Talking Stick - July/August 2013 - 44

Conversations

Change on a Big Campus Is No Small Matter
Members discuss the challenges of communicating change to staff
and getting buy-in when traditions may be upset.
Participating in this conversation are Julie Sanzone, assistant director of academic
initiatives at The Ohio State University in Columbus; Barb Frazee, director of university
residences at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana; and Kathy Collins, director
of residence education and housing services at Michigan State University in East
Lansing.

KATHY COLLINS

BARB FRAZEE

JULIE SANZONE

44

tAlking stick

Julie Sanzone: I agree that there is a lot of
potential and energy that can come with change
around a large institution, but I think there are
equal levels of challenge around change and
the pace that comes with it. Well-established
members of an institution may be resistant
to some changes in the name of tradition.
There might be more people around you to
join in the cause, but that also means there are
more people you need to get onboard in order
to move significant change forward. I think
being at a large institution provides us some
options to critically explore change that might
not always occur at smaller schools, but I also
think it’s a challenge to get everyone on the
same page and bring pockets of conversations
together in a powerful way.
The momentum behind change at a large
institution can be very powerful, but it can be
harder to get things moving, and often things
move so slowly to begin with that we don’t
always see that change is occurring all around
us. I think you can compare institutional
change to a moving vehicle – it takes a little
more to get a large semi-truck moving than
a zippy sports car, but it comes with great
momentum that is very powerful and often
harder to stop in its tracks.

Barb Frazee: I have found that one of the
biggest hurdles at a large institution is getting
everyone pointed in the same direction in
preparation for a change. With so many
players and so many opinions – many staff
deep-rooted in traditions and another faction
leaning on experiences from past institutions
– it is difficult to even decide what the changes
should be. Communication is also a key factor
once the decision has been made to implement
a change. It is so important that you are
communicating in a timely manner and to the
right people, and sometimes with a large staff
it is just not possible to have all the staff in the
same room, so it becomes imperative that you
have a good plan, good timing, and a unified
message that can be rolled out to all affected
staff. Another important piece to remember
in managing change at a large institution is
that it is important to check in with staff at all
levels and keep a pulse on how the change is
going. It is easy to insulate yourself from the
folks on the ground and think that things are
going well when in reality for those that are
actually making the changes happen it is very
difficult. They need to know they are being
supported throughout the change.
Talking Stick - July/August 2013

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