Highlights from the 2019
Because Higher Ed Is Different
Virtual Conference
March 18-19, 2019
This conference began a connected series of conversations for coaches, consultants, faculty, administrators, and others interested in developing a better understanding of academia and in working together to address the growing needs and challenges in higher ed.
Higher education has evolved across centuries into a complex system and culture that produces knowledge, competencies, citizens, and leaders that significantly impact our world. This conference was one of Firerook’s initiatives aimed at articulating key ways that higher ed is different and the strategies, tools, and resources that produce effective leadership and change within academia.
By drawing on the perspective of those who resource higher ed – coaches, consultants, journalists and other external change agents; and faculty, staff, students, and administrators as internal change agents – we envision a positive future for higher education and we develop our collective ability to achieve this future.
- Connecting conversations: emergent topics based on the expertise and experience of participants
- Dissemination of knowledge and expertise: identifying core information and analytical frameworks necessary for making change in academia
- Collaborative development: moving toward new collective knowledge and understanding
Objectives
The Because Higher Ed Is Different conversation is intended to…
- Identify the conditions, challenges, and opportunities that currently define and differentiate higher education
- Develop our understanding of the complex elements within higher ed – and the varied external factors influencing higher ed
- Develop our vision for a positive future for higher ed organizations, identifying strategic possibilities and strengths
- Explore how the roles of external coach and consultant offer meaningful support to the future of higher ed
- Resource ourselves with expert framings, effective strategies, cautionary tales, and inspiration
Why do we need this conversation?
Leadership development in higher education must be based in an understanding of distributed leadership models and shared faculty governance, achievement base primarily on intrinsic motivation, decentralized structures and complicated hierarchies, lack of role definition and minimal investments in leadership training, and assumptions that formal leadership roles represent the “dark side” of academia.
Organizational consulting in higher education must take into account tensions between academic and business roles, the independent contractor status of faculty and the siloed nature of disciplines and departments, the significance of diversity efforts to the academic mission, the “meta-profession” reality of faculty careers, and the complex stakeholder structure that must encompass students, faculty, staff, alumni, parents, funding agencies, government, the general public, and more.
Collaborations between external and internal change agents must overcome the insular nature of academic culture, the distrust of external attempts to apply “cookie-cutter” solutions to idiosyncratic environments, and too few opportunities or structures to facilitate these collaborations.
The Because Higher Ed is Different conversation seeks to increase our collective knowledge of these conditions, promote this collaboration, and develop practical tools, skills, and strategies to serve the development and success of higher education.
Who should join the conversation?
- People whose professional identity focuses on:
- Leadership development in higher ed
- Faculty development in higher ed
- Organizational development in higher ed
- The overall success and well-being of colleges and universities
- Coaches, consultants, and faculty development experts with deep experience in higher ed
- Faculty and higher ed administrators interested in coaching, consulting, or some other version of translating their skills, knowledge, research, etc. into practical resources for colleges and universities
- Scholars who study higher ed and are interested in translating higher ed research and scholarship into practice
- Others interested in learning more about higher ed (faculty, staff, administrators, graduate students, and coaches/consultants from other sectors)