As someone whose experience is primarily in resident education, this summer I have learned how important it can be to take the time to learn what happens in the facilities side of the house.  It can be easy to think that you don’t have the time to learn someone else’s job, but, just like anything else, if you break it down into smaller tasks, it will be easier to find the time. Finding the time when the facilities person is available to help you understand their area will save you time in the long run if you find yourself in a situation where the facilities staff member is out of the office for an extended period and you have to fill in the gaps.  Here are a few of my suggestions on how to get started on your resident education – facilities cross training.

1. Build relationships with the Physical Plant staff. I did have an edge because I knew many of these staff members since I was a hall director at this institution. If you don’t have that advantage, you are going to have to be tactical and deliberate about getting to know the locksmith, the building maintenance supervisor, the custodial supervisor, and the administrator in the office who is your equivalent (office manager, associate, assistant or director –the person you will be calling directly when you need to make something happen).  These folks will be instrumental in helping you accomplish what you need as well as knowing what the history is for certain types of situations.
2. Learn the master key box. We have a master key box that houses our RA duty key sets, office keys, RD keys, and a whole slew of other keys that I am still learning. Ask the person in charge of the box to teach you his/her organization system within the box. If you do not already know, ask them to show you how the keys are numbered and tracked. Find out how the sign-out system works. Inquire after any peculiarities that currently only make sense to the person in charge of the box. Don’t wait until there is nobody to ask.
3. Learn the intricacies of whatever housing management system your office uses. You may not need it that often if your resident education job description does not require it. But there may come a day when you are faced with having to look up a student’s booking and accompanying correspondence to verify their claim of being given two different summer housing assignments. You do not want your first day in the housing management system to be in front of that student. Ask for tutorials from your facilities person so that you can navigate in the system with confidence.
4. Ask your facilities person what parts of their job they believe nobody knows they do or what parts go unnoticed/unappreciated. These will be the parts of the job that catch your office off- guard if this person is out for an extended period of time. Everyone will be thankful if you can say, “we need to remember to refelt the pool tables” or “we need to steam clean the common area furniture before opening” or whatever else may fall into the unnoticed category.

Certainly, these items can and should take place over the span of several months rather than crammed into two weeks before your facilities person is about to be out of the office for an extended period of time. Your retention and time management will be much better if you have time to plan out when and how you will tackle each of these items as well as anything else that pops up along the way. By taking the time in smaller bits throughout the year, when you know you have some downtime or a free afternoon, you can make the time to become better aware of what happens in the facilities side of the house.

If you are a facilities staff member, what else would you suggest that we take the time to learn? What other general tips on cross training do we have to best support our offices and colleagues?

Karen Gibson is an associate director of residence life at St. Edward’s University, Austin, Texas.

I remember the first time I had to quit a job. I was afraid my boss would be mad at me, and I apologized profusely for leaving. Many of my student employees have behaved in exactly the same way. At some point you realize we have HR professionals for a reason—people will constantly be leaving jobs, and some jobs even have an average “life expectancy.” Last week I left a job that I’d held for five and a half years—the longest tenure of my young career. This time, the process was extremely positive.

How To Leave A Job

A graceful exit starts before you even have a new job. If possible, let your employer know when you’re applying for other positions so they can plan for a possible transition and serve as a current, positive reference. Even if you don’t get the job, your supervisor will know what types of positions you’re interested in; this could lead to increased opportunities at your current place of employment.

I believe this conversation should be had before you receive a job offer.  Trying to use another offer as leverage for your demands rarely works in student affairs, from what I’ve seen.  Remember: NO ONE is irreplaceable. If for some reason you think you are, perhaps you should be spending more of your time sharing your skills with your colleagues.

When you have a job offer, ask for some time to think things over. Mickey Fitch previously wrote about some great questions to ask yourself and your perspective employer.

Next, you resign (assuming you accept the job offer). This part is easy. Write a short letter informing your supervisor of your last day in the office, perhaps thanking him/her for the opportunities they’ve provided. That’s it.  Don’t go overboard; you’re not breaking up with someone.

This is where the work starts. You need to do everything you can to transfer your knowledge (and in some cases, skills) to other areas of your department so operations continue as normal. This may include training sessions, writing transition documents, and temporarily reassigning duties. For me, it also included contacting colleagues both within and outside the university to inform them of my “impending departure” and providing alternate contacts. By far the most important thing I did was empower talented student employees to take over the reins while a search was conducted for my replacement.

The last few weeks of your employment may include a lot of awkward interactions. Mine ran the gamut of “will anyone be hired to replace you?” to “no one can do all the work that you do!” My director even jokingly asked a Vice Chancellor and Chancellor to issue an executive order forbidding me to leave. I’d suggest taking everything in stride, smiling, and trusting that your department will handle your absence well. Don’t seek out adoration from others or a validation of your time at the institution. You’re not royalty; you don’t need to leave a legacy.

Resist the urge to slack off. Power through, and realize which projects you need to finish and which ones you need to hand off. I didn’t stop plowing through work until 3PM on my last day, but my hard work paid off and did not go unnoticed by my supervisor. Her facebook status that day truly humbled me:

Now, I’ve left my former institution, but I haven’t left my colleagues. I’m still forwarding relevant grant proposals, and answering a question here and there.  However, I know they have what they need to be successful.  Without me.

What advice do you have for someone leaving a job?  Did you learn anything the hard way?

There are few things I love more than a good cooking-themed reality television show. Combining my love of cooking with the creativity of rising to assigned challenges, these shows inspire me to kick things up a notch in my own kitchen… and even in my office. Inevitable, each season competing chefs are challenged to reconceptualize the classics. Faced with staples like pigs in a blanket and tuna noodle casserole, they are forced to refine them to meet today’s palates.

The campus resource scavenger hunt has been a staple of staff training for years. While it can be a fun way of ensuring that staff members are able to locate appropriate offices and departments on campus, it can quickly become redundant and dull – you know, the same casserole you had for dinner every Thursday night as a kid.

When I pulled out our training schedule this year, I immediately began dreading the resource scavenger hunt. If I was dreading it, how did our student staff (particularly our returning staff members) feel about it? I looked at the learning outcomes that I first wrote for the activity on this campus in 2008 and wondered if those outcomes were still relevant. We can broadly assume that many of our staff members have already encountered most student services offices or, minimally, could find the location of an office by looking it up on the university website.  What I really hoped to accomplish is that student staff are able to make appropriate referrals and better understand the services offered by other departments.

And so I’m changing the recipe this year with the support of the involved departments and my supervisor.

Instead of being handed rhyming clues that will lead them from office to office where they would simply take a brochure, the Resident Assistant staff will participate in a more practical application of the activity.

They will be escorted by a professional staff member who will lead them through a series of short case studies. During the case study debriefings, they will discern which campus office is the most appropriate referral for the students involved. It may be one office or several offices. After the group collectively decides which offices and departments are most relevant, they will be introduced to the staff of the departments they choose. Departmental staff members will explain to the Resident Assistants what their role in helping the student will be. In some cases, they may be the best choice for immediate resolution. In other cases, they may refer the student elsewhere. It’s my belief that this will also help educate student staff that what they sometimes perceive as “getting the run around” or “red tape” is simply helping students find the best place to assist them.

Our scenarios will take them everywhere from parking services to the Vice-Chancellor for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management. I’m optimistic that face time with staff combined with decisions of making actual referrals will lead to more confident use of campus resources throughout the year. Our post-assessment will ask factual questions about offices, but also include opportunity for staff to rate their comfort level with referrals after the activity.

How are you reconceptualizing the tuna noodle casseroles on your training schedule this year?

The Pomodoro Technique™ was created by Francesco Cirillo in 1980s after a long search to improve his own study habits. While attending college in Rome, he had a difficult time staying focused and concentrating on his work. He grabbed the familiar kitchen timer in the shape of a tomato (a pomodoro in Italian) and used it to set short term deadlines for himself. Essentially, he would set the timer and work without interruption until it went off.

The Pomodoro Technique™ is deeper than just setting a timer and going to work. The whole purpose is to change your mindset about time and work. It’s not just a silly idea,
but it’s synthesis of concepts proposed by Steve McConnell, Tony Buzan, Hans-George Gademer and Tony Gilb in a variety of areas and disciplines.

It’s built around three basic assumptions:

First, that you will come to see time differently. It’s not the enemy. By changing your view of time from “becoming” (the abstract, dimensional use of time), you eliminate the
anxiety associated with working under a deadline.

Second, that better use of the mind results in a higher level of consciousness, clarity of thought, and more effective learning.

Finally, that using simple tool like a timer reduces the complexity of applying the technique and makes it more effective and efficient.

Of course, there is a website that explains it all. And, while there is a book, you can download it free.

You might think that it would be difficult to apply this in your own office, as it calls for working uninterrupted in 25 minute cycles. There are, however, ways to interrupt and to
keep track of those interruptions. And now — during the Summer when students are fewer and farther between — it might be a useful method of getting through that endless “To-Do” list we all face.

Part One Written By: Mike Hamilton, Complex Coordinator, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, @m1hamilton
Part Two Written By: Stacy Oliver, Assistant Director of Housing and Residential Life, Indiana University South Bend, @StacyLOliver

Part One

Origin:

As I was sitting through my fourth year of resident assistant group process at Worcester Polytechnic Institute I began to think, how could this be improved?  Now I have to admit that there is nothing wrong with out group process to begin with.  It is a standard 3 hour process where a professional staff facilitator gives the group activities to work on for a specified time while current resident assistants observe interactions.  It is very similar to resident assistant and orientation group processes I have worked with in the past that also worked really well.   However, I still like to look for ways to improve processes when possible.  So I started to think about removing the structure of the the program, particularly time limits and facilitation.  What I have noticed increasingly over the years is a reluctance to share opinions or be fully genuine in the process by candidates.  My thought is that this may be tied to the structure of the program and that there is a facilitator.   Within our process the facilitator does absolutely nothing but give the group activities to work on and keep track of time, however groups still seemed to direct their comments and discussion toward this person.  The question I started to ask myself was whether the structure limits the groups potential growth or the personalities of the individuals within the group.  Working under the assumption that group process is more about the group interaction than the outcome of the activities I believe that removing facilitation will create a more realistic depiction of group behavior. 

Theory:

The ideal setup would be to remove the facilitator and specific time limits from group process.  The group would enter the room and find a packet of activities ready for them.  The packet would explain that you have “x” amount of time to complete the enclosed activities.  My hope is that this process will show the basic level of leadership to the observers.  Who becomes the facilitators? Who watches the time?  Do they rush to complete activities or work to make sure everyone is heard?  With this process we are able to not only see how they work within the activities but also how they work to complete a common goal.  The one major risk I see is if a group completely implodes.  However I have seen this happen in a standard group process with a facilitator and the facilitator can not do much to resolve issues in a group process setting.  It would be interesting to see them try to resolve their own issues knowing that they are being observed and that there is a potential job on the line. While not necessarily realistic in the higher education setting, this process would be great to observe from behind a 2 way glass mirror.  Luckily I do not have to wait a full year to try this process.  A colleague in the field has agreed to help out by trying it this year with her process.

Part 2

Implementation:

When Mike shared his idea to remove the facilitator from group process, I was intrigued. Having worked with training and selection of student staff for six years, I’m always looking for ways to update processes. I like new challenges and, to be frank, I like challenging students in new ways. I offered to run this on my campus because we have a very small group process due to the size of our department. This minimized the risk and allowed for easier intervention if things went severely off-track.

We had nine candidates participating in group process. I identified the activities for the evening by determining which ones could be done with little facilitation while also allowing for students to demonstrate target skills of discussion, time management, consensus, and collaboration. I chose activities that I have observed before in a traditional group process setting so that I could more accurately compare the differences.

The current Resident Assistant staff acted as observers for the activities and provided guided feedback via an evaluation form on the following areas:

• Communication Skills
• Knowledge of Resources
• Problem Solving Skills
• Leadership
• Assertiveness

When candidates arrived, a current Resident Assistant led a brief teambuilder to get them acquainted and learn names. After the teambuilding activity ended, they were handed a packet with two activities and told that they had 40 minutes to complete both and all candidates must participate in both activities.

Activity One:

The first activity the group chose to complete was the consensus-reaching activity in which they were asked to hire a Resident Assistant staff based on brief biographies of candidates. The candidates allowed time to individually review the biographies. Within minutes of discussion starting, a self-appointed facilitator emerged from the group. I was pleased that this did not dissuade the rest of the group from fully participating. Conversation was lively and candid with several candidates taking on roles of pointing out gaps in logic. The self-appointed facilitator did an excellent job keeping the group on track and highlighting discussion points.

I found this activity to be true to my observations of it in previous group processes where there was a facilitator. There was the added benefit of seeing the group work through their own time management issues. This activity easily could have taken the entire 40 minutes allotted to the group [and nearly did!].

To Mike’s point of wondering if the group would interact more candidly, I believe that they did. It seemed that they lost awareness of the resident assistants who were sitting around the perimeter of the room. Without a faciltiator present or in their line of vision, they seeemed to completely forget that this was a piece of an interview.

Activity Two:

The second activity asked candidates to build the tallest tower possible with the provided supplies of spaghetti, rubber bands, coffee stirrers, gum drops, and construction paper. The instructions were left vague to allow the candidates’ interpretation of whether they were supposed to be competing to build the tallest tower between two groups or work as a large group. The candidates chose to work as a large group. I had no expectation for which they do, though I thought if they chose to divide into two groups, the element of competition would be an interesting dynamic without a faciltiator.

Interestingly, this is an activity I have done in the past and the facilitator had a minimal role [e.g. declaring certain building materials "unsafe" and having the group remove them from the structure]. Whether it was the lack of facilitator or the time crunch that the group found themselves in after spending 30 minutes on the first activity, this activity was near-disaster. The group spent the bulk of their remaining time discussing and debating. So little time was spent building that there was no reason to issue them challenges, remove supplies, etc.

Of course, having spent much of their time on the first activity added a valuable observation opportunity — working under pressure — that may not have happened if they had simply been provided an allotted time for each activity.

They ultimately pulled it together at the end to construct a tower; however, I am glad that none of them are architecture majors.
 
Debriefing:

At the close of the second activity, I brought the candidate group back together to debrief both activities. I never told them that the facilitator was removed from the activities, but during the course of the discussion, I asked what would have made the activities either. No one mentioned or even alluded to wanting a facilitator. Their reflections focused on how they interacted and communicated with one another.

Summary:

Removing the facilitator did not change the outcome of group process. Mike and I never expected it would. Instead, we both hoped for a more organic look at the communication and collaboration process of these student leaders. It also contributed new methods of observing the behaviors we were assessing by putting the onus on the candidates to move through the process, gauge their own involvement, and manage the timed activities appropriately. I can’t say with certainty that it changed who we hired, but I can say it gave different clarity to the skill-set of certain candidates.

As far as accuracy and success in the hiring process? Check back with me in a year after the new staff have had their formal performance appraisals.

I got some great feedback on my last blog post on Teaching Twitter to Colleagues.  So I decided to do a quick video follow up!  Assuming that you’ve now got all your colleagues and friends on Twitter, now what?!?  How do you manage all the Tweets and filter out the noise?  Here is a quick five minute video that shows you how I use Twitter everyday to stay connected:

How do you use/manage Twitter to make it work for you?

A common theme I read in last night’s #SAchat was that the resistance that some college staff, administrators, and faculty have in using Twitter.  While those on the chat tonight wouldn’t need a “Higher Tweducation“, I thought I would share some thoughts on to how to get those “curious” to give it a try.  My hope is that you will share this with people who are on the fence about using Twitter to push them to give it a try!

Overall, Twitter can feel like a strange new landscape when you first jump in.  It is not always clear what its professional uses are, or what to post in 140 characters or less. But when you start to think of Twitter as a micro-blog (and not just a forum for the personal minutiae of people’s daily lives), you will find that Twitter is the most powerful professional development tool out there (and it’s free!)

Twitter Basics / Definitions: (You will see examples of these in the sample tweets that follow)

@username: creates a link to that user in your post.
RT: Retweet, to copy someone else’s post in a new update.  It is like “forwarding an email” to someone else.  Give them credit by adding their @username.
#: hashtag, helps to organize your tweets into categories for easier searching.
DM: Direct message, send someone in Twitter a private message instead of Tweet that all can read.

Initial Steps:
1.  Create your Twitter account and fill in all the information, including uploading a picture of yourself, a referencing website (like a department webpage or maybe your Facebook page) and a quick bio about what you do and why you’re on Twitter!  Without this, it is hard to trust whether you are a real person or just a Twitter robot!
2.  Click on the Find People link and begin following people whom you know in real life or want to add to your Twitter stream (celebrities like @Alyssa_Milano and brands like @DunkinDonuts and @SouthwestAir are some great examples).  Remember, when you read your Twitter stream, you’re only seeing Tweets from the people you follow.
3.  In the search bar, type words or phrases that are interesting to you and see who is “tweeting” about those very things, follow them, and introduce yourself!

What Should I Tweet About?
This is all about personality.  You might be a “reader” for a the first few weeks as you glance over Tweets and follow interesting links, or you might decide you want to contribute to the online conversation.  Here are 15 quick ideas on what you could tweet about (think beyond the Facebook “Status Update!”)

1) Ask for recommended books, program/event ideas, or management tools.
Example tweet:  Can anyone share a successful Emerging Leaders schedule of events?  or Does anyone have a Student Employee evaluation that they could share?

2) Thanking the people who respond to you (include their @username)
Example tweet:  Thanks @tomkrieglstein @the_sa_blog @DebraSanborn for another great #sachat
(For new Twitter users, the above tweet is read “Thanks Tom, The SA Blog, and Debra for another great SAChat!”)

3) Ask for help or advice about a professional question.
Example tweet:  Which professional association should I join?

4) Tweet about a useful web resource, a particular blog post, video, website, book, product or service that you find useful
Example tweet:  If you are interested in the most inspirational and educational talks online, visit www.ted.com!

5) Share new studies of interest
Example tweet:  ReyJunco: We still need to run some more analyses; however Twitter use = increased student engagement and higher GPA’s. Are you surprised? #sachat

6) Tweet about your school’s website, blog and/or podcast.
Example tweet:  Check out our new blog focused on Commuter Students http://ow.ly/WHba

7) Invite people to an event (online or offline). Events can include open-house programs,  extracurricular activities, meetings, book clubs, webchat… really anything!
Example tweet:  Join us for #SAChat tonight 6-7p CST!

8 ) Link to photos of projects, places, etc. of things you want to share.
Example tweet:  Photos from last night’s Graduate Commencement are found on our Flickr stream!

9) On Fridays, recommend other tweeters that your followers should check out.
Example tweet:  I recommend following @CindyKane for all your leadership and Student Activities goodness! #FollowFriday

10) Answer someone else’s general question, and reply to those who ask you a direct question.
Example tweet: ATECadvise: @slhealy @edcabellon our Engineering school shares their twitter & FB account amongst advisors. #sachat

11) Schedule to meet fellow Higher Ed folks at a conference, or organize a professional tweet-up in your area.
Example tweet: Anyone interested in a #sachat #tweetup at #acpa in Boston?

12) Ask others for favorites / recommendations… for anything.
Example tweet: What are your favorite IPhone or BB Twitter app?

13) Post requests for people to come and speak at your events.
Example tweet:  Searching for an Ethics Speaker for our Emerging Leaders Conference.  Recommendations?

14) Post and/or search employment postings. If you see someone else looking for a job, retweet their request.
Example tweet:  Any students looking for summer work? Visit the bridgew.edu/studentemployment

15) Ask for something free. If you serve on the planning committee for any type of conference or event and need donations or gifts-in-kind, ask Twitter!
Example tweet:  Looking for sponsors for our ACUI Region 1 Fall Conference.  @ me if you are interested!

These are just some of many ideas to get you started.  What would you tell Higher Education staff, faculty, and administrators who are not giving Twitter a try?

(This is a cross post with the Student Affairs Blog)