The road to collaboration is paved with complexity. We forget that sitting on teams, driving toward improved processes and structures, fantastic new programs and initiatives, are real people with real emotional ties to the work being done. This can lead to unconscious conflict that impedes growth and progress. This week on Navigating Change, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright discuss the opportunities and pitfalls inherent in building strong teams and offer suggestions for cultivating a progressive a...
Jun 30, 2014•16 min•Ep. 60
Howard Teibel has joined the speaker line-up of this year’s NACUBO New Business Officers Program with his presentation, “Leading, Managing, and Surviving Change.” In this week’s episode of Navigating Change, Howard and Pete Wright explore the program and NACUBO’s aim to help those new to the CBO role develop skills they’ll need to lead in today’s institution. The role of the chief business officer is evolving. New demands for the CBO call for involvement across the institution to influence and d...
Jun 23, 2014•17 min•Ep. 59
Following up on our conversation with Deborah Sunya Moore from The Chautauqua Institution last week, we’re picking up this conversation around the constant balancing act between building and celebrating a strong culture, and innovating in new areas and directions. The big question: no matter how much we personally celebrate the importance of change, how do you cultivate a culture of change when members of your community do not share your beliefs? This week on the show, Howard Teibel and Pete Wri...
Jun 16, 2014•14 min•Ep. 58
Taking on new challenges forces us to re-evaluate existing processes in new ways. This shake-up can introduce discomfort and confusion, par for the course in a change initiative, ultimately all for the reward of greater efficiency, productivity, and affinity. These challenges are magnified when your institution boasts a legacy over 100 years strong. Our guest, Deborah Sunya Moore, serves as associate director of programming with The Chautauqua Institution, an arts and education community in New ...
Jun 09, 2014•31 min•Ep. 57
We’ve devoted many hours of this show to the role of the business officer of the institution. But today’s guest reminds us that there is great opportunity to guide and support the institution from the individual academic or departmental units. American Management Institute director Fred Rogers has spent the last 21 years working with this body of finance experts in association with EACUBO and Cornell University, building professional development programs that celebrate the great potential of uni...
Jun 02, 2014•21 min•Ep. 56
Fresh from his time with the National Association for Education Procurement, Howard Teibel returns to share his impressions of the 2014 annual meeting. Procurement professionals are in a unique position, with the opportunity to move from the legacy transactional function to being seen as a key strategic partner in administration. But strategy is a new discipline. This week on the show, Howard Teibel joins Pete Wright to share his insights from NAEP, and shares his thoughts for procurement profes...
May 26, 2014•19 min•Ep. 55
In episode 52, we discussed the role of a clear mission and vision to the strategic planning process. But we left that conversation feeling unresolved — how do you take your mission and vision and translate it into goals and objectives that move the institution forward each day? This week on the show, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright discuss the nature of organizational goal-setting, and how to engage the institution in a process to translate the mission into daily activities that encourage growth ...
May 19, 2014•18 min•Ep. 54
The WACUBO 2014 Annual Meeting has just wrapped in Las Vegas, and Howard returns with his thoughts, reflections, and connections. Encounters with Sal Khan of The Khan Academy and Professor Robert Zemsky of University of Pennsylvania highlight the trip, with a discussion of shifting models of core delivery that challenge higher education administrators and faculty alike. The bottom line: administrators are increasingly charged to both lead and support faculty with a push into a new era of service...
May 12, 2014•21 min•Ep. 53
Done right, and your mission, vision, and values statements can become beacons in your institution’s drive toward a powerful strategic plan. Done wrong, it ends up a in a dusty binder buried deep in a drawer. This week on Navigating Change, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright discussion the nature and importance of your mission and vision statements to the strategic plan, and offer insights for development and structure that will help your teams understand and rally behind your direction.
May 05, 2014•28 min•Ep. 52
According to our guest Kelly Fox, Senior Vice Chancellor and CFO from University of Colorado at Boulder, communicating effectively is not just about making sure the leadership team is up to speed. It’s about positioning the most important messages of the institution in the most compelling light for every constituent audience, internal and external. This week on the show, Kelly joins Howard Teibel and Pete Wright to share her insights in effective communication, as Howard and Kelly prepare for th...
Apr 28, 2014•13 min•Ep. 51
In a recent editorial for the Chronicle of Higher Ed , Jeff Selingo offers his perspective on the gap between traditional education and new models of learning cropping up across the field. According to Selingo, "Traditional higher education tends to dismiss new entrants to the field in the belief that a college’s brand name resonates with consumers. In an age of democratized education, when learning happens everywhere, any day, throughout a person’s life, having a good brand name is no longer go...
Apr 21, 2014•19 min•Ep. 50
A recent news item cropped up in the Chronicle pointing to a brewing rift between administrators and faculty over a transition to a shared services model. We’ve discussed shared services often on this show, both as a challenge for change agents and an accommodation toward financial sustainability. This week on the show, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright discuss the issues surrounding shared service model specifically, and offer insights for making the transition in a way that helps all constitutes m...
Apr 14, 2014•15 min•Ep. 49
According to our special guest Greg Lovins, communication is not always easy for business officers to do. As vice chancellor for business affairs at Appalachian State University, Greg and his team are responsible to ensure the institution is equipped with the information they need to collectively make smart decisions and keen investments. Ensuring buy-in and collaboration among key constituencies is a challenge for the very best communicators, but when the message is loaded with complexity and o...
Apr 07, 2014•16 min•Ep. 48
In “With Clarity for All,” Gail Gregory and Howard Teibel share the results of their work with leaders from Emory University, Caldwell College, and Carnegie Mellon University as they work to bridge three key leadership groups: faculty, administration, and the board. The solutions they uncovers illustrate that today’s successful CBOs are finding the common themes of mutual respect, common language, and collaboration to be key in meeting those challenges head on. This week on the show, Howard and ...
Apr 07, 2014•15 min•Ep. 47
In his article, “ Financially Strapped Colleges Grow More Vulnerable as Economic Recovery Lags ,” Mark Keierleber documents the changing tide of financial resolutions that some institutions are leveraging to stem losses. In it, we see institutions resorting to staff and faculty layoffs — a relatively recent occurrence that impacts not just the short-term financial sustainability of the institution, but the culture as well. This week on the show, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright talk about this tren...
Mar 31, 2014•26 min•Ep. 46
Our special guest Andrew Menke serves as head of New Hampton School, an independent school with a nearly 200-year legacy in New Hampton, New Hampshire. The school is a model of “talent and shared purpose,” according to Menke, and he’s leading a cooperative of administrators, faculty, and staff working hard to reshape an education landscape. This week on the show, Andrew joins Howard Teibel and Pete Wright for a conversation spanning the nature of transformation in complex systems to broad commun...
Mar 24, 2014•26 min•Ep. 45
If we're going to take on new challenges across our institutions, we have to get better at making decisions as a team. In our experience, making decisions that leverage shared experience and creativity, while not getting mired in process and politics, is one of the key best practice differentiators of highly effective organizations. Howard Teibel will be joining the EACUBO New York Area Programming Committee for their Spring Program on May 28. This week on the show, Howard and Pete Wright share ...
Mar 16, 2014•16 min•Ep. 44
We’re preparing for the EACUBO 2014 Annual Workshop in just a few weeks, and to help us out, we’re joined by guest Roger Stackpoole, Vice President of Finance & Administration at Le Moyne College. Roger and Howard Teibel will be presenting “Reaching Across the Aisle — CFO and CAO Strategic Partnership,” in which they offer insights and observations on cultivating a spirit of collaboration and cooperation between academic and business leadership. This week on the show, Howard and Roger set th...
Mar 10, 2014•21 min•Ep. 43
On Monday, March 3, Howard Teibel will be facilitating a conversation with Amanda Ripley, an author of the Time cover story Reinventing Higher Education and Roger Stackpoole, Vice President of Finance & Administration of LeMoyne College. This week on Navigating Change, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright offer a preview of that conversation and share insights from Teibel's experience enabling teams to engage in big ideas with a keen eye on fiscal sustainability.
Feb 24, 2014•17 min•Ep. 42
Academics represents the heart and soul of the mission of a great institution. And yet, even in service of that mission, the best chief academic officers understand the constraints defined by financial realities. This week on the show, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright discuss traits and characteristics of the best CAOs, and share insights on the spirit of academic collaboration that serves the mission in challenging times.
Feb 17, 2014•15 min•Ep. 41
The relationship between the CBO and the institution is a powerful one. But making the transition between the role of manger to leader becomes representative of the responsibility of the role to the institution beyond the business office. This week on the show, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright discuss the traits of good business officers, and look at how the great ones challenge assumptions and become leaders of strategy.
Feb 10, 2014•18 min•Ep. 40
In our efforts to help institutions lead change, we’re often placed in a position of helping chief business officers to sell change initiatives based on — sometimes harsh — financial realities. But arguing strategic direction based exclusively on financial modeling risks alienating your most critical strategic partners in administration. This week on the show, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright discuss the role of finance in strategy, and how finance leaders can move their initiatives forward with an...
Feb 03, 2014•22 min•Ep. 39
Becoming a leader of change is about far more than effective project management skill. It’s a unique and delicate art that must balance the processes that support complex organizational systems with the diplomacy to unite groups around big initiatives. This week on the show, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright share thoughts on becoming Leaders of Change as Howard prepares for his presentation on this subject at the National Business Officers Association Annual Meeting this March in Orlando ....
Jan 27, 2014•16 min•Ep. 38
The result of bringing together terrific individuals into a team can be a fantastic, productive foray into high calibre collaboration. Over time, we see formerly high capacity teams begin to fray at the edges, and defining clear standards and expectations both inside the team, and across teams and departments, can help to offset challenges. This week on Navigating Change, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright discuss the frustrations that come with accountability, standards, and managing clear expectati...
Jan 20, 2014•20 min•Ep. 37
It’s 2014 and we’re slowly coming back to work after a break. But what are we returning to? Today’s headlines on the Chronicle of Higher Ed report backlash against presidents making too much money and the way that information is reported to donors, tough odds on tenure-track jobs, and a New Year’s Eve piece at NPR excoriates online education — a tool for some institutions to revitalize excitement — and enrollment — in their programs. But the nature of change is challenge, and there is much to lo...
Jan 06, 2014•25 min•Ep. 36
Working with a consultant on your change initiatives — internal or external — requires a shared understanding of expectations. But more important is a clear understanding of what it is you need your consulting partner to deliver. This week on Navigating Change, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright discuss the role of the consultant, the importance of "hired experience," and what it means to partner with an outsider when your internal environment is one of significant complexity.
Dec 16, 2013•24 min•Ep. 35
Transformation is a powerful word, one we're tempted to use across our catalog of projects designed to produce change in our teams or organizations. But precision of language counts in our change projects, especially when it comes to setting expectations for teams that are going to be impacted the most. This week on Navigating Change, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright talk transformation, and the developmental, transitional, and transformational change we seek.
Dec 02, 2013•22 min•Ep. 34
Decision-making is a difficult skill for any team, but at the senior leadership or board level, making difficult decisions brings with it the weight of the institution. This week on the show Howard Teibel and Pete Wright discuss the perils of difficult decisions in an industry in great flux, and offer suggestions on how you can diagnose whether your team is tackling the right issues for your organization at the right time.
Nov 18, 2013•22 min•Ep. 33
When we're faced with jarring change — new role, new boss, merged organizations — we are often dealt with a complex individual emotional response. That response is magnified when it comes to team performance, but often for all the wrong reasons. This week on Navigating Change, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright take on the anxiety that comes with big change, and discuss how team responses can impact the transformation you're striving for....
Nov 11, 2013•23 min•Ep. 32
Howard is back from Baltimore and this week we're talking EACUBO! Administrators and business officers are continuing to grasp with radical change inside and outside our institutions. This week on the show, Howard Teibel and Pete Wright discuss the EACUBO event in Baltimore and share insights and lessons learned from his work as presenter and facilitator this year....
Oct 28, 2013•23 min•Ep. 31
