Dr. Karlyn Crowley:
One of the things that I think leaders often aren’t honest about, our failures are places of great distress or when things start to go off the rails or go wrong, right? For us, we were talking about a course enrollment policy, and I underestimated the degree to which that would feel deeply, deeply personal for every faculty member, because I’m also thinking about the institutional needs and the student success needs and the financial needs, right? So I’m thinking about all these other things, but in fact, the temperature got too high. And so by slowing that down, it means that now faculty will take some more time. ’cause I had an , I had a timeline that was going to help us schedule differently. So now we will take longer, but faculty will have more conversations with their departments, with their divisional chairs about what course enrollment caps and minimum enrollments would be workable for them as we figure out a policy together. Um , so it’s slowing down, gosh, six to nine months, and that, that’s just a judgment call I made. And this is what all leaders in higher ed, these calls they’re making every second of the day, which ones will actually seriously hurt a community? And which ones can you slow down because other things are more important. And right now, we’re getting ready soon to move into strategic planning, and that’s far more important.
Joe Gottlieb:
That’s Karlyn Crowley, provost at Ohio Wesleyan University, talking about just one of many instances, or adaptive leadership is helping her to win trust and accomplish change. We talked about leadership cheat codes and how to use them, challenges encountered along the way and lessons learned in the process. We also talked about horses and soup. I hope you enjoy our conversation. Welcome to TRANSFORMED a higher digital podcast focused on the new why’s, the new what’s, and the new how’s in higher ed. In each episode, you will experience hosts and guests pulling for the resurgence of higher ed, while identifying and discussing the best practices needed to accomplish that resurgence. Culture, strategy and tactics, planning and execution, people, process and technology. It’s all on the menu because that’s what’s required to truly transform. Hello, welcome and thanks for joining us for another episode of TRANSFORMED. My name is Joe Gottlieb, president and CTO of Higher Digital, and today I’m joined by Dr. Karlyn Crowley, provost at Ohio Wesleyan University. Karlyn, welcome to TRANSFORMED.
Dr. Karlyn Crowley:
Thanks, Joe. Happy to be here. What do you wanna talk about?
Joe Gottlieb:
Well, I’m glad you asked Karlyn. I want to talk about your thoughts on adaptive change, leadership, how to win trust and accomplish change. But first I’d love you to share a little bit about your personal background and how you really got connected to the work that you do in higher ed.
Dr. Karlyn Crowley:
Uh , thank you, Joe. Well, I didn’t set out to be a baby academic or an administrative leader. And when I interview faculty, I say to them, and, and I’m pointing to my heart and not my head. I do hand gestures and I say, why do you find joy in what you do? And why? Why do you love what you love? And I state a potential faculty candidate. It can be a story from your childhood. If you feel like sharing , um, let me know. And so I’m going to do the same for myself, which is the reason I’m a provost is really because of horses. So when I was little, I fell in love with horses. It was my first love. And the librarian at the school library said, Karlyn, you’ve read every book on horses. There are none left. And so it was the first time, and I have done , I, you know , uh, I’m still a teacher as a provost in that I frame my leadership as teaching, right? All high , all good higher ed leaders, in my opinion, are always teachers. And I discovered a passion for , um, being obsessed with a thing, which if you talk to any faculty member or students who fall in love with something, they will tell you about an early love or obsession. Maybe it was astronomy, maybe it was the dictionary. Maybe it was something related to anthropology. I also, because of horses , started a horseback riding school with somebody else and became a teacher. That was how I first fell in love with teaching. And I also , um, then really wanted to go to the Olympics. Uh, I was the two time Indiana state dressage champion. Um, little known fact as a high school student. And I had high, high discipline in the horseback riding work that I did, and I eventually left that world. But the discipline of having to work harder than anybody else really taught me , um, something that I need to know about work ethic. And then the last thing I’ll say before we wrap up is a story that’s a little bit strange, but will you indulge me for one minute, Joe?
Joe Gottlieb:
I will.
Dr. Karlyn Crowley:
I was on an airplane. Uh , my parents had recently separated and I brought this horse book with me and I talked to the flight attendant about how much I wanted this horse, but I didn’t have the money for it. And as it turns out, she had just gotten a divorce and really wanted to give her money , uh, to someone or a cause that needed it. And she gave me a check when I got off the plane for $800 to buy a horse. And it changed the course of my life. Her name is Joni Ena , it’s Joni Bean . And , um, we eventually became friends. And the reason I tell that story, and I’ve told it a lot in my life, because it is about outrageous daring and the outrageous idea and something that is deeply bold and creative that could change an institution’s life, a person’s life. And I am in love with that kind of boldness.
Joe Gottlieb:
Great story. Wow. I love hearing that it begs to double click , but we won’t, we will, we will steer the course and talk more about that maybe another time. I love it. So let’s dive into this topic, adaptive change leadership. And we’ve set up this playful reference. How do we trust and accomplish change, clearly paying homage to Dale Carnegie’s rock solid time-tested advice originally published, I had to look this up in 1936, <laugh> as how to infr and influence people. But apart from that playful reference, how would you summarize the need for and the essence of this leadership method that you’ve employed?
Dr. Karlyn Crowley:
So I really, this is where I give a shout out to Ron Heifetz , who’s my guy. Um, and I also work with an executive coach who , uh, really deploys Ron Heifetz . Ron Heitz is at the Kennedy School and has written many books, leadership without easy answers , um, the practice of adaptive Leadership. But adaptive leadership is really his term. And, and I think it is in this VUCA moment , um, of higher ed, where it is so volatile as so many institutions are in crisis. Adaptive leadership to me is the model of leadership for this moment. That is technical leadership is the kind of leadership where you’re looking at problems that are easy to identify, have quick concrete solutions, have a clear authority. Um, people are often receptive to technical solutions. Adaptive leadership means they’re often problems that are difficult to identify, hard to solve. There is a tension in values and beliefs and roles and goals. People with the problem are often some of the main actors in resolving it, not just the leader. And they require change in numerous places. So higher education is really a cauldron of adaptive change right now.
Joe Gottlieb:
So true. And I love the way you framed those two ways to look at both problems and approaches to solutions. So perhaps to warm up a little bit on this, maybe you can identify some of the big change projects that you’ve tackled and actually completed one per year in the five years since becoming provost at Ohio Wesley. And we’re gonna get into the details a bit, but just let’s do a quick scan of what you’ve been up to over there.
Dr. Karlyn Crowley:
I’m happy to share. And this is the thing about change. When change happens quickly, you have to bring your community along with you. And I would say we are so proud of what we’ve done, and there have also been a lot of deep pain points, which I can talk about because any leader who is not honest about where the moments they’ve had to change course or they failed or they didn’t listen effectively is not being authentic and is not, that’s not helpful, that’s not that helpful to anyone. Um, but out of necessity, and also because of the pandemic, I entered Ohio Wesleyan at a moment of needing to help complete program prioritization or program review. We , we , where we were eliminating some positions and programs and what we know about program prioritization. And I don’t know of any institution that’s not undergoing it in some fashion. You have to, and I’ll talk about this later and use another horse analogy. As soon as you are done with something really pressing and difficult, you have to pivot immediately to give people hope . And so we restructured our hiring process and we immediately cut to grow. In the second year, faculty worked on the whole scale revision of general education the first in 50 years. And we transformed our core curriculum with a really compelling wicked problems first year seminar where students immediately solved wicked world intractable problems. Our core curriculum is built around translating the liberal arts to competencies or skills that employers especially understand, and also that it leads to meaningful work. And lastly, we require our signature experience around experiential learning. All those three massive changes were done in about a year with a faculty vote. The third year we revised the faculty handbook whole scale for the first time in roughly 60 years, a wholesale revision. When I say the words faculty handbook, people probably want to go to sleep and drink herbal sleepy time tea. But in fact, a handbook is really one of the most important documents because it is a guide to flourishing, to faculty flourishing in life. And policies which sound super bureaucratic and like a snooze fest are also the tactics for fairness and liberation. And we changed so many things in that handbook to make faculty life better. And then I revise the organizational structure and academic affairs, and I can talk more about that. But we have three divisions now as a small liberal arts college of about 1500 students right outside of Columbus, Ohio. We have a social science, natural science, and humanities and arts division and faculty. And I remember when we were really , um, that was a change that was uneven. And then ultimately we are in the first stage of having, of living with divisions. Um, it was clear to me that faculty needed more direct support, what we call in lean management systems or Six six Sigma going to the gemba that is looking at where the problems were that faculty needed more support and how we could solve problems in terms of enrollment, creative solutions to problems, interdisciplinary work strategy for the future divisions gave us a new way to think about that. And then this year we are doing a wholesale constructive dialogue initiative to really address the problem that continues to be , uh, true throughout higher ed of pernicious polarization.
Joe Gottlieb:
Wow. That’s , uh, that’s a lot of stuff. And uh, <laugh> , I just feel, well, it it , once you start to hear all of it after you get over the shock of being able to do all of that, all those projects one per year and, and then all of them in succession , um, you , I can’t help but see the, the pattern, the momentum, the what you , what what , and I know we’ll get into this, right? So one of these things led to another, I imagine, and, and, and it just feels like a lot of potential momentum. I’m sure there were als there was also resistance and, and challenge. So let’s, let’s maybe rewind then the clock back to the beginning of your time mm-hmm <affirmative> . And , and I imagine it took a little bit of time to warm up this change engine there at Ohio Wesleyan. Tell me about the beginning of the story.
Dr. Karlyn Crowley:
The beginning. I, I can’t imagine entering in a harder context. And my friends who are covid provost, we have special buttons. Let’s say I’m a covid provost, my close , one of my closest friends, Jay Roberts, who the provost at Warren Wilson, we have what’s called Dean’s Club, like Wayne’s World, where we say Dean’s Club party time. And every Saturday we meet and we hash out problems together because we both entered institutions over zoom in a time of great, great distress. I’m the first woman provost at Ohio Wesleyan, the first in 182 years. And so I had to help this community finalize something that brought them so much grief and they didn’t know me. And, and so one of the things I’ve thought about a lot , um, that I, I talk about some, but I will talk about very openly here. So Jim s has this famous book on how to lead the leadership challenge. And I’d like to just share , share a quotation about love. And he says, of all the things that sustain a leader over time, love is the most lasting. It’s hard to imagine leaders getting up day after day, putting the long hours and hard work it takes to make extraordinary things happen without having their hearts in it. The best kept secret of successful leaders is love staying in love with leading with the people who do the work, with what the organizations provide, with those who honor the organization by using its products and services. Leadership is not an affair of the head. Leadership is an affair of the heart. And so the only way through this difficulty when I began, was to be a different kind of provost in a way, because provost, historically in the western intellectual tradition are from the shoulders up, are about proving oneself intellectually. And I tried to begin with a lot of authenticity around, I know this is hard. I know you don’t know me. Why would you trust me? I went back and looked at notes , um, that I wrote during a particularly difficult zoom meeting, and we’re going to need to get th through this together. And I talked about an ethic of care, and I said, here’s how I hope we treat one another even in this really distressing time . And so I have tried continually to hold up that if faculty and administrators are fighting and at odds, it is one of the biggest strategic threats to colleges and universities and to our organization. Because when you have internal division and internal fights, you cannot look outward together and strategize what’s next. You are built to then be looking inward. And I continue to see throughout higher ed that that is one of the biggest threats. So I think I began by , um, trying to be more authentic, trying to listen, but in a context that was very difficult. I did not see faculty in person until May of that next year at closing ceremonies outside. And so we had to finish program review over Zoom while they were all figuring out how to teach differently. And my faculty tell me, they’re exhausted, they’re tired. I hear that throughout higher ed. The Chronicle yesterday had a piece on this. And so I think that’s one of the only ways when you are about to ask an organization to risk change, and people, faculty who feel a lot of grief already, they feel grief that the schools that they knew are not the same. They feel grief that their disciplines are not the same, especially if they’re in the humanities and arts. They feel grief that their students are not the same. Their students have changed post covid. They feel a lot of grief. And , um, I think it’s trying to have empathy to say, I, I’m, I’m not in your same position, but I understand and let’s keep trying to figure this out together. And meanwhile, of course, as the academic leader, I am constantly aware that I have to move and help move this organization quickly because the other threat is not changing.
Joe Gottlieb:
Okay. So you started by leading with the heart and, and in a difficult time, share a few of the, of those moments, those moments of leadership that you performed, and I’ll use that word intentionally performed as you were getting the lay of the land there. Some people think of symbolic leadership or, or o opportunities to, to be authentic. Maybe you can give us a few examples of that.
Dr. Karlyn Crowley:
I’m happy to, one of the things I did was at the first faculty meeting, I laid out four ways that I hope that we could act or be together that is kind of academic affairs, ways of being. And I said, if you have a problem, bring a solution. And I quoted Parker Palmer, who’s an educational philosopher who talks about opposing what’s wrong as a halfway measure at best. And so I said, how can we solve problems together? I said, avoid surprises, no drama workplace. I said, strategize good systems and processes. I’m a super lean systems process systems analysis person. Even as a literature, women’s studies scholar. I said, how do we create an appreciative culture? How do we appreciate what’s going well? And then the last one was, I said, can we act and speak with care collegiality and civility because that is who we are. And so I tried to set the frame of leadership from the beginning, and I also very specifically said, here are our three goals for the year. I talked about student success and having an exemplary academic , um, curriculum. I talked about having to pivot toward the future. So I really clearly tried to establish, here are our goals, here’s how we can work together, here’s how I hope we treat one another.
Joe Gottlieb:
So just curious, that was going on probably still during covid, right? Yes . During ,
Dr. Karlyn Crowley:
Yes . Yes .
Joe Gottlieb:
But you were, you were sharing that being new over virtual communications. Yes. And I’ll guess, but you can correct me if I’m wrong, but I imagine it was difficult to gauge the reaction.
Dr. Karlyn Crowley:
Yes.
Joe Gottlieb:
But did you get reactions that actually gave you something to build on?
Dr. Karlyn Crowley:
I got very few and I um, I got a few, I got a few in the beginning. Yeah. I mean, this is, this is where adaptive leadership and executive leadership roles call on so much emotional equilibrium, emotional resilience and self emotional management because leadership is so lonely. Yes. Leadership is so lonely. And so if I, if I am acting in a way that is authentic to me, which is why I wrote that piece with Jay Roberts on administrative joy, then that is the best I can do.
Joe Gottlieb:
Yeah. And
Dr. Karlyn Crowley:
Of course I have to listen to people and take the barometer and have lunches with people and try to get their feedback, all those things to get a sense of what I’m doing. But I tried to model a way of being that , um, is true. It’s more unusual for my role in particular, which is an academic of affairs leadership role.
Joe Gottlieb:
So the safe thing, if one’s on the receiving end of that new leadership under odd conditions, the safe thing is just to be silent. Like, okay, this sounds different. Uh , if I had to guess the , the , the average human response to this would be, okay, that’s a lot of hot air
Dr. Karlyn Crowley:
<laugh>.
Joe Gottlieb:
This person’s clearly smart. She’s got lots of tools. That sounds good, but I’ll believe it if I do see it. I don’t know, maybe I’m being cynical, but you’re not . And that’s the part , that’s the part you had to regulate against. You had to know, you had to expect that that would likely be the default . And then you had to not beat yourself up over that. You had to find now opportunities to put it in motion. I imagine.
Dr. Karlyn Crowley:
You are exactly right. And so what I love, because for much of my life, I was a full-time faculty member and scholar, right? I actually still do scholarship, but a different kind. Faculty are trained in what we call the hermeneutics of suspicion. They’re trained in how to pick something apart, how to take it apart, how to ask good questions about it, how to be good critical thinkers. We want them to do that. We want, I mean, I’m a tenured faculty member as a provost, but we want faculty to do that. We want our students to do that. Oh my gosh. We want our students to do that with, you know, critical media skills more than ever. But we have to learn how to put things back together. And to me, one of the most destructive , um, challenges in higher ed is the faculty versus administrative divide that I spoke about earlier. Because the breakdown of trust, and I’ll talk about, right? I just tried something to , I tried to implement some change with faculty that did not go well, right? And so sometimes that trust really does break down . And I have felt it, heard it and experienced it very directly. That is some very mean and pointed and cruel things have been said by email verbally, et cetera, which is part of leadership. I hope people don’t have to face that. But the fear of facing that is one of the reasons people are less courageous. And this is where Ron Heifetz talks about, it’s hard for leaders to not get assassinated when you’re doing really courageous and bold things. If you are truly risking something with leadership, it by its very nature will be divisive or confrontational or controversial. And so you have to, you have to risk.
Joe Gottlieb:
I think this sets up a great opportunity to talk about some of your cheat codes because when, when we’re facing this kind of very emotional, emotionally heavy leadership scenario or context, just like in a personal, on our personal world, the way we try to regulate ourselves when we’re stressed in particular, it’s good to learn to have some tools. Yes , take a deep breath is a age one . And it actually factors really well. I’ve rediscovered, I just did it times to some good fundamentals, right? <laugh> . Um, so share some of your cheat codes that you’ve employed that have helped you maintain traction in, in, despite some of this tendency for things to just feel challenging.
Dr. Karlyn Crowley:
I love also, I love the concept of cheat cheat codes. Well, in adaptive leadership, the one of the first cheat codes is correctly identifying the problem. Is it technical? Is it adaptive? And so just recently a problem, I thought twice I thought problems were more technical and they turned out to be more adaptive <laugh> . And then, and then there’ve been moments where I’m like, this is clearly such a huge adaptive challenge. I’m gonna need to spend a lot of time plotting and thinking about it. So the first, first cheat code is identify accurately the technical versus adaptive nature of the problem. The second is to really get a sense of culture. So this is culture and context for leadership. What is the appetite for change? And what, like an anthropologist or a systems thinker, how does change work or has it worked in that system? Right? So one of my favorite quotations is the system is not broken. The system is designed to get the results it’s currently getting, which is Ron Hyphens . Again, the system is not broken. It’s designed to get the results it’s currently getting. I love that so much because when you’re analyzing the system, it it is constantly speaking to you. It’s not inanimate. And so are people ready for, for change? And is the timing right? Is the process right? Have you got the people in place? And then another cheat code, which is <inaudible> , is get on the balcony. He talks about the metaphor of the dance floor of the balcony. And I have an extraordinary team of direct reports, associate provost center for teaching, learning and innovation director, study abroad, signature experience, holistic advising. I have an amazing team that put a lot of time developing team is really important to me. And they can help execute in a way that I can get on the balcony and try to see things accurately. Because one of the other things I’ve been thinking about is , um, that the, the risk that a leader has is thinking is a kind of presentism, right? That if you are constantly, and a provost job is a very, very complex job, more complex than ever solving problems in the moment, you’re not really, you don’t really keep your eye on the future. Another cheat code is regulating distress. Fife talks about this like a temperature control, like a knob turning the knob up and down. It’s like a crockpot. Are you gonna cook the meal on a high or a low for how many hours? I , um, am constantly trying to assess barometer heat, the temperature heat we need to try . And I will use those, that words, those words , um, with team members. Let’s turn the heat down. This is clearly distressing to people. Let’s slow down. We need to listen more. Or , um, evaluating it. Does it seem like no, we can get this done because it’s an institutional imperative, right? I’m weighing the two things. They , I’ve been hired to weigh the two things , um, to keep the institutional interests at the front of my mind and also to keep faculty interests present. I must always be thinking about both. Hmm . And then , uh, lastly, one other cheat code is maintaining discipline focus. So identifying when you’re identifying resistance, knowing how to identify it so you can stay focused and then be able to give the work back to people. That’s a huge part of adaptive change is that it is not , um, you know, shared governance is so complicated in higher ed and many people have different definitions of it, but how do you try to empower people and give the work back to people? I just did that in something that we were having a problem with where faculty said, no, we don’t wanna do it, but we <laugh> wait , you’re rolling it out. We don’t wanna do it this way. And then I said, you know, weighing risks, weighing what we need to be working on as an institution. Okay, okay, let’s stop, let’s slow down the process. Let’s give the work back to the people.
Joe Gottlieb:
And did that translate by giving the work back to the people? Was that a form of, did it take the form of please continue doing it the way you’re suggesting? We either continue or adapt differently than what I’ve suggested, thus not taking it over via the laser focus on the, the objective, but instead letting it continue to evolve. Uh , what, what form did that take?
Dr. Karlyn Crowley:
So , um, one of the things that I think leaders often aren’t honest about our failures or places of great distress for when things start to go off the rails or go wrong, right? And , um, for us, we were talking about a course enrollment policy and I underestimated the degree to which that would feel deeply, deeply personal for every faculty member. Um, because I’m also thinking about the institutional needs and the student success needs and the financial needs, right? So I’m thinking about all these other things, but in fact, the temperature got too high. And so by slowing that down, it means that now faculty will take some more time. ’cause I had an , I had a timeline that was going to help us schedule differently. So now we will take longer, but faculty will have more conversations with their departments, with their divisional chairs about what course enrollment caps and minimum enrollments would be workable for them as we figure out a policy together. Um , so it’s slowing down, gosh, six to nine months. Yeah . And that, that’s just a judgment call I made. And this is what all leaders in higher ed, these calls they’re making every second of the day, which ones will actually seriously hurt a community? And which ones can you slow down because other things are more important. And right now we’re getting ready soon to move into strategic planning, and that’s far more important.
Joe Gottlieb:
Well, and I’m sure you’ve heard of the notion of slowing slow down to go fast, meaning in this case you’ll probably get to a useful result faster by letting this simmer a while . Because if you’d have pushed it forward and had a failed implementation or a begrudging implementation or a a partially engaged implementation, you’d probably be redoing it or spending extra energy on the implications of that. And maybe it doesn’t apply to this particular case, but I see that a lot
Dr. Karlyn Crowley:
That a guy Kawasaki. Um , uh,
Joe Gottlieb:
I should know that, but I don’t, I I, it’s been, it’s been repeated by me from some other guest ,
Dr. Karlyn Crowley:
<laugh> <laugh> . Um ,
Joe Gottlieb:
I know it , it actually, I mentioned that I do some high performance driving. And so , uh, the key to maximizing your speed on the exit of a turn is to slow your speed enough upon entering the turn. And because the turn is really the, a great proxy for the change requirement, it helps me really remember , um, of course I forget to do that a lot on the track, but <laugh> , I digress. <laugh> ,
Dr. Karlyn Crowley:
That is such a good metaphor. Are we gonna talk about soup or am I getting that ahead ? We ,
Joe Gottlieb:
We will. So let’s, let’s press on. Um, thank you for sharing those codes. Actually, the one item that I don’t think it might have been so familiar to you that you didn’t think of it, but I’d love for you to define very quickly this notion of the dance floor and the balcony. ’cause that’s not, that’s new to me and I don’t know that it’s so widely understood that it wouldn’t benefit from a quick summary.
Dr. Karlyn Crowley:
Oh, sure. It’s just his phi is simple metaphor that , um, when you are a leader, it’s really difficult to solve strategically when you’re so mired in the crisis that’s happening. And so there are lots of tips and tricks for how to try to remove yourself to the balcony and get to the balcony. That might be, of course, self care and distance tricks, which we can all use. Um, you just talked about competitive driving, whatever that is, walking meditation space. It’s also getting insight from people , um, that are trusted to you. It’s giving the work back so that people can be working on something. So you’re freed up to diagnose the problem. It’s so hard in jobs because provost roles and president roles, executive leadership roles have changed so much. And higher ed just given protests, financial challenges, state and government changes in regulation, enrollment challenges , um, issues were around, you know, program prioritization. The provost role used to be much more about how can I , um, support faculty and we really hands on lunches, dinners , um, and now it is much more like a CEO role and the president role is much more like a CEO role. That’s painful to hear, I’m sure. And a lot of people don’t wanna say that, but in any of those roles, how do you get distanced to be able to see clearly?
Joe Gottlieb:
Yeah. Well, thank you for clarifying and now I get it. So I’ll, I’ll parrot it back. Hopefully I got it right. So when you’re on the dance floor, you’re in the thick of it, right? That’s right . And you may not That’s right . Be able see the big picture, taking a step up , up to the balcony overlooking the dance floor. Now I understand what it was. Uh, you’re able to to get a moment outside the thick Yes , yes . And , uh, oriented perhaps. Excellent. So I now wanna shift the conversation to give you an opportunity to share what were some of the hardest but valuable lessons that you’ve learned in practicing adaptive change leadership.
Dr. Karlyn Crowley:
Oh my gosh. So Heifets talks about staying alive. Um, there’s actually, this is in leadership on the line, I’m going to share this quotation. He says, exercising leadership is an expression of your aliveness, but when you cover yourself up, you risk losing something as well. In a struggle to save yourself, you can give up too many of those qualities that are the essence of being alive, like innocence, curiosity, and compassion. And so one of the biggest challenges is not being assassinated. That is staying true to , um, why you love what you do. Finding this is the administrative joy piece, finding the mission. Again, go looking to students, looking to events, looking to things that faculty do so that you can stay alive. I think it’s learning, again, relatedly not to take personal attacks personally and not to see them personally. It’s continuing to have a balance in your work life of things that are aspirational versus things that have to get done. So right now, in my portfolio of things that I’m working on, I have several things that bring me particular joy because of the kind of work they do. They’re really creative. They’re , um, kind of boundary pushing and higher ed, they are new kinds of work for me, that work brings me so much joy that , um, I have to have those elements in my portfolio or else it becomes really tricky. And I think it’s reckoning honestly with how much courage it takes to make bold change. And finding people who will be true companions with you on that journey, whether that’s friends, allies, confidants, executive coach. For me, I’ve worked for two amazing presidents. My team, finding people who , um, will go that hard way with you.
Joe Gottlieb:
Right. Okay. Well, it’s, it , we’ve got to the place in this going . Finally,
Dr. Karlyn Crowley:
Finally, where
Joe Gottlieb:
I understand that you like to make soup <laugh> and that you’ve got pretty good at it. Tell, take me on a soup making journey that forced you to reverse your soup making wisdom, but resulted in an unexpected triumph.
Dr. Karlyn Crowley:
So Joe , this is a balcony question.
Joe Gottlieb:
Yes.
Dr. Karlyn Crowley:
Why I love it so much. And , um, by the way, when faculty or staff or people in my community have been in distress, I often have offered them soup <laugh> . And I say I’m pretty good at soup and I haven’t had a lot of people take me up on it. But , um, I think that I was thinking about different genres of soup. So I’ll give you one example. I love surprises and I think higher ed can learn a lot from so many sectors and industries outside of higher ed. And so I like it when things actually get deconstructed and become something else. I love lasagna, but I try to be healthier. So lasagna soup, which my family mocks me for, has been a real joy that I turned something that was one thing into another and it became a different category. And it still has the components of something I love, but it actually feels like for my health, maybe a little more sustainable. I also think , um, I have recipes. I have soups that I’ve made for 30 years. I have a red lentil lemon soup that I’ve made for 30 years. I’ve been in multiple communities. I’ve been at liberal arts colleges my whole life. That soups, flavor changes by the water, by the veggie broth, by the quality of the curry that’s in it , um, by the kinds of lentils. And it’s interesting, this is like William words , where it’s 10 turn Abby poem, which is one of my favorite poems where he reflects on , um, going back to a place that he’s loved so much and reflects on what that place has meant to him across his life. That soup, my red lentil lemon soup is something I’ve eaten probably for 30 years, and it has changed The essence of it remains, but it has changed throughout my life. And I love those things that , um, that you carry with you in that way, even though they evolve.
Joe Gottlieb:
Awesome. I , well, you’re making me a little hungry. And , uh, <laugh>,
Dr. Karlyn Crowley:
I
Joe Gottlieb:
Don’t know if you share recipes, but I love the idea of lasagna soup. Okay. Getting back to , let’s, let’s bring this to a close with one, with one fun heavy question, but also optimistic. How now that you’ve got your sort of organization running well, you’ve, you’ve applied this, you’ve been able to identify big projects and, and, and, and have wonderful accomplishments. Not without tension, but with results and with perhaps an increasing level of , um, I can imagine the culture is getting more used to your authenticity, your cheat codes in action, and probably it’s is deriving some cumulative cumulative confidence. What is your outlook for the future of Ohio Wesleyan and how are you collaborating , collaborating with your president and your CIO to pursue it?
Dr. Karlyn Crowley:
I have never been more excited for the future of Ohio Wesleyan. And so as I mentioned, we have done really big heavy hard lifting. And because we have done that, especially, I could talk about academic affairs and that’s happened to other areas of the campus, but I , today I’m talking about academic affairs. We are so poised for what’s next. First of all, we are an institution in the Ohio of five of liberal arts colleges, Denison , Kenya , Worcester, Oberlin , um, and Ohio Wesleyan. And we have really positioned ourselves as a champion of equity and access. So in the past year since the inauguration of our new president, Matt Vandenberg, we have , um, put a flag in the ground around the Delaware County Promise, Delaware County and the state of Ohio is the wealthiest, fastest growing county in the state of Ohio, top 10 in the nation in the United States. We are exurban to Columbus, which is the 14th largest city in the, in the state. That’s important for two reasons. In Delaware County, we establish a Delaware County Promise so that students who come from a combined family income of a hundred thousand dollars or less could come to Ohio. We Wesleyan with a certain GPA , uh, tuition free . And we announced that at the inauguration. There were tears in the room. I worked with the VP for enrollment with Columbus State. We have one of the largest liberal arts college , um, and then community college partnerships where we , um, have a tuition match with the community college and 25 students with a certain GPA will , we will match the community college tuition so that they can then finish at a liberal arts college That meant a 110th percent transfer student growth at Ohio Wesleyan . We have had an all in student success initiative with the VP of Student Affairs, student Success and I worked on that has led to a 7% student retention rate first to second year within the last three to four years, which is almost unheard of. 7% and 7% increase from 78 to 85% for second year retention rate. So we are really , um, the kind of school where if you’re trying to figure out who you wanna be and you’re on a journey of self-discovery, Ohio Wesleyan is the best school in the nation to come and figure out who you are and to punch above your weight class. And so you should expect to hear great things in the future from us.
Joe Gottlieb:
That’s exciting. Okay, in summary, what three takeaways can we offer our listeners on the topic of adaptive change leadership, how to entrust and accomplish change?
Dr. Karlyn Crowley:
The first thing is you can’t change something you don’t love. You can’t change something you don’t love. And , uh, for me, I’m a ride or die liberal arts college person. I believe at my very core, that’s Harley Davidson parlance by the way, ride or die, I believe to my, I believe to my core in the mission and vision of the liberal arts college, which is the jewel and the crown of American Higher education. I love our mission. I love what our faculty do. I believe in our institution, you can’t change something you don’t love. And when you fall out of love, it’s probably time to go . Number two , you have to figure out how to turn resistance into engagement. And it’s the hardest thing. But identifying whether it’s people who are questioning the process or fence sitters or resisting openly or actually want to shoot the messenger, you have to figure out how to identify that resistance, give it a name, study it, and turn it into engagement. It’s really hard. I do that unevenly, right, any leader does, but that’s part of the secret. And then three, I’m gonna go back to horses for a minute. Um, I used to do three day event , uh, three day eventing with horses. And so that’s a lot of jumping. And jumping is really scary on a horse, right? It’s like a thousand pound animal. And when you’re galloping toward the jump, the temptation is to look at the jump. But if you look at the jump, you’re going to crash, the horse will fall over and you may land on your head and be paralyzed and the horse will be on top of you. What you have to do when you first learn how to jump is you have to aim your sight beyond the jump. You have to look beyond the jump. And so in leadership, if you’re not looking to what is next beyond this really hard thing we’re doing, or what is next for this institution, or what is next for this faculty, or what is next for this community, you’ll die. You won’t change. So you have to aim beyond the jump.
Joe Gottlieb:
Great summary. Karlyn , thank you so much for joining me today.
Dr. Karlyn Crowley:
It was a pleasure. Joe, I’ll send you my soup recipe.
Joe Gottlieb:
Thank you. And thanks to our guests for joining us as well. Hope you have a great day and we’ll look forward to hosting you again on the next episode of TRANSFORMED. Hey, listeners have transformed. I hope you enjoyed that episode and whether you did or not, hope that made you stop and think about the role that you were playing in your organization’s ability to change in the digital era. And if it made you stop and think, perhaps you would be willing to share your thoughts, suggestions, alternative perspectives, or even criticisms related to this or any other episode, I would love to hear from you. So send me an email at Info@Higher.Digital or Joe@Higher.Digital. And if you have friends or colleagues that you think might enjoy it, please share our podcast with them as you and they can easily find TRANSFORMED is available wherever you get your podcasts.