I love helping individuals and organizations make and keep the complex uncomplicated for leadership, learning, and equity. Recently, I facilitated a process for a community college student affairs staff team to help them clarify their purpose and align their actions. They were yearning for a shared purpose to help them decide what was important, less important, and not important so they could stop trying to be all things to all people. They yearned to escape the tyranny of more, more, more. I could relate.
As our process evolved, the increasing complexities of their students’ lives and the context around them emerged as an obstacle. Do not run from complexity. And, do not complicate the complexity.
These themes come up repeatedly in my work with individuals and organizations. I often share this short summary of the coaching process – I help you clarify what you really want, free from external and internalized expectations and “shoulds.” Once you get clear about what you really want, the rest is just strategy and execution, which, for most folks, is not complicated.
With organizations, we usually focus on making and keeping the complex uncomplicated for leadership, learning, and equity. Often, our intended purpose is one of these, but in practice, they are all interconnected.
- Leadership: staff and board retreats; strategic planning; evolving workplace cultures.
- Learning: creating and building curricular approaches beyond the classroom to clarify aims and align actions; reducing silos and increasing collaboration; increasing student success and well-being; helping staff do less so they can be more for students.
- Equity: clarify aims and align content across recruitment, onboarding, training, and leadership development; focus on equity aims that are theoretically and conceptually grounded and strategies that are sequenced for effective learning, growth, and development.
In my next couple of posts, I’ll share the two key obstacles and two key tools to making and keeping the complex uncomplicated.
Where are you or your organization yearning to make and keep the complex uncomplicated?
