who tend tohave an educational kind of bent
to them as kind of theorganizations that we tend to
(06:38):
support moving forward.
So that's a little bit about me.
Like I said, over time, you'lllearn a little bit more about me
as the context matters, right?
And I'm able to provide you moreabout my background, but just
kind of mainly I wanted you tohear and understand the
leadership threads that haveworked and moved throughout my
Well, I'm very excited about thetopic I'm going to spend sharing
(07:02):
with you today because it's verytimely and it's very much
needed.
And I think it's something thatwe don't speak about often and
that we need to do regularly.
more concentrated work aroundthis particular topic.
So I want to talk to you, andI'm going to be talking about
this over the next few weeks,leadership transitions.
This particular episode iscalled The One Thing New
(07:25):
Academic Leaders Forget to DoBasically in Transition.
And I just want to make surewhat I refer to as new.
New does not mean you're a brandnew academic leader.
New means that you're navigatingnew context.
So you could be a brand newleader, like you're literally
your very first leadership roleat your institution.
So that's new.
(07:46):
But new also can be that youhave moved to a new institution.
Right.
And so you're navigating newcontext.
culture and climate.
The other new part could be thatyou are an experienced academic
leader, but maybe you have a newhigh stakes initiative, like
maybe your college or universityis going through environment
(08:08):
shifting.
So anything new, just basicallyyou're walking into a new space
in a way of how you you engagewith your institution or maybe
you're, like I said, you're at anew institution.
So the reason why this is timelyis because this time of year,
this is, I mean, higher ed,we're buzzing, right?
We're buzzing with newness, newpositions, new assignments, new
(08:29):
appointments.
We have new deans, new chairs,provosts, everyone's stepping
into new roles.
I should call this kind of likea leadership transition season.
That's something I made up.
So it's not anything that, youknow, I can quote, but it is a
time when so much transition ishappening.
And it's not just happening inleadership.
It happens, of course, on thefaculty level as well.
(08:51):
But particularly for thisparticular podcast, we focus
more on leadership.
So that's what I want to centeron.
This is a very exciting time,right?
For many of us, we're excitedabout the new opportunities and
new roles, but it's a very mucha very vulnerable time because
how you enter into a new roleshapes...
not only your experience of thatrole, but it also shapes how
(09:13):
others experience yourleadership in that role.
And that is the reason why youhear a lot of people, a lot of
theories and philosophies talkabout the first 90 days is the
important window.
And it is true.
And that first 90 days, really alot is happening in that first
90 days, not just for you as theleader, but for those who are
experiencing your leadership.
(09:34):
So what typically happens isthat when we walk into a new
position, we do what we're kindof told, trained our mentor to
do.
We go in, we're at a newinstitution.
We host our listening sessions.
We schedule our introductions.
We're getting the lay of theland.
We're reviewing org charts.
We're reviewing budgets.
We're doing all of thosedifferent sorts of things.
(09:54):
And that is absolutely greatadvice.
And it is very important to do.
So I want to make sure that Iposition that this is not about
saying that those baseline,basic sorts of work tasks are
not important.
They are very much important.
But there's one piece that iscrucially missing.
And there's one piece that mostleaders, when they enter into a
(10:19):
new organization, a newinstitution, they do not do.
And this particular oversightcan absolutely derail
everything, right?
And you're probably wonderingwhat in the Is it, you know, I
did my listening tours.
I found out what people wanted.
I met people.
(10:39):
I met the students.
I've held a meeting to share myplan, all those different sorts
of things.
But there's one thing that manyleaders almost always skip.
And that is taking a moment tounderstand the culture in which
they are entering.
Understanding the culture inwhich you're entering.
(11:02):
Leadership transition is notjust about stepping into a role.
You need to understand thatyou're actually stepping into a
system.
And that system includes a webof lots of unspoken rules.
They can have legacy tensions.
There's some informal powerdynamics that could be at play
(11:26):
or that could be rubbing againstone another.
They're expectations that no onenames out loud, but the truth is
everyone feels.
And that's where I have seen themost prepared, strongest
leadership individuals actuallyderail, right?
They have all the parts of beinga really great leader and then
(11:51):
they step into an institution,they step into a culture and
they can't understand why thingsare kind of not functioning.
a specific way.
We make the assumption thatculture will eventually
introduce itself to us overtime.
And I think that is very, wecould say that everyone knows
there's a culture.
(12:11):
Everyone knows.
Like if I say, do you even knowthere's a culture at your
institution?
Absolutely.
That's not the question.
What is missing is taking thetime to understand that culture,
to evaluate the culture, toassess the culture, and to
understand what to do with it.
Information, the data that youreceive from doing those
particular steps and processes.
(12:32):
Culture is very interestingbecause it's a little silent
partner that's there working.
Oftentimes, not always in favorof the direction of what it is
that we are attempting orwanting to do.
It doesn't come and introduceitself to us.
It sits quietly.
Culture watches.
Culture waits.
(12:53):
And then it resists.
And a lot of times when we feelthat resistance, we are not
quite sure what's happening,what is it coming from.
And what we have to understandis that the resistance that the
culture does when it's pushingback on some of the work and
initiatives that we're planningon bringing into our new
(13:16):
institutions, our new roles, ournew initiatives, is not out of
spite to derail the work thatwe're trying to do, but it's out
of memory.
And if you ask me, what do Imean by out of memory?
It's out of memory of theinstitution of areas that have
never had an opportunity to kindof reflect, rebound itself, and
(13:42):
maybe heal itself.
So a lot of times the pushbackthat we receive is memory from
past harm, memory from brokentrust, and memory from unspoken
trauma that's running around.
throughout our institutions.
And what we don't account for,we may be solving problems or
(14:02):
we're going in with our agendas,we're going in with our 90-day
kickoffs and our specific sortsof initiatives that we're
excited about initiating andsharing and launching.
But It's very well possible dueto some of these culture issues
that no one's ready to receivethe work that we're ready to
bring in.
(14:22):
So we're ready to bring inreally good stuff and it could
be helpful, but we may have togo back and do some work till
the soil and make sureeveryone's ready to receive
that.
I'm going to leverage Dr.
Kimberly Crenshaw's quote.
She said, we all know that whenthere's no name for a problem,
you can't see a problem.
And when you can't see aproblem, you pretty much can't
(14:43):
solve it.
Now, she was using that quote ina really, really popular TED
talk of her intersectionality,where she was emphasizing the
crucial role of naming, offraming and addressing issues in
social justice.
Well, I'm going to use thatbecause I think it's the exact
same things.
If you walk into an institutionand you cannot identify the
(15:04):
culture, then you can't name it.
And if you can't name it, thenyou will not be able to lead it.
you will not be able to leadwithin it and you will not be
able to lead it in a newdirection.
So culture is so vitallyimportant and it's the aspect
that many of us as leaders, wedon't actually consciously think
(15:28):
of because in all of ourleadership development, our
leadership teaching, ourleadership training, just our
mentoring, that's not somethingthat is usually centered as the
forefront of the work that we doas academic leaders.
I believe that this is the firststep and this is the first
aspect of being able to moveforward effectively in an
(15:49):
institution in regards to therole that you're doing.
So let's start by defining whatis culture.
It's very important that weunderstand that culture is
basically the collectivepersonality of your institution.
our organization, right?
But we're talking about academicinstitutions.
The culture is not written downin the policies and it's not
(16:14):
posted on the website.
So that's the reason why ourgeneral approach to how we kind
of ascertain what's needed doesnot work when it comes to the
culture work.
Because it's not the things thatare written, it's not the things
that are published, it's not thethings, it's the stuff embedded
in how the people behave.
(16:35):
It's the things that areembedded in how decisions are
made.
It's the things that actuallyreally exhibit how power is
really distributed throughoutyour unit, your department, your
academic institution.
So culture actually, becauseit's not written in a place for
(16:58):
us to go kind of read and figureit out, it shows up in various
ways.
It shows up when people move inwhat is considered an acceptable
behavior for this institution.
This is how we do it here, orthis is the XYZ institution's
way, right?
The ABC University's way.
(17:18):
We say that a lot.
Culture also shows up in howconflict is handled or how
conflict is avoided entirely.
Culture shows up about whichtype of ideas are celebrated.
And which ones are ignored?
Culture shows up in regards towho gets invited into the
(17:40):
conversations and who'sconsistently left out of
conversations.
Culture shows up as what are theunwritten rules.
Culture shows up as who holdsthe informal influence.
And culture shows up in whatbehaviors are quietly rewarded,
(18:04):
are quietly punished.
Now, you can think of culture askind of this invisible current
that is beneath everything thatyou see.
So the culture is the invisiblepart.
And what we see is the climate,elements of the climate.
And we'll speak more about thedifference between culture and
(18:25):
climate throughout this podcast.
But the climate is basically thecomponents that you do see.
The things that you can seethrough your senses, through
your sight, your smell, yourhearing, all of those different
sorts of things, right?
So a lot of times when we aretrying to identify culture, we
actually are looking at wrongaspects of the organization.
(18:46):
So the culture is not themission statement that's written
on the website or written in ourinstitutions.
It's rather people believe themission statement.
It's rather, do our stakeholderslive the mission statement?
That's the difference inculture.
(19:07):
Culture is not the org chart,right?
It's not the org chart.
It's not the budgetspreadsheets.
It's not any of those things.
But culture is who are thepeople and where do the people
actually go when they need toget something done?
So the org chart says, here'sthe organizational structure,
but where do people actually gowhen it's time to get things
(19:29):
done?
Culture is not just the statedvalues, but it's how these
values show up under pressure.
So here's the kicker.
Culture determines whether yourleadership will land and stick,
or it can also determine whetheror not your leadership will get
lost in the resistance.
(19:50):
If you're unaware of the culturethat you're stepping into, you
might mistake different cues andmisread them.
You might mistake silence forsupport when that silence means
something very different.
You might interpret complianceas buy-in when that compliance
(20:11):
means something very different.
And this is the reason why Ibelieve culture isn't just a
side note in leadership.
it is actually the main stage.
Everything that you do, yourvision, your priorities, your
strategies, everything you doplays out on this main stage.
Culture isn't what you say aboutthe institution.
(20:34):
It's about what the institutionshows you when no one is
actually performing.
It is what is said after thehoneymoon period.
So you may be asking yourself,okay, how do I figure out What
are the components of culturethat is important for me to be
able to identify to think abouthow to move forward?
(20:57):
So there's four primary pillarsof organizational culture.
I call them the four P's oforganizational culture.
And those four P's for me arepeople, place, process, and
power.
I'm going to do a quick overviewof each one of them here.
But in future episodes, I willbe speaking about each one in
(21:17):
depth.
So let's start with people, thefirst P.
People, every thrivinginstitution begins and ends with
this people.
Okay.
Now for us, people is a,represents a diversity of
stakeholders.
It includes our faculty, ourstaff, our students, our alumni,
external partners, our donors,our, you know, community
(21:37):
partners is such a plethora ofindividuals that are part of our
people component of the fourpiece of culture.
This diversity as richness toour culture, which is why our
institutions are so vastly richin this particular area.
However, All of that diversityand richness also can introduce
complexity.
(21:58):
And without intentionality, thiscomplexity can lead to
misalignment andmisunderstandings and
fragmentation.
Leaders must recognize that thecollective attitudes, behaviors,
and values of their peopledirectly influence their success
and or stagnation in leadership.
So your people, like when Istart this particular word,
(22:19):
start with people because it'sthe most valuable and most
priceless aspect of ourorganization.
OK, so the second P is place.
So usually when we think aboutplace, we're thinking about the
physical environment of theacademic institution, which
serves as a representation ofits culture and values.
Now, I think about place inaddition to that a little bit
(22:41):
different.
I think that place also is arepresentation of the identity
of the institution shaped by itshistory.
It's geography.
It's community.
It's unspoken norms.
It's all of those things thatcome together that represents
and creates place or space.
is more than just our physicallocation.
It's basically our institutionalstoryline.
(23:03):
It tells the story of what thisinstitution has been through.
It tells the story of what thisinstitution is proud of.
It tells the story of what thisinstitution may be trying to
hide.
And it tells itself how does itposition itself in the community
or the region as far as beingable to support other aspects of
our others in our communityregion organization.
(23:23):
Each institution has its ownscars and its symbols.
And leaders, we have tounderstand that, right?
And at CCBD, we believe thatplace is where the past
narratives shape presentdynamics.
And when misaligned with missionand leadership strategy, then
place becomes a silent barrier.
And when that is understood,then it becomes a powerful lever
(23:44):
for change.
So in addition to understandingthe histories and the kind of
values that undergird theinstitution, yeah, Also, the
physical aspects, like whatbarriers are keeping our people
from being able to absolutely beable to thrive in the work that
they do, how maybe place issupporting or hindering that.
(24:05):
OK, now process is how workactually gets done.
This is not just aboutdocumentation, but this is also
about how the work isexperienced.
Right.
So we think about process,especially in academic
institutions, we have agazillion processes.
So let's use tenure as anexample.
There's a slew of processes,microprocesses that has to get a
(24:27):
person from point A to point Zthrough the tenure process.
But in addition to that, whenwe're thinking about the
organizational culture, it's notjust like, did you follow the
steps from point A to point Z,but how did you experience those
particular steps and whatoccurred along the way of that?
So at CCBD, we define process asboth formal and informal
(24:48):
systems, workflows, routines,decision-making pathways that
shape daily operations.
So process for us, it's not justabout what's in the handbook.
It's not that, but it's also whogets included in the
decision-making process and howdoes information flow?
Or how does it not flow?
And then what steps are skippedand why?
(25:09):
And then where is it that peopleare creating workarounds because
the system's not actuallyworking very well?
Now, process revealsmisalignment between intent and
implementation.
So oftentimes when I'm workingwith organizations or
institutions, and when I'mcoming in to do a problem solve,
I promise you probably 95% ofthe time we stop and it's
(25:33):
usually a process problem.
Even though it appears to be myfaculty are not getting along
with one another, it really isnot that.
That's the surface, but theculture piece that's underneath
that just running as maybe somebreakdown and communication
processes, a breakdown in how weleverage the strengths of one
another in our faculty, amongour faculty members.
(25:55):
So the last P is one that wedon't talk about often, but it's
actually one of the mostimportant P's.
And that P stands for power.
So power is not just about whoholds titles.
And that's important to knowthat power is also about who
holds the influence.
At CCBD, we define power aspower.
both visible and invisiblestructures that determine who
(26:18):
has voice, who has agency, whohas access, who has authority
within the institution.
It includes both formalhierarchies and informal
dynamics.
So yes, we do have power thatare positional power, right?
Someone has a position, all ofyou listening, most of you
listening.
If you're an academic leader,you have positional power
(26:38):
because of your title as anacademic leader.
But what we do not focus on arethose informal power dynamics
that are always moving andalways showing up.
So power actually shows up andwho gets to say without
explanation, who gets to say nowithout explanation, having to
explain themselves, who canspeak up without retaliation,
(27:00):
whose concerns are consistentlyprioritized and whose are
ignored, and then what decisionsget made in a room and who gets
to decide on those particulardecisions and who gets to decide
when those decisions areimplemented and then the things
that we need to do.
What we need to understand,power is always present.
But power is something that youdon't see.
(27:21):
It doesn't mean that because wecan't see it, that it's not
operating.
It just means that it'soperating without our awareness.
For many of us as academicleaders, some of our staff
members have an immense amountof power in the organization and
understanding that.
And then how do we support andleverage that for the good of
(27:42):
the work that we're trying todo?
For leaders, ignoring power doesnot make you neutral.
It just makes you vulnerable.
So it's very important tounderstand power and power
dynamics.
One of the things I do when Iwork with organizations, we do
some stakeholder mapping andthen looking at how to map out
power dynamics that are movingwithin the organization.
It's just important to know andunderstand.
(28:03):
And that is why culturalresponsive leadership requires
noticing, naming, and navigatingpower with intention.
All right, so that's a briefoverview of the four Ps.
As I mentioned, we'll go throughthem more over the next few
weeks or so.
But I want to kind of, as westart to close up a little bit,
I want to talk about whathappens when we ignore culture.
(28:26):
So what happens when we ignoreculture?
I think the best way to do thisis actually share with you a
story about a client that I hadbeen working with.
And maybe some parts of herstory will resonate with you as
to kind of where some of themissteps were that she took in
when she moved into her newinstitution.
So I was working with thisbrilliant, brilliant vice
(28:48):
provost.
She was sharp, visionary, witty.
And deeply committed to equityand innovation.
So she had accepted a new roleat her new institution.
So both the role was new and theinstitutional environment was
new for her.
She stepped into her role.
She had a clear plan.
She had bold ideas.
And within her first semester,she had launched three major
(29:09):
initiatives.
All of them were rooted in thebest practices.
All of them were aligned withthe mission and vision of the
institution.
All of them would have beendefinitely considered
value-added projects to theinstitution.
Yet none of them seemed to gaintraction and she couldn't figure
out why it felt like she waskind of a little bit in
quicksand is how she describedit to me.
(29:31):
She felt like she kept runninginto resistance, particularly in
areas that she did not expect tobe running into resistance.
So we began our collaborativework together to try to unpack
and figure out what was goingon.
What I learned is that althoughas she was rolling out these
initiatives, she had key facultythat would opt out and a lot of
these key faculty had a lot ofpower.
(29:52):
So, of course, it was creating adomino effect of some things.
She had a lot of staff thatstarted canceling meetings
rather than do the tasks thatwere charged to them in those
specific committees.
And overall, the momentum juststalled, right?
She was excited.
She was new.
She was launching this in herfirst 90 days.
So it's very important tounderstand it's not because our
(30:12):
ideas were flawed.
Actually, when I reviewed theprojects that she was
initiating, they were flawed.
Excellent project.
So this is not about her or theprojects itself or the
initiatives themselves.
But after a little bit oftalking, what we realized is
that she missed some of theculture cues that were in the
(30:34):
institution.
Now, she did what we usually do.
She came in.
She did her discoveryinterviews.
She did her informationalsessions.
She did all of those sorts ofthings.
But those sorts of things,unless they are crafted to
actually get to the cultureissues, you're not going to
actually walk away with the datathat you would need to know.
And that's what happened to her.
What she learned once we kind ofwent back and we did kind of a
(30:56):
little four-piece audit so wecan kind of see what was going
on.
What we learned is that the unitthat she was actually trying to
implement one of theseinitiatives into, had a history
of a very top-downdecision-making process that
left many people feeling veryguarded.
So now here's the new person intown bringing in a new process.
Here we go again, right?
(31:16):
So there was a lot of brokentrust that was there.
The other issue around thefaculty, what we learned is that
the faculty had learned overtime that even though they were
asked for input, input did notmean influence.
So now it was kind of, onceagain, a broken trust of like,
you're asking me for my inputbecause she's a very much of a
collective people-centered typeof leader, right?
(31:38):
But that was very different fromthe culture that they were used
to.
And the third thing which youlearned is that the previous
vice provost had exited the, orleft the university during a
time of an unresolved conflictthat left a lot of trust
fractured and unspoken tensionin the air.
So it was a situation that neverkind of closed out itself.
(31:59):
So here she was, right?
In this particular situation,technically she was right,
right?
Ideally, her plans were rightand her process in many ways was
right, except she missed onestep.
And that one step was that theculture was misaligned with the
vision that she had for what shewanted to do and what they were
(32:20):
ready for and so in leadershipwhen this happens I call it a
gap right there's a gap betweenthe expectation of what is to
be, and then the actualimplementation of what we did.
So in this particular case withthis particular colleague and
client, we conducted a minifour-piece audit.
We broke down those differentcomponents.
(32:41):
We looked at people, place,process, and power, figure out
how can we realign to realignher success.
From there, we realized we hadto do a little bit of repair
work, right?
So in repair work, we had tofigure out some ways to try to
quickly build trust.
Now, that don't mean wecompletely build trust, but at
least the of the need to buildtrust goes a long way when it's
broken trust.
We reframed a few of theinitiatives to better suit the
(33:05):
faculty and staff where theywere at this moment.
So still moving forward with theinitiative, but reframe that
initiative a little bit.
And ultimately, we relaunched anew 90-day plan grounded in
clarity and aligned now withinformation we learned from the
four Ps.
And so I'll talk about this alittle bit later that you can
launch a 90-day launch anytimeyou want to.
Sometimes people go, oh, I'vemissed my window.
(33:26):
Nope, you can launch it anytimeyou want to, right?
So this kind of organizationalchange work that my client and I
did, it's not easy work becausewe're dealing with people, we're
dealing with human beings, We'redealing with some of the times
the workplace trauma and thosesorts of things is never easy
work, but it becomes far moremanageable when you have a clear
framework of how to guide thatparticular process.
(33:46):
And that is the reason why Icreated the four P's like
thinking about organizationalculture, goodness,
organizational culture.
That's, feels massive just tosay it.
What is the organizationalculture?
What's making it up?
What's occurring?
What's happening in thatorganizational culture?
But if we can take thatorganizational culture and have
a lens of looking at it throughthe four Ps, let's first right
now look at the people, thenlet's look at place, process,
(34:07):
and power.
And we look at these thingsindependently and then we look
at interdependently of oneanother because at the end of
the day, they are interdependentof one another.
As we know, I think I'm notsharing anything with you that
you don't know, that leadershipisn't just about launching the
initiatives.
It really is about understandingthe emotional and historical
landscape of where you arelanding in, where you're
(34:31):
entering in, maybe where you'retransitioning to.
And for those of you who are atyour same institution, this can
still happen, especially now inthe past.
few months as to what we've beenexperiencing.
A lot of our institutions haveshifted and they're different
institutions, right?
And so it's the same sort ofthing.
We've got to survey thelandscape and understand kind of
(34:51):
how these four components arefunctioning within the
organization.
Please remember the culturedoesn't block progress out of
spite.
We talked about it a little bitearly, like the culture is not
there trying to intentionallyblock the progress.
The culture is there to actuallykind of protect them in some
ways, the memory of what is,what is occurring, even though a
lot of times it's notfunctioning in a healthy way.
(35:13):
So it resists based on this bad,past workplace harm, unresolved
conflict, unspoken trauma.
And until those patterns areacknowledged or even the best
strategies won't take root.
So if you don't account forthat, you may be solving
problems that people are justnot quite ready for you to solve
(35:35):
because they are entrenched insome of these things that are
driven by the culture.
The culture is very, verystrong.
So you know when we are hiring anew member into our academic
community, whether it's afaculty member, a staff member,
or a new leader, We usuallyapproach these searches with
(35:58):
such great high hopes and suchgreat excitement and joy, not
just about the person coming tobe a part of our community, but
for the hope of the change, weare excited that we believe this
person is going to bring to ourcommunity.
Now, I'm stepping away from theideas of what kind of
initiatives and skillset.
(36:19):
I'm not talking about that.
I'm talking about nownecessarily thinking about
behavior and aspects ofcommunity development and those
different sorts of things.
And so oftentimes when we havethis great hope, inadvertently,
we've kind of have looked atourselves as a collective and
said, this is the type of personthat we need.
(36:41):
And this person is going to helpelevate us or take us to the
next level or help us fulfillthis particular void and
position that we have.
And in many ways, what we'resaying is that we're identifying
a person who may not have thethings that doesn't have the
things that we have because wevalue what they have.
And we understand we need whatthey have in our community, in
(37:03):
our organization.
I I don't necessarily know ifthis is spoken out loud, but I
just think that, you know, deepdown we kind of sometimes have
this particular expectation ofour newcomers that are coming
into our community.
So anyway, we hire a person, ourindividual, and then we are so
thrilled.
We do the fanfare of welcomingthem to our institution.
(37:25):
We are so thrilled of thenewness that they're bringing,
so excited about all of thosedifferent sort of components.
And then we may take a lookseveral months down the road or
a year or so down the road.
And then we look and we realizethat that colleague now looks a
lot like the rest of us, right?
And what I mean by that is thatthose types of behaviors that
(37:48):
we've probably identified aslike, we want less of this,
which is what we have, and wewant more of that, that this
individual will be bringing intothe organization.
And then suddenly we look andsay, what happened?
They look like the rest of us.
So my friends, this is a perfectexample.
(38:10):
of the power of culture.
Culture is so strong.
The culture of the institutionserves like a magnetic force and
is actually pulling everythingtowards it, right?
And many times, the reason whythings get so misaligned when it
comes to the culture of theinstitutions because we have not
(38:31):
taken a moment to stop tounderstand that, hey, there's
this gravitating force that isworking really underneath the
surface and it is charging andit is guiding and it's pushing
or pulling, it's resisting, it'ssupporting, whatever, everything
(38:52):
that is occurring on thatcollege campus.
So when you enter into a newposition or a new role, or if
you enter into a, maybe you'renot even new in a position or
role, but you have been leadinga role for quite a while, but
take a moment and look andexamine the culture.
(39:12):
Every institution not only has asingular culture, right?
We have a primary culture as theinstitution, but every
department has a culture.
Every unit has a culture.
When you start breaking downinto committees, a certain
committee can have a culture.
And this makes sense if youthink about why Department X can
(39:32):
look very different thanDepartment Y and they're on the
same campus.
Or Committee X can functionsvery differently than committee
y and they are in the samedepartment because culture is
made up of people place processand power and all those
different dynamics shiftedcreate those dynamical
(39:53):
differences so the institutionhas a culture of its own all the
different there's differentmicro cultures that are moving
around on the campus and manytimes leaders have don't
understand the need to do thework to assess and understand
the culture in which they areleading.
So being able to do that type ofassessment is vitally important.
(40:16):
But more important is once youdo the assessment, the
understanding of what to do withthe information and the data
that you collected is vital.
It's even more important on howto move forward in a very
strategic and meaningful way.
Those leaders who are able toconnect their mission and their
(40:39):
vision and align it well withthe culture and then also
understand aspects of theculture that may need more
support or may need somehealing, may need some
development, then those leaderswho are able to piece those
components together, boy, theydo really well in adjusting to
(41:00):
the different cultures in whichthey are navigating.
So culture is vitally, vitally,vitally important.
And culture is the primarysource of understanding what is
occurring in your workspaces.
In conclusion, here's somethingI want you to remember.
Culture is like your invisibleco-pilot in the work you do in
(41:22):
your leadership role.
It's like your silent partner.
If you ignore it, it can quietlysteer your efforts off course.
But if you can see it clearly,and understand it clearly, you
can lead with strength and moreimportantly, lead with strategy.
So whether you just stepped intoa new leadership role or you
(41:42):
have been in your position for awhile, I strongly recommend
starting with a four-piece scanof your organization.
Why?
Because leadership isn't justabout the work you plan to do.
It's about understanding what isalready in motion.
And culture, my friends, havebeen in motion at your
institution for a very, verylong time.
(42:06):
So by evaluating the four P's,people, place, process, and
power, it will help you uncoverthe hidden dynamics, the culture
patterns, the operational gapsthat can either support or
sabotage your leadershipefforts.
So before you set a new vision,before you launch a new
initiative, before yourestructure a team, take time to
(42:29):
assess what it is that you'rewalking into.
Take time to understand theculture in which you are going
to be a part of.
A four-piece scan gives youclarity on how to lead with
alignment and not just leadthrough ambition.
So for you, I've included a fourpiece reflective worksheet to
(42:51):
help you get started.
So if you're listening to thispodcast through a traditional
podcast platform, you will findthe link in the show notes.
If you're listening via ourLinkedIn lead with you podcast
newsletter, it's available toyou in the content area.
Now, please note, a trueorganizational scan is much more
(43:11):
extensive than this worksheet,but this worksheet includes a
few key prompts to help you tobegin thinking critically and
more strategically about theenvironment that you're leading.
It's just going to help youstart understanding the types of
questions that you should beasking as you continue to do
this work.
So I hope this worksheet reallydoes help and support you.
(43:33):
And also for those of you whomay be new in transition, or
once again, you aretransitioning into a new
initiative or a new program,feel free to check out our new
Ascent Leadership TransitionalProgram at www.ccbydesign.org.
Backslash Ascent, A-S-C-E-N-T.
(43:55):
And there's lots of differentways in which we can support you
in resetting your leadershippath and being able to support
you to make sure that you launchwith a really great leadership
support and understanding theculture that you're in.
I have thoroughly enjoyed beingwith you today, and I hope that
you have enjoyed this episode ofLead With You.
If it did resonate with you,please be sure to subscribe,
(44:18):
leave a review, And moreimportantly, maybe share it with
a colleague who may benavigating some leadership
challenges in higher education.
Now, until next time, lead withclarity, lead with courage, and
always lead with you.
All righty.
Have a great day.
Hello there.
Welcome back to the Lead WithYou podcast by CCBD.
My name is Dr.
Nicole Robinson.
And if you had an opportunity tolisten to episode one, you know,
and that little intro that Idropped, I was just really
kicking things off.
And you know that this podcastis a testament of my just doing
(00:23):
it and doing it, although it'snot perfect, but just doing it.
You know, in higher education,particularly as academic
leaders, we have been trainedthat everything needs to be
really, really polished.
We've convinced ourselves, or Idon't think it's we've convinced
ourselves, I just think it'spart of our culture that if
things haven't been peerreviewed, if it hasn't been
reviewed, if it hasn't Hasn'tbeen branded, hasn't been
(00:45):
benchmarked, is not ready to beshared.
And sometimes I think that wewait so long for perfect that we
actually miss these really keymoments of opportunity.
So I'm here once again as atestament of just doing it.
I don't have any fancy music.
I don't have any special introoutros.
(01:05):
I don't have a sound engineer.
I don't have anyone helping mewrite content.
I am just here doing it.
And I'm excited about sharingthis time with you because your
time is valuable.
You're very busy individuals.
So I just appreciate you givingme this time.
The one thing I can let you knowor can make sure I keep my
(01:27):
promises.
I always want to make sure Ibring quality content to you and
share with you.
Being able to share contentthat's going to really impact
your life and impact your worklife and really be valuable to
you.
So I'm excited about that as faras what I am able to bring to
you until I can get the fancymusic and all of those other
(01:49):
cool things actually movingforward and going forth.
Those things, I keep sayingthey're not here yet, but we
will have them here.
So one quick note over thecourse of this podcast, I'll be
introducing myself to you insmall snippets over the
different episodes.
Why?
Because we're complex people andI want to share pieces of my
story when they naturallyconnect with the themes that we
(02:11):
are exploring.
So for now, I'll just start withthis little quick snapshot.
So I began my academic careerstraight out of graduate school
as a department chair.
On day one, no ramp up, no prep,no waiting in the wings, no
transition that happened there.
I was a brand new junior facultymember, had just graduated from
(02:33):
Florida State University Schoolof Music with my PhD in music
education and landed my veryfirst job at the University of
Memphis School of Music.
I was so excited about moving toMemphis and doing that
particular work.
Thank you.
(03:01):
The position I had at theUniversity of Memphis would have
been equivalent to a departmentchair, but actually we were
called division heads becauseour units were so large.
So the music education divisionprobably served annually about
500 students between ourtraditional undergraduate,
master's, and doctoral students,including those who were in our
three summer master's degreeprograms, our certification-only
(03:22):
programs, our licensureprograms.
And when I first walked inMemphis, we had a doctoral
degree.
We added one for a time being.
We had, I think, three master'sdegree, and then we had
Undergraduate degree with threeconcentrations.
So that was my intro intoleadership.
They won straight off the batand I loved every minute of it.
So, you know, I've always had anatural propensity for
leadership and maybe because Icome from a lineage of that.
(03:45):
My mother was a schoolprincipal.
And so there's probably somethings that naturally I kind of
legacy wise received as far asbeing a leader.
Over the years, once Itransitioned from the University
of Memphis, I held facultypositions at other institutions
where I held both formal andinformal leadership roles, and
(04:06):
that included VirginiaCommonwealth University School
of Music and Syracuse UniversitySchool of Music.
Eventually, I joined theUniversity of Utah School of
Music as the Beverly TaylorSorenson Endowed Presidential
Professor, a mouthful there, andthat within itself had a
built-in leadership piecebecause basically each
(04:28):
university had an endowedposition and we had a huge
outreach component with theschool system across the state
of Utah.
So it was a lot of statewidecoordinated effort in that role,
which once again came once againwith other both formal and
informal leadership roles andresponsibilities.
And then while I was at theUniversity of Utah, I was asked
(04:50):
to serve as associate vicepresident for equity and
diversity for main campus, whichI really enjoyed doing.
But that was like really deepdive into a central level
leadership role and position,which I learned a lot and really
appreciated that opportunity.
And I always make sure I specifyI was the AVP for equity.
(05:12):
The main campus, becauseUniversity of Utah at the time
actually had a similar positionfor their medical campus.
So it was a large institutionand they very much valued DEI.
And so that was one of thethings that was there.
So I spent over 25 years inhigher education.
And those 25 years have prettymuch been in leadership roles of
(05:33):
capacity in some form orfashion.
After 25 years, six years agoexactly, I made the decision to
leave higher education andlaunch this consulting practice,
Cultural Connections by Design,which now supports colleges and
universities across the country.
Since I've launched in 2018, Ithink I have served over 150
(05:55):
colleges and universities.
I used to have a tracker.
We used to track that, but it'sbeen a minute since I tracked.
And I've done lots of differentthings for these institutions
from organizational culturechange.
I did a lot of DEI work,diversity, equity, and inclusion
work and support.
And then now doing a lot moreleadership development because
what I found in the work that Iwas doing, that one of the gaps
(06:15):
were making sure that ourleaders were prepped and ready
for the work and theorganizational change we were
doing.
CCBD primarily works withacademic colleges and
universities, but we have donesome corporations healthcare
organizations and a lot ofnonprofit organizations
primarily, but those who tend tohave an educational kind of bent
to them as kind of theorganizations that we tend to
(06:38):
support moving forward.
So that's a little bit about me.
Like I said, over time, you'lllearn a little bit more about me
as the context matters, right?
And I'm able to provide you moreabout my background, but just
kind of mainly I wanted you tohear and understand the
leadership threads that haveworked and moved throughout my
Well, I'm very excited about thetopic I'm going to spend sharing
(07:02):
with you today because it's verytimely and it's very much
needed.
And I think it's something thatwe don't speak about often and
that we need to do regularly.
more concentrated work aroundthis particular topic.
So I want to talk to you, andI'm going to be talking about
this over the next few weeks,leadership transitions.
This particular episode iscalled The One Thing New
(07:25):
Academic Leaders Forget to DoBasically in Transition.
And I just want to make surewhat I refer to as new.
New does not mean you're a brandnew academic leader.
New means that you're navigatingnew context.
So you could be a brand newleader, like you're literally
your very first leadership roleat your institution.
So that's new.
(07:46):
But new also can be that youhave moved to a new institution.
Right.
And so you're navigating newcontext.
culture and climate.
The other new part could be thatyou are an experienced academic
leader, but maybe you have a newhigh stakes initiative, like
maybe your college or universityis going through environment
(08:08):
shifting.
So anything new, just basicallyyou're walking into a new space
in a way of how you you engagewith your institution or maybe
you're, like I said, you're at anew institution.
So the reason why this is timelyis because this time of year,
this is, I mean, higher ed,we're buzzing, right?
We're buzzing with newness, newpositions, new assignments, new
(08:29):
appointments.
We have new deans, new chairs,provosts, everyone's stepping
into new roles.
I should call this kind of likea leadership transition season.
That's something I made up.
So it's not anything that, youknow, I can quote, but it is a
time when so much transition ishappening.
And it's not just happening inleadership.
It happens, of course, on thefaculty level as well.
(08:51):
But particularly for thisparticular podcast, we focus
more on leadership.
So that's what I want to centeron.
This is a very exciting time,right?
For many of us, we're excitedabout the new opportunities and
new roles, but it's a very mucha very vulnerable time because
how you enter into a new roleshapes...
not only your experience of thatrole, but it also shapes how
(09:13):
others experience yourleadership in that role.
And that is the reason why youhear a lot of people, a lot of
theories and philosophies talkabout the first 90 days is the
important window.
And it is true.
And that first 90 days, really alot is happening in that first
90 days, not just for you as theleader, but for those who are
experiencing your leadership.
(09:34):
So what typically happens isthat when we walk into a new
position, we do what we're kindof told, trained our mentor to
do.
We go in, we're at a newinstitution.
We host our listening sessions.
We schedule our introductions.
We're getting the lay of theland.
We're reviewing org charts.
We're reviewing budgets.
We're doing all of thosedifferent sorts of things.
(09:54):
And that is absolutely greatadvice.
And it is very important to do.
So I want to make sure that Iposition that this is not about
saying that those baseline,basic sorts of work tasks are
not important.
They are very much important.
But there's one piece that iscrucially missing.
And there's one piece that mostleaders, when they enter into a
(10:19):
new organization, a newinstitution, they do not do.
And this particular oversightcan absolutely derail
everything, right?
And you're probably wonderingwhat in the Is it, you know, I
did my listening tours.
I found out what people wanted.
I met people.
(10:39):
I met the students.
I've held a meeting to share myplan, all those different sorts
of things.
But there's one thing that manyleaders almost always skip.
And that is taking a moment tounderstand the culture in which
they are entering.
Understanding the culture inwhich you're entering.
(11:02):
Leadership transition is notjust about stepping into a role.
You need to understand thatyou're actually stepping into a
system.
And that system includes a webof lots of unspoken rules.
They can have legacy tensions.
There's some informal powerdynamics that could be at play
(11:26):
or that could be rubbing againstone another.
They're expectations that no onenames out loud, but the truth is
everyone feels.
And that's where I have seen themost prepared, strongest
leadership individuals actuallyderail, right?
They have all the parts of beinga really great leader and then
(11:51):
they step into an institution,they step into a culture and
they can't understand why thingsare kind of not functioning.
a specific way.
We make the assumption thatculture will eventually
introduce itself to us overtime.
And I think that is very, wecould say that everyone knows
there's a culture.
(12:11):
Everyone knows.
Like if I say, do you even knowthere's a culture at your
institution?
Absolutely.
That's not the question.
What is missing is taking thetime to understand that culture,
to evaluate the culture, toassess the culture, and to
understand what to do with it.
Information, the data that youreceive from doing those
particular steps and processes.
(12:32):
Culture is very interestingbecause it's a little silent
partner that's there working.
Oftentimes, not always in favorof the direction of what it is
that we are attempting orwanting to do.
It doesn't come and introduceitself to us.
It sits quietly.
Culture watches.
Culture waits.
(12:53):
And then it resists.
And a lot of times when we feelthat resistance, we are not
quite sure what's happening,what is it coming from.
And what we have to understandis that the resistance that the
culture does when it's pushingback on some of the work and
initiatives that we're planningon bringing into our new
(13:16):
institutions, our new roles, ournew initiatives, is not out of
spite to derail the work thatwe're trying to do, but it's out
of memory.
And if you ask me, what do Imean by out of memory?
It's out of memory of theinstitution of areas that have
never had an opportunity to kindof reflect, rebound itself, and
(13:42):
maybe heal itself.
So a lot of times the pushbackthat we receive is memory from
past harm, memory from brokentrust, and memory from unspoken
trauma that's running around.
throughout our institutions.
And what we don't account for,we may be solving problems or
(14:02):
we're going in with our agendas,we're going in with our 90-day
kickoffs and our specific sortsof initiatives that we're
excited about initiating andsharing and launching.
But It's very well possible dueto some of these culture issues
that no one's ready to receivethe work that we're ready to
bring in.
(14:22):
So we're ready to bring inreally good stuff and it could
be helpful, but we may have togo back and do some work till
the soil and make sureeveryone's ready to receive
that.
I'm going to leverage Dr.
Kimberly Crenshaw's quote.
She said, we all know that whenthere's no name for a problem,
you can't see a problem.
And when you can't see aproblem, you pretty much can't
(14:43):
solve it.
Now, she was using that quote ina really, really popular TED
talk of her intersectionality,where she was emphasizing the
crucial role of naming, offraming and addressing issues in
social justice.
Well, I'm going to use thatbecause I think it's the exact
same things.
If you walk into an institutionand you cannot identify the
(15:04):
culture, then you can't name it.
And if you can't name it, thenyou will not be able to lead it.
you will not be able to leadwithin it and you will not be
able to lead it in a newdirection.
So culture is so vitallyimportant and it's the aspect
that many of us as leaders, wedon't actually consciously think
(15:28):
of because in all of ourleadership development, our
leadership teaching, ourleadership training, just our
mentoring, that's not somethingthat is usually centered as the
forefront of the work that we doas academic leaders.
I believe that this is the firststep and this is the first
aspect of being able to moveforward effectively in an
(15:49):
institution in regards to therole that you're doing.
So let's start by defining whatis culture.
It's very important that weunderstand that culture is
basically the collectivepersonality of your institution.
our organization, right?
But we're talking about academicinstitutions.
The culture is not written downin the policies and it's not
(16:14):
posted on the website.
So that's the reason why ourgeneral approach to how we kind
of ascertain what's needed doesnot work when it comes to the
culture work.
Because it's not the things thatare written, it's not the things
that are published, it's not thethings, it's the stuff embedded
in how the people behave.
(16:35):
It's the things that areembedded in how decisions are
made.
It's the things that actuallyreally exhibit how power is
really distributed throughoutyour unit, your department, your
academic institution.
So culture actually, becauseit's not written in a place for
(16:58):
us to go kind of read and figureit out, it shows up in various
ways.
It shows up when people move inwhat is considered an acceptable
behavior for this institution.
This is how we do it here, orthis is the XYZ institution's
way, right?
The ABC University's way.
(17:18):
We say that a lot.
Culture also shows up in howconflict is handled or how
conflict is avoided entirely.
Culture shows up about whichtype of ideas are celebrated.
And which ones are ignored?
Culture shows up in regards towho gets invited into the
(17:40):
conversations and who'sconsistently left out of
conversations.
Culture shows up as what are theunwritten rules.
Culture shows up as who holdsthe informal influence.
And culture shows up in whatbehaviors are quietly rewarded,
(18:04):
are quietly punished.
Now, you can think of culture askind of this invisible current
that is beneath everything thatyou see.
So the culture is the invisiblepart.
And what we see is the climate,elements of the climate.
And we'll speak more about thedifference between culture and
(18:25):
climate throughout this podcast.
But the climate is basically thecomponents that you do see.
The things that you can seethrough your senses, through
your sight, your smell, yourhearing, all of those different
sorts of things, right?
So a lot of times when we aretrying to identify culture, we
actually are looking at wrongaspects of the organization.
(18:46):
So the culture is not themission statement that's written
on the website or written in ourinstitutions.
It's rather people believe themission statement.
It's rather, do our stakeholderslive the mission statement?
That's the difference inculture.
(19:07):
Culture is not the org chart,right?
It's not the org chart.
It's not the budgetspreadsheets.
It's not any of those things.
But culture is who are thepeople and where do the people
actually go when they need toget something done?
So the org chart says, here'sthe organizational structure,
but where do people actually gowhen it's time to get things
(19:29):
done?
Culture is not just the statedvalues, but it's how these
values show up under pressure.
So here's the kicker.
Culture determines whether yourleadership will land and stick,
or it can also determine whetheror not your leadership will get
lost in the resistance.
(19:50):
If you're unaware of the culturethat you're stepping into, you
might mistake different cues andmisread them.
You might mistake silence forsupport when that silence means
something very different.
You might interpret complianceas buy-in when that compliance
(20:11):
means something very different.
And this is the reason why Ibelieve culture isn't just a
side note in leadership.
it is actually the main stage.
Everything that you do, yourvision, your priorities, your
strategies, everything you doplays out on this main stage.
Culture isn't what you say aboutthe institution.
(20:34):
It's about what the institutionshows you when no one is
actually performing.
It is what is said after thehoneymoon period.
So you may be asking yourself,okay, how do I figure out What
are the components of culturethat is important for me to be
able to identify to think abouthow to move forward?
(20:57):
So there's four primary pillarsof organizational culture.
I call them the four P's oforganizational culture.
And those four P's for me arepeople, place, process, and
power.
I'm going to do a quick overviewof each one of them here.
But in future episodes, I willbe speaking about each one in
(21:17):
depth.
So let's start with people, thefirst P.
People, every thrivinginstitution begins and ends with
this people.
Okay.
Now for us, people is a,represents a diversity of
stakeholders.
It includes our faculty, ourstaff, our students, our alumni,
external partners, our donors,our, you know, community
(21:37):
partners is such a plethora ofindividuals that are part of our
people component of the fourpiece of culture.
This diversity as richness toour culture, which is why our
institutions are so vastly richin this particular area.
However, All of that diversityand richness also can introduce
complexity.
(21:58):
And without intentionality, thiscomplexity can lead to
misalignment andmisunderstandings and
fragmentation.
Leaders must recognize that thecollective attitudes, behaviors,
and values of their peopledirectly influence their success
and or stagnation in leadership.
So your people, like when Istart this particular word,
(22:19):
start with people because it'sthe most valuable and most
priceless aspect of ourorganization.
OK, so the second P is place.
So usually when we think aboutplace, we're thinking about the
physical environment of theacademic institution, which
serves as a representation ofits culture and values.
Now, I think about place inaddition to that a little bit
(22:41):
different.
I think that place also is arepresentation of the identity
of the institution shaped by itshistory.
It's geography.
It's community.
It's unspoken norms.
It's all of those things thatcome together that represents
and creates place or space.
is more than just our physicallocation.
It's basically our institutionalstoryline.
(23:03):
It tells the story of what thisinstitution has been through.
It tells the story of what thisinstitution is proud of.
It tells the story of what thisinstitution may be trying to
hide.
And it tells itself how does itposition itself in the community
or the region as far as beingable to support other aspects of
our others in our communityregion organization.
(23:23):
Each institution has its ownscars and its symbols.
And leaders, we have tounderstand that, right?
And at CCBD, we believe thatplace is where the past
narratives shape presentdynamics.
And when misaligned with missionand leadership strategy, then
place becomes a silent barrier.
And when that is understood,then it becomes a powerful lever
(23:44):
for change.
So in addition to understandingthe histories and the kind of
values that undergird theinstitution, yeah, Also, the
physical aspects, like whatbarriers are keeping our people
from being able to absolutely beable to thrive in the work that
they do, how maybe place issupporting or hindering that.
(24:05):
OK, now process is how workactually gets done.
This is not just aboutdocumentation, but this is also
about how the work isexperienced.
Right.
So we think about process,especially in academic
institutions, we have agazillion processes.
So let's use tenure as anexample.
There's a slew of processes,microprocesses that has to get a
(24:27):
person from point A to point Zthrough the tenure process.
But in addition to that, whenwe're thinking about the
organizational culture, it's notjust like, did you follow the
steps from point A to point Z,but how did you experience those
particular steps and whatoccurred along the way of that?
So at CCBD, we define process asboth formal and informal
(24:48):
systems, workflows, routines,decision-making pathways that
shape daily operations.
So process for us, it's not justabout what's in the handbook.
It's not that, but it's also whogets included in the
decision-making process and howdoes information flow?
Or how does it not flow?
And then what steps are skippedand why?
(25:09):
And then where is it that peopleare creating workarounds because
the system's not actuallyworking very well?
Now, process revealsmisalignment between intent and
implementation.
So oftentimes when I'm workingwith organizations or
institutions, and when I'mcoming in to do a problem solve,
I promise you probably 95% ofthe time we stop and it's
(25:33):
usually a process problem.
Even though it appears to be myfaculty are not getting along
with one another, it really isnot that.
That's the surface, but theculture piece that's underneath
that just running as maybe somebreakdown and communication
processes, a breakdown in how weleverage the strengths of one
another in our faculty, amongour faculty members.
(25:55):
So the last P is one that wedon't talk about often, but it's
actually one of the mostimportant P's.
And that P stands for power.
So power is not just about whoholds titles.
And that's important to knowthat power is also about who
holds the influence.
At CCBD, we define power aspower.
both visible and invisiblestructures that determine who
(26:18):
has voice, who has agency, whohas access, who has authority
within the institution.
It includes both formalhierarchies and informal
dynamics.
So yes, we do have power thatare positional power, right?
Someone has a position, all ofyou listening, most of you
listening.
If you're an academic leader,you have positional power
(26:38):
because of your title as anacademic leader.
But what we do not focus on arethose informal power dynamics
that are always moving andalways showing up.
So power actually shows up andwho gets to say without
explanation, who gets to say nowithout explanation, having to
explain themselves, who canspeak up without retaliation,
(27:00):
whose concerns are consistentlyprioritized and whose are
ignored, and then what decisionsget made in a room and who gets
to decide on those particulardecisions and who gets to decide
when those decisions areimplemented and then the things
that we need to do.
What we need to understand,power is always present.
But power is something that youdon't see.
(27:21):
It doesn't mean that because wecan't see it, that it's not
operating.
It just means that it'soperating without our awareness.
For many of us as academicleaders, some of our staff
members have an immense amountof power in the organization and
understanding that.
And then how do we support andleverage that for the good of
(27:42):
the work that we're trying todo?
For leaders, ignoring power doesnot make you neutral.
It just makes you vulnerable.
So it's very important tounderstand power and power
dynamics.
One of the things I do when Iwork with organizations, we do
some stakeholder mapping andthen looking at how to map out
power dynamics that are movingwithin the organization.
It's just important to know andunderstand.
(28:03):
And that is why culturalresponsive leadership requires
noticing, naming, and navigatingpower with intention.
All right, so that's a briefoverview of the four Ps.
As I mentioned, we'll go throughthem more over the next few
weeks or so.
But I want to kind of, as westart to close up a little bit,
I want to talk about whathappens when we ignore culture.
(28:26):
So what happens when we ignoreculture?
I think the best way to do thisis actually share with you a
story about a client that I hadbeen working with.
And maybe some parts of herstory will resonate with you as
to kind of where some of themissteps were that she took in
when she moved into her newinstitution.
So I was working with thisbrilliant, brilliant vice
(28:48):
provost.
She was sharp, visionary, witty.
And deeply committed to equityand innovation.
So she had accepted a new roleat her new institution.
So both the role was new and theinstitutional environment was
new for her.
She stepped into her role.
She had a clear plan.
She had bold ideas.
And within her first semester,she had launched three major
(29:09):
initiatives.
All of them were rooted in thebest practices.
All of them were aligned withthe mission and vision of the
institution.
All of them would have beendefinitely considered
value-added projects to theinstitution.
Yet none of them seemed to gaintraction and she couldn't figure
out why it felt like she waskind of a little bit in
quicksand is how she describedit to me.
(29:31):
She felt like she kept runninginto resistance, particularly in
areas that she did not expect tobe running into resistance.
So we began our collaborativework together to try to unpack
and figure out what was goingon.
What I learned is that althoughas she was rolling out these
initiatives, she had key facultythat would opt out and a lot of
these key faculty had a lot ofpower.
(29:52):
So, of course, it was creating adomino effect of some things.
She had a lot of staff thatstarted canceling meetings
rather than do the tasks thatwere charged to them in those
specific committees.
And overall, the momentum juststalled, right?
She was excited.
She was new.
She was launching this in herfirst 90 days.
So it's very important tounderstand it's not because our
(30:12):
ideas were flawed.
Actually, when I reviewed theprojects that she was
initiating, they were flawed.
Excellent project.
So this is not about her or theprojects itself or the
initiatives themselves.
But after a little bit oftalking, what we realized is
that she missed some of theculture cues that were in the
(30:34):
institution.
Now, she did what we usually do.
She came in.
She did her discoveryinterviews.
She did her informationalsessions.
She did all of those sorts ofthings.
But those sorts of things,unless they are crafted to
actually get to the cultureissues, you're not going to
actually walk away with the datathat you would need to know.
And that's what happened to her.
What she learned once we kind ofwent back and we did kind of a
(30:56):
little four-piece audit so wecan kind of see what was going
on.
What we learned is that the unitthat she was actually trying to
implement one of theseinitiatives into, had a history
of a very top-downdecision-making process that
left many people feeling veryguarded.
So now here's the new person intown bringing in a new process.
Here we go again, right?
(31:16):
So there was a lot of brokentrust that was there.
The other issue around thefaculty, what we learned is that
the faculty had learned overtime that even though they were
asked for input, input did notmean influence.
So now it was kind of, onceagain, a broken trust of like,
you're asking me for my inputbecause she's a very much of a
collective people-centered typeof leader, right?
(31:38):
But that was very different fromthe culture that they were used
to.
And the third thing which youlearned is that the previous
vice provost had exited the, orleft the university during a
time of an unresolved conflictthat left a lot of trust
fractured and unspoken tensionin the air.
So it was a situation that neverkind of closed out itself.
(31:59):
So here she was, right?
In this particular situation,technically she was right,
right?
Ideally, her plans were rightand her process in many ways was
right, except she missed onestep.
And that one step was that theculture was misaligned with the
vision that she had for what shewanted to do and what they were
(32:20):
ready for and so in leadershipwhen this happens I call it a
gap right there's a gap betweenthe expectation of what is to
be, and then the actualimplementation of what we did.
So in this particular case withthis particular colleague and
client, we conducted a minifour-piece audit.
We broke down those differentcomponents.
(32:41):
We looked at people, place,process, and power, figure out
how can we realign to realignher success.
From there, we realized we hadto do a little bit of repair
work, right?
So in repair work, we had tofigure out some ways to try to
quickly build trust.
Now, that don't mean wecompletely build trust, but at
least the of the need to buildtrust goes a long way when it's
broken trust.
We reframed a few of theinitiatives to better suit the
(33:05):
faculty and staff where theywere at this moment.
So still moving forward with theinitiative, but reframe that
initiative a little bit.
And ultimately, we relaunched anew 90-day plan grounded in
clarity and aligned now withinformation we learned from the
four Ps.
And so I'll talk about this alittle bit later that you can
launch a 90-day launch anytimeyou want to.
Sometimes people go, oh, I'vemissed my window.
(33:26):
Nope, you can launch it anytimeyou want to, right?
So this kind of organizationalchange work that my client and I
did, it's not easy work becausewe're dealing with people, we're
dealing with human beings, We'redealing with some of the times
the workplace trauma and thosesorts of things is never easy
work, but it becomes far moremanageable when you have a clear
framework of how to guide thatparticular process.
(33:46):
And that is the reason why Icreated the four P's like
thinking about organizationalculture, goodness,
organizational culture.
That's, feels massive just tosay it.
What is the organizationalculture?
What's making it up?
What's occurring?
What's happening in thatorganizational culture?
But if we can take thatorganizational culture and have
a lens of looking at it throughthe four Ps, let's first right
now look at the people, thenlet's look at place, process,
(34:07):
and power.
And we look at these thingsindependently and then we look
at interdependently of oneanother because at the end of
the day, they are interdependentof one another.
As we know, I think I'm notsharing anything with you that
you don't know, that leadershipisn't just about launching the
initiatives.
It really is about understandingthe emotional and historical
landscape of where you arelanding in, where you're
(34:31):
entering in, maybe where you'retransitioning to.
And for those of you who are atyour same institution, this can
still happen, especially now inthe past.
few months as to what we've beenexperiencing.
A lot of our institutions haveshifted and they're different
institutions, right?
And so it's the same sort ofthing.
We've got to survey thelandscape and understand kind of
(34:51):
how these four components arefunctioning within the
organization.
Please remember the culturedoesn't block progress out of
spite.
We talked about it a little bitearly, like the culture is not
there trying to intentionallyblock the progress.
The culture is there to actuallykind of protect them in some
ways, the memory of what is,what is occurring, even though a
lot of times it's notfunctioning in a healthy way.
(35:13):
So it resists based on this bad,past workplace harm, unresolved
conflict, unspoken trauma.
And until those patterns areacknowledged or even the best
strategies won't take root.
So if you don't account forthat, you may be solving
problems that people are justnot quite ready for you to solve
(35:35):
because they are entrenched insome of these things that are
driven by the culture.
The culture is very, verystrong.
So you know when we are hiring anew member into our academic
community, whether it's afaculty member, a staff member,
or a new leader, We usuallyapproach these searches with
(35:58):
such great high hopes and suchgreat excitement and joy, not
just about the person coming tobe a part of our community, but
for the hope of the change, weare excited that we believe this
person is going to bring to ourcommunity.
Now, I'm stepping away from theideas of what kind of
initiatives and skillset.
(36:19):
I'm not talking about that.
I'm talking about nownecessarily thinking about
behavior and aspects ofcommunity development and those
different sorts of things.
And so oftentimes when we havethis great hope, inadvertently,
we've kind of have looked atourselves as a collective and
said, this is the type of personthat we need.
(36:41):
And this person is going to helpelevate us or take us to the
next level or help us fulfillthis particular void and
position that we have.
And in many ways, what we'resaying is that we're identifying
a person who may not have thethings that doesn't have the
things that we have because wevalue what they have.
And we understand we need whatthey have in our community, in
(37:03):
our organization.
I I don't necessarily know ifthis is spoken out loud, but I
just think that, you know, deepdown we kind of sometimes have
this particular expectation ofour newcomers that are coming
into our community.
So anyway, we hire a person, ourindividual, and then we are so
thrilled.
We do the fanfare of welcomingthem to our institution.
(37:25):
We are so thrilled of thenewness that they're bringing,
so excited about all of thosedifferent sort of components.
And then we may take a lookseveral months down the road or
a year or so down the road.
And then we look and we realizethat that colleague now looks a
lot like the rest of us, right?
And what I mean by that is thatthose types of behaviors that
(37:48):
we've probably identified aslike, we want less of this,
which is what we have, and wewant more of that, that this
individual will be bringing intothe organization.
And then suddenly we look andsay, what happened?
They look like the rest of us.
So my friends, this is a perfectexample.
(38:10):
of the power of culture.
Culture is so strong.
The culture of the institutionserves like a magnetic force and
is actually pulling everythingtowards it, right?
And many times, the reason whythings get so misaligned when it
comes to the culture of theinstitutions because we have not
(38:31):
taken a moment to stop tounderstand that, hey, there's
this gravitating force that isworking really underneath the
surface and it is charging andit is guiding and it's pushing
or pulling, it's resisting, it'ssupporting, whatever, everything
(38:52):
that is occurring on thatcollege campus.
So when you enter into a newposition or a new role, or if
you enter into a, maybe you'renot even new in a position or
role, but you have been leadinga role for quite a while, but
take a moment and look andexamine the culture.
(39:12):
Every institution not only has asingular culture, right?
We have a primary culture as theinstitution, but every
department has a culture.
Every unit has a culture.
When you start breaking downinto committees, a certain
committee can have a culture.
And this makes sense if youthink about why Department X can
(39:32):
look very different thanDepartment Y and they're on the
same campus.
Or Committee X can functionsvery differently than committee
y and they are in the samedepartment because culture is
made up of people place processand power and all those
different dynamics shiftedcreate those dynamical
(39:53):
differences so the institutionhas a culture of its own all the
different there's differentmicro cultures that are moving
around on the campus and manytimes leaders have don't
understand the need to do thework to assess and understand
the culture in which they areleading.
So being able to do that type ofassessment is vitally important.
(40:16):
But more important is once youdo the assessment, the
understanding of what to do withthe information and the data
that you collected is vital.
It's even more important on howto move forward in a very
strategic and meaningful way.
Those leaders who are able toconnect their mission and their
(40:39):
vision and align it well withthe culture and then also
understand aspects of theculture that may need more
support or may need somehealing, may need some
development, then those leaderswho are able to piece those
components together, boy, theydo really well in adjusting to
(41:00):
the different cultures in whichthey are navigating.
So culture is vitally, vitally,vitally important.
And culture is the primarysource of understanding what is
occurring in your workspaces.
In conclusion, here's somethingI want you to remember.
Culture is like your invisibleco-pilot in the work you do in
(41:22):
your leadership role.
It's like your silent partner.
If you ignore it, it can quietlysteer your efforts off course.
But if you can see it clearly,and understand it clearly, you
can lead with strength and moreimportantly, lead with strategy.
So whether you just stepped intoa new leadership role or you
(41:42):
have been in your position for awhile, I strongly recommend
starting with a four-piece scanof your organization.
Why?
Because leadership isn't justabout the work you plan to do.
It's about understanding what isalready in motion.
And culture, my friends, havebeen in motion at your
institution for a very, verylong time.
(42:06):
So by evaluating the four P's,people, place, process, and
power, it will help you uncoverthe hidden dynamics, the culture
patterns, the operational gapsthat can either support or
sabotage your leadershipefforts.
So before you set a new vision,before you launch a new
initiative, before yourestructure a team, take time to
(42:29):
assess what it is that you'rewalking into.
Take time to understand theculture in which you are going
to be a part of.
A four-piece scan gives youclarity on how to lead with
alignment and not just leadthrough ambition.
So for you, I've included a fourpiece reflective worksheet to
(42:51):
help you get started.
So if you're listening to thispodcast through a traditional
podcast platform, you will findthe link in the show notes.
If you're listening via ourLinkedIn lead with you podcast
newsletter, it's available toyou in the content area.
Now, please note, a trueorganizational scan is much more
(43:11):
extensive than this worksheet,but this worksheet includes a
few key prompts to help you tobegin thinking critically and
more strategically about theenvironment that you're leading.
It's just going to help youstart understanding the types of
questions that you should beasking as you continue to do
this work.
So I hope this worksheet reallydoes help and support you.
(43:33):
And also for those of you whomay be new in transition, or
once again, you aretransitioning into a new
initiative or a new program,feel free to check out our new
Ascent Leadership TransitionalProgram at www.ccbydesign.org.
Backslash Ascent, A-S-C-E-N-T.
(43:55):
And there's lots of differentways in which we can support you
in resetting your leadershippath and being able to support
you to make sure that you launchwith a really great leadership
support and understanding theculture that you're in.
I have thoroughly enjoyed beingwith you today, and I hope that
you have enjoyed this episode ofLead With You.
If it did resonate with you,please be sure to subscribe,
(44:18):
leave a review, And moreimportantly, maybe share it with
a colleague who may benavigating some leadership
challenges in higher education.
Now, until next time, lead withclarity, lead with courage, and
always lead with you.
All righty.
Have a great day.
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